5 Tips for Dealing With Body Changes Body Image & When Is Too Old To Learn Handstands Or New Skills

Sorry, I just had to move that, otherwise it would have driven me insane. It's just a pair of jeans that I can't decide whether I want to keep or not, because I never wear jeans and I find them really uncomfortable, unless they're super, super baggy. So, we'll see. But anyway, I digress already. I wanted to jump on here and chat to you guys about something that's been coming up a little bit more often than not recently. I mean, this is something that comes up quite regularly for me, but something that I've noticed a lot because of the stuff I've been posting on Instagram. And that is the idea that you could be too old or too inexperienced to learn a new skill, and how you go about trying something that you've never done before, especially as an adult. And I totally get why that comes up in conversation, because I do a lot of really random things, and I've been sharing it more often than not recently. So, I've been putting a lot more of my outdoor activities, like my hiking, mountaineering, climbing. And also, I've been learning a few new things, like my roller skating, and I did a skiing course as well. So, totally random stuff. And honestly, I was really surprised about the amount of comments and messages I got from people about the skiing in particular, saying that it had inspired them to try something, because they felt that they couldn't do something at their age and learn something new. They felt that they were past the point of being able to learn a new skill or try something different. And as somebody who is very critical of themselves and doubts themselves in a lot of areas, it's something that I've never really thought about. I've never had that block to try something new. And I think that's why I've learned so many things in my late 20s, after I found health and fitness and enjoyed moving my body in different ways. But yeah, I just feel like it's exciting to try a new thing. Like if someone said to me, come and learn how to play the violin, like I'd be more than happy to go and try. Or if someone said, come and learn this type of dance, then I would definitely give it a go. I know I'm probably not going to be very good at it. I'm not really naturally gifted in many things. But to me, at best, I'm going to get a hobby out of it, and at worst, I'm just going to get a good laugh. So I'm always willing to try new things. Like I said, this has come up quite a lot in the past regarding weight loss and calisthenics. Like am I too old to learn handstands? Am I too old to lose weight? I've never been into this sort of stuff. Have I left it too late? And my answer, of course, is absolutely not. That age is simply a number. And I know that sounds quite cliche, but it really is. And I know, of course, I'm still relatively young. I'm 33 at the end of this year. But as an example, because I'm the easiest example I can use, I didn't get into any type of exercise until probably about 26. And then in terms of calisthenics, I started that around 27. I started hiking and bouldering when I was 29. And for the last three years, two of those, we've basically been in a lockdown. So I haven't really been able to practice that. And so in comparison to a lot of people I do these things with, or a lot of people I see doing these things, I'm a lot older or doing it a lot later in life than a lot of people. Now, I know there's a lot of people that would watch this and totally agree with me, but age is just a number. I started doing this later on in life. But I was just really surprised at how many people in their early 20s, in their late 20s, who were messaging me saying that they were never trying stuff because they felt they were too old and that they should have done it when they're a teenager. And I feel like if there's something that my experience shows is that you don't have to be naturally gifted, sporty, or knowledgeable about a certain topic before trying it. So for those people who are out there doubting whether they can do something, you are 100% never going to be too old or too anything to not give something a go. Like I say, at best, you might get a hobby out of it, maybe a new friendship group. If you're really lucky, like I am, a career out of it. But at the absolute worst, you're just going to get a little bit of laugh and maybe a little bit of an experience out of it as well. So another question that kind of comes up hand in hand with this is how do you actually get into it? How do you start learning a new skill or trying something different? And I think everyone probably has a different approach to it. But for myself, I just try. Like for example, I woke up one day and I was like, I want to learn how to skateboard. So I went to Kmart in Australia and I bought myself a longboard and I took it out on the beach and I just tried to skate. And I'm still not amazing at it, but I like taking my skateboard out every now and again. It's the same with my roller skates. I just got a pair of roller skates and practiced. YouTube is your friend. And then there's some things that I kind of just fell into and then totally ended up loving. So things like bouldering. When I moved back to England in 2019, it just seemed like everyone here boulders. So a lot of the time I would be asked to go bouldering and I hadn't done it before, but I gave it a go and I really enjoyed it. And now it's something that I probably do three, four times a month at least. And that's similar to my hiking and mountaineering as well. Again, I hadn't really done that much hiking