The Health Huns
The Messy Side of Health and Fitness!
Your favourite amateur athletes keeping it real, discussing the messy side of health and fitness
The Health Huns
Ep.15 Fat Kid Trauma, Boxwave, and PE nightmares
Remember lining up in the school hall to be weighed in front of everyone? Or being forced to wear those ridiculous PE knickers while attempting gymnastics? The humiliation of childhood PE classes is something many of us carry well into adulthood—often manifesting as a complicated relationship with exercise and our bodies.
In this raw, unfiltered conversation, we unpack what it truly means to grow up as "the fat kid" and how these formative experiences shape our relationship with fitness for decades to come. We share personal stories of family members commenting on our weight, the mortification of communal showers, and the crushing pressure to fit into a body type that simply wasn't ours. What's striking is how differently these experiences affected us—one host recalling being taken to Weight Watchers at just ten years old, while the other's family never made weight an issue despite societal pressures.
We take a critical look at the viral "Box Wave" phenomenon, questioning whether exploiting a child's weight loss journey for social media fame is truly in the boy's best interest. When adults parade a child's transformation across platforms and morning television, what happens when the cameras stop rolling? The pressure to maintain that weight loss could potentially set him up for a lifetime of disordered eating and exercise behaviors.
School physical education comes under particular scrutiny as we suggest radical changes to how movement is taught to children. Why are we still forcing team sports on kids who hate them? Why not introduce weight training, yoga, or modified running programs that allow children to progress at their own pace? The stark gender differences in how overweight boys versus girls are treated reveals society's double standards—while a larger boy might be nicknamed "Big Tom" and find his place on the rugby team, girls face relentless pressure to shrink themselves.
Join us for this thought-provoking episode that will have you reflecting on your own childhood experiences and questioning how we might better support the next generation. Share your own PE trauma stories with us on social media—we're building a community where the messiness of health and fitness is embraced rather than hidden away.
you know, family would comment on my weight and I look back on pictures and I was like I was normal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't look back on pictures and think I was normal.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to the Health Huns, the pod where we discuss the messy side of health and fitness.
Speaker 2:From gym fails to newfound communities.
Speaker 1:We're here to help you feel like less of a failure and find your place in the messy world of health and fitness.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, hello, we are back again, we are.
Speaker 1:We only had a week off two weeks technically, yeah, but we did have one little minisode to keep people going.
Speaker 2:And my dad, dave, was very disappointed when he woke up last Friday and there was no episode, was he? Which was my fault, because I forgot all about?
Speaker 1:sugar? Yeah, we did, but to be fair, I think we could do a better episode on that anyway. Yeah, it was a bit rushed, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we are back. We are back. We've got a rough idea what we're going to talk about today. It's a big topic, but we're going to approach about today. It's a big topic, but we're going to approach it and see what happens. Yeah, first of all, how have you been? What have you been up to?
Speaker 1:Amber, I have been good. I've been on holiday to Wales. How was that? It was really good. I went for a run every day. I did yoga on like, not on a beach. I did yoga like outside. I did yoga on like, not on a beach. I did yoga like outside. I went for a sauna on the beach. I had cake for breakfast.
Speaker 2:On the beach. Yeah, it was really nice, so it's on the beach. No, no, none of that.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, none of that. Too much sand, if you ask me. Oh, I hate sand.
Speaker 2:Sand in places. You don't want sand.
Speaker 1:I don't like the beach not for you, definitely not for me.
Speaker 2:No, and you went running in Wales. You found love again for running.
Speaker 1:I have found some love for running yes, and when I was at gate 5k last week yeah, it was last week I got my third fastest 5k, so I feel like I'm back on it.
Speaker 2:but after run Norwich, which is this week, this Sunday the 7th of September, you're boycotting 10Ks and just doing 5Ks. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I agree with you. I think, unless you're like really, really into running, like there's no need to be doing super long distances.
Speaker 1:I'm into other stuff as well, like I want to start going to the gym more and getting stronger Hench. I want to get hench because I only go once a week with you and I want to go two times on my own and I, you know I really like spin and you can't do everything you can't, and running does take up a lot of time.
Speaker 2:It does. Whilst it is convenient in a way, you don't necessarily have to. You can just leave your house and run. It takes time. Like you think you have a 5k. You've got to probably give yourself 45 minutes to like get up, warm up, get the 5k done, get home, decompress yeah, it's not a quick thing. Then you just shower and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, and it's been really hot again.
Speaker 1:I'm looking forward to some winter runs me too, I am I like running in the winter. I am hoping that. I think it'll be interesting to see if the running community drops off in the winter, because I actually much prefer it me too.
Speaker 2:Well, we're gonna definitely make some effort, uh, with gator 5k and doing some like nighttime runs, because not everyone feels safe running at night and that's absolutely understandable. So we're not dropping off, no way I'm amping up exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, winter is my time, so rate your last couple of weeks. I'd say like an eight or nine. They've been good. Yeah, can I just say albry's glowing thanks.
Speaker 2:She looks like she's about to go for a job interview. Corporate, yeah, corporate, leopard print I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's been good. How has your last two weeks been?
