Getting Fat & False Perceptions: A Plan to Improve in 2023

I’m fat! 

Well, by my own personal standards I am.

I was shocked when I jumped on my scales today (1 January 2023) after the Christmas break and I weighed 5kgs heavier than the last time I weighed myself a few months ago.

I wish I could say it was just the Christmas pudding, but I found myself in a real slump towards the end of 2022 on a personal level.

Patience has never come easy for me and I found myself feeling down about the progress of my career change from being a lawyer at the end of 2020 and into a “insert new career description here”.

That was the thing getting me down, not feeling clear on what the heck it is I’m doing with my life in terms of viable career.

When I sold my law firm in 2020, I knew the sale proceeds would give me a window of time to figure something out.

All I knew is that I wanted to:-

1. Relieve more of my own suffering through Health & Wellness; and
2. Help others do the same!

Not having a title for my new place in the world was foreign and uncomfortable.

“Movement Teacher”, didn't seem to capture everything I want to be about.

“Content Creator”, didn’t seem right.

“Wellness Enthusiast”, “Health Warrior”.....yuk, everything just seemed so lame. 

Added to this, I was feeling frustrated in general at my own perceived lack of progress in the new direction, which I judged primarily on the financial results from my efforts (or lack thereof).

So, I decided to just take a break at the end of 2022 from Instagram and Facebook just to have some space from the feed and all those pretty images of other people “crushing it” (cough, cough). 

This coincided with a relaxation of my regular diet and exercise regime and at 41 years old, the days of my ‘Young Man Metabolism’ looking after me appear to be well and truly over.

SOME REALISATIONS

It wasn’t until I actually sat down with Pen and Paper in that void between Christmas and New Year that I realized a few things about my 2022. I’d been focusing so much on what I didn’t achieve (income levels, amount of meaningful work done, impact of my efforts on others), that I was overlooking so many wonderful things that I did achieve. 

I’ll get to those in a moment, but first, when I looked closer into the things that I seemingly didn't achieve, I realized that even those perceptions were not entirely accurate!

For example, the income piece was starting to concern me at the end of 2022. 

I hadn’t worked a “normal job” since I left my role as a Lawyer at the end of 2020, and coming up on 2 years, my savings that were supporting me were running low.

My digital and in person efforts made money, but not the kind of cash flow I was used to as a highly experienced lawyer.

But I was overlooking one asset that had increased in value considerably. My home. 

House prices in my home town on the Sunshine Coast (Australia) rose by an average of 30% in the past 3 years according to local data, so when I looked at the equity I gained in that particular asset I realised I have made quite a lot of money which is currently sitting in equity (but could be converted to cash) if I were to sell.

These tax free gains would translate to far more than an average lawyers 6 figure yearly salary for the time Ive been “off” and while I need a place to live at the end of the day, the perception of not making enough money I had been telling myself simply wasn’t true at all. 

My perception of not doing “enough” meaningful work was also false. 

I created an online business in the movement space with digital products and services with no prior e-commerce experience, upskilled with new fitness qualifications, taught in person every week and ran several workshops. 

I was also guest teacher at several retreats and bigger events. 

I created hundreds of videos, blog posts and email newsletters all which required me to learn video creation, editing, writing and many other digital skills I didn’t previously have.

The “not helping many people” was also a load of BS. I sold over 100 locomotion movement courses, taught hundreds of students in person and coached around a dozen people from around the world. 

The ripple effect from those people alone to their friends and family compounds these results into the thousands.

I did all this while spending more time than ever with my two beautiful kids. Taking them to and from school was a privilege I never had as a busy lawyer, plus spending every school holiday with them was also a new gift.

So, the bottom line I reached on myself as a scribbled all this down was “LIGHTEN THE F UP MAN, YOU ACTUALLY DID GREAT!”.

Now, that doesn’t mean I still don’t have grand ambitions to create much more cash flow doing meaningful work while having time to enjoy life with my Children and help loads of people along with the way! 