before the age of 29, but a lot of people in the UK do, just because we have so many national parks and like a really varied landscape. And I would be invited to go for small hikes and I would do it and think, oh, this is kind of fun. And then I started going on my own and then I kind of just tumbled down the hole of really, really enjoying it and making the mountains bigger and better and making the hikes longer. But for me, it's become such a huge passion of mine. When I'm in the mountains, I am literally so happy. I was in Scotland a week and a half ago in the Highlands and my skin, my psoriasis, I'll give you an update in a second, but my psoriasis completely cleared up when I was there. Like I was just so present in the moment and chill. But I've now enrolled on my mountain leader course so I can do that and hopefully I'll be eventually able to take groups of people up into the mountains. And I've been adding onto my kit and learning new things, reading lots of books about it. And like I say, it's become such a huge passion. And that came from simply just going, just accepting an invitation. You really do never know where it will lead. Another example is the handstands. I just saw it and thought, that looks kind of cool. So I started trying to do it. I didn't know what I was doing, I just tried it. And now it's kind of part of my job, which is absolutely crazy. So please never ever put yourself in a position where you think you can't try something because you haven't done it before or because you're a certain age or because you think that you don't have the experience. That is exactly why you should do it and you might end up absolutely loving it. It's interesting because I think I get a lot of it from my mum because she has that attitude of, what's the worst that's going to happen? And I kind of always come back to that. Okay, what's the worst that's going to happen? But I also totally get why people feel that way. It's almost kind of plays into the idea of societal pressure and like tick boxes that you need to achieve by certain ages. And that is 100% something that I have struggled with because like I said, I'm in my early 30s now and I feel like I haven't done what I am supposed to do as per society's expectations. And I know that's changing a lot more as time goes on but it's been something that made me really uncomfortable throughout my entire 20s. Like I didn't go to university when I was meant to. I went as a mature age student and then I went to university and studied biomedical science and then decided after four years that I didn't want to be a doctor and I left and I became a personal trainer instead. And I don't have any children. I don't own a house because I don't know where I want to live or even if I want to own a house. And there's just a lot of things that always used to put so much stress on me. Feeling like it was an expectation and I feel like only in the last couple of years, maybe the last year and a half, I've started to become okay with the fact that maybe I'm a little bit different in that regard. And I kind of just want to experience everything and live my life because at the end of the day, and I say this in so many of my videos, I see it as life is just too short to be worrying about things like that. Like am I too old to try something new or am I doing what's expected of me necessarily? I don't know. It's such a weird concept and maybe it seems like a bit of a deviation from health and fitness but from what I see in terms of feedback coming back from people's messages, it's very, very much interlinked. They really all do impact each other. So I would love to hear your thoughts on it but ultimately my message is, if I'm even making sense, that you're never going to be too old to try something. You're never going to be in a position where you can't do something because of your experience. Age is just a number and in terms of experience, if I can do something knowing me, then you can definitely do it. I've got clients who are in their 50s, their 60s, who are achieving amazing things that people in their 20s are doing as well and age is simply just a number. And then I've got people here in their 20s who have come from backgrounds that are doing things that they never thought they would be able to do. That's my two cents on that topic. I just think never put yourself in a position where you don't try something because it might be something that you absolutely love or who knows, it might completely change your life. So never ever doubt yourself in that regard. But anyway, it is Monday at midday. I've been doing some work this morning. I had a consultation call which was great and really Mondays are just like an admin catch-up day for me. So admin, just a few things based on the computer that are probably not that exciting to watch. I'm trying to think of exciting things to update you on. I got a new pair of boots for hiking as we're talking about outdoor stuff. I got a new pair of boots which I needed because like I mentioned, we went up to Scotland a couple of weeks ago and we had a couple of failed summit attempts at some mountains because we didn't have the gear that we needed. So I finally got around to getting myself some new stuff. So these are the boots that I got. These probably look just like normal walking boots but they're actually mountaineering boots and the difference is, is that you can attach crampons to the bottom of them. So they're like the spiky things that you see people climbing mountains with. That means when you're on ice and certain snow as well that you can grip in. So obviously when