Man: A Quest to Find Meaning
Man: A Quest to Find Meaning is the podcast for men who feel stuck, disconnected, or uncertain about their place in the world — and are ready to reconnect with purpose, emotional strength, and a more authentic way of being.
Hosted by James Ainsworth, each episode explores the deeper questions of modern masculinity through honest, unfiltered conversations. You’ll hear from men who’ve overcome inner battles — and from women offering powerful perspectives that challenge, inspire, and expand how we think about growth, relationships, and healing.
From purpose and vulnerability to fatherhood, fear, and identity, this is a space for men who want more than just surface-level success. It’s for those on a journey to live with intention, courage, and truth.
New episodes weekly. Real talk. No ego. Just the quest.
Man: A Quest to Find Meaning
No More Quick Fixes: The Truth About Fat Loss, Goal Setting & Emotional Blocks | Ashley Bryant
In this powerful episode of Man: A Quest to Find Meaning, James sits down with biomechanical specialist and master personal trainer Ashley to dive deep into the truth about fitness, nutrition, and the mindset behind lasting transformation. Together, they explore why systems often matter more than goals, debunk common health myths around calories, steps, and metabolic types, and unpack the real reasons people struggle to achieve sustainable health.
Ashley opens up about his personal journey—from early career success to the emotional challenges of a recent separation—and shares how adversity has shaped his purpose. The conversation touches on the importance of emotional healing, inner child work, and the role of intuition in both personal growth and physical wellbeing.
You’ll learn the truth about calorie counting, metabolic typing, how fat is hormonally stored, why online PT culture may be doing more harm than good, and why movement without intention falls short. The duo also reflect on fear, self-worth, identity, and what it really takes to step into meaningful transformation. more intentionally, this episode is packed with raw insight, practical tools, and the inspiration to take action.
This is one you don’t want to miss.
About Ashley:
Ashley is a Master Personal Trainer and Biomechanical specialist who has coached in excess of 270 clients and managed 7 gyms across the world spanning an 18 year career in Fitness.
He has trained celebrities, pro athletes and has a genuine talent in transforming physiques and optimising people's overall health and performance.
His real purpose is being a Father to two beautiful children.
In this episode, we talk about everything to do with fitness and nutrition. We talk about the importance of systems over goals. We spend time myth busting in areas of nutrition and fitness, and we talk about metabolic typing and how it is the key to creating a diet that works. Welcome to Man: A Quest to Find Meaning, where we help men navigate modern life, find their true purpose, and redefine manhood. I'm your host, James, and each week, inspiring guests share their journeys of overcoming fear Embracing vulnerability and finding success. From experts to everyday heroes. Get practical advice and powerful insights. Struggling with career, relationships or personal growth? We've got you covered. Join us on Man Quest to Find Meaning. Now, let's dive in.
James:We don't rise to our goals, we fall to our systems. Good morning, Ashley. Can you explain more?
Ashley:Hello. I hope so. Uh, I'm trying to articulate as best as I can. So as a nation, we are quite goal focused, which is great. And in amongst there's a problem that within, amongst itself as well, because to specify an actual goal is quite a challenge. So I, I'm probably coming at this from sort of the wrong end of the stick in in some sense, but I, I talk to multiple people a week about what their goal is. And a lot of the time the goal can be quite vague. It's kind of like, you know, why are you here? Well, I wanna lose weight and tone up. I was like, what does that mean? Like, can you hone in on the actual precise rationale behind that? Like. Do you wanna lose weight or do you wanna burn fat? Oh, actually you wanna burn fat? Okay, well do you wanna, where do you wanna burn fat? Well, I wanna burn fat around my umbilical abdomen region and sort of tricep. Okay, so you wanna burn fat, not lose weight. Okay. Do you wanna change your body composition? What's the reason behind that? And it's always 10 times outta 10 or psychological reason behind that. So getting someone to specify a goal is one thing. And actually that's a challenge in amongst itself, as I've already alluded to. But the biggest challenge is have to get there. Like we need a system in place to achieve that. We, we need a strategy. So for example, and I'm not necessarily relating everything to, to the fitness game, but I wanna be a millionaire. Okay, great. How are you gonna do that, bud? Like what's the strategy? What's your game plan like? We really, really overwhelmingly in at least my experience. We, we really sort of fail at that. Like specifying a goal is actually, is actually a challenge. Um, whether that's like a, a, you know, a personal quest or some sort of like spiritual journey we're on, or whether it's a fitness, like a, a goal within the physical realm, a financial one, goals within relationships, goals within finances. And then the next bigger question is, well, how the hell do we get there? Because we've all got treasure, we've all got like a, a star that we should be pointing at. But it's like, well, okay, well, you know, another, another sort of classic one that I hear quite common commonly is, um, I wanna look better. Or, okay, well, what's your nutrition look like? And everyone says, oh, I eat really well. It was like, okay, well let's dive into that, shall we? And it's, it's really difficult for me to not come across judgemental. And I think I have been guilty of that in the past. Absolutely. Um, but you do have to make judgements'cause that's what you're getting paid for. Um, and you kind of have to have a bit of a courageous conversation. Or a, a good friend of mine calls it a sweaty ten second conversation and, you know, being, being sort of bold enough and blunt enough to be like, well actually, you know, you've got a goal, which is great, but the system is lacking and, and we need to change that because it's currently not working. Does that make sense?
James:Yeah, that makes a load of sense. It's, it's funny because goal setting and having a clear vision of what you want, it's hard. Very difficult. It's hard to know because you, in, in our mind, our mind's very limited. Our mind's very limited in'cause we only know. What we've seen. Yeah. Or what we've learned. So we're very limited on, on knowing. And so there's a le there's a level of almost having a plan in place and almost sometimes surrendering the house and allowing what needs to come up to come up. So I'll give you an example. So say for example, you wanna create a, uh, a brand new course on whatever subject, it's great having, I think, an end goal or end product of, of what the course looks like. Well, our mind's limited. What if we allow ourselves to step into the unknown and in the unknown and entrust, we can allow stuff to come up through intuition, through, uh, a sense of, um. A sense of exploring, a sense of curiosity, a sense of wonder. Mm. But at the same time, there also has to be a level of like fitness goals. There has to be a level of so many steps ahead or even the next step ahead in place. So we have a direction.
Ashley:I think you raised a really good point there about, um, using your sort of initiative or your sort of psychic ability or what was the word you used? Intuition. Yeah, I'm super interested in that at the moment because initially that's the catalyst for movement. So for example, if you wake up in a fog, dunno where this analogy is going, but bear with me. Um, you are gonna have to use your intuition to initially know what direction to go in. And that's a feeling. You have to sort of be, you gotta gotta have a real super, like in tuned Compass to know which direction you're going initially, and then the system should take over providing you've got the right infrastructure and the system in place to do that.