Speaker 2:well, it's been a blur really. We went away for a night, for a halt. We went and stayed in this nice apartment. Yeah, well, an apartment, um, yeah, that was really nice. Recommend that checking that out if you want somewhere to stay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, I've been really trying to find a bit more balance with work and doing all the stuff and like actually just not everything has to be done straight away. So, yeah, which has given me more energy, and now I've started doing more things again. Oh, that's good. So I've actually increased my workload again. Brilliant, I felt recharged after my break and I was. I can. I can do all of this, don't worry about it. Yeah, um, works good, things are good. I'm looking. I love this time of year. I just think September is like a second chance. I think no one knows where they're like coming or going. In the summer it's really hot. Everyone's away. There seems to be no routine, all the kids are out of school, but I feel like once you get back to september, people like lock in a bit, without sounding toxic yeah, um, I do feel like I'm gonna have more of a routine now you know, and it's cozier, the nights are drawing in and I don't hate it.
Speaker 1:I mean, I love summer, I love the heat, but I don't love it for exercising. I just like it for being outside, baking, being still outside.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and you can be still inside in the winter, yeah which, or you can move and warm up a bit exactly, so I think I've already had about an eight, nine out of ten. Wow, yeah, I think we just needed a break.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did need a break. We did need a break, but we are gonna be like really pushing things with the health hands. Yeah, we are need a break, we did need a break, but we are gonna be like really pushing things with the health hands yeah, we are converting my office.
Speaker 2:We are into a podcast, into a studio. I actually have the panels in my amazon basket, I just need to measure. Okay, I'm gonna get my dad to do that yeah, because I won't be able to do it properly, yeah, but we're gonna do that. I'm gonna sell my desk and get a small one, yeah, and have just a cute little cosy corner for us. It's going to be so cute. It's just going to be so cute. It is going to be so cute, brilliant, right. So today, amber, what?
Speaker 1:are we talking about Today? We're going to be talking about childhood obesity, what it's like to be an overweight kid, how it affects you growing up. Implications of weight loss toxic p trauma p trauma and you know toxic masculinity and how that feeds into things and yeah, yeah, just a lot of trauma a lot of trauma.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's nothing harder than being a fat kid no, there's not like I was a fat kid all the way until I finished school and I was also a really sporty kid at the same time. So it wasn't like I was a fat kid and like hated any exercise. I was playing football like three times a week. I loved PE, I loved it all, but like I'm just naturally a bigger person.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like there's no two ways about it.
Speaker 1:I was a fat kid. But the thing is I wasn't overly fat and then I got fatter. But even when I wasn't like, people commented on my. You know, family would comment on my weight and I look back on pictures and I was like I was normal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't look back on pictures and think I was normal. I think I'm gonna send you some childhood pictures of me. You can put the insta.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll find some and I think, if you know I hadn't't had a lot of the input I did, I wouldn't have had such a messed up relationship with like food and my body moving forward.
Speaker 2:See, my family were pretty good, I think because I was literally born that way. In the words of Lady Gaga yeah, that song was about me. There were maybe every now and then a comment, but like my mom, my dad, my close family never made it a thing like I was never put on a diet. There was maybe one time it was brought up. Um, like my mom, I would say never dieted when I was growing up. So, or weighed herself yeah, like honestly it.
Speaker 2:My mom probably more worries about her weight now when she's got older. Okay, when I was younger like we didn't have scales in the house I couldn't tell you a time my mum ever did a diet like ever.
Speaker 2:I could tell you a million times that my mum did a diet you know, oh, my mummy saved me to wait, like, yeah, my mum never did any of that, she'd have biscuits at breakfast. That was my mum and she's a tiny, tiny woman. Yeah, like she is really small. But yeah, being bigger as a kid is rubbish and hard. It is hard.
Speaker 1:But I mean, I think for me I always felt like I was massive but I was quite tall as well and I think that if you're tall you feel bigger anyway. And I mean I remember my mum did. She was never a slimming wild girl, she was a Weight Watchers, a Cambridge diet. I remember her doing the cabbage soup diet right, like every single kind of diet. I remember her taking me to Weight Watchers when I was probably like 10 or something. Like you shouldn't be allowed to take children to places like that you shouldn't, no, and I?
Speaker 2:what are you learning from Weight Watchers as a 10 year old? Nothing.
Speaker 1:Nothing at all, really, because it's about points and stuff.
Speaker 2:And I think often what happens is like the onus is put on, is put on the children as if it's like your fault and really you're eating what your parents buy you. Yeah, your behaviours and your habits have been allowed or taught or whatever by your parents. Buy you. Yeah, your behaviours and your habits have been allowed or taught or whatever by your parents.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because, let's face it, as a child, you actually don't have the autonomy to choose what you eat?
Speaker 2:No, not really, not at all. And if your parents look at you and just think there's nothing wrong with you and you're great and they accept you as you are which I think they should then like then someone else is trying to tell you to change, like kids at school being nasty, or teachers are making comments. It's difficult, isn't it? Because my mum only ever bought up to me when I got weighed at school not just me, yeah, all the kids lined up and we all got weighed.
Speaker 1:I remember that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I remember it being in the school hall. Yeah, I remember everything about it.
Speaker 2:Ours was on the stage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ours was on the stage, fucked.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really really fucked. Yeah. And they sent a letter saying I was overweight and this and this. And I remember her coming to tell me. And I remember her coming to tell me and I just made myself fried egg on toast and I sat eating my egg and she was like, oh, maybe we should do something about this and that was it.
