The warmer months are fast approaching and you might be wondering how you are going to fit into those swimmers gathering dust at the back of your closet. Today we speak with medical scientist, qualified PT and owner of Breakthrough Fitness and Breakthrough Supplements, George Kafrouni on getting into shape for summer.
Episode Summary:
- The best nutrition and exercise to lose weight
- Mindset hacks for physical performance
- Trends in training, food, and supplements
- How to stay disciplined even when you don’t want to go to the gym
Want to find out more about Breakthrough Fitness and Supplements? visit www.btfitness.com.au
Transcript
Jess: Welcome to Flip the Script Podcast, where we flip the narrative on issues that affect men's health.
Louie: Our aim is to talk about the weird, the wonderful, and perhaps, the unspoken issues that affect men, so you can feel empowered and back to living your best life.
Jess: Let's get into it.
Louie: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Flip the Script. As always, you're here with myself, Louie, and we've got Jess.
Jess: Hey, guys.
Louie: And now, with winter done and dusted, the majority of us are looking forward to getting back into this warmer weather, going out to meet new people, and even flocking back to the beach. However, we may need to lose that winter belly that we've been tending to the last few months. Today, we'll be talking about the best ways to help you lose weight and reach your fitness goals. Our guest today is medical scientist, qualified PT and owner of Breakthrough Fitness and Breakthrough Supplements. He has been helping his members reach their fitness goals for the past six years. And more importantly, a longtime school friend of mine, George Kafrouni. George, thank you so much for joining us today.
George: thank you for having me.
Louie: Yeah, not a problem. How's everything been going at the gym?
George: It's been really good. I've done a massive renovation over the last year or so, so we've had a few good changes, and it's been growing ever since.
Louie: Yeah. Look, you've had it for such a long time. And I do remember when you started out before the gym, you were doing some sessions at the park with your groups. Now, I can see you've gone into the supplements and even competing.
George: Yeah, so basically, I've opened up my own supplement company, online supplement company. And I've also gone into promoting a massive power lifting pump, which is going to be the biggest in Australia.
Louie: Oh, that's amazing. And everyone that you've got there in the comp, are they basically members of yours? Or are you just bringing in anyone from around Sydney?
George: So we've basically reached out to the best in Australia and some of the best in the world, and they've come down to compete for 60K worth of prize money. So yeah, it's never been done in power lifting before, so we're excited about it.
Louie: That's amazing. So the best of the best coming down to you as well, so that's awesome. So I mean what we want to really do is, that's the top tier right there, the power lifting comp, but what we want to go back to is the general stuff, the really easy stuff that the average Joes, like myself, can actually do. And first thing is we want to know how we're going to lose win this weight after winter. All our little big guts and our food guts. What's the best exercises and food that we can do to get rid of this gut as quickly as possible?
George: Well, that's the million dollar question that I get asked every single day. And in regards to that, there's no quick fix to it. It's just basically, to do that you've got to get into the habit of exercising and eating well. And that could be very daunting for a lot of people, especially if they haven't done it before or they're not in routine. Especially coming back from winter where you're a bit sluggish, it's a bit cold, you've been out of routine. But for those that are starting off new, it's always best that they get into the gym and be realistic about their goals, and try not to overextend themselves by doing too many sessions. Get into the gym two, three times a week and start portioning your food.
Louie: I mean of course, if you've got that motivation to go back into it is definitely easy. But what if we've got too much of a distraction? A lot of the people, they've got families, they've got jobs, they definitely want to do it, they want to be able to get into the gym. Is there anything that maybe we can do at home?
George: Yeah, there's definitely a lot of things you can do from home. It's as simple as just moving, just walking, going for walks with your kids, even going to the park, doing some extracurricular activities with the kids and stuff like that can help you so much. It all begins as, well, 75% of it is all food, it's all nutrition. So making sure that you are choosing the right foods to basically reach your calorie intake that you've made for the day. Obviously, trying to stay in a calorie deficit. That will help you to obviously lose that winter weight. But it's just more making it realistic and making the small little changes along the way. So going from cutting out Coke for example, cutting out some of the junk that you might have at home. And not setting unrealistic expectations as well. You can't just go out and say, "I'm going to do it cold turkey." Because most of the times with most people all happen is they'll just generally just go back, fall off the wagon and they're back to doing what they were doing before. So it's about setting realistic habits, realistic goals every week and saying, "Okay, I want to hit that for this week," then reward yourself. And then just continuously go from there. Sometimes it's drinking more water, or saying, "I'm going to go for a 20 minute walk around the house," or, "I'm going to jump and do 10 pushups today, 12 tomorrow, 14 the next day," and so forth.