James:Yeah. I feel like also when it comes to having a plan in place, do you have, with, with regards to the visions, you still need a idea of the direction you're going in. Yeah. It's because with that di, with that visions, suddenly you've, you, you could allow whatever needs to come in to give you the ideas to think, oh yeah, I've never thought about that. Or, so for example, I'm very much into the spiritual realm. Um, obviously I'm in the fitness realm as well, that kind of thing, but there's a, I am utilizing Dragon Energy. As a way to clear blocks, to clear limit to beliefs, to clear whatever needs to be cleared. Now, with regards to what I wanna do, I wanna create a course. I don't know how I'm gonna create the course because it's completely outta my realms, it's outta my realms expertise. But at the same time, who has the realm of expertise and dragon energy, nobody does, you know, is a sense of almost trusting and allowing that intuition to guide you to where you need to go. And it's, it's almost a sense that with this goal personally, there has to be a level of trust that in that moment you'll know what you need to do.
Ashley:When you say, uh, sorry, the button, James. When you say Dragon Energy, is that, um, something that I would interpret as like young energy, sort of masculine frequency? Is, is that what you are sort of describing there?
James:So I would say it more as fire.
Ashley:Fire. I'd say it more
James:so drag. I'd say it more as fire. I wouldn't say it as masculine or feminine. I'd say it more as, um, utilizing fire as a way to clear, uh, underneath blocks and stuff. Okay. Yeah. Transformation to do with stepping in passion, that kind of thing.
Ashley:So sort of allowing the deadwood to burn off to allow new growth to prevail. Jordan Peterson quote. Yeah. Okay.
James:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's, it's, it's more along the lines of just a sense of trusting and the knowing that in that moment whatever needs to come up will come up. So not even having, having a plan in place, a rough idea of what you wanna create on the course or create with your goal, but then having a level of, um, a level of flexibility and space. To allow inspiration to come in.
Ashley:Yeah. Love that.
James:That's best. Exploring it, explaining it.
Ashley:Yeah. Love it. What sort of course are you looking to design? Like what's the, what's the narrative there? What's the, the snapshot? I'm not sure
James:yet. Um, the snapshot is, I, I'm thinking if I can have a, uh, an event next to a outside in nature, you can have a fire. It's obviously the dragon energy. Yeah. And it can be about an idea of letting go of burning old stuff that needs to be let go of, of um, yeah.
Ashley:Where do we sign up?
James:Yeah. Signed up. There's one, there's one already. There's one already. I'll let you know about it, but I'm thinking perhaps in the next couple of months I'm thinking I must, it just seems so, one thing I've come to realize about goals, about vision is about giving yourself. The space to explore, and I'm getting a bit hot in here, uh, to explore, to explore almost a, a level of surrender that sometimes we have a limited view, but we're, if you allow your intuition, your space, space, your space, that's the best way of striving it. Stuff can come in. Whereas quite often we're in our mindset of be, oh, we need to do this, this, this. We're busy being busy, so we have no space. So we find it. Your inspiration can't come in.
Ashley:I fully agree with that. Absolutely. Um, that's why I think I've, I've certainly been guilty of that. I don't wanna sort of. Deep dive into what I think is wrong with me'cause we'll be here all day. But, um, I've certainly got some bearing degree of a attention deficit disorder disorder going on. And, you know, I'm quite a busy guy and I'm quite, uh, disagreeable by nature and I'm certainly naturally very unorganized and I forget things. So what I've had to make a conscious choice about and treat it as a daily, daily practice is just to sit by myself for 20 minutes, do some breath work, empty my head, be at one with self and that allow thoughts to come in, sit and then pass and then come back in. You. You gotta allow that time. And lot of people, I think, accurately demonstrated and used the word space. You gotta create the space to allow intuition and the creative part of our brain to become active and, and listen to it.
James:Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So just, just quickly going back to what we were saying before about having a system in place. Mm. Knowing the steps w with regards to people, what I've noticed is that quite often we, people will progress so far, and I've been myself, I've been there before. We've progressed so far, and then suddenly you'll stop. I'll give you a perfect example. Before, during COVID I recorded, I think it was about 80 episodes, with the idea of launching the podcast, but then at the same time chatting about how people take action, what they do. Mm. What kind of steps do they take. But I never launched it.
Ashley:Mm. Interesting.
James:And so I. Tell you that mean last, last year where I launched this podcast and I've just literally, I was almost like boomm bum. It's more, sometimes I feel there's a, there's a fear. There's definitely a fear inside us saying, oh no, you can't do that. You're not good enough. Or No, you can't do that. You, you'll be seen and people will judge you.
Ashley:I, I couldn't, I couldn't add or take away anything from that. People will see, people will judge, and that's the fear that we all have. Um, yeah, I think action beats in action a lot of the time. So the fact that you've obviously been consistent in, in what you are doing and creating a habit of it and making it habitual, I think hopefully that's overpowering the fear of, of whatever the fear you have really. Um, certainly. Yeah, I'd agree with that. A hundred, a hundred percent.
James:So where, where do you see people that, with regards to the fear. With regards to your clients, where do you see that people have the biggest downfall?
Ashley:I think, um, people often will, there, there's a couple of fears that are, that have been too frequently observed by myself for it to not be an issue. So the first initial fear is they doubt the doubt within themselves. So the doubt that they can achieve what they wanna achieve, the fear of specifying what their goal is, uh, for the fear of failing, and that becoming somehow public knowledge. Or they have to look in the mirror and be like, oh, I failed again. But the problem with not specifying a goal is you will, you will fail by default only silently, and that will eat away at you. So there's the fear of. The fear of not accomplishing or being brave enough to ascertain what the goal is. And then something that's probably more practical that probably a lot of your watchers and viewers and listeners will probably appreciate more. So perhaps is the practicalities of entering a gym, like, who's watching me, do I look silly? You know, every, and, and it, it's a fair fear, like, you know, there probably will be people judging you. I'm not gonna pander to the narrative that that doesn't happen. But the problem is like every black belt was once a white belt. You can't just jump into something to be an expert. God knows. I know that like the amount of failures and mistakes I make on a daily basis is probably, is probably, uh, probably quite harrowing if I think about it. But, um, you, you just have to confront the dragon and, and deep dive into it. But you have to do it sensibly. You have to do it with. The right intentions, I think the right motivations, and you have to see it for what it is. It's a marathon, not a sprint. And I think consistency beats intensity. And people sort of see the before and after pictures and they're like, oh, well I want a six pack. They fancy that, which is great. I mean, that's a goal. That's, that's fine. But they don't see the hours upon hours of food prep and the multiple times they have to say no to Karen's birthday at work, who's passing around the muffins. They want the view, but not the climb. They want the accolades, but not the training ground. It's, it's that sort of thing. Right. And does that even answer your question? I dunno if we've digressed. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
James:I think we've digressed quite a few times. Do you know, with regards to the podcast, I'm quite easy flowing where the podcast goes, uh, which sometimes can be a detriment because you suddenly go right off topic and then you have to kind of bring yourself back. But there's a few things. I've noticed, I've noticed a few times people say that they will start going to the gym when they've lost a bit of weight. Yes. And I say to them, it's, well, the whole point of going to the gym is to lose, is to lose weight. Yeah. Yeah. I've had, yeah. Um, one fear I've noticed myself is that you have, when you, when you set a goal, you wanna have this vision of what you wanna look like. Mm. But you don't wanna commit to that vision in case there's something better.