you're on the top of a mountain, it's going to be quite important because essentially we were hitting ice sheets at the snow line and we just couldn't go any further. We would have just slipped and it would be far too dangerous and it was quite scary because we, well this is actually quite interesting. We went up Ben Nevis and we passed a man who had fallen and he had all the right equipment but he had fallen and broken his leg and he was waiting for air ambulance and the mountain rescue team literally flew their helicopter around when we were standing right next to him. It was amazing to see and they did an amazing job because they managed to winch him off the mountain safely but it was a good stark reminder of just how beautiful but dangerous the mountains can be and that you have to be careful. So making sure that I had the right equipment is super important and very, very sadly two days later in that exact same point a man fell and died. So again a really stark reminder of just needing the right equipment. So got myself the boots. I should be getting crampons very, very shortly and an ice axe and I'm looking forward to being able to go break these in at some point and see how I go. So lots of exciting things happening there. The roller skating I'm not so good at at the moment. It's really hard. I put a thing out on Instagram if there's anyone in the East Midlands who is learning how to roller skate or roller skates and wants to be a skating buddy to let me know and a couple of people were so I hopefully may have found some skating buddies but if anyone's watching this and they're in the East Midlands and they're learning how to roller skate or roller blade or anything like that let me know because I'm always on the lookout for more skating buddies. So mountaineering is going well. Roller skating is going very, very mediocre and the skiing was really fun. I loved it. It was so... I was quite proud of myself actually because the one thing that always holds me back in terms of exercise and learning new things is my brain. I'm always worried about injuring myself especially since my back injury. So the idea that I've never stood on a pair of skis to being able to ski from the top of the ski dome was like a distant thought for me. I didn't think I'd be able to do it but I managed to do it which was crazy. So yeah, I really enjoyed that and I can't wait to practice more as well. So that was pretty cool. I don't think there's anything else other than doing my mountain leader qualification which it can take between two and three years to do but it means I've got to get out hiking and learning some new navigation skills and doing lots of bits and bobs. So lots of exciting things to focus on and I might start filming a few more of my hikes and taking you along with me because I think they're awesome to watch. It's like you guys get to come along on the hike but you don't actually have to do the hiking part of it which is quite nice. So that's the plan but I thought I might just take you along my week a little bit see what I get up to if I do some different types of training who knows what I'll get up to. I'm wondering whether I might be able to squeeze a hike or a camp in this weekend because I have a weekend free so I might try and do that but we shall see and I also have a couple of videos to edit as well but right now I'm going to go and finish off what I was doing on my computer and then I'm going to eat some lunch because I'm quite hungry and then it'll be coffee time. Let's see if Hugo wants to say... Oh Hugie! He's giving me the ragdoll side eye of sass aren't you? Now I'm absolutely covered in fluff so I'm going to sort that out and get on with my day. I'll catch you guys in a bit. Good morning! It is Friday and the sun is shining. It's a beautiful day. Josh is at work so I have the entire place to myself. There's lots going on today. I have so much I need to get done and I've just done a massive... Well I'm in the process of doing a massive clean which always makes me feel better because my life has been chaotic to say the least in the last week or so and just in terms of letting all my adult admin, life admin just slide off a slope essentially. Oh my gosh he's so lazy. Say hi! He's too busy watching the world go by. Anyway like I said there is so much to do today so I thought I would quickly jump on here and just say hello because I'm going to be taking you along with my day a little bit. Plans for today are to finish off cleaning, get the laundry done. When you get to the end of your laundry basket you know you're winning at adult life and I'm actually thinking that I actually might reach the end of it today and actually see the bottom of it which will be a nice change. I've got some work bits to do. I have some client check-ins to do. I have... Oh I have a little bit of editing... I have a little bit of editing to do. Sorry Hugo is just causing havoc at the moment. He's going through like a terrible two stage even though he's not two yet and one minute he's really nice and calm and the next minute he's going absolutely crazy and running around. Hopefully it will pass. One thing I need to do today is give Hugo his pedicure because his feet are very very fluffy and his nails are getting a little bit long so I need to give them a trim and put his summer tires on so he has a bit more grip on the floor. What other stuff do I need to do today? I've made my trusty list here. So I've got to edit some stuff. I've got a few little clips I need to film for the app and also for a video that I'm editing at the moment which is handstand workout. I'm hoping that that will be up by the time this one is and I've got to clean. I've got to pack. I've got some check-in calls and a few other bits and bobs as well. I don't think I'm going to train today because I just don't really have the time and we've got a hiking weekend so I'm going to get plenty of exercise throughout the weekend. So today it will just be pretty much more... I can feel fluff everywhere. It's like all over my face. Cat problems. So yeah, today's just gonna be a bit more of a chill day. I potentially might go out on my roller skates or my skateboard just because it's such a nice day but I'm still not great on my roller skates aka I can't stop and that's kind of a problem. That's my card full as well. I'm starting the day off on a fantastic note in terms of filming. That reminds me, my laptop broke. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen. I got water under the screen. My coffee betrayed me and it leaked all over my laptop and now it's damaged the screen. I really don't want to buy a new laptop because I don't really like the size of the bigger ones and it feels kind of pointless to just replace the laptop that I have with literally exactly the same laptop just because the screen's a little bit damaged on one side. The laptop still functions perfectly. It's just that you can't really see on half of the screen. So I don't know. I'm kind of putting it off at the moment but I do need to buy some SD cards for my camera because that is an issue and I've got a few trips coming up in which I'm going to need some footage space. Okay, this is a really boring conversation. This is almost as exciting as my laundry conversation so I will stop talking. So anyway, that is the plan for today. I'm going to make myself my fourth coffee of the day even though I've only drunk about one coffee in total because I keep leaving my half drunk cups of coffee around. Again, that's my toxic trait. It's just leaving half drunk cups of coffee around. I'm sure many people can relate to that. I hope. I hope I'm not the only one but yeah, something I just cannot break. Anyway, I digress as usual. Another thing that I realised I haven't done is I still haven't returned those jeans to Zara but it did remind me about something I wanted to chat to you guys about in terms of weight fluctuations, body image and all that sort of stuff and it was something that I had a really in-depth conversation about on a check-in call this week with one of my clients and then I jumped on another coach's check-in call like group coaching call and we had a little conversation and it came up in there as well and it's something that we've been covering on Instagram this week as well. So I wanted to chat to you guys about weight fluctuations and how you deal with them and some top tips on how you can, you know, be okay with weight fluctuations because they are normal but I'll get into that a little bit later. Otherwise, I need to finish cleaning. I'm going to make this coffee and then we are going to crack on with some work. Oh and by the way, little skin update. Freckles are out in full force right now because I've been out in the sun so much and it's going to be sunny this weekend and we're doing a big hike which I'll explain later so they're probably going to come back even more but psoriasis wise, it's okay. The neck is still there. I've had a few bits come up here and my eyes are, as always, quite temperamental. My scalp has been so sore this week. Like if I touch my scalp, it's so bumpy and painful but I'm just trying to not aggravate it in any way and other than that, these normal bits are still here. So I'm just trying to get as much sun on my skin as possible hence why I do all the walking and maybe go out on my roller skates as well because it's just a good excuse to get out and get my sun in the skin. My sun in the skin? My skin in the sun? Okay, you guys know what I mean, right? I need coffee. All right, so let's talk about body image, weight fluctuations, clothing, all that sort of stuff because it's been coming up quite a lot recently and I put a question box up on Monday on Instagram, as always and one of the questions was how do you deal with body fluctuations? So first of all to me, as a trainer and as myself who deals with these things as well is to know that it's normal for your body to fluctuate and your weight to fluctuate. I've mentioned this in videos before in terms of from a weight loss perspective when you reach your goal weight or your maintenance weight your maintenance weight is never going to be the same. You're never going to maintain the same weight all the time because life happens, you're going to have injuries you're going to have life events you're going to have changes in your motivation your career is going to change you're going to have periods where you're not going to be interested in training or maybe your goals are going to be completely different and maybe you have kids maybe you get into a relationship like it's just going to happen it's going to change and since I lost weight I mean I don't weigh myself anymore I don't have a clue what I weigh but I would say my weight has fluctuated around 10 kilos up and down over that period of time and it constantly changes and the way my body looks constantly changes so weight fluctuations are completely normal your body is going to look and feel different constantly whether that's a short-term fluctuation or whether that's something that's a little bit longer lasting in terms of short-term there's so many things that are going to affect the way your body looks and feels