Fitness for me has always been a major part of my life; I ran cross-country to keep out of trouble as a teenager; I ran my way into the Marines; while as an elite combat frogman of the Special Boat Service I had to be super-fit in the water and out of it too. And in Brisbane I was running from my demons. These days I need to exercise, not only because part of my TV job requires me to climb up moving boats, jump out of airplanes, scale cliffs – you know the stuff we sometimes do on SAS: Who Dares Wins, but also for Break-Point as much of what we teach is physical-based. Exercise helps me maintain an even keel mentally. There is nothing better to pull yourself out of a pit of despair than getting out in the fresh air and natural surroundings, it has an instant curative effect on the soul and the body.
Because of the pressure social networks place on us cosmetically speaking, we’re more in the spotlight than ever. At the press of a button a picture of us on holiday looking our best can suddenly be seen by thousands of people; no wonder our vanity, which is hardwired to our ego, has never been quite so overblown, or so disproportionately important. Many of us are prepared to sacrifice feeling for perception, and instead of focusing on the way we look and experiencing life from the outside in – i.e., lots of Instagram likes appealing to our ego which make us feel good with little dopamine rewards – we should live life from inside out, doing exercise that makes us feel good within ourselves, for an inner smile radiates to a happy being on the outside too. After all, if we live a life based on looks, what have we got to look forward to in old age? Shame and regret for no longer being what we once were? Everything starts on the inside and radiates outward. Keep fit and embrace your years and wisdom; you’re not supposed to look like a teenager at the age of 45.
You only have to look at those Hollywood faces we grew up with (not mentioning any names) but there are those who have grown old gracefully with laughter lines or handsome cragginess and have kept their natural shape, and there are those who try to look like the person they think everybody loved back in the day. The latter end up resembling frozen mannequins with no expression in their faces, while the former who are happy on the inside don’t measure their self-worth by how many people say they look amazing, beautiful and not a day older.
If you’re exercising simply to look great and reduce your body fat down to zero, rather than exercising to feel great, you’re missing the point. Being healthy and fit is not about punishing yourself in the gym so you look like a statue, rather it embodies mind, body and nutrition: well-being through taking care of the mind, exercising the body and eating food that is good for you. Mindfulness, the Stoic practice of consciously ignoring negative thoughts and focusing on positives, is at the bedrock of everything I do. If you can’t weed out negative thought patterns and quieten the self-doubting judgemental, ego-based you, you’ll always be living on the outside.
A great deal of research has been conducted into what helps to create a peak athlete and there’s one common denominator they all have: a positive mindset. Mental attitude has a massive effect on your fitness goals. According to research on positive psychology, there are four key areas in our lives we must meet. How many of these would you say were true to you?
• Positive subjective experience: How in flow with ourselves we are, how happy we feel, expressing gratitude for what we have in our life and realising we are blessed with abundance rather than lack.
• Positive individual traits: Being kind to ourselves, recognising our talents, hobbies and positive elements of our character.
• Positive interpersonal relationships: Having a positive, supportive tribe around us, where there’s a two-way street of give and take, is reassuring and inspiring.
• Positive institutions: Being part of a team or a club creates new friendships and better social bonds, as well as organised processes to help us achieve our physical goals.
NUTRITION
You can train as hard as you like but you can’t out train a bad diet! This is where so many people fall down – including me. We think what we eat. The food we eat can promote the repair of tissue in the brain, control hormones and aid neurons that transfer information to our body. Food directly affects mood, so we are what we eat. This year (2020), depression will rank as the second highest cause of disability after heart disease, and the chances of becoming depressed are a staggering 80 per cent more for those whose diets are full of processed food high in saturated fats, compared with people who eat whole foods. Ninety per cent of the body’s serotonin, its feel-good chemical, is in the gut, and is activated by eating the right food. You can dictate how you feel on the inside – sprightly or slothful, happy or fed up – by what you eat.
Your brain is always on. It takes care of your thoughts and movements, your breathing and heartbeat, and your senses, working 24/7, even while you’re fast asleep. This means your brain requires a constant fuel supply. That ‘fuel’ comes from the foods you eat, and what’s in the fuel makes all the difference. What we eat directly affects the structure of our brain and mood. Like a highly tuned sports car, our brain functions best when it is fed premium fuel, and that means high-quality foods containing plenty of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants which nourish and protect it from oxidative stress, the waste (free radicals) produced by the brain when the body uses oxygen. Just like an expensive car, your brain can be damaged by low-premium fuel like processed or refined foods. Diets high in refined sugars are damaging to the brain and can hamper your body’s regulation of insulin and promote inflammation and oxidative stress. Multiple studies have found a massive correlation between a diet high in refined sugars and impaired brain function, and even a worsening of symptoms of mood disorders, such as depression. What’s interesting is that the medical establishment, for many years, did not acknowledge the connection between mood and food.
I’ve tried all kinds of eating disciplines from paleo to vegan and have now come to a balance in my life that doesn’t put me under pressure when I’m travelling or in a rush. It’s about making conscious choices and there are certain things I simply will not eat. Many people claim to be vegan, but the fact is most of them are not, they’re just making better choices of what they eat and are choosing more of a plant-based flexitarian diet. Like me.