Speaker 2:And then nothing ever was like said to me again yeah, I always was aware I was bigger. There was loads of times I was self-conscious about it. I was. I used to like cry to my mum, someone called me fat or whatever. I remember walking to school once and I was like year seven, year eight, up my up the hill and I was always these kids from the other school walking the other way at the same time and you see, shout things like look at that, she's a beast, like this is nasty, street heckling, yeah, yeah and but you can't help how you are sometimes like I was a very active child. I walked to school every day, to and from, like I said, played loads of sports, loads of football, and I don't ever remember having that bad of a diet yeah, see, I don't really remember much about my diet as a kid.
Speaker 1:Um, I really don't. I was quite fussy, but I mean, I'm still quite fussy now yeah like I don't. I like quite plain food. So I don't really remember loads, but I don't think I was overly bad and also I don't really remember particularly being bullied for being fat. It was more of a like came from my family and this internal through that being like oh my god, I'm disgusting, I'm fat. Nobody likes me because I'm fat, which wasn't true because I mean I had friends yeah but it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was an interesting time and when I look back on it I think you were just normal. Yeah, like you were just normal and you know, I think when I left school I don't even know why I should know this but I remember like probably in my last year or so of school doing a diet, and I had like because obviously this was before the days of the internet I had a book that had all of the calories in it and it was like the thousand calorie diet and I used to have a thousand calories a day as someone who was like probably still 14, 15 still growing, developing like your brain, like you need it for exams and whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was like five foot, you know.
Speaker 1:Six. Five foot seven. I'm five foot eight now. So I was, you know, I think I was pretty much the height I am now and I weighed 11 stone.
Speaker 2:That's really normal, yeah, somebody that is that tall and you're going for like puberty and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just had a developed body yeah, I think let's talk about maybe some PE trauma as well, because I think PE and just being vulnerable when you're young and you know you're bigger than everyone else or you feel conscious about your body, whatever that is you're conscious about being vulnerable, having to wear like shorts and a t-shirt and not being able to cover up and hide, and then being made to run around or jump on a trampoline or do dance, is so mortifying. Yeah, and there's so many times I was made to do stuff as a kid and I just hated every second of it.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you and this you know when you are an adult and we're talking about exercise, we are told to find something we love and you, you know, if you don't love it, why are you doing it? As a child you don't have that option. No, forced. You know, as a girl, you have to do netball, which actually I did really like you had to do netball. You had to do hockey, you had to do fucking gymnastics and when I went to school you had to wear PE knickers which were like these blue big pants and like a gym skirt, like a pleated gym skirt.
Speaker 2:So weird yeah. Why did anyone think that was a good thing to work out in?
Speaker 1:Why weren't girls allowed to wear shorts Like boys? Is the sun in your eyes?
Speaker 2:No, okay, but I also think I feel it's just last word. I feel like girls who are big and boys who are big they do have slightly different experiences of it, because I feel like a boy who is big, he can still, he might get picked on and like banter with his friends or whatever, but there's no, there's hardly any pressure really for them to change. They're just called like like Big Tom or something, and it's a laugh and it's a joke and you know they might slap his belly as he goes past.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he can just kind of get by. I'm sure they don't always feel great With girls. There's just like we are expected to feel such deep shame about our body and how different it is and it'll be. Things like boys aren't gonna like you, yeah, and fitting in like clothes and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was a big thing like I could never wear. You know, I was a teenager in the 90s and very low rise jeans and you know tiny crop tops were in and I could never wear them. No like, because actually I do think you need to be absolutely, you know, at the time. Now you can wear whatever you want and it is more acceptable, but back then you had to be a tiny waif to wear things like that. Yeah, so I did feel like I um, I did feel like I sort of missed out on wearing things that I wanted to wear because of my size.
Speaker 2:And just fitting in. Yeah, there's nothing more. You want as a kid, especially like a high school kid, to just fit in and go under the radar. And because I was bigger, I almost then had this like opposite defence mechanism where I was like a big personality, like I put myself forward for things. I kind of got in front of it before anyone could say anything to me.
Speaker 1:See, I don't think I realised as a child that the reason I wasn't I wasn't like, not in the popular, I just was a regular, normal person. But the reason I wasn't super popular is because I was a bit weird, not because of my size, because I was just a bit weird Like. And now, you know, all of my friends are also a bit weird. Yeah, like, and all of those popular kids that I went to school with are like mega chavs, married. I mean, I am also married but like they're married to each. They haven't really left the town we lived in. Yeah, they all seem to be married to each other. They've all got three or four kids.
Speaker 1:I mean, I facebook stalked some of them. They look old and haggard. I'd almost love to go to a school reunion and be like hi, yeah, oh yeah, I look 10 years younger than all of you. Um, but they, they were just different. It wasn't that I wasn't good enough, so I was different to them, personality wise and all the things I liked. You know, I couldn't stay in that small town, not because I was fat, it was because I just had different life goals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I also think when you don't have pretty privilege as a teenager because, let's be real, that does exist, right yeah, like the popular girls tend to be the pretty girls, blah, blah, blah when you can't rely on how you look to get you through in life, you have to develop a personality, you have to develop resilience and grit and determination and actually work hard for where you get to in life yeah because you can't rely on someone going oh, I'll open this door for you because I like the way you look.