Ashley:Yes.
James:And so that's a hard one to get over, I think, because you, and you don't, and you find sometimes you don't stop because if you do start and it's the wrong goal, you're going think, oh, the saw myself short.
Ashley:Well, that's, that's a great, great point. Yeah. And it, it kind of goes back to sort of our previous point about specifying a goal. Like it has to be the right goal. There are multiple goals, what goal do you wanna commit to? And that's a choice within, that's a hard choice.
James:How would you go about, um, committing to it? Or how, how would you go about making the choice?
Ashley:I think it's about priority. I think there are multiple reasons why, let's take the fitness, fitness setting. Um, for, for, for a quick example, like there are multiple goals. Um, some of it could be cosmetic, some of it could be health. Some of it could be just to get away from work for now and have some new time. How much of that is a priority? And I guess the, the biggest strength and weakness of setting a goal is you are policing yourself with that. So you really have to use your intuition and you really have to specify what, where your priorities lie because
James:mm-hmm.
Ashley:If you don't wanna commit to. Say hypothetically a 12 week transformation, you will unlikely get a six pack, which is fine, but it just means you hold priorities elsewhere. And I always, like my mom always told me I was about 12 years old and I always try to practice by practice my sort of mode of being by this. It's don't mess with people's free will never do that. So people have a choice and it's their choice to commit to something or not. And it's up to them like I'm just like, certainly within the gym arena, like I am just a tour guide. Like if you dunno where you're going, I will point out the buildings, I will point out the obstacles, I'll point out the challenges and I'll give you as best as I can, the best strategy to overcome those. But if you're not interested in what I have to say, that's fine. But just know you probably won't get to where you wanna be.
James:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think especially in this world that we live in, there's so many, because we see, like, for example, we see fitness models who are muscular and ripped, and we think themselves, we wanna be like that. That's just our, I feel like that's just our ego saying, oh, and I'm gonna be like that. And, but, and you do. You know what I mean? So like I do. Yeah. Is it, is it, is it something that we truly want?
Ashley:Yes.
James:Or is it something that we actually, that we want because we want to impress that person, that person and that person. Yeah. And that brings us down to the whole avenue of self-worth, uh, feeling good enough in ourselves before we want to, you know, knowing that we are already there.
Ashley:It's a great point
James:and we, and we haven't got to be there to, to, to prove, to impress anybody else.
Ashley:I think it's a great point. I think this, take me for example, um, my mo so my goals have always relatively remained the same. It's a bit of a sliding scale, but my motivation to achieve that goal has changed over the years. So to give you some context, um, I used to get bullied at school for being skinny, which was like, well, I don't want that, so I'm gonna slap on some muscle. And no girls paid any attention to me. I was always the guy standing at the school dance without anyone wanting to dance with them. Why? For me, pity party, you're invited. Um, so I sat on some muscle purely for that reason. And so I was like, Hmm, there's actually money to be made in this. And then it became a more of a sort of a business driven motivation. Like, oh. I'm actually pretty good at this. Like maybe I could look into becoming a personal trainer and it became like a financial motivation and now I'm old and boring and worn out. I use it as part of my daily practice to prove to myself that I can do hard things. I use it as a daily practice to meditate. I use it as a daily practice to have some ash time and as a byproduct of that, I think it's made me more healthy there and more, certainly more fit than I would be had I have not taken up that goal and committed to it in the first place.
James:Hmm. Yeah. I think the journey of self-worth and feeling good enough is quite, it can be quite a long one, an OUS one, and I feel it's down to. We have a lot of limiting beliefs down to, well, you know, back to childhood, it all, I think all stems from childhood our own in a, in a child, our own child self.
Ashley:I think we're just broken children, right. Ultimately. Yeah. We're trying to navigate through life.
James:Yeah. And we've got, and we've got to almost have this journey of the self-discovery of learning. Where did these beliefs come from? And I don't, I've forgotten how many times in these podcasts we've talked about inner child healing and allowing the inner child to become healed. Because soon as, and allowing the ourselves to actually feel the emotions that were then,'cause then, I mean that's, that's the goal. Yeah. That's a big goal. You know, that's a big feeling. The emotion, our suppressed emotions. Huge, huge one. Probably
Ashley:the biggest goal. Yeah. Massive.
James:I think we've gone, we've gone like this with regards to topics, but, um. Can you tell us your story, please, Ashley?