I rarely eat red meat and will usually opt for fish over chicken. And if I do decide to have steak and chips, I don’t beat myself up about it. The things I do steer clear of, however, are processed foods and dairy. Humans are the only species that drink the milk of other animals. Seventy-five per cent of the world’s population are lactose-(the main carbohydrate in milk) intolerant, which can cause digestive problems, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. I also make the choice to buy organic over non-organic foods. The way I see it is that non-organic food has had chemicals and pesticides on it to keep insects away. If the insects wouldn’t eat it then why would you? True, you’re a lot bigger than an insect, but the amount of non-organic foods we eat over a long period increases the chemical percentage that affects your body and brain; increases in weight, skin irritations and inflammation soon follow, for you have long been creating the right environment for disease and unrest in your body.
MOOD FOOD
Here’s a list of foods that keep your brain healthy and on-point, not that you need stick to only this menu for the rest of your life!
Fatty fish – When people talk about brain food, fatty fish is often the top of list. Think salmon, trout and sardines, all of which are rich sources for omega-3 fatty acids. About 60 per cent of your brain is made up of fat and half of that fat is the omega-3 kind. Your brain uses omega-3s to build brain and nerve cells, and these fats are essential for learning and memory, as well as warding off age-related mental decline, and quite possibly keeping Alzheimer’s at bay. One study found that the brains of people who ate baked or broiled fish regularly, had more grey matter – which contains most of the nerve cells responsible for decision-making, memory and emotion – than those who didn’t.
Coffee – If coffee is the highlight of
your morning, then you’ll be glad to hear it is good for your brain as it contains caffeine and antioxidants. Caffeine increases alertness, sharpens concentration and may also boost serotonin levels. One study found that when participants drank one large coffee in the morning, or regular smaller amounts throughout the day, they were more effective at tasks that required concentration.
Blueberries – Blueberries and other deeply coloured berries deliver anthocyanins, a group of plant compounds with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, for both oxidative stress and inflammation are likely key contributors to brain ageing and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s. Some of the antioxidants in blueberries have also been found to accumulate in the brain and help improve communication between brain cells.
Turmeric – This deep yellow spice has generated lots of buzz. As well as being a key ingredient in curry powder, it contains the active ingredient, curcumin, which is able to cross the blood– brain barrier and have a positive effect on the cells there. It has been linked to increased memory for people with Alzheimer’s, as well as boosting serotonin and dopamine, respectively mood and energy chemicals within our brains that keep depression at bay. One study found that curcumin improved depression symptoms just as efficiently as an anti-depressant, over a six-week period. Curcumin is also an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.
Broccoli – One small cup of broccoli delivers more than 100 per cent of your RDI (recommended daily intake) of vitamin K, the vitamin responsible for helping blood clotting, bone metabolism and regulating blood calcium levels. It is also an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.
Pumpkin Seeds – Containing powerful antioxidants that protect your body and brain from free radical damage, pumpkin seeds are an excellent source of magnesium (essential for combatting depression, epilepsy and other neurological diseases, and aiding memory and learning), iron (fights brain fog and impaired brain function), zinc (crucial for nerve-signalling and helps deter neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s) and copper (again low levels of copper can lead to neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s).
Dark Chocolate – Dark chocolate and cocoa powder are bursting with brain-boosting compounds including flavonoids, which may help protect the brain slow down age-related mental decline as well as aiding memory. Chocolate is also a legitimate mood booster.
Nuts – Eating nuts may prevent coronary heart disease, support the immune system, promote eye health, aid brain cognition, and lower the risk of cancer, thanks to them containing vitamin E, a fat-soluble nutrient, and antioxidants. Vitamin E shields cell membranes from free radical damage, helping slow mental decline. Walnuts may be the best nuts for your brain as they also deliver omega-3 fatty acids.
Oranges – Your RDI of vitamin C can be achieved by consuming just one orange. Vitamin C is known to fight age-related mental decline and is a powerful antioxidant that helps fight off free radicals which can damage brain cells. You can also get excellent amounts of vitamin C from strawberries, kiwi, tomatoes, bell peppers and guava.
Eggs – Containing several nutrients that are tied to brain health, eggs contain vitamins B6 and B12, folate and choline. The latter is key to memory and fluid mental function. The egg yolk has the most concentrated source of this nutrient. Folate deficiency is common among elderly people with dementia, and studies show that folic supplements can help minimise age-related mental decline, while B12 helps synthesise brain chemicals and regulate sugar levels in the brain.
Green Tea – Green tea is an excellent drink to support your brain, performance, memory and focus, while its antioxidants protect the brain. Also present in green tea is L-theanine, an amino acid that can cross the blood–brain barrier and increase the activity of the neurotransmitter GABA, which helps reduce anxiety and helps you relax.
