In my 20’s I was an absolute tearaway. Just in case you’re unfamiliar with what that means –

Ok so I didn’t set fire to any houses but wild and reckless, probably! I think most of us are pretty bullet-proof in that first decade of adulthood and always exploring “boundaries” (I am winking now). In my 30’s I left my life in Australia after moving there from New Zealand and ventured into South East Asia and have spent the best part of 25 years in Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

After my first year in Jakarta I was still behaving like a tearway. It didn’t get me into any serious trouble but what it did do was make me fat. I was the cliched expatriate, continually cruising my way around the circuit of dinner parties, drinks and social events plus frequenting some of the infamous bars the Indonesian capital was well known for in those years.

In most of my life until then I had relied on soccer, rugby and touch rugby to keep me fit and trim. The issue was the balance between these and my partying had got out of control in Indonesia. There was a lack of competitive sport and combined with a lot of really loose social behaviour I woke up one morning and surveyed my deteriorating body shape. To my horror I discovered I was seriously fat. The good news was I knew what I needed to do. I needed to start training properly and also had to seriously tidy up my diet (I needed a big reduction alcohol intake).

I immediately put myself on a maximum of 6 beers a week and bought a gym membership.

A year later I was not drinking at all and didn’t for the next 2 and a half years. Plus I had got myself pretty fit. I soon moved to Singapore and needing to get to the next level, I hired a personal trainer. This trainer was a bodybuilding champion and I spent a great 10 sessions taking a lot onboard but also realising there must be more to what it means to achieve true fitness, especially as it relates to our health markers and human function.

Therein began my now lifelong journey into finding out what it is we all need to be doing to achieve our ideal weight, increase our all-round health and fitness and maximise our quality of lifestyle. I now have the formula, I first tested it on myself over many years and then we used it at my business in Singapore and now I have blueprinted it in 3TRUTHS Fitness. It will also very soon be available at a new fitness facility I am building.

Great story? What about the title of the post?

What I discovered about myself and other friends back in my Jakarta days was no matter what you did during the week for your fitness and health you could ruin any gains in the 5 weekdays by destructive behaviour over the weekend.

Are you right now nursing a weekend hangover – too much wine, too much food, not enough sleep?

It could be time to start taking your fitness and health more seriously. I am living proof that it can be done and can be MAINTAINED it just takes you getting organised. Measuring some key indicators regularly and putting a framework in place for having a good time. I mean we all want to have a good time but we don’t want to have such a great time we regret it Monday morning, right? If you’re loose in one area be tighter in another. If you know you will have a few extra drinks Saturday night, decide what you will do Sunday morning as pennance whether it be an interval run, fast short run/ride or a gym session (with what you will be doing so not turning up with no plan….). Now you KNOW that you can’t out-train a bad diet. But when you take a long view of your training/lifestyle, ensuring you’re getting balance is very important and as I said, over weekends wheels will and often do fall off the “I lead a healthy lifestyle” wagon! Too many wheels falling off and actually let’s be honest, you do not lead a healthy lifestyle, your weekday habits/behaviours are covering over weekend sabotage.

As always it comes down to evaluation, consideration, planning and action.

All of us need to do some due-diligence on our lifestyles and addressing weekend behaviours is crucial. What I have found with my clients is getting results is impossible without doing this exercise.

I use an analytical approach with some very simple markers from weight scales and a blood pressure cuff coupled with data from sleep, exercise and journalling food. A very clear picture soon emerges and a high quality intervention can then be implemented.

To take your health and fitness to the next level, contact me on –