Ashley:Yeah, sure. Um, so I guess professionally speaking, I was given a really, really good opportunity and I was only 18, 19, I became a fitness manager for a commercial facility back in 2009 ish, 2008, 2009. I was, I was there for five and a half years. Um, managed a team of 10. Just always had this, I actually, so I'll start, I'll, I'll go back, I'll go, I'll regress to progress. So I actually, my, I, like many people, I had no idea what I wanted to do in life. Um, not a clue. And. I lived in Surrey, um, just south of London now. I was born North London and, and, and, and sort of resided for a lot of my sort of years in Surrey. And there was always an expectation that you had to be successful. And as a vague term, I know, but I saw my peers and sort of like my school friends, they were always like extremely academic. Like I was always kind of blessed. I guess it's, I was always blessed to be almost like the dumbest guy in the room because you don't wanna be, you don't wanna be the most intelligent, you don't wanna be the prettiest, you don't wanna be the strongest because who you gonna learn of. So I saw that as a strength. I saw that as an opportunity and I was like, Hmm, these guys around me know what they're doing. I don't. So I'm gonna learn. And I got a work experience at 15 years old at a local gym and I absolutely loved it. I was cleaning treadmills. Engaging with members, learning new exercises, learning how to cash up and do the scum line on the pool. And I just felt that there was a purpose there. Like, I was like, okay, this to other people might not be considered to be much of a job. But I found purpose in that. And I was like, this is incredible. Like, I wasn't told about this at school. Like, they pay you to train people, they, people, people pay for that. Like it's, it opened up a complete like encyclopedia to me as to things that I need, that, that, that, that, that sort of, uh, pokes an interest I guess within me. And sort of three years after that I was, I was, I was managing the gym there and I was like, wow, this is brilliant. I was, I spent, you know, a really, really good, productive positive five and a half years there. And then, uh, from 2012 to. 2018, I had my own gym, elite Health and Performance. Um, and that was, that was incredible. Like, again, I dunno if it was luck, hard work, opportunity, a combination of the three perhaps. But I was just absolutely booked up. Like I, I spent my initial sort of year just training sort of semipro to pro-level athletes and celebrities. And that was certainly an opportunity that came my way. But I always said to people, well, you have to take the opportunity, right? It's, you know, the goal's not gonna score itself. You still have to tuck it away. And I did that. Um, and then it kind of came to a bit of a natural end. I think I probably got very, very burnt out. Um, couldn't take on any more clients, didn't really wanna expand the business because I felt like it was sort of my baby and I didn't really have much faith in other trainers to take on my client client. And so my then girlfriend and myself at the time sort of sold up and moved to Australia in Perth, Perth in Australia, where I managed a brand new facility out there. Um, spent a year there and then, and then my, then wife fell pregnant with our first baby and we decided to move back to the uk And I've managed five other gyms in that time and I've, I've found myself currently where I am at Nutfield Health Stoke and Trent, um, enjoying life. I've come up against some adversities recently that I'm trying to navigate my way through just to, just to keep the conversation real and organic, but I feel I've probably got the skillset and the experience to try and. Do that as best as I can. So yeah, I'm a, I guess technically speaking in terms of credentials and what's classed as a biomechanical specialist, uh, a master personal trainer, um, I've got huge interest in psychology and nutrition. Um, and that's kind of all I am really,
James:and we delve a little bit deeper into your current adversities.
Ashley:Yeah, absolutely. Depends how, how honest you want me to be, but, um,
James:what's, what, what's going on? Because I'm just thinking this is like a perfect opportunity where we can actually from real life start to kind of talk about how people can start to navigate these kind of things.
Ashley:Yeah. I think it's a, I'm more than happy to share that. I'll, I'll, I'll certainly disclose as much as you think I need to. Um, and I think, I think the motive behind. Me wanting to surrender. What I'm going through at the moment is the same motivation as to why you've asked me. It, it's organic and, you know, people don't wanna hear about, people don't wanna largely don't wanna hear about how to become a millionaire by millionaires. They wanna know the nitty gritty. They wanna, they wanna know what losing a fight looks like, and they wanna know other people's adversity. So they probably don't feel alone. And I'm more than happy to share that. So I am going through a separation with my wife at the moment. Um, it's been tough. It's, it's pretty raw and pretty fresh still. Um, this is someone who I, I wanted to commit the rest of my life to, and, and start a family with and, and buy a house with and, and all the nice bits and pieces and it just, it just hasn't worked out for whatever reason. I'm still trying to probably come up with. An honest answer for that. I've, I've got some ideas. I think, you know, James gonna ask you a question. Are you the same James as what you were 18 months ago or 10 years ago? The answer's probably no. Right? And certainly when there's kid's involved you, I, I can't speak for, for, for, for, for, for my wife, but I can certainly speak for myself and you kind of, my priorities shifted massively when I became a father. And God, I love my kids more than life itself, but you in turn lose somewhat of an identity. And you certainly, if you're not, if you're not careful, and certainly I haven't been, you kind of lose the trajectory and direction to which you are growing at, with the partner you are with. And so you end up just doing that. Um, and I, I don't, I think, I think many are, you don't need to be married to experience that. Like you, I think. Probably close to all relationships that break down, suffer that to some degree. Um, and yeah, that's currently what I'm going through. Like yes, it's difficult. Really difficult.
James:Yeah, I can relate to that on several different occasions. What I've found my own personal experience with relationships is that I'm, I'm obsessing personal and spiritual growth so much. So I'll do it every day, uh, different lovely. And explore different things. But it also means that I, my level of growth goes through the window. So my identity changes within one, one week. I, I'm not the same. I was last week and completely different. Yeah. Shitty skin, right? And if one person decides they don't want to progress as fast, and you are, there's this gap. And I feel this gap is what splits people apart. So it's almost, and I think different. Phases for a different life, for d for your life. There might be times where you're just like, oh, can't, you know, just carry on kind of thing. And you know, you, you might just kind of thing with a partner, but at the same time you might have a partner who you grow with at a fast rate. And then suddenly things change. And I find that I'm at a point in my life now where I'm single and I'm looking for somebody who I can tru truly understand who they truly are, but at the same time, somebody who grows as fast as I grow. And so it's just, it's just, for me, it's a time of just being, especially, uh, for people out there, it's a time of being patient, trusting that that person will come and. Not, not even looking for it. Whenever I look for it, I tend to push it away. And same, same with, same with life. Generally. You try to look for things, you tend to push them away because you are almost, you almost feel like you're lacking it. Mm. Inside. Yeah, absolutely. Whereas if you kind of surrender, you know, you've already got it. It just appears out of nowhere.
Ashley:Yeah. It's funny how that works, eh?
James:Yeah. It's, it's massively, but you know, it's with relationships, they're very, they're very difficult to navigate at times, but at the same time, they can be our biggest teachers.
Ashley:Oh, 100% agree with that. Like, yeah. Um, I think every single relationship I've ever had, it teaches you something, whether that's a parent a, a. Son, a daughter, a, a, a partner, a wife. I think, I think that's probably the reason as to why relationships exist in this sort of physical realm. I think they're there to teach you and every other adversity is as well. Um, it's, you know, I'm not pretending as though I have the answers'cause I certainly don't, but I'm certainly on a quest to find them. Mm. That's, that's, that's, that's kind of I think why we're all here really at some sort of deeper, sort of existential level.
James:Yeah. I feel like, um, oh, by the way, thank you for diverging that information. It's quite, quite personal. Yeah. Um, we, we, relationships, I've just, I kind of have been through a, like a five day festival romance. Okay. And, you know, it was great. It was great at the time, and I wanted it to, I wanted it to carry on. I, I had this expectation that it was gonna carry on. Expectations are the killer of, of Nicole. Trust me on this and I know I should know this and I should be tough, man. Bad bloody man. Yeah, bad man. But his idea now that, um, the, there's almost a level of the reason why I wasn't very present in the relationship. So now that's to do with myself. My focus, my purpose has changed slightly. And how do I create a safer, more present and connected man? And everything begins with ourselves. So this is my take on it. You can have the outside world, but if you are the same inside, the outside world will never change. You change from the inside out. Everything changes. So if, uh, I did a podcast recently with a lady to do, to do this lady to do with the mindset of money and how people chase this external thing, this cash money kind of thing. But if you change the, your whole whole way of thinking around money internally, so rather than seeing it as a physical thing, it's more energetic. And if you, if you see it more as if you change your beliefs internally about money, that will reflect on the outside, you'll start to see a more abundance kind of thing.
