The dawn of the new year usually encourages many people to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
Maybe it’s losing weight or taking “dry January”.
It may be walking more, or you may be signing up for that gym member who has been postponed for months.
But for one Co Antrim fitness coach, he decided to replace his clean life with 30 days of processed foods, refined sugar, caffeine, takeaways, and alcohol.
Gareth Edgar, a Newtown Abbey man, began the challenge on January 1st, saying the results have been “stunning” so far.
He added: “My energy level is constantly rising and falling, and now I’m sleeping during the day when I never sleep.
“I’m consuming more sugar and caffeine, so I always need a pickup. Instead of being consistent with my energy, I’m inconsistent.
“It happens when you are inconsistent with structure and do not have a good baseline of food.
“But it gives me insights on how many people feel when they start working with me. I now feel why they are lacking energy, stress and anxiety. I know why and why some people are depressed.
“I now understand why people experience this cycle. If I can help one person break that cycle and get out of it, this will often be spent for 30 days.
“I just want to learn as much as I can.”
Former Irish League soccer player Gareth (34 years old on Friday) was forced to retire early due to an injury and devoted himself to education to become a prominent health and lifestyle coach.
His clients include Ulster Rugby, Belfast Giants, boxer Stephen Ward, motorcycle racers Glenn Erwin and Alastair Seeley.
His life is always structured, especially when it comes to nutrition and training.
So why take this challenge?
“I’ve been in the industry for over 14 years. I’ve played football in the Irish League, but I’ve been seriously injured, so I went back to education and always loved training,” he explains. Did.
“I’ve never been sick and have always been in nutritional control since I was a kid. I would have preferred fruits and vegetables to sweets and dilute juice instead of coke.” We call it food.
“I’m low on energy, depressed, anxious, having mental health problems, and many clients who are constantly struggling to fight weight and stay motivated come face-to-face online. It will be like.
“All of this is something I haven’t really struggled with. I’m always very disciplined and structured. I don’t say I’m in control of it. I have a takeaway I love it and enjoy beer with my friends, but the structure I always had.
“So when it comes to nutrition and training, I know what happens psychologically and physiologically, but I’ve never felt it, depending on how poor my diet is and how low my activity level is. I have never been sick or lethargic.
“Basically I wanted to experience it first hand to get a deeper understanding of it. Get to the emotional side of it and know what people are experiencing.”
Gareth added, “My wife was very skeptical of what I did, but I wanted to throw myself into the depths. I’ve been doing it for 30 days.
“I’m always thinking about how I can help the people I work with. What information can I give them? And I don’t want them to feel their way. What information can you give them?
“How can I give them better training protocols, nutritional advice, and realism? Go to Google now and type” How can I lose weight? “
“But I want people to do it in parallel with their lifestyle, not the way I live. It doesn’t happen.
“And I certainly don’t want to live like someone else is alive.
“So I need to tweak their lifestyle so they have more energy and feel better on their own.
“When you help people change, they start to feel better about themselves. People want to lose weight, and when you break it, they want to feel better. increase.
“They want to look good, and it can be naked in front of their partner. It comes down to a” feeling. “
“So I want to feel how bad it is eating and not training so much. I want to feel how this challenge makes me feel and how it changes my body I knew. Side, and how I feel.
“I want to understand the feelings of the people I work with. I want to understand a little deeper.”
Gareth keeps the mantra “Be your own scientist”. This is a phrase he regularly shares with his clients.
It involves letting them evaluate what works best for them and what doesn’t.
“I call this a challenge, but I’m my scientist and I want to learn,” he added.
“This is more subjective. I obviously weigh myself, and I know to put on weight, but for me it’s about the psychological side of things.
“I want to know what will happen to me in my head. That’s why I’ve been a member for 30 days, so I’m very interested in it.”
Gareth’s usual routine includes an early onset and a consistent sleep pattern, as well as a daily calorie intake of approximately 3,300 calories consisting of “real” foods.
He ate six meals a day and was scattered between working with clients and his own training system. This may include sessions twice a day.
The 30-day challenge took data from the client and planned new nutrition and training, taking into account the amount that the client consumes on a daily basis.
He also introduced alcohol and caffeine to his weekly routine, as well as regular takeaways.
“I started on January 1st, and along the way I noticed a big difference,” he said.
“Put someone on board and get them to plan their lifestyle. I give me a 7-day plan about what they are eating. I give them how much sleep they sleep. Record what you are taking and have them see their mood. Correlate it with their nutrition.
“So I basically took a snapshot of how they lived and used the average of that data to tackle the challenge for the last 30 days.
“On average, they trained twice a week before coming to see me. They drank 5-7 pints of beer a week and had an average sleep time of 6 hours.
“Many of them were depressed, unmotivated, and anxious about themselves. This is very common.
“So I took all their data, and I’m even eating the food they were eating. It was a big eye-opener.
“Nutrition is a choice of many processed foods, high sugars, simple carbs, poor proteins. Their pick-up is coffee and sugar. It goes through them all day long.
“And if they accomplish it throughout the week, their” back putts “are drunk, and some of them drink during the week.
“I really don’t drink, and before this I didn’t drink for a year. Alcohol is a nightmare for me in this challenge.”
Gareth also acknowledged that the restricted movement proved the biggest hurdle in his challenge.
“The hardest part was the lack of training,” he said.
“My training helps to blow off the steam. I usually train 6-8 times a week, but now I do it twice a week. Here are two online classes for my clients. ..
“One is mobility and the other is strength class. I did a strength class the other day. After the first set, my quadriceps started to cramp.
“I’ve run marathons and endurance events, but I’ve never felt that way. The video made me feel sorry.”
Gareth admits that lifestyle changes were “a spectacular”, but he believes that 30 days later will be a bigger challenge when throwing away processed foods, sugar and caffeine.
“I think 30 days will be interesting, but 30 days later it will be even more interesting. Returning to a clean diet and training will be even more interesting,” he said.
“It will be difficult to go through that detoxification process, but I think this is a worthwhile challenge to help me better understand what my clients are experiencing.
“And if I can help them, it’s worth it.”
If you want to follow Gareth Edgar’s 30-day challenge, check out his Instagram page.
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