Speaker 2:It doesn't happen as often, so that's probably why people who aren't always as popular or generic, like generically pretty at that age it is that generic, I mean.
Speaker 1:I lived in a small town, so generically pretty, was like long hair, skinny, yeah, like in the 90s, wore a lot of makeup, wore mini skirts, high heels.
Speaker 2:That's just not me no, it's not and there wasn't really many other people like me there at the time yeah, it's, um, it's sad it still goes on today, and I was talking to someone who has a 15 year old, yeah, and they were saying, um, that is, it's awful at the minute, like, if you are slightly, a lot of the girls are obsessed with their weight and staying thin and watching what they're eating. See, I thought we were getting over. Well, I did, but I think it's just got so much worse since social media. Yeah, um, that, even if you are slightly bigger, you get relentlessly picked on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is that is it is harsh, and that is that is it is harsh, and that is where a lot of it starts, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because you know your core memories come from your childhood and how you're treated.
Speaker 2:And I just what I think. The question is how do we stop this?
Speaker 1:And well, it goes on in every part of society this and well, it goes on in every part of society. I mean my views on pe, so I remember hating running yeah and I remember.
Speaker 1:So I went to middle school in a place called lounge and it's a tiny little village. I had to get a bus there for like 40 minutes and the school was like down the middle of a like long track and there was nothing around. So cross-country running was cross-country running and they just expected you to be able to go off and run like 5k. Yeah, now, as an adult, we do couch to 5k and we train to do it to build ourselves up. So why I mean, I don't have children at school, but I'm pretty sure they still just expect kids to just go out and run why aren't they doing a couch to 5k? Like, if you're already good at running, sure you go off in that group and you run, but if you're not good at running, why aren't they doing couch to 5k with kids?
Speaker 2:They don't have the time, time, the resources and the funding. They just got to tick a box, don't?
Speaker 1:they've got to do a certain amount of activity per week. And you know what I also think would really good for schools? Do some weight training, yeah, because actually a lot of people that are bigger are brilliant at lifting weights mass, mass moves, mass.
Speaker 2:Yeah, doesn't mean it's easy for them, but you can lift a lot of weight, yeah. It's something you can do. It's something that you can see progress in. It's something that will improve your health to a certain degree and your levels of fitness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just like some, your body dictates the sports you do. I think, yes, it's not that you necessarily always choose it Like if you're really kind of stocky and you hold muscle well and you're just built like a brick shithouse, you're probably going to fall into rugby as a kid, yeah. And if you're lanky and lean and you've got good endurance, you're probably going to then be like athletics and stuff and so forth. So I just think pee at school sets kids up to fail in health and fitness, and there's a massive thing girls around the age of 15.
Speaker 2:Well, no, it sets up girls to fail.
Speaker 1:Yeah, up girls to fail.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because there's such a drop-off in girls participating in sports at around the 15 to 16 mark that you do not see in boys. Yeah, because where do girls fit in there? Yeah, and I think it's because it's seen. There's the options for them, aren't there?
Speaker 2:yeah if you're a girl, even if you love football as a kid growing up, you then get all the pressures of like being girly and like getting a boyfriend not me, because I was a raging lesbian so I played football up until like last year. But why so it's? Then it's like a gender thing. Then it's not just about weight and how you look, it's all about the expectations and the gender roles and what's seen as attractive and what's not.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So really it's a problem where you'd have to go right at the bottom and just work your way up with it all, Pull it all down to the ground.
Speaker 1:I just think school needs to be Like why are they doing? Why do you have to do rounders hockey, netball, badminton, tennis, athletics football, this to do rounders, hockey, netball, badminton, tennis, athletics, football, this, like, just pick a few things that would be good for children. And what is good for everybody is lifting weights, you know, and they don't have to be heavy weights lifting some weights, doing some like I don't know little mini kettlebell classes yeah, get them doing a high rocks.
Speaker 2:The thing is now I'm not speaking for all PE teachers, so I haven't spoken to all the PE teachers in the UK, but a lot of these PE teachers, their basic knowledge of actual exercise lifting weights, getting stronger is so incredibly poor.
Speaker 1:Well, because they're usually into football.
Speaker 2:Or they've they've done a sports science degree yeah and not even all of them have done that. I don't think yeah but some of them I just I'm like do you even know?
Speaker 1:I don't think they do, because I think you've got to think about oh, we're getting very angry, aren't we? I think you've got to think about things that are going to keep people fit for life, yeah, and they are things like lifting weights, doing a bit of cardio yeah, like you don't have, they don't have to be doing 10 miles of cross-country running. Do like you know. Run around the school track once. Yeah, you know. And if somebody really likes football, this, that they're probably going to do that out of school anyway.
Speaker 1:That's another thing about PE. It's all team sports, yeah, and if you're not a team player or you are a child on the outside, you get picked last, like, and you're never going to enjoy that. No, whereas if you are doing things on your own, you're working at your own pace, you're lifting things that are right for you, and I get, you know, if you've got a load of kids. But kids aren't going to be lifting heavy weights, are they? They're going to be tiny little weights and things. I just think it needs a whole. I mean, I think it needs a whole overhaul, yeah think it needs a whole.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think it needs a whole overhaul. Yeah, in my high school, my old high school they still do gendered PE, so the boys will do a certain set of activities the girls do a certain set across the year and I just think we're in 2025.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's catholic school, so I mean, I think schools still do that yeah, no, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:They still do it to this day.