Ashley:Yeah, I agree. Have you, have you come across or read the book Money by Rob Moore? No, no, no. That was, that was a really good sort of entry level. Um, book on on money and how money works and it really sort of changed my perspective on, on what money is and how to obtain it and how to lose it and how to get it back again. But yeah, Rob Moore, check him out is, I think he was known as the disruptive entrepreneur, the UK base. Yeah. Interesting chat.
James:I'll have a look at that. Um,'cause if you go back to our, what we're talking about goal setting and our goals, I feel like sometimes, like say for example, you wanna get ripped, you're gonna be muscular and be ripped kind of thing. But that's almost an external goal. If we change it internally, our perception of what we actually want changes. But you, at the same time, I feel almost like you get there faster without doing anything. If you still have to do the. Workouts and the nutrition, but sometimes we put so much focus on the lack of not having it.
Ashley:Mm.
James:That we end up pushing it away.
Ashley:It's an interesting concept that I'm not sure if I've got a qualified, well, I certainly don't have a qualified opinion, but, so what you are sort of suggesting is because you are focusing on the lack of something, you will always remain lacking.
James:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah,
Ashley:I get it.
James:So for example, if, if, if you think about people who are really, really rich mm-hmm. But they, no, they're not happy. That's quite often because they lack something internally. Oh, absolutely. Rather than externally. So if you think of it with regards to your, your body, you, we always search for something that we, we want, but if you want it. You are almost saying to yourself that I haven't got it. Yes. When you, when you get into the point in the mindset of, I, I, I'm, I am worthy, I am good enough, I am confident, I am, all this kind of stuff, and you start to build it internally for whatever means, whether it's visualization, meditation, whether that's changing your beliefs, hypnotherapy, inner child healing. I feel like if we get there faster because we already have it, so we attract it,
Ashley:well sort of, um, it's probably a bit of a meditation or a notion on, um, law of attraction, right?
James:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Law of attraction's a small part to do with it.
Ashley:Yeah. Like, believe, conceive, achieve. Yeah. Yeah,
James:yeah, yeah. Yeah. That, that's how it all came about, I think. But let's change a little bit. When we, you left me a voice note and you wanted to talk about nutrition and fitness. Myth busting. Let's go
Ashley:there. Oh, hope you've got four hours free. James,
James:what are some big, what are some of the biggest nutrition and fitness myths that we can bust right now?
Ashley:Okay. Oh, this is gonna be provocative and I really don't mean to be, okay. I'm gonna have to articulate this as best as I can. So, England is one of the most obese, depressed nations on the planet, yet we have more gyms, health professionals, than most other countries on the planet. Agreed.
James:I can probably agreed to do with the population density I, I assume,
Ashley:yeah. Per square capita, shall we say.
James:Yeah.
Ashley:So obviously something's not working and I think. I think this country is obsessed by measuring two metrics, and I'm not saying not to, but hear me out. So we're obsessed by counting calories and we're obsessed on counting steps. They're not the only metrics though, and people really, really hone in too much on it. So, for example, like a lot of people won't, first of all like, this isn't me. This is like just an observational honest conversation and people I won't mess with, anyone's free will. If you wanna continue counting calories and doing your 20,000 million steps a day, that's up to you. But if you are, if you, if you've been doing that for like 18 months and your body fat is still 31% and you're still address size, 16 ain't working. So it goes back to that lack of system. The system you are using isn't working, so you have to change it or don't. But then don't mo about being fat. Now, I can probably give one example very quickly about how calories in calories out doesn't, doesn't essentially work. So there are three metabolic types on this planet. So a metabolic type is a posh term used to describe what food's compatible with your digestive system. You have someone who's, uh, fats proteins type, so as the name might suggest, people who can metabolize fats and proteins very well, but have a less tolerance to carbohydrates. That is typically people who live in England. Anyone who living in sort of colder climates, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, England, et cetera. Then you have mixed types of people who can largely metabolize a fair ratio of all macronutrients. 33% carbs, 33%. Fats, 33% proteins. Now that leads people into false sense of security that they can eat what they like, which is not true. Um, and then you have sort of perhaps the most restrictive, but maybe at face value, the most interesting metabolic type, which is your car types. And people think, oh, I'd love to be that.'cause who doesn't like a Twix? The problem with that is, is you have a less tolerance to protein. You can metabolize moderate levels of protein, but you certainly can't metabolize fats no more than ICAN carbohydrates. So unless you are living, unless you are willing to live on rice and porridge, you are banging trouble. Now, this is the problem with calorie counting, as are fats, proteins types. As someone who can't metabolize much carbohydrates, trust me, I've tried multiple times. If you give ash 500 grams of a ribeye state, sorry, 500 calories of a Rabbi steak. Or 250 grams of a Mars bar, who's gonna live longer, perform better, be happier? What's, it's evidently gonna be Ash who's eating steak. But the calor in versus calorie out brigade would argue that Ash, if on a Mars bar would live better'cause is in living in a calorie deficit. So it's not, I'm not saying calorie and calorie out isn't a metric to consider. I'm saying it's not the metric to consider. And you really, really, really need to be super careful and sensible about what you're eating and establishing what metabolic type you are before you even can have a discussion with yourself or nutritionist or personal trainer or an equivalent about what calories you should be having. And this conversation, I listen to podcasts and YouTube and research on a daily basis. No one's having this conversation. And second to that, like you might be, I've got a client at the moment and she came to me severely overweight and she was living. On 900 calories a day for the past nine weeks, I think it was no eight weeks was it? And initially, of course, you see a drop in weight'cause your body is trying because your body's like living on nothing. I was like, I was gonna said a name there. I said, look, I'm gonna be honest with you. You are this metabolic type. You are having 900 calories of all macronutrients that your body can't metabolize and process. So you are storing it. And the problem with that is, where the hell do you go from there? Do you like then cut it to 700 calories? Like, are you just not gonna eat forever? Your body can't perform on that. Like, mm, your your body, your body is a Ferrari. You gotta fill it up. If you're gonna go through a journey and we're all on a journey. Whether you exercise or not, like you need to function. So I actually almost note, this is no word of a lie on my, on my children's life, I almost doubled her calorie intake to 1700 calories a day. And to be fair to her, she had to put a lot of faith in me that I knew what I was talking about. And I gave her foods that are compatible with her digestive system. And she's stood a client now and she's dropped three and a half stone on double the calorie. So it's not just about calorie. Now, at some point we probably will need to revisit her calorie intake, and if she starts to plateau and she wants to drop a bit more weight, then I might, I might gradually bring into a bit more of a deficit. Mm-hmm. But until that, until that point's reached, there's absolutely no need to be living on 900 calories of bread and cereal. Like for, for example. Um, so yeah, that, that's, that, that, and you know, and again, like. I'm not telling people or, or trying to suggest for a second to not count your steps because imp increasing or being at least like conscientious in terms of your physical activity is important. But unless you are squatting, deadlift, you know, actually there's a difference between being physically active and training and mm-hmm. The intensity at which you train creates the stimuli for your body to have to develop, grow. If I ca uh, I, I, I just see too many people who unfortunately, and I'm trying to not sound provocative or. Or, or judgmental. But there are one too many people who live the office life who, you know, it's Karen's birthday, here's a muffin, and one won't hurt. And oh, let's have wine after. Let's have wine after our dinner tonight. And they're doing everything else wrong. But as long as they get their 10,000 steps in a day, it's not a problem. It's like, that is, to me, that's insanity. Like, what, what are you doing? Um, so I'm hopefully, if nothing else, I'm from this conversation, like I'm, I'm hope hopefully gonna give people a little bit more of a perspective as to what, what they need to do to get to where they wanna be on that front at least.
