Jay Dunlop

Gaz had already lost the weight once.

He just wasn’t happy at the end of it 👇

That’s the bit nobody tells you about dieting. You can do it the hard way, get to the number, and still not like what’s looking back at you.

And he’d done it properly. Four or five sessions a week, push pull legs, six or seven exercises a session.

The man knew exactly what he was doing.

Then he stopped.

By the time he came to me he’d been sat at fourteen stone seven long enough to call it a plateau.

So what was actually going wrong?

It wasn’t the gym.

Here’s what he wrote on his form 👇

“Nighttime is my downfall. Sweets or chocolate. Need to break that habit again.”

Read the last word of that.

AGAIN.

He’d broken that habit before. It came back. That’s not willpower, that’s a pattern, and he’d been round it more than once.

He’d also just taken a promotion and told me the stress was starting to creep up.

And every plan he’d been on before was too restrictive. He’d eat something off it, feel like he’d wrecked the week, and that was the week gone.

So we didn’t take anything off him.

We built it so the evenings stopped being a test he had to pass every single night.

His words at the end of it 👇

“This will be a life changer for me as it is easily sustainable.”

Leanest he’d been in years, and he held onto the muscle doing it.

Here’s the bit I want you to hear.

Gaz never needed telling what to do. He already knew.

He needed a plan that could survive the nighttime binge.

What time of day does yours normally go?

I’ve three spaces opening in September. Message me the word SEPTEMBER and I’ll tell you straight whether it’s a fit.

Kyle trained for ten years and never moved off 85 kilos.

Ten years 👊

Three days a week, on his own, out in his garage.

Here’s how he put it 👇

“I was training solo for the guts of a decade and still never got results”

Now here’s what people assume about a man like that.

They assume he was winging it.

He wasn’t.

When he filled in his form he listed his bench, his decline, his rows, his squat circuit, his rep ranges. All of it.

He knew exactly what he was doing in that gym.

So what was actually going on?

Two toddlers. A job in retail. Wife working shifts.

He trained whenever a gap turned up.

This was what he said 👇

“Arm work very seldom done and by now I’m generally out of time and need to be either home for the kids or showered and ready for work.”

Read that again.

That’s not a man with a training problem.

Dinner was whatever the kids were having.

Some weeks the food was grand. Some weeks it fell apart.

And when the scales didn’t move, his head went with it.

Ten years of that.

Same goal at the end as he had at the start.

So did I fix his training?

No. There was nothing wrong with his training.

We fixed his WEEK.

Sessions that worked round her shifts. Food that survived a night when the kids were up. Nothing that needed a clear week, because he was never getting one.

Six months in he’d made more progress than the ten years before it.

And I’ll be honest with you 👇

If you’ve been at this for years and the effort has never matched the result...

it probably wasn’t your training either.

How long have you had the same goal?

I’ve 3 spaces opening in September.

If any of that hit a bit close, message me the word SEPTEMBER and I’ll tell you straight whether it’s a fit

Jacob came to me to build some muscle and get his health sorted.

That was the goal. Nothing complicated.

He is photographer and videographer by trade

On his form I asked what was holding him back.

He wrote two words 👇

“Motivation and lifestyle”

Then I read the rest of the form and I could see exactly what he meant.

No training at all.

Five hours sleep and never at the same time.

Lunch skipped two days out of three, a pastry at his desk instead.

A lot of coffee.

Just a man whose week had quietly taken over.

90 days later I asked him how he’d got on.

I expected him to talk about the photos. That’s usually what a man leads with when he’s put his time and effort in and he’s got something to show for it.

He didn’t.

Here’s what he actually said 👇

“It completely changed my life and improved my health, mentally and physically, in ways I didn’t think were possible”

Mentally, then physically.

And honestly, that’s the bit that gets me every time.

Every man who comes to me comes about how he looks. Almost none of them come about how he feels.

Then a few weeks in, that’s the thing he wants to tell me about first.

You go in wanting to sort your body out, and the thing that shifts first is how you feel about yourself ✅

The body catches up. It always does.

So I’ll ask you the thing nobody asks a man who’s holding it all together.