Speaker 1:Yeah and I just think I mean, I had a client in yesterday who had her daughter with her and she said to me and you said, you had this in your school. You had higher and lower set for people. We didn't have that, and I think that is actually a good thing, because but that is if you have that, that is where you could bring in this. Well, you're going out and you're going to do cross-country one, but we're going to do couch to 5k with you, yeah and we're going to build you up.
Speaker 2:Do you know? What makes me laugh is when there's like swim clubs or like any tiered sport that kids go into, and you have like the the top set in swim club is like the sharks and then the lowest set is like the seals. It's just so. It's like I remember when we were at school we had tables. It was like the top tables like the egyptians, and then the low ones like the tudors, the peasants might as well, have been a class system.
Speaker 1:The sharks and the guppies yeah the sharks and the seagulls?
Speaker 2:yeah, they try and do it. But you know you, if you're shit at pe, you know you're shit at pe. Yeah, and do you're shit at PE.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and do you know what? I always thought I always was shit at PE, I hated sport. But I actually love exercise now, as an adult because I found things that I like and that has made the world a difference. And maybe as a child, if I'd have had that, things might have been different. You might have been an athlete right now I things might have been different. You might be an athlete right now. I would never have been an athlete, but I might have like not had like 30 years where I never exercised.
Speaker 2:I think we spoke about this in another episode was like the experiences that you mentioned a minute ago. The experiences you have will can sometimes put you off doing that same thing again for the rest of your life. Yeah, because of the experience you've had when you're 14. Yeah, because high school is hard. Anyway it is. So why can't we somehow make something that is quite important, like exercise, just a bit easier for them?
Speaker 1:yeah, but again, do some yoga yeah, like there's so many things you can do that would work and would encourage children to move more without being like you've got to be on a team winning, like because that's the thing with team sports, it's about winning. And actually with exercise, exercise doesn't like it's. It's not about winning all the time.
Speaker 2:No and in physical education you don't actually get taught much no, you're not really. You don't know anything about your body no, not until you get to like gcse level, do you actually get taught any of those things? And if you, hate it.
Speaker 1:You're not doing it at gcse no exactly.
Speaker 1:I mean I used. I mean I never used to do PE when I was at high school. I used to. I mean I didn't go to school very much, but I used to. If I was there I'd have a letter, I'd be like I'm on my period, yeah, and another thing which I actually asked my client's daughter about yesterday, because we used to have communal showers. Apparently they don't have that anymore not the school she goes to. And that's another horrible thing, because when you're a, you know I started my periods when I was about 11 or 12, like quite young and like you then start to change and some children don't go through puberty till they're older. But also, if you start puberty younger, your body gets fuller, your body changes and you're embarrassed of it yeah, and you have to stand there and shower with teachers like looking at you and children walking through as well.
Speaker 2:It's horrid I that didn't happen. I was at school and you actually couldn't have paid me enough money to communally shower yeah, it was fucking horrible it's weird. Can we all just say that communal bathing is weird? It is weird. I don't even like going to a swimming pool. No, like all the like the rugby boys and the football boys, and they all share a shower at the end. I just think, guys what are you doing? Come on. So you, just you just like get in a cubicle.
Speaker 1:Put a bit of bloody chipboard in between it yeah you don't need to be sharing that's not team bonding, no, and I, yeah, I feel, I feel that there's so many things when you're a child that can then put, unless you are small and very sporty and encouraged for that kind of thing, I feel like there's so much that can put you off as an adult yeah, yeah, I think if I wasn't put into sports at young age and like naturally, like all right at them, I probably would have never done any sort of activity.
Speaker 2:I mean, I the fact that I'm a personal trainer is beyond me, because any sort of exercise just I didn't like because I felt so vulnerable and it was.
Speaker 1:It's uncomfortable when you're bigger as well yeah, and you feel like everyone's looking at you and they probably are like let's be real we talk about.
Speaker 2:Oh, no one else cares.
Speaker 1:But sometimes people are fucking assholes and they are just not nice people yeah, especially at school, kids are harsh critics, but where do they learn it from? They learn it from their parents and just society at large.
Speaker 2:I think I I'm boomer energy, but social media has a lot to answer for. Yeah, I being at school when I was, which was only what. I don't know, I'm only. I'm 27 next month, so 12 years. 12 years ago and I was in kind of year 9, year 10 um was hard enough and we didn't really have Instagram. We had Snapchat and we had like group chats and that was kind of about it. Like there wasn't much more than that.
Speaker 1:See, we didn't have social media and it was rough and it was awful.
Speaker 2:Imagine now everything's being filmed or could be filmed. You've got multiple avenues to be attacked from.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:All the influence of just your social media in general. Yeah, I, I, I just wouldn't. I just don't know how kids are coping, I don't know how they are?
Speaker 1:I don't think they are. They're being red pilled left, right and center. Well, that's probably why half of them end up being like influenced by people like Andrew.
Speaker 2:Tate. But you know what has gone down teen pregnancy. Well, I mean, that's something. I think it's because they don't talk to each other or end up being influenced by people like Andrew Tate.