Louie: It's just slowly increasing your exercise and exertion, and also slowly decreasing your food intake. And then eventually you should find yourself at that really happy medium?
George: 100%. And that's the key to it. And it's just setting those little goals that obviously are realistic enough, so that you can basically grow. When I work with athletes, that's what we do. We periodize everything. We don't just jump on and say, "Okay, we're going to squat 400 kilos straight away." We basically start with 200 for that athlete, for example. And that's the same thing. We can relate that back to an everyday individual who's just trying to get into healthy habits. It's just about saying, "Okay. My end goal is to be able to go to the gym four, five times a week at 6:00 AM or 5:00 AM in the morning." But to get to that I'm going to have to set these little goals from now to make sure that I can actually hit them. And it's just being realistic with yourself. And my best advice to people is always seek help when it comes to these things, whether it comes to exercise or nutrition. Most of the time you can probably get a plan from a coach that you can do at home. And that can also keep you accountable to do that because you do have the coach looking over and making sure that you're doing that. And there's plenty of apps these days, so there's plenty of workout plans online and apps that you can actually download and just stick to. And as with food as well, I always advise people to see a dietician, you could go to your doctor and speak to your doctor, and get a plan to see nutritionist or a dietician, and that's what I advise a lot of people to do, so that they have that accountability to their actions.
Louie: And it's definitely easier when it's right in front of you, when you can actually see how much calories you've had for the day.
George: Exactly.
Louie: What you've done in terms of exercise for the day, and you know where to balance it out. So it's definitely much easier when you've got that on the app, or even some people have a little journal where they could write it down.
George: It helps a lot.
Louie: I guess with the exercise at home, you mentioned going for walks. Is there a number of minutes or amount of time a day that really should be the minimum for them to start to burn that fat?
George: Look, depending on each person, it all depends on... When I look at individuals, and I've had clients that were 200 kilos. And basically, with them, going for honestly a three to five-minute walk was sufficient enough for them to start off with, and that works for that individual. But someone might be able to go for 20 minutes, someone might be able to go for an hour or so. I find tracking your steps helps a lot, so that you can reach certain goals every week. Every week you're able to monitor and see how many steps you've done for that week, and then try to beat it for the next week and so forth, or for the next month. I suggest, look, for an average person, if they can go for half an hour to 45 minute, even to an hour brisk walk, it'll help a lot.
Louie: And also just on food, I mean if we're doing all the right things In terms of exercise, and I know you mentioned it's just reducing the calorie, but are there any specific or maybe non-negotiable food that they really should be eating to help that fasten that up?
George: Look, protein is obviously key. We've noticed that in most diets, whether, you look at a range of diets, whether it's paleo, to just counting your calories, to carnivore diets and everything that's gone on, all the fad diets that come out, protein's always key. Making sure that you're getting sufficient protein intake is important in all your foods. A lot of people would say, "Okay, but I'm vegan or vegetarian," that's still possible to get a lot of protein out of vegetarian and vegan sources as well, so that's non-negotiable. So making sure that you have enough protein in your diet will help you a lot, and it'll keep you also fuller between meals so you're not snacking in between meals or going for things. The reason why a lot of people snack is most of the time is the fact they're not getting enough nutrients in their body, and their body's wanting to yearn for those nutrients, so they have to try to snack.
Jess: So talking about calorie tracking, where do you start? How do you know how many calories you should be consuming on a daily basis for your body type?
