About Me
The Story
I discovered the hard way that going all in on your career can damage your health
I started out as an entrepreneur with my own gym business in 2010. My dream was to become a professional rugby player. That didn’t work out but I became a strength coach for a pro rugby club. Then decided to go it alone and train rugby players from my own facility. Problem was, running a business completely changed my habits.
I was so busy I ended up not exercising and eating junk food. My day started at 4:30am. I’d open the gym at 5:50am, coach until 8 or 9am, then write programs, run marketing, clean the gym, sort out finances and on and on – then be back at the gym for 5pm for the evening shift until 9pm. It was tough but I truly thought that’s what it took to grow a business.
I bragged about working hard and getting up earlier than all my mates too.
Fast forward 7 years of working at that pace and my health suddenly cracked. In a short period of 4-6 weeks, I noticed I was losing a lot of muscle, my strength and fitness was dropping, and my belly fat started to get out of control.
I had constant gut issues. Pain, bloating, even vomiting after meals. I felt awful, anxious and with pain in my joints and gut all day long. When I finally got myself tested by a doctor….nothing was seriously wrong with me!
The doctor, to her credit, sat me down and discussed the effects of stress, workload and lack of sleep with me. Then it hit me. My issues all stemmed from the stress of running a business. But I was in a catch-22 – I couldn’t stop running a business, I couldn’t work shorter days! What could I do?
This started my personal mission to discover how to optimise my lifestyle, reach peak physical health and make sure I live a long, healthy life whilst crushing my business goals. As a business owner, leader and employer I was in a paradox. I couldn’t back off my work, but I couldn’t damage my health further either.
I looked at the problem from multiple angles: as a coach, an athlete, a sports scientist, a business owner and a leader.
On this website you can find the solutions I discovered. Listen to the podcast, read the blog, watch my videos. My aim is to bring as much value to people who may be struggling as I once was. Ultimately, since I had my epiphany moment I’ve lost tons of bodyfat, ran extremely tough fell races, become stronger than ever, regained gut health & energy and improved my mental health whilst growing my business.
And I didn’t get wiped out by stress, diet or train for hours either.