I have set some audacious goals for 2023 starting off with this fresh new label to appease the rational side of my mind; I am a writer. 

ON WRITING

My theory is, writing forms the basis for my ideas to distill and crystalize and from there i can create my content, in any other form of media, whether it be social media posts, videos, blogs or even digital products.

Even fitness starts with writing. Sure, you need physical demonstration but that alone is not enough. To be highly effective in fitness, you need programming and even that requires some form of writing.

Writing can also help process feelings and emotions as I just rediscovered while journaling about my self perceptions. This helped change my state of mind from unpleasant and overly self critical to proud and grateful for my accomplishments, even if they now look a little different to how I would measure them in the past. 

So, I take this new title of “Writer” into 2023 because despite being a jack of many trades, the left side of my brain requires something tangible to cling to. So there you go Lefty! 

THE EXTRA CHUB

Right,....now back to these 5kgs.

What’s my plan I hear you ask? 

Well, I wrote it all out because you know……I’m a writer now!

For the next 8 weeks my goals are to:-

1. Lose Fat / Get Leaner
2. Gain strength.

To do this, I’ll practice what I preach and use the following skills:

1. Bodyweight Strength & Mobility;
2. Handstands;
3. Rings;
4. Locomotion; 
5. Bboy Skills;
6. Daily Walks with the Dog & a good audio book.

My training split will look like this:

Monday - Upper Body Strength & Mobility (Rings)

Tuesday - Handstands

Wednesday - Locomotion / Bboy

Thursday - Lower Body Strength & Mobility

Friday - Handstands

Saturday - Upper Body Strength & Mobility

Sunday - Locomotion / Bboy

In terms of the specific skills I’m working on in these sessions, here they are:-

1. One Arm Handstand 
2. Better Pancake Stretch
3. Bboy Windmills
4. Body Levers on Rings
5. Dragon Squat

 I have written myself a new program with all the prescribed exercises, sets and reps, so I have a Plan!

If you’ve been following me on Instagram or are subscribed to my YouTube Channel or a frequent reader of my Newsletter, you’ll have seen that these are skills areas that I have been cultivating and building towards for several years now.

For some specific motivation or inspiration in each of these areas, you might want to check out some of my previous videos here:-

1. Starting One Arm Handstands
2. Learning Bboy Windmills
3. Pelican Curls on Rings
4. 4 Skill Locomotion Follow Along Tutorial

As for diet, I’ve tried most of them now and the one I’ve enjoyed most that tends to suit me and my lifestyle is Ancestral (Meat, Fruit, Honey) in conjunction with Intermittent Fasting (I basically just wait until around lunch time to have my first meal).

Cutting out processed foods (sugar being the big one) plus gluten & grains (ie. bread, pasta, rice) really does help me personally to “unbloat” and drop fat.

Alcohol is also out for the time being.

Walking is something I want to do more of in 2023 so I plan on treating myself to a new pair of trainers and taking my dog Coco on daily hour long walks to help burn some additional calories. 

I love listening to audio books while I walk but I also want to make more time for simple contemplation (no headphones) to return to simple, er…..thinking. 

Taking a break from social media at the end of 2022 made me realise just how much time I can fill with compulsive unconscious scrolling. 

This really does rob me of time to think and develop better ideas. So I want to stay aware of that and use my writing much more for idea development instead.

I plan on documenting the next two months of my training and my results for two reasons.

Firstly, I find when I make myself accountable publicly I am more likely to follow through and maintain discipline. 

Secondly, I hope that by sharing my problems and how I go about solving them can in some way help inspire you. If not and I fail at this second intention then…the hell with you, I’ll still have my first intention. Ha! 

Now, if you are looking for more help in the form of movement coaching then I offer custom online programming that can teach you body weight strength and mobility, rings, handstands and locomotion. 

I also have an online locomotion course, Locomotion Flow 2.0 which you can dive into at your own pace.

My new Rings Program is currently in development and will be available very soon. So stay tuned for that.

Well, I’m off to walk the dog now so until next week……

Take Care, 

Aaron