James:So the people who want to know their metabolic type, where can they go or who can they, who can they, um, get in contact with?
Ashley:Well, they can come and see me now. There's actually, there we go.
James:There we go.
Ashley:There's actually a very easy way to establish what metabolic types you're, so when I first had elite health and performance, um, I used to send the clients off for a blood test and then I, um, read, which was, it was accurate, but it was time consuming and financially not durable for some of my clients. Then I came across a book by Paul Check who is like, if there, if I had like a round a Mount Rushmore of personal trainers, he would be at the center of it is like the Godfather. He, he is the guy who like came across like the, and designed the concept of what the core is, and he, he was the guy that designed the Swiss ball and you know, he lectures to back surgeons for god's sake. Like he is like. Way above my pay grade and is like 65 lives in California, is the founder of the Check Institute. And anyway, he had this book called How to Eat, move and Be Healthy. And within that book he discussed metabolic type. And I was like,
James:ah,
Ashley:this is another person who I hold in high regard who's discussing metabolic typing. And he had, I think it was like a 48 question questionnaire that he got his clients to fill out. And it was in the book. So I, I used the same questionnaire and I, I got my clients to fill out this questionnaire, which saved them going for a blood test. And it gave me, with 85% accuracy, it helped me ascertain what metabolic type they were. And then I found something else out about eight years ago, which blew my mind, which you won't even, so the quickest way to ascertain what metabolic type you are is answer the following questions. James, where were you born, buddy?
James:We do it now.
Ashley:Yeah.
James:Uh, Stafford
Ashley:uk. Uh, what about your, what about your parents?
James:Uh, oh, good question. Uh, I don't actually know uk, do you reckon? No. Yeah. U uk. Yes. Sorry. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ashley:Um, so I can say that you are, there's a high probable chance that your fats proteins type, and the reason behind that is very simple. And once I learned this, I was like, how have I not known this before? This is, this makes total sense. It was like an epiphany. Our digestive system is designed to consume foods and drink that are native to the country we're born in.
James:Okay.
Ashley:Simple as that. So people who, so this is the other problem that we see, like certainly on like the YouTube and the Instagrams and the tiktoks. So we social media, but there's a lot of discussion and debate and arguing about, you know, what diet to go on. Is it carnival, is it keto? Is it, is it plant based? Is it, is it do, do bit too fast? And they're probably all right and all wrong at the same time. So if you were born in, say, Hawaii, somewhere near the equator, or let's say the Amazon rainforest say you are like, heritage comes from Peru, you are gonna have a capacity, far more capable of metabolizing fruits and vegetables than I would. So the chances are that you could probably live plant-based and operate and uh, perform optimally. If you gave me a plant-based diet, I would perish. Because my body digest, digest system can't, it can't unlock the nutrition from the food. And that's what we're seeing. We're seeing a load of people with all the best intentions on the planet, trying to make the right choices in terms of what to eat for dinner tonight. But because they're probably not eating in line with a metabolic type, the body can't unlock the nutrition from the food they're eating. Yeah, okay. The calories remain irrelevant
James:largely. So that's, so proteins and fats mean that my diet's got to be so, um, primarily, um, proteins and fats. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Got you. Yeah. Uh, I'll tell, add in now. Um, let's do, let's do three myth busting. So let's, let's take, that's the first myth. Myth. Okay. What's a second?
Ashley:Oh, another myth. Oh man, I've got a couple. So I'm trying to work out what would be. Best for the listeners and the viewers to, to hear and watch. Um, I think there's, there's a ton, man. Like, okay, let's talks, talk for a second. Like quite a frequent question. I get asked with a predetermined or pre, what's the word? A preconceived idea is that if I do sit ups and if I hold the tank for half an hour, I'm gonna get a six pack that's gonna burn a ton of fat around my abdomen. Waste of time. Like the, the problem is like, if I ask someone what the core is, could you give an answer? Not, try not to put you on the spot. Sorry, James. But you know, you, I've, I've watched you train, you've got good intelligent training and you know your method is good and you're consistent with it. But if I asked you what the call was, would you be able to gimme an answer?
James:So the calls made up of several. Different sections and it also links into the other muscle groups as well.
Ashley:Absolutely.
James:Um, it's, yeah, it's obviously, if I remember rightly, you've got the main core section, but then the core things down into the quads and the utes, which connects also to the, the back.
Ashley:Definitely does what?
James:Um, yeah. It's quite complex.