George: Yeah, just when you say just body type, it's all defined by kilograms and in accordance, you can basically find out how many calories you need to consume to sustain or to keep that weight. Just to keep it as simple as possible, obviously for the viewers, it's really easy. You just jump on the internet and you can type in exactly... Go calorie trackers on there. MyFitnessPal is awesome for all those that want to track their calories. It's got pretty much every food out there on there, so you can basically just jump on there and track your food, write down exactly what you've had. You'd be surprised, you can find literally anything on there.
So you can just write down what foods you've had for the day and he'll tell you exactly how far off from your protein intake, how far off from your carb intake, how far off from your fat intake and your calorie intake altogether you are, or if you've gone over it. You can also input all your data in regards to training. So if you went for a brisk walk or you went to the gym, you can put that in and it'll tell you exactly how many calories you've burnt as well. And I find that helps a lot of clients to sort understand exactly what it takes to get to what body type they want to get to, or whether they want to lose weight, or any of that stuff, and it makes it simpler. It's amazing what we have at our disposal these days.
Jess: And you mentioned macros, can you kind break down what they are and what are the goals around that? So we hear a lot, obviously keto's got a different macro set than say paleo or just your general standard Australian diet. So how do people begin with their macros?
George: Of course. So you obviously got your proteins, fats and carbs. Each of the percentages vary with each diet. And it also there varies in regards to basically which goal you have in mind. So that varies, and try not obviously make it as confusing as possible for people, for the viewers out there. What you need to do is, basically, so you've got your calorie intake to keep you... So each person to be able to sustain themselves and be able to function, need to take in and stay at that body weight that they're at now, they need to take in a certain amount of calories. So to basically bring it down, to basically be able to drop that weight, and obviously be in better shape or whatnot, they'll have to eat just below that calorie intake and also take you into count the activity level for the day. But with proteins and carbs and fats, that's just easily broken down. Obviously, with each diet, you get your paleo, which a lot of it is just protein, lots of sources of protein. You're eating that and your carbs, you are basically getting it from vegetables and fruits. Whereas if you were to just do one that's basically recommended by the Australian Dietary Association, you basically have to take in all your low GI foods, taking your high GI foods as well for carb intake. And then, you've got your protein sources, being whether it's from vegetarian sources or meat sources as well. And your fats will vary basically from fats that you'll basically get from animals, or oils, butters and all that.
Jess: So it kind of varies between each diet. So is it a preference thing or what kind of works with you?
George: Yeah, it's just a preference thing. With my experience we've had people obviously tried all sorts of diets, whether it's fasting, going onto paleo, we have a lot of CrossFitters in our gym, whether we have power lifters who are obviously trying to get a lot of energy from their food to be able to perform the lift. So it depends on what you try to do. You want to set realistic expectations for yourself. If you found out that your friend's lost heaps of weight from intermittent fasting but you can't go all day without food, for example, don't try to do that. You just got to make sure you got to find something that's sustainable for you.
And at the end of the day, the funny thing about it is it's all got to do with calories. So whichever diet you choose, it doesn't really matter. You could choose whichever diet you want. To hit your goals, it's all about calorie intake and it's all about hitting your protein goals for the day. So if you're not hitting your protein goals, you're not hitting your calorie intake for the day, you're obviously not going to lose the weight. And we find the stressful thing for a lot of people coming obviously into training for the first time, they want quick results. So what happens is they do pick up on all those fad diets out there, and it's really hard for them to basically... And they just basically drop a lot of weight, but they find themselves stuck on a certain number, and not being able to have as much energy after a while.
And what generally happens over time is people go for more of a friendlier, better approach as well to eating well, and that is including a lot of fruits and vegetables, getting your low GI carbs, and getting obviously your good fats in there. And sometimes eating more would help you a lot more as well. So in a lot of cases where basically we have a lot of clients who struggle to lose a lot of weight, basically, they consult their dietician and they find that they're not eating enough food. So a lot of people have that idea that by eating a lot less, sometimes it could be damaging in the long run. So we've got a lot of people that tend to eat 1300 calories or 1400 calories, which is prescribed by a lot of nutritionists or a of gym bros and gym girls out there. And then what happens with these people, they find themselves very fatigued, and they can't function as well.