and these things are often just temporary it could be the type of training that you've done recently if your body's inflamed whether you've been sick whether your sleep quality and quantity has been good what you've been eating if it's been high carb or high sodium intake again this is all just temporary water retention that's going to go within a day or two but it's really important to be able to understand the mechanisms behind this and just know that these things are probably going to happen so that when it does happen you don't freak out and just go oh my gosh what's happened you go okay this is just a bit of inflammation from training doing resistance training and it will last about two days and then my body will go back to normal and so being able to justify and understand this is super super important but additionally just knowing that it's going to happen there's going to be changes no one is immune to it it is completely normal and I put a reel up on Instagram showing my body constantly changing over the last few years just through images it changed so much and it does continue to at the moment like this week so I'm holding a pair of jeans like this last week my lower body has felt really bloated I suppose you could say like I felt that my body's holding a lot of water there or that I feel just really inflamed whereas my upper body is looking a little bit leaner I don't really know and these things mentally do play on my mind but I've been working a lot on being okay with it and accepting it and so some of the tips that I'll give you are things that have really really helped me and I think will help you if it's something that you struggle with as well so firstly knowing that it's normal but secondly trying to focus on how your body feels not just how it looks it can be really easy especially in the day that we live in to focus on aesthetics and how your body looks but if you can really try to tap into how your body feels that is often far more important than how your body looks and that's not to say that if you think about your body and you want to look a certain way that that's a bad thing it definitely isn't but it shouldn't control everything you do so if you can try and tap into how your body feels how much energy that you have how your sleep quality is how your relationships are if you feel in a good headspace if you feel functional if you feel strong if you feel fit these things are so much more important than looking a certain way however yes they definitely go hand in hand so instead of constantly focusing on how your body looks try to tap into really how it feels and focus on those really good feelings that you have so if you feel a bit meh about the way you look or the way your body feels to you physically try to think well I actually feel amazing my training's going really well or my relationships are really good I've had a great social life recently I feel like I have so much energy in the morning all these different things are really important to tap into the next thing and I sort of mentioned this in my skin video where I was talking about psoriasis is to try to avoid things that are triggering these thoughts or the constant body checking so for example it could be that you wear a certain style of clothes and they feel a little bit tighter than they normally would and so you're constantly bringing your awareness back to the fact that you feel this way about your body so instead just wear clothes that make you comfortable or feel confident that's why I was holding jeans so I mentioned I have to return these jeans to Zara there's nothing wrong with them they fit me but they're not comfortable and to be honest with you I'm never comfortable in jeans like I just live in leggings and track pants so when I wear jeans I feel super self-conscious and as much as I look a certain way to a lot of people now I definitely still think of myself to be a complete different person and when I dress in non-exercise clothes I will nearly always wear really baggy clothes and someone actually commented on this the other day I went and met a friend for coffee and he was like why are you wearing such a big shirt and I was like I just buy everything in large and extra large it just naturally happens again my card was full but I automatically think that I need that size of clothes and this is a good example so I bought these jeans I just know I won't wear them because when I do wear them I can feel them on my skin and I kind of want to fight it I kind of want to go no Lucy just wear them because I'm stubborn like that and I feel like by returning them and not wearing them I'm kind of conceding to it and like letting my mind win then I just think like screw it I don't want to feel uncomfortable I want to feel confident I want to enjoy my time and if it just means returning a pair of jeans then that's totally okay but then I did buy a pair of jeans that I found comfortable so you know these ones are like flared baggy jeans and I don't know if I'm too old to pull these off but you know what I don't care act confident and no one will question you right I thought I'd just show you what these jeans actually look like so you could see what I was talking about but these are the ones from Zara which I'm returning because they're a little bit low like I just like everything to be really high they're too big on the waist they just are like skin tight on the legs and although yes skinny jeans are in fashion I just I can't right now and that's okay it's okay to be like that whereas these ones I can get on board with because they are roomy in the legs and