Speaker 1:But do you know what has gone down? Teen pregnancy.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean that's something.
Speaker 1:I think it's because they don't talk to each other anymore.
Speaker 2:They're on their phones. Yeah, probably they're doing it. Yeah, that's actually not a bad thing.
Speaker 1:No, that's something good that's come out of it. Yeah, so sort of moving on social media, we've had a bit of a chat about a group that we have seen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what are they called again? Box Wave.
Speaker 1:Box Wave. So I first saw them a few well, probably, like I don't know, maybe four months ago or something On TikTok. On TikTok, and they're these two guys that are into boxing that are into boxing and they have taken this young boy under their wing who was overweight and was being bullied, and transformed him into a lean, mean fighting machine fighting machine.
Speaker 2:How old is this boy? He's like 11, 12, isn't he? Yeah, so he's on the cusp of hitting puberty, where you just naturally shoot off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and, like you know, he was overweight and you know, obviously being bullied because Kids are horrible, kids are horrible and but um, and in some respects you know they probably are doing some good things, but I just question what their motives are for it. If they hadn't have gone viral and be making money and getting all of this praise, would they be doing it?
Speaker 2:probably not no, and I, and I think I just when I saw this, this person, because there was a couple, there was like a dad and his son doing a transformation together, yeah, and they were like look how much weight we've lost. And then there was the box wave of the other kid making him like run just everywhere, the poor sod. Yeah, and as soon as I saw it gave me the instant ick, because those kids at such a pivotal point in their development and a very influential like what's the word I'm looking for Shaping Like.
Speaker 2:Moulding. Yeah, yeah, crucial point and stuff in their like kind of self-belief and that kind of stuff. All their self-worth now is based on them losing weight, yeah, and all the praise they've received it's on, it's out there for the whole world to see. He was on this morning, that's what I sent you yesterday. Yeah, like prime, you know TV, and as soon as he puts on a bit of weight again, which he very well.
Speaker 2:Well, I can only assume he's like sense of self is going to shatter. Yeah, because he's getting all this positive attention and praise about changing himself and losing weight and all that kind of stuff and you know, you and I both know how easy it is to lose weight. But then put it back on. Yeah, exactly. So I just don't know if what they're doing is the right way to go about it and to just put him out in a spotlight. So much.
Speaker 1:There's no going back from that.
Speaker 2:That's out there forever and yes, the parents can consent and yes, that boy can go. Yeah, I want to do it. There's a reason you can't do a lot of things. So you're 18 because your frontal lobe has not developed. You don't have. You know. Can you really consent when you don't truly understand the consequences of something? It's quite exploitative, it really is, and I think this poor kid, yeah, this, like what is this doing to him?
Speaker 1:I mean the things that I you know they did this like video where they took him around a supermarket and you know he was picking up I don't know, like some hula hoops and they're like no hula hoops are so bad, I think that was staged Hula hoops.
Speaker 2:well, I mean, you know obviously it is, isn't it but?
Speaker 1:hula hoops are not bad. If you exclusively eat hula hoops and nothing else, yeah, it's not great, but having a bag of hula hoops here and there, like it is about balance and when you are told these are bad, you can't have them. You have to have this healthy food. Yeah, like no food is bad, and that is the one thing that I've learned in losing weight is I still have all the things I like and by by allowing myself to have them, I don't want them all the time You're not in the binge restrict.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, and we said earlier on that this, what they're teaching him, this whole stream of events is really putting him out on the line for like disordered eating behaviours as he gets older. I'm not saying this is definitely going to happen. He might be absolutely fine and could be talking shit, yeah. But I think we could all look at this and say the risks are far greater than the benefits for him. Yeah, you could have done this. You don't need to put it all over social media.
Speaker 1:No, but they're putting it on social media because of the kudos they're getting from it and you know they weren't on. You know, if they hadn't have done this, they would do nothing. Extraordinary, no, extraordinary. They wouldn't have gone viral, they wouldn't be on this morning TV. And people are now like you should be. You know you should be the minister of education for children. You know physical education for children and this and that. Well, what do they actually know?
Speaker 2:They're making this poor boy run up and down a hill. And when you're a kid and there's someone you look up to, you'll do anything to make them proud and happy. Well, depending on your personality type, guess but I wouldn't have no, me neither.
Speaker 2:So this he wants to make them proud. He knows that he's getting all this attention and stuff, so he's gonna like do more of it, does? It's not like they've done anything magical no, they haven't actually done anything, but if they really wanted to do something, they would be doing education for the parents.
Speaker 1:You know, you know like, rather than driving everywhere, go out for a walk with your kids. What are you feeding them? So, you know, trying to just get them. You know, yeah, they can still have chicken nuggets, but maybe give them some broccoli.
Speaker 2:It's kind of the JB Oliver thing when he went in the school.
Speaker 1:Turkey, twizzlers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, school dinners and stuff and it's this kind of virtue signaling bullshit.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And I just don't quite understand why this has got the traction it has, because it gives me the ick straight away Because in a world we value people being smaller and these people have made this boy smaller so they feel like his life is better. But I just, you know, I just really worry.
Speaker 2:it's just so toxic and why are they not kind of tackling bullying at the root of it? Yeah, and instead of maybe educating kids on like bodies are different, some people are big, some people are small. We shouldn't really like pick on people because they're fat or thin or whatever. Instead, you've made this poor boy suffer and struggle and I'm not sure like how healthy it is for kids to lose weight that fast.