Water – Given that our bodies are made up of around 65 per cent water, it’s amazing that we struggle to drink enough to filter the toxins from our bodies and keep it functioning correctly. Equally we don’t pay enough heed to where the water that we drink has come from. I distil all my water in order to reduce the level of unnatural chemicals going into my body and brain. In drinking filtered water you’re avoiding potentially harmful contaminants like pesticides, viruses and herbicides that can be present in tap water. Drinking plenty of water can help reduce kidney stones, eradicate constipation, and help protect your teeth.
PART IV
HOW TO SUSTAIN CHANGE
CHAPTER 12
DEALING WITH FAILURE
IF YOU DERAIL, GET BACK UP, SMILE AND CARRY ON
It’s natural that on your way to achieving your goals, you’ll make a series of failures or mistakes en route. If not, then your goal was too easy and you need to find a more challenging one. But rather than see these blips as stark failures, we should see them as milestones of growth. It’s only a failure if you don’t learn something useful from it, so you can avoid doing the same in the future. Sometimes a failure is a hidden blessing and exposes your goal as being impractical, causing you to stop (breathe), rethink it through (recalibrate) in order to smash it (deliver).
It’s also the way you choose to frame what might at first seem like a failure but in fact turns out to be something different when viewed from an alternative angle. In 2017 I was approached to take part in a Special Forces boxing match for charity. I’d done a little kick-boxing as a kid but had never trained as a boxer, so I agreed on the condition that my opponent was pitched at the same level of inexperience as myself. I managed to raise £11,000 of sponsorship and as the event approached I took to the training with dedication. I was on the bags and sparring four times a week, in fact I had former-professional boxer Ross Minter as my coach, so I was taking it very seriously. Halfway through the training some intel arrived in our camp about the opposition – unbelievable, the guy I was fighting was a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter! We responded that this wasn’t on and trusted the organiser’s word that they would sort it out. Come the night before the fight and we discovered they had made no attempt to change my opponent, I was still boxing the Navy-Seal-turned-MMA-fighter. To hell with it, I thought, I’d fight anyway; I was Battle Ready, fit as a fiddle and couldn’t care less how much experience he had. But most importantly, I didn’t want to let the charity down who I’d raised £11,000 for by cancelling the fight.
When the bell for the first round clanged, I was straight out of my corner and all over him like a cheap suit. I wasn’t scared. And then his experience prevailed. He saw his window of opportunity as my guard dropped and out of nowhere he threw a blinder that caught me on the chin and dropped me like a stone. And that was the end of that. It’s not called the ‘Sweet Science’ for nothing, it takes time to nurture your craft, put your cluster punches together, learn to counter-punch and protect yourself with your guard. I was an undergrad to say the least. My learning from the experience? It wasn’t all about winning. I had gotten very fit in the training leading up to the fight and I had also enjoyed the discipline involved as I worked toward a specific goal and a specific date; I got to work with a kick-ass trainer who taught me the rudiments of a brilliant craft and most of all, I raised quite a lot of money for a good cause. Maybe I lost the fight to a better boxer, but there were quite a few wins too.
Getting to your goals can be like a game of pinball: accept that you’re going to get knocked side to side on the way there, that’s par for the course. Sometimes you can get knocked all the way back to the start again, but try not to view it as such, for on your second attempt you’re gifted with wisdom you didn’t possess on the first. The clearer your goal is and the more you want it, the more you can handle being knocked about to achieve it. You must be as bombproof as possible if you don’t want to end up in the hurt locker licking your wounds and picking up the fragments of your broken dreams.
When I was getting dry during my three-month bootcamp in Cornwall, I didn’t go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to help keep my resolve as I didn’t consider myself a
n alcoholic. I wanted to have the choice to drink the odd pint. But without AA I lacked a constant scaffold of support around me, or a sponsor I could call when the banshee started wailing for her drink at 3 a.m. I knew that the control of anything was within me and as I had proof and experience of great feats of mental strength throughout my years in the Special Forces, I had the minerals to do what I needed on my own. Maybe this was also me being stubborn. I had gone to AA once before many years ago and had the opportunity to share – which I did – only to realise my drinking was merely child’s play compared to most people in the room. The thing is it’s all relative, and for me alcohol was holding me back from my full potential even when in a manageable state.
There were times after the bootcamp when admittedly I fell off the wagon, but over time drink became easier and easier to let go of. One such lapse was the day before filming series one of SAS: Who Dares Wins. My first day on set was a nightmare, my head was all over the place. I’m sure no one else noticed I wasn’t 100 per cent but I did, and that’s all that matters. I knew that I wasn’t firing on all six cylinders and could be better, much better than I was. So, when it came to series two, I told myself, ‘Right, in the next series I’m not going to be that person again. I’m going to give myself a chance to be the best version of myself.’
I made a verbal contract with myself: ‘For the whole eight weeks leading up to and including the filming in Ecuador, I’m not drinking.’ And I got through it. When it came to the wrap party, which promised to be as full-on as a bunch of thirsty Vikings freshly arrived in Valhalla, I managed to temper my temptation and old triggers from getting me back on the sauce. While Foxy was gearing up for a legendary session, I said, ‘You know what, mate? I’m going to pass; I feel brilliant as I am.’ Again, yet another break-point moment, a sliding door of opportunity.
Battle Ready Page 15