And then, basically they store in their results as well because the body would just or adapt to how many calories you're doing. So rather than having that approach, we find a lot of people get better results by basically having a healthier mindset towards eating. And it's based on food is fuel. Food's there to basically fuel your day, make sure that you're able to perform as best as possible, whether you're working in an office space, whether you're working on a job site, whether you're working as a stay-at-home mum, and you have having to run around with kids and stuff like that. So people need to have a better approach to food as being a source of fuel. And that involves getting a wide range of foods as well, because that is very important to get all the nutrients that we... It's not necessarily just about your proteins, fats and carbs. You got to take into account all your vitamins that you have to also take in. So that will help you a lot in the long run.
Jess: And would you say mindset comes into play a lot in terms of how to get results?
George: Yeah, definitely mindset plays a large role. We've had clients that were with us for two, three years with no results whatsoever. And then flick of switch, someone says something or something happens, and generally they tend to lose all that weight and then hit their goals. And then we've got clients that start straight away, and they're basically able to hit the floor running. Mindset is key, but like I said before, to make it happen, it's about all the little victories. When you start with anything, you've got to basically set yourself with realistic goals to start off with. So at the end of the month, you can see those goals that you've hit all of them. So then your mindset will shift from being one where, "I didn't look good," or, "I didn't feel good," to being like, "Okay, I look better. I feel better." Okay. That's more motivating to try new things and try to basically up the beat a little bit, and try to get better in the long run.
Louie: Yeah, it would be easier to continue with your plans and continue with your training and your eating if you can see that over time you are losing that weight, even though it is small. Because obviously, we want to jump straight into it and lose 15 kilos or whatever it may be, 10 kilos, we would love that. But then when you start to see it's a kilo and a half this week, next week was two. And you can see that there's that increase, even if it's very small, that for your mindset is obviously showing that you're doing the right thing.
George: That's for sure. It's 100%. And that's key. Like I said, whether working with athletes or working with an everyday individual, it's the same thing, and people need to understand that. I think we're used to seeing, obviously, The Biggest Loser and growing up to that. And then obviously seeing Rocky montages and things like that, and we think we're just going to get into it, and just replicate what they've done. It's not like that at all. When reality hits, when you try to go for that first little jog when you haven't ran for ages and you are coughing out your lungs, it's hard. It's disheartening but it's where you got to-
Louie: Very hard.
George: So you've got to set those realistic goals and tell yourself, "Okay, you know what? I ran that 100 meters and I did puff my lungs out. But hey, that's 100 more meters than I've done yesterday." So it's all about being better today than you were yesterday. So always reminding yourself of that. And then from there, setting more better goals for next time. Say, "Okay, so I'm going to run 150 meters tomorrow." So rather than say, "I'm going to run 400 meters," say, "150," which is 150 more meters than yesterday. So you're still getting better each day.
Louie: Now, that's great. I mean that's a lot of information that we got there in regards to losing weight, good exercises, what to do, what to eat, how to track it or as well, which is I think the most important thing on top of that motivation. Now, what if I was good over winter? I haven't put the weight on but now I want to start toning up, I want to put a little bit of muscle on. Just give us a bit of a rundown, George, on what exercise would you'd be looking at or also some kind of foods for those particular people.
George: Yeah, of course. When it comes to toning, obviously, and putting muscle on, toning is just a term used to basically just drop body fat. So if you're looking at, obviously, you want to supposedly tone, it's all about just dropping body fat. So in that case you'll have to drop your calories or getting some extra work done in the gym, and you can basically do that. That shouldn't be a problem at all. In terms of muscle gain, that's obviously a little bit different and that's a little bit harder and more challenging, because you've got to basically... The best way to do so is to set yourself a good strength program. And again, I'm a big advocate of this. Rather doing it on your own, go out there and see if you can basically see a professional, a coach that can speed track your results. Rather than spending two, three years in the gym trying to guess everything, it could be just a consultation, or a few sessions, or a program set by a coach that can help you go a long way. So I think a lot of people are always trying to go for the self-help approach, and just trying to guess it themselves. But I'm a big believer in everything that I do, whether it's business, or training, or whatnot, it's just getting professionals to help me in regards to that. You're not going to do the plumbing yourself, you're going to get a plumber to do the plumbing. So it's really important to set that and say, "Okay, I'm going to go see a coach. I'm going to tell him about my goals," or, "Tell her about my goals, and try to approach that." And the best way to do so is when it comes to it is, obviously, trying to do a strength program, which embodies a good compound lift. So you are basically lifting, obviously, doing squats, your dead lifts, which are big, big compound movements, benching, overhead press, rows, pull ups. All those things, incorporating them into your program. And then, doing your accessories which come with the accessories and supplementary exercise. The exercises that are going to help your main lifts, which are those lifts I've just mentioned before. And setting a program which basically allows you to keep the volume at a good level throughout the week, so you're not burnt out as well. The worst thing that can happen to you is getting injured.