Speaker 1:He's lost a lot of weight very quickly To that extent.
Speaker 2:you know, I don't know what good it is to really put that much focus on something like that at that age. Yeah, okay, tell him to to like, maybe eat some more fruit and veg, maybe go out for a walk a bit more, and then, naturally, like your body will just kind of, yeah, go where it's gonna go, but I don't know yeah, to be on such an intensive training program, but they never post much about what he eats.
Speaker 1:No, it's all about running up hills, pushing yourself until you're nearly sick and at that age I can, I'm, I don't.
Speaker 2:I'm not an expert in biology, but your body's probably burning a lot of calories. Growing, yeah, all the developing, like learning all the stuff at school, yeah, all those things. So that's how many. It's burning a lot of calories already. So how big of a deficit is this kid in as well? Is anyone monitoring this?
Speaker 1:No, I wouldn't imagine so, because they're not nutritionists, are they?
Speaker 2:They might have gone through this. But has he had his health markers kind of tested and monitored?
Speaker 1:I don't know, probably not.
Speaker 2:There's one thing doing it to adults.
Speaker 1:Yeah. There's another thing when you're starting to put it on young kids at 11, 12 years old and posting it all over the internet.
Speaker 2:It doesn't sit right with me. I just think there's gonna be a big backlash, you know, the next four years when he kind of can see this.
Speaker 1:I'd be really interested to see where he is in four to five years yeah, but that that will have blown over and no one will care by then.
Speaker 2:I reckon there'll be like a Channel 4 documentary about it, hopefully.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like the Biggest Loser.
Speaker 1:the documentary at the minute on Netflix yeah, I haven't watched that yet, but I need to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like we've seen how negatively that affected people for grown adults who are consenting to it. Yeah into it, yeah, and the stuff they did to them, yeah, we're celebrating it being done to a child?
Speaker 1:how warped, it's really warped. Yes, it's odd. And just post I just the social media element of it and, like you know, making him the face of it because to begin with, like it was getting a lot of views, but they obviously weren't like involving anybody else and they weren't on tv or anything. And I just thought, well, they're, you know, are they just going of views? But they obviously weren't involving anybody else and they weren't on TV or anything. And I just thought, well, are they just going to drop him? But they now obviously need him because basically he is the face of what they've done. But what do you do next?
Speaker 2:with him. What are you going to do next with him?
Speaker 1:Well, he'll just Beat him up. Yeah, they're probably, I mean, depending on how long it goes on, for they need him on board.
Speaker 2:Look at Michael Jackson, look what the fame did to him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Macaulay Culkin, lindsay Lohan, he's going to be on crack before we know it.
Speaker 2:That poor boy. Oh well, PE trauma, being a fat kid, it's tough, it is tough.
Speaker 1:It is tough out there. Tough, it is tough, it's tough out there it is tough. But you know, what children really need is a bit of just basic education. Yeah, some empathy. Other children need to be educated on being not just other children. People just need to be a bit kinder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the thing is, if you start educating the next generations coming through and their parents, you're not going to have any fat adults and then the diet industry aren't going to make any money. That is true, you will be. The thing is, a lot of people are just naturally bigger. Some people are naturally smaller like fucking hell yeah everyone needs to calm down.
Speaker 2:It's not a big deal, is it? It's just not a big deal. Be kind. Someone else being fat or thin really doesn't affect you. No, why are you making it your problem? Yeah, yeah, let them live. Just let them live, let it be, let be.
Speaker 1:Let him play video games, if that's what he wants to do. What is the right answer? I don't think there is an answer, because you know, okay, yes, ultimately, maybe he is going to carry this forward and have a healthier life.
Speaker 2:Maybe that is a possibility.
Speaker 1:Maybe he will go back to how he was before and put weight back on and be unhappy, and be even more unhappy because he's had a taste of what it was like to be thin and famous. Yeah, because in his eyes he's famous, he's on telly.
Speaker 2:So it's hard and can we just clarify we're not slagging this kid off.
Speaker 1:No, we're actually backing it Like we're on his side.
Speaker 2:We're slagging the adults involved in this off, because they're the ones Because they're exploiting him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they are exploiting him and all those other children.
Speaker 2:In our opinion, they have one there. Yeah, in our opinion, Because our 100 listeners might.
Speaker 1:We don't know who they are.
Speaker 2:But I mean, I'm actually surprised that nobody has called them out on the internet yet, have they not? No, not that, I see, not even the classics.
Speaker 1:No, no, maybe we'll be the first ones to do it. Well, this could be our big break. God, oh well.
Speaker 2:At least it wasn't the grifter one slagging off our neighbors.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, I, I don't know it's uh, I just think nutrition for children needs to be simple, like pe needs to be simple. It needs to be like tailored in a way that is, if you are sporty, you go off and do things you do team sports but if you're not, you know just ways that people can do more, that we actually tell adults. We give adults so much choice and we tell them do something you love. You know, with nutrition balance, yeah, I know not everybody is into balance, but you know the overall kind of message is do something you love. If you don't enjoy the gym, don't go to the gym. If you enjoy swimming, go to women, do what you want to do. And with eating, you know, just eat some more vegetables, eat a few less snacks. You know it's very simple, but with this, with children, it's like you must be sport. Why do children have to be sporty?