How’s your head at the minute? Honestly 👇

Stick it in the comments if you’re comfortable, or send me a message if you’d rather not put it up in public. Either’s grand.

One word in this check in told me he’ll still be doing this next year 👊

Here’s what came in on Sunday 👇

“Workouts have all been good, feel like I’m going to continue progressing. Diet was a lot better this week, enjoying the plan. Noticing my body changing, feeling a bit lighter”

There it is…..ENJOYING

Nobody sticks at something they hate. Not for a fortnight, never mind a year.

On the same check in, how he was feeling 👉

“Great to be back at it feeling happier”

Back at it.

He’d fallen away from it before. Most men have, more than once, and hardly any of them say it out loud.

He came back. That’s the whole difference.

A plan you enjoy is a plan you keep. That’s the trick, and everything else is detail.

What’s the bit of your plan you’ve always hated? 👇

We used our wedding fund to build the gym.

We got married three years after it opened 👊

Here’s what it actually cost, since nobody talks about that either.

The money, obviously. But it also took my routine, and I didn’t get that back for a long while. Eating whatever was quickest, training whenever a slot didn’t get filled.

Then we did the whole thing again. 1000sq ft up to 12,500sq ft

Same story, just for longer.

Would I do it again?

I would yes. Without thinking about it.

But I’d do one thing differently 👇

I’d get help a lot sooner. I’d have handed more of it to people who actually knew what they were doing, instead of trying to be all of it myself.

Twice now I’ve learned that the hard way.

And here’s the bit I’ve never said publicly.

There was a stretch where I was ready to pack it in. I said it wasn’t worth the hassle and the stress.

I’d say nearly every business owner has had that week at some point. Almost none of them post it.

What pulled it round wasn’t a better plan or some clever idea.

It was backing myself, and properly investing in the thing instead of half doing it.

That included investing in me, which took me a lot longer to work out.

So push hard at it. Push properly hard at it.

Just don’t let it take everything else with it.

Jay

13 weeks between those two photos

6 pounds on the scales

If Rory had judged it on the scales he’d have packed it in around week 6, convinced it wasn’t working.

Here’s what was actually going on…

Rory’s wasn’t starting from nothing.

Long hours, marathon training, a wife and kids.

He was already running most days of the week.

What he didn’t have was any room left to go and figure it out on his own.

So we didn’t add anything to his week 👉

Training built around the running rather than piled on top of it.

His food went UP, not down.

Enough to fuel the miles and actually recover from them.

Nothing extreme. Nothing to work out. It fitted the week he already had.

13 weeks later the scales had barely moved.

But he was stronger in his sessions and after them.

His energy held all day instead of falling off a cliff at 3pm

His clothes fitted right rather than just looser.

Hi physique looked better in the process

And the ordinary jobs got easier.

None of that shows up on a set of scales.

Which is why the scales are the worst measure you’ve got, and the only one most men are using.

He didn’t need more time.

He needed a plan that fitted the week he had

And if you need a plan that fits the week you have…

Just send me a message with the word PLAN

You’ve been tired that long you think it’s just you now.

That’s the bit that gets me. The fact you’ve stopped noticing.

Office job. Early starts. Six hours sleep on a good night.

Breakfast was whatever was in the deli on the way up and a can of something to get him going. Dinner was a takeaway or whatever was in the house.

He’d never had a routine that stuck. His words, not mine, he’d struggled with consistency for most of his adult life.

Then this landed in his check-in 👉 swipe

So what actually changed?

Four things 👇

He lost body fat.

He started eating properly instead of whatever was quickest.

He’s training four times a week.

He started sleeping.

That’s it

No extremes

No living in the gym

Nothing he couldn’t have started on a Monday.

And here’s the bit nobody mentions when they talk about getting in shape.

The stuff running your day changes first.

How you feel at three in the afternoon.

Whether you’ve anything left for anyone by six.

Your head. Your sleep. Your patience.

None of that shows up in a photo. It changes everything.

Most men are walking round feeling half shut and putting it down to their age, or the job, or just being busy 👊

A lot of the time it’s none of those.