Louie: So I've been doing this wrong my whole life, okay? Because I mean when we used to just jump in the gym when we were younger, we'd go straight up to that weight session, get the heaviest freeway you can, and just start showing off.
George: Yeah, that's pretty much it. That's what a lot of people do. And then, what generally happens after that two, three weeks in, four weeks, I get it all the time, in the gym I'm always advising people just to basically perform all the movements with... It's also very important to also perform the movements optimally, and making sure that you are deadlift really, really well, or squatting really well. A lot of people have that misconception that squatting, or deadlifting, or doing a heavy overhead press, or doing those lifts, they're going to get injured. Of course, you're going to get injured with bad form. You've got to make sure that you're doing it properly. And that's why it's very important to seek professional help as well. It could be just three months worth of work with a coach, that you can then go out on your own and do your own thing. I'm a coach and I have a coach. So the reason for that is so that I can make sure that I'm performing to the best of my ability, and that I'm walking the walk as well.
Louie: So you mentioned that you've got the comp for the power lifting. Now, we're talking about losing weight, we're talking about putting on muscle, I should say. Is it a different mentality, different mindset that we are approaching when we are training for a comp? Now, it may not be heavy weights or a dead lift comp, maybe even running a City2Surf. Is there a different way that you're approaching it when maybe it's three months out?
George: Yeah, with the mindset, whether it's obviously trying to hit your obviously dream body, or trying to compete, mindset is very, very similar. But with obviously having the goal of trying to compete whether it's for the City2Surf or competing at a novice comp, or competing... You might be wanting to play, I don't know, for your local football team or local soccer team, the mindset when it comes to training is very similar to that of one trying to basically to hit any sort of sporting goal at any level. When it comes to it, the focus to for you is basically to sleep, eat and train for that competition. Why I said that is because obviously sleep is optimal. It's very, very important. I've listed it in that order, sleep, eat and train.
When it comes to basically competing, you've got to make sure that your mindset is set to basically be able to recover as much as possible, so you can actually perform the best the next day. So it's not about that training day, it's more about the next training day. Making sure that your food is all prepared, so that takes a lot of preparation. So you can imagine what you have to basically envision and what you have to actually plan, where your mind needs to be able to prep all your food and make sure that your food's all good. You can't just be like, "Okay, I'm just going to wing it." You got to have your food there, your water there ready to go. Because those little factors are going to ultimately influence how well you go in your comp.
And then, obviously training and training. Training is just the work that you need to get done whether you're having a bad day, you're having an off day. If you're in the gym and you're training and you've had a fight with your wife or you've had a bad time at work, you can just take it a little bit easy or whatnot. But when it comes to obviously trying to compete, whether you're having a bad day in general, you need to basically have that mindset, "I've got to get the work done."
So I've been there before and I've had times where they were really, really tough, but when it comes to training, I've had to ignore everything. And say, "Okay. I feel like shit. I don't feel too good at the moment. What I'm going to do is basically I'm just going to get under the bar, I'm getting that weight. I'm going to get that weight no matter what. It's going to happen, and I'm going to make sure I do it." And then, what happens then you're basically able to build that habit over time, and no matter what distraction is going on in your life and that's how athletes obviously compete with a high level. They're stressed like no tomorrow, but they've got the pressure of the spectators, they've got the pressure of the coach, they've got the pressure of the media. And they've got problems at home too. They're everyday human beings. And their mindset is that, "I've got to get the work done. We've got to get it done. Have to no matter what." So yeah, that's the sort of approach you need to have when you're trying to compete.