Speaker 2:I don't know looks good for who something? The parents. The parents live through their kids. Yeah I guess I'm making my own life. He can fend for himself. See if you can live through me. My mum's an athlete. Yeah, I blame the parents.
Speaker 1:I do blame the parents. I do blame the parents. To an extent, but then I also think a lot of parents want their child. You know this boy's parents don't want him to be bullied, they want him to be happy. And you know they now probably think well, he's lost all this weight, he's not being bullied, he's happy, he's on telly, he's got these. Also, he's an 11 year old hanging out with like 30 something year old men. It's a bit weird. I hope they're not communal showering.
Speaker 2:Oh god, the thing is with weight loss right. I've worked with a lot of people not so much anymore, but in the past who'd done weight loss and every maybe one out of 20 people would go on to have good success with their weight loss and stuff it. It depends so much on the personality of people, their genetic makeup, like their lifestyle at the time. Yeah, often it is more down to those factors than any of the coaching that is being done, yeah, or any of the um kind of not procedures, oh, rules, guidelines you put in place. Yeah, and it's probably same kid. He's probably like really good at following things. He might have actually just naturally been going to go this way anyway, because he does look like he's got taller.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean Matthew Green. I saw a picture of him when he was about 13. And he wasn't fat, but he was a bit chubby and now he grew up into a very tall beanpole. He, he grew up into a very tall beanpole. He is a beanpole Because that is what happens. You know what's going to happen when this kid is allowed to drink alcohol. We don't know, because things change then and you have your own money and you can go and buy takeaways.
Speaker 2:Do kids drink alcohol anymore? Is anyone getting drunk in fields anymore? That's what's wrong with society today. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I don't think they are I. What's wrong with society today? Yeah, I don't know. I don't think they are. I was getting drunk when I was 13.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was thinking, oh, just a bit socially inept. But this is a different episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've gone off here. But yeah, I mean kids, they don't need to go out because they can communicate with each other on phones.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but didn't they do a super-sized versus super-skinny kids? Oh, I don't know. I'm sure they did a series on that Probably. I used to watch that. I used to love it. Yeah, me too, and I used to love watching my £600 Life.
Speaker 1:I didn't ever watch that. I liked super-skinny versus super-sized. And then there was another one like was it? It was that anna richardson and they used to follow a family round and like or fat person around, yeah, all the food they ate.
Speaker 2:And then they laid it out on these tables you went to the garage at 10 am and bought four kitkat chunkies and six sausage rolls and then you went for a roast like yeah and they were like no, I didn't we have footage to say otherwise, but I used to love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we love we there's. It sucks us in, doesn't it? Yeah, it really sucks us in, and I don't know why, but I think it's just like seeing how other people live, is you know, look at influencers, look at social media. That's we love it, we do love it.
Speaker 1:Reality TV yeah, we love it, we love it, we do love it. Reality TV we love it, yeah, we can't get enough.
Speaker 2:I can't get enough.
Speaker 1:But it does feel wrong when it's a child.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not kind. No it really isn't kind and I you know.
Speaker 1:I hope he is okay moving forward.
Speaker 2:I hope there's someone who's got his best interests at heart.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And also his parents, may truly believe this is the best thing for him.
Speaker 1:I think they probably do. I think my mum would have probably thought it was the best thing for me.
Speaker 2:It's very uncommon for parents to put their kids in obvious harms. Yeah, what you do normally. You think it's the best thing, yeah. Because, you want your kids to thrive and survive, Sorry.
Speaker 1:I just had a really big yawn. Society is to blame, it is, it is, and you know, really, everything just needs to be a bit more balanced, and that's that.
Speaker 2:That is that we should take it to Parliament. We should it dies. I think we should take it to Parliament, we should so it dies.
Speaker 1:I think we should take this to Parliament.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Be like shh. Let's find some balance here. Yeah, you don't have to run up a hill until you're sick. No, Do you know what.
Speaker 2:Run up that hill and if you get tired, walk a bit and then run a bit more because you're still getting to the top and we'll leave it there today, I think, on that positive, positive quote from ameth, probably the most positive thing you've ever said ever in my whole life. Well, I'm not really sure what we spoke about for the last hour. Was it an hour 50 minutes? Oh my god. But we spoke about something we did. We got angry. Yeah, if you want certain topics covered in this podcast, please give us some structure yeah, because god knows, we need it we do, and if you liked it and enjoy this podcast episode, share, share, share, share, like review, subscribe, message us.
Speaker 2:We love the feedback. Only if it's nice, though, because our egos are very fragile, yeah, we can dish it, but we can't take it. No if someone did a podcast about me, I'd be crying.
Speaker 1:I'd move countries don't say that, but we will be back next week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know what the topic is going to be.
Speaker 1:I don't know, we'll it this time. I think maybe we should do ultra-processed food, because we did say we were going to do that.
Speaker 2:Did we not do it? No, Ultra-processed food and sugar maybe?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Double whammy yeah let's do a little nutrition-y one. All right, then, that's what you're getting Ultra-processed food around that, or any views? Thoughts?
Speaker 2:send us a little DM, alright, then? Well, thanks for listening. If you've made it this far, bye see you next week bye.