In this first blog for The Purist, Joe gives it to us straight about fad diets, low calorie meal plans, phoney pills, dodgy shakes and why the UK needs a kick up the ass when it comes to nutrition.
I qualified as a personal trainer and set up my bootcamp company called rumbleinthepark.com in 2011. I was doing up to 35 hours of PT and bootcamp a week at my busiest and just found that I was burning out.
I started to see huge potential in the online fitness movement on social media and that’s when I decided to really turn my attention to nutrition.
I started using social media to share my new knowledge by setting up #teamlean on Twitter and quickly saw my following grow to 10k.
I then launched a new idea called #leanin15 on Instagram in January this year making 15 minute video meals. I've been blown away by the response already as I've just hit 23k followers.
I think the reason people engage so well with my social media content is because my philosophy is so simple and so easy for anyone to follow and benefit from.
I think they like my honesty and can see that you can still have fun and enjoy good food whilst getting lean.
My next goal is to create a #leanin15 cookbook and hopefully one day get my message to an even larger audience on TV.
"I don’t believe people need to spend their life in the gym"
It's very rewarding to see I'm inspiring and influencing people to eat better and live a healthier life. It's also had a huge impact on my own lifestyle because I have now an online business I'm extremely passionate about and have helped over 1,500 people transform their body with the
#90DAYSSSPLAN - my online 90 Day Shift, Shape and Sustain Plan.
My philosophy on health and fitness is simple: train hard & fuel your body to burn fat.
I don’t believe people need to spend their life in the gym so I encourage all of my clients to do short 20 minute (HIIT) high intensity interval training sessions four to five days a week.
"I'm all about making cooking quick, fun and easy"
I'm also really against fad diets and low calorie meal plans. The body needs energy to burn fat so I teach my clients to eat in line with your their energy demands.
I'm all about simple meals with single ingredients to make cooking quick, fun and easy.
I think the UK needs a serious kick up the ass when it comes to nutrition. The nation is getting fatter and lazier and its causing people to look for a quick fix with health and fitness.
Diet companies sell shakes that promise to get you lean and pills which promise to burn fat. It frustrates me that people believe this is the answer to their problem when really it's the cause.
People need to get back in the kitchen and cooking which is why I think education is crucial to teach young kids and their parents what healthy eating really is.
Joe Wickes, also known as The Body Coach, is a British fitness coach, TV presenter and author.
Starting off by posting 15-second recipe videos on social media, Wicks grew his brand to become one of the most followed fitness accounts on Instagram and YouTube.
Wicks was awarded a Guinness World Record for "most viewers for a fitness workout live stream on YouTube", after achieving over 950,000 viewers.