Ashley:It is. It's extremely complex until you define what it is. And quite simply it's any and all muscles that stabilize the spine. Simple as that. Now, that then brings its own complexities because if you are squatting heavy for argument's sake, your latus door size become a core muscle'cause they're hugging the spine and the latus door size considered a global muscle. It's, it's never conce if you, it's, you can put. Core muscles in Google now, and it would just tell you about the thoracolumbar fascia region and you know, your TVA and internal external obliques. That's, that's right. It's not wrong, but my point being is like the, you know, to think that we can spot reduce fat around the abdomen by doing some crunches and going to a, a core class is nonsense. Like, you'll be far better off eating a nine with your nutrition, uh, with your metabolic type. And, um, and the other thing about sort of burning fat is we. As humans, we distribute fat in areas of the body for a reason, and it's a hormonal reason. So this is another concept designed by Charles Quinn, the Layton. Great Charles Quinn. I think Charles Parle Quinn is probably the best ever strength and conditioning coach to have ever lived. Like again, he is up there on Mount Rushmore coaches, uh, he passed away in 2018, unfortunately was eight, yeah, 2018. But he came up with this concept of bio-signature sites so he could, um, explain at least with the suggestion that people store X amount of body fat, you know, on their triceps or on their abdomen for hormonal reason. And once you address that and identify the hormonal reason and you know where you're deficient and where you're, where you're lacking in maybe nutritionally, then you can substitute that and supplement it. Or change your training and program design to actually hit that area. So for example, I dunno, as a ratio, how many of your listeners are sort of men versus women? But quite a common one for women is, is, is the bingo wing effect. Right? So that would suggest that women, women's natural levels of testosterone are too low and the natural levels of estro are too high. Which sounds super contu, um, counterintuitive because we associate women to that they should have high levels of estrogen to testosterone and that is right, but they also need a, uh, seesaw, uh, fair amount of testosterone. So that would, so having two level, having two high levels of in relation to the testosterone, they'll still body fat around the tricep men. If you're anything like me guys, hello. Um, a five store body fat I'm currently doing at the moment'cause they're mean carbohydrates. Uh. We, we, you gotta be insulin sensitive, so you're probably eating too many carbohydrates and your pancreas seven to produce, uh, too much insulin to try and bring the sugar levels back down again. And it gets stored fat around the umbilical area and or your cortisol levels are too high, which is a stress hormone. And, you know, going through a separation divorce, of course my course levels are gonna be high, so I'm noticing a slight increase in my belly fat. Now, me doing 2000 situps a day and holding the plank for two hours isn't gonna change that to save your time. People don't do that. Yeah, that's on me.
James:Just on an i on the idea of the core being the primary sits, what's the core? The cores, the, the muscles connected to the, um, um,
Ashley:yeah. So the, the, the, the core, the core is, is a family of muscles that are responsible for stabilizing the spine.
James:Okay. Okay. Funny thing is the lighter the weights the more dangerous they are because
Ashley:Yeah, you don't, yeah, you don't, you don't think about engaging your call when you're picking up a set of keys or picking up an empty box at work. It'd be interesting, I dunno the stats on this, but it'd be interesting to take, you know, a hundred people who have slipped a disc and ask them how they did it. I bet you they probably would be like, oh, I just got out the car. Funny. It's because they're, it's because they're, or, you know, or an equivalent. And I think a lot, well, not, I think it's because they're core can't engage and stabilize the spine. Simple as that. And there are, there are core exercises that are very, very useful and beneficial to improving core strength, but isolating the core, I don't think it works. I rea you gotta be super careful with that because you'll overdevelop parts of the core and then leave other parts of the core week and that golf will just start to become bigger and bigger and bigger, like failed relationships.
James:Just so just on that topic, what kinda next sizes can people do to start to, uh, engage their core more for things like that?
Ashley:Yeah, so it is a great question and unfortunately I'm gonna give you a bit of a vague answer. Um, I can't categorically give people a jelly mold answer because everyone has different biomechanical weaknesses and strengths. So for me to be able to ascertain what, uh, core exercise I would give you, James, I would have to screen your core and see what part of the core is weak versus what part of the core is overdeveloped. Now saying that typically, um, there is a fantastic. Um, screening process that I use to measure if someone's weak or indeed strong in their core. And it's called the lower abdominal coordination test, which they can use, uh, which they can do via using, uh, an old traditional blood pressure cuff. And you put the blood pressure cuff underneath your L three L four of your spine on the floor. You pump it up to a set degree. And I get you doing tons of weird movements to, to help me ascertain what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong. So unfortunately I can't say do sit up. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do do the wood shop because I, it might be good for you, but it probably won't be good for anyone else. And that's, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's, that's the thing with personal training, like we've, we personal training online. This is great Myth. I'm gonna have to, so I'm getting my high horse here, James. Sorry. That's alright. Personal PT online is a failed personal trainers. I don't know one successful personal trainer who's gone, who's gone on, I, sorry. I don't know any successful personal trainers despite what they tell you on Instagram who have gone on, on, on, who have gone chosen to go online. Um, maybe a couple of exceptions and I wonder what their ethics are. So the reason why I became a personal trainer and will continue to, is because I genuinely want to raise and improve the nation's health. Like people might, um, question my motivations perhaps if they saw me on a, a, a, a bus station'cause I've got tattoos and a set of a set of biceps less, less so nowadays. But I'm, I'm, I genuinely at the forefront of the reason why I personally trainer is to be a personal trainer. I don't wanna be online dishing out the same Jenny mold nutrition plans to Sally, Jane, Mary, and I, joy work in accounts. That's not personal training. Um, that is a jelly mold approach. Um, that doesn't work. It isn't ethical and it, it, it's just a money grab. Um, and I, I really, really, really want to challenge, challenge that because people find, I think one of the biggest objections I have or obstacles that I have, and I'm sure a little personal trainers out that would agree with me is people see it as a financial issue. Like to be able to commit to it long term. But I'm really cheap. And if I can make you live 10 years longer, then surely you'd wanna pay me what I charge. Like you could like, like let's talk about budget gyms and pure, sort of the pure gyms, the gym groups, the JED sports, like, don't get me wrong. They, there are some very, very good gyms and they might charge 20, 25 pound a month, but if you don't use that gym, that becomes expensive. Does that make sense? So you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can pay an online PT a hundred pound a month or whatever the, whatever the subscription is you, I guarantee you will get the same Jenny Mold template that is used for 10 other clients. He's just changed the calorie and it's probably asked you what your weight is or her or she, and he's just gonna present you the same chicken, rice, and broccoli that has done for the last 10, 10 clients has had. That is an expensive way to operate. That is a very, very costly, expensive choice to make, to not get to where you want to be. Um, and I really, really encourage people to think twice. I won't mess with anyone's free will. There might be an exceptional online coach somewhere that I'm not, that I'm unfamiliar with. Hats off to them if they can make it work. A hundred percent. In my experience, I haven't seen one yet. And it's not only is it not helping, it's actually lowering the standard of personal training.
James:Mm.
Ashley:And that's, I've got a real, I've got a real big passion about that. People say they're passionate about fitness unless you are cleaning mats at half six in the morning and doing it six days a week like I am, don't talk to me about passion. Like I have a passion for this. I research it in bed at night, and I am deeply concerned at the climate of this nation's health and what we aren't doing.