that's where I that's where I hold most of my weight so they're roomy in the legs I have a little bit of room for some food here so they're not too tight I can bend over and yes I do have some rolls that come but I don't care that's just you know whatever just wear a baggy top no one will know there we go there I'm going with the baggy clothes again but you get what I mean these are more comfortable I feel like I'm not conscious of myself constantly as well and I'm not just focusing on how I like it's not constantly bringing my attention to my body I can just enjoy what I'm doing so I don't know how people who do clothing hauls actually do it because how do you even film? you must have to stand so far back but anyway so that's an example of that point remove the triggers that are making you feel uncomfortable another example is if you're constantly checking yourself in mirrors when you walk past them just try not to make it as easy to look into those mirrors I mean you could just try and not look into them but I will tend to just turn mine away where I can still look into it but I just can't catch my eye in it every time I walk past so it's just trying to minimize that body checking constantly and it just means that you can live a bit more in the present and your attention isn't going to be constantly brought back to how your body looks versus you can focus on how it just feels and finally and this is probably one of the most important ones and that is to try to incorporate things that you enjoy which have nothing to do with how your body looks so for me a good example would be going out hiking and getting out into nature and doing all these weird hobbies and sports that I do just because I love them when I actually do them I really am totally in the present and that's what I love about nature and hiking is that I'm just focusing on what I'm doing in the moment rather than thinking about how my body is thinking about negative things focusing on things that stress me out I can actually just be present and enjoying myself when I was up in Scotland for the week I felt amazing I was super super present and in the moment and my skin like I mentioned completely cleared up and I felt so calm and at peace it was such a nice feeling and then as soon as I came back to the city I was suddenly back into normal mode so there's a really great example of how just doing something that takes away from worrying about how your body looks but rather just being able to use your body be in the present and appreciate what you've got around you is so so great it's not easy to do but it's definitely possible for anyone to do it if I can do it and learn hobbies at a later age and find things that I enjoy as someone who's not like that usually anyone can definitely do it and on that point as I mentioned we're going hiking this weekend well I'm going hiking Josh just gets dragged along for the ride essentially but I need to pack because we're going tonight so Josh will get home it's now 1pm Josh will get home at around 6pm and then he needs to pack his stuff and then we're doing a swift u-turn and heading off to Wales which is about a three hour drive so we should arrive there around 10.30pm maybe 11pm and then we're gonna hit the hay get some sleep and then get up at 6am and the plan is to do Snowdon so I've never been before I'm super excited so I need to go and pack my stuff and I've got a couple more calls and we're gonna go into town and return these jeans and get some SD cards the other thing I need to do is eat lunch but I genuinely have no clue what I want I just want cereal I'm just craving cereal it's this weather it just makes me want to eat cereal so I'm probably just gonna eat cereal all right let's go I'm not sure if I'm in focus I kind of look like I'm in focus from where I'm sitting but I'm not sure if I am so if I'm not I'm sorry but the work day is finished and I am just about to I'm just having a snack and I'm gonna pack my bag for tonight I shouldn't need too much stuff because the weather looks like it's gonna be beautiful tomorrow so hopefully I won't need any winter equipment so it'll just be like normal boots, leggings probably a tank top but I need to make sure I pack some sunscreen because I reckon I could get burnt tomorrow we're going not high but it's the highest peak in Wales so it's gonna be reasonably high and other than that yeah just an overnight bag really so I'm gonna pack that it shouldn't take me long at all and then get Hugo sorted for the night and Josh should be home in around half an hour something like that so he'll have to pack and then we will get on the road to Wales oh I managed to return the jeans and I got the SD card I reckon I'm gonna put a YouTube video on while I pack and just watch something really chill and mindless I love watching shopping hauls makeup tutorials anything that is remotely not relevant to my life because I'm rubbish at makeup and I live in leggings and sweatpants as we've discovered just love watching them I love watching vlogs I like watching cooking videos review videos anything like that so I was gonna find something to watch and chill and then we can enjoy the evening I love driving I love driving long distances because I just get a huge coffee and I put on some good music and I just can drive I love being in the car and I don't drive very often if I ever drive it's usually a long distance so I actually quite look forward to these long trips and everyone thinks it's crazy because it's such a lot of driving in the space of 48 hours but I love it I really really do so anyway let's get packing