James:Have time for one more myth. What's it gonna be? Oh, I
Ashley:don't know.
James:I've exhausted my options. Um, I know what we can talk about quickly. That's, we mentioned it earlier, CrossFit. Oh, let's go there.
Ashley:Okay. Okay. So I know James, you love a bit of CrossFit and that's brilliant. That's half the battle bud. Like, and again, I won't mess with the industry will now the biomechanical coach in me has one problem with it, and that is the, the program design of CrossFit is a guest, sorry to use this term again, but it's quite Jenny Maori. Would you, would you disagree with that?
James:Well, no, because it's, it's, everybody follows the same plan.
Ashley:Okay. So I'm not saying, I, I, here, here's a, here's a disclaimer, bud. Like I. I am not saying people won't achieve their results by going to CrossFit. I'm just saying mechanically, there's a massive percentage chance that it's probably not the most optimal way for them to train.
James:Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Ashley:So does that make sense? So like, yeah. One of my best friends who was an exceptional coach, he lives down in South. Like I, I Gen, genuinely think he is by far the best pastor trainer I've ever met in my life. Hat off to him. Chris Griffiths great coach, got his own gym and ham. Um, he, he said to me once, oh my God, I've lost my trailer of thought. I was too, too busy picking them up. Oh. Um, why head butt your way through a concrete wall. We can use a door. And I, I think, I think CrossFit's a little bit like that. Like I, I dig the intensity, I dig the work ethic. I like the sweat, the veins popping out, you know, the big Olympic lifts, the run. I get it. I get it. You know, I'm, I, I love, I love, I love the hard work and sort of the, the, the bro lifting mentality. I get it. Is it optimal? Definitely not. And that's, I wouldn't say I, I don't think CrossFit is a myth to be bust. Does that make sense? Yeah,
James:yeah,
Ashley:yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. There, there are, I have reservations on it, but I also can see why it's appealing.
James:Yeah. Well, um, for, for, for me, CrossFit, I, I enjoy it. I think half the battle, half the battle when it comes to goal setting, achieving in life is finding things you enjoy. Oh, and man, a hundred percent is a lady. The other day I saw a girl, a woman I know, and she put a post on Facebook saying that, put the things in your diary that you enjoy first before work if you can. Oh, what
Ashley:a, what a great strategy that is. And it goes back to the system, right? Like that's a great system.
James:Yeah. And, um, yeah, it's with cross, with CrossFit. There's was talking, I was talking about this earlier, weren't we? How there's so many complex moves. Oh, those, and my, my take on it is you have to learn, take the ego out. Because if you go into CrossFit, and you've seen it so many times, and I've been there myself, if you go into CrossFit with this ego thinking, I'm gonna try and match everybody in there, I'm gonna try and beat this person. Nine, probably, I reckon, let's say eight times outta 10. Somebody get injured. Yes. But if you go in with a beginner's mindset to learn all these complex moves, um, then you'll progress fast.
Ashley:A hundred percent. So it goes, yeah, it goes back to that, um, thing that I said earlier about like, no black belt, all, all black belts were once a white belt. Like you have to have that mentality. Like, don't go in thinking you're gonna be snatching, cleaning and pressing a hundred kilo, because if you do, you are, you're gonna be banging trouble. Um, but, you know, start with the, start with a bar. You know, work out the mechanics. Think about, you know, where you lift is suffering, what, what the sticking point is and work on that bit and then go back to it again. I think you've got the healthy approach.
James:And then also I think you, you're right, learning the biomechanics, learning where, where your core needs to be. Um, worked on learn your metallic, meta, metallic, metallic, metabolic type. And I suppose once you start to incorporate all these, anything becomes healthy, absolutely start. That's good point.
Ashley:Start, bring it, bring it all in. Yeah, it's a great point. Yeah. You gotta start with the fundamentals first, right? Like, okay, I need to eat better. Okay, well ascertain what your metabolic type is and try and live by it. And other doors will start to open up and sort of opportunities will present themselves. Um, but just don't, for god's sake, please, everyone don't just go on a 900 calorie diet before your wedding. Like, don't do that.
James:Well, that's it. Everybody like thinks, sometimes people almost have know something's coming up and then wait till last minute to start to do it.
Ashley:Yeah. Then, oh shit.
James:If you know your wedding's coming up in a year's time, you've got a whole year to get into shape. So then utilize yourself, like yourself and get a PT and learn your better bol uh, better BOL type and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. So can you tell me, Ashley, what is it that you do personally and how can people get in contact?
Ashley:Um, in terms of what I do personally? In terms of like within the gym?
James:Yeah, yeah, yeah. With, with the regards to the gym. Yeah.
Ashley:Um, so what, in terms of like my, my workout design, my program design.
James:So what, how can people get in contact and, oh, apologies. What can you, what can you offer?
Ashley:So I can offer people the opportunity to really, really unlock their potential on every level. Um, I think one of my strengths is I like to think, I like to be considered to be like certainly a mentor and an emotional support as well. I think that gets lost certainly on the online. PT game. Um, a lot of my clients to my detriment sometimes are, uh, you know, they will contact me at 10 o'clock at night and I'm i'll, I'll respond as soon as I can if I'm not asleep by that, by that time. Uh, like I'm, I, I, I, I believe that you don't need to be or stay where you are. Um, and I think a lot of people become depressed because they don't know what direction to go in. They don't know, they don't, they don't have a belief or a system in place to help them get to where they wanna be. And on that system, potentially. Now, in terms of, um, making contact with me, I actually took a bit of a New Year's resolution back in 2021 about coming off all or social media. Um, and boy is that, um. Quite unique in some sense. Like I kind of get looked as though I've got leprosy when I tell people I'm not on, on social media, but it's a choice that I made. I took a stance and I've never really looked back. So if people did wanna contact me, they're more than welcome to. I've got a bit of a waiting list at that, at a moment. Um, but James, if I send you my, my contact details and I can press a link, et cetera, they can contact me via that, that approach.
James:Yeah. Perfect. Thank you very much, Ashley.
Ashley:My pleasure. James. I appreciate your body. Keep, do, keep, keep, keep, keep up with your work.
Thanks for tuning in to Man a Quest. Find meaning if today's conversation sparked something in you, take a moment to reflect, then take a step. Remember, real growth comes from action, not just insight. If you found value in this episode, share it with a friend. Leave her a review, or reach out and let me know what resonated. Your feedback helps shape the journey we are on together. For more conversations like this, make sure to subscribe and stay connected. You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn for updates, tools, and upcoming guests. Remember. It's not about having the answers. It's about daring to look.