Louie : That's crazy. I didn't even actually think of that.
Jess: And you mentioned about stress. Stress is a part of everyday life. How do you use your stress in a good way, or what are some things that you need to be mindful of? Because I can imagine if you're having an incredibly stressful day and you go and stress your body out with exercise, that may be counterintuitive. How do you manage stress in the gym?
George: So I have a client of mine, he's competing at the power lifting event. He's only young. He's only 21 years old. He's basically going to be breaking the junior world record. And we had him come up from 200 kilos to basically being able to squat over 430 kilos at the moment. And he's going to squat 450. At one time when he was basically going through lots of stresses at home, I, as a coach, had to pull him back and say, "Okay. We're not hitting that number for today. We're going to pull it back a little bit." And the reason being is that you need to count for that stressful occasion or that stressful moment that's happening, is going to ultimately impact the way that he's going to be able to perform. And it's about also taking into account that his next session or his next 10 weeks might not be as good because of that one session.
He could possibly pull an injury or whatnot. So it's okay to have an off day and say, "Okay. I'm stressed at the moment. I need to pull it back a little bit. I'm still going to get the work done." But it's those that are able to say, "Okay. Nah, it's all right. I'm having a bad day. Bad days happen all the time. It's fine. I'll come back tomorrow. I'm going to smash it out." So you need to be able to do that, especially... That's why I tell the general pop, a lot of general pop clients come into the gym and they'll tell me they didn't really have a good work. And ask them why, and they'll get into details. A lot of people open up and they say pretty much that they've had a stressful day at work or something bad is happening at home. And the first thing I remind them of is that they've showed up at the gym, that's better than staying at home.
Jess: Yeah, it sounds like effort is really where you should celebrate yourself rather than just looking specifically at the results. And also, tuning into yourself. Like you were saying before, I think with the calories, sometimes you can follow these regimented plans, but if you don't feel good, it's not ultimately helping you, so you really need to be in touch with how you're feeling.
George: I agree. And it's very hard trying to adjust. I have to remind people all the time, you've spent 35 years or 40 years or 20 years living an unhealthy lifestyle, and then you've decided that you want to switch it up, and then change your whole entire life and you're expecting to do it in six weeks. You can't. You've got to be realistic about it. And that's why I advise everyone, I hope everyone can take this and be able to go seek a professional when it comes to this sort of things, because a professional can help you so much. If you heard from your dietician or you heard from your coach telling you that it's okay that you haven't hit your goal weight at the moment, but you can see this small incremental changes that you've made in your life. You're more likely to keep going with your training, keep going with eating healthy or trying to be healthier, and that's really, really important.
Louie: Now, George, is there anything new, I guess, that's been coming out? I mean we know that there's all the typical exercises, the foods and supps. I want to more touch on the supplements though, and your brand. I guess what's the reason you got into the supps? And why are supps also as important with food when you're talking about exercise?
George: So reason I got into supplements, basically, we find that in the supplement market there's a lot of obviously overpriced supplements, and I wanted to make it as affordable as possible for my clients, so that's the reason why I got into it. There's obviously a lot of different ranges of supplements these days. So you've got a lot of people getting into doing supplements, and so what we've done is basically picked the best of the best supplements and put it on that website. And we're literally launching it, so that people can buy and get all the information they need to basically be able to make the right decision for everything.
When it comes to supplements, look, I have a supplement company but I'm not going to sit there and say that supplement is key, it's 100% that you need to have it and whatnot. I could say that and sell lots of it. But first off, what I tell every single person when they come to buy supplements from me, "How's your food going? Are you getting enough protein in? Are you eating well?" A lot of the time supplements are there for basically to supplement your diet, in the sense that if you're not getting enough protein, so you are trying to hit obviously your protein goals and you're not getting enough protein, you can get that protein powder, get a good protein powder and whey protein powder, and be able to then get enough protein for your day. Or if you're not getting enough calories for those that are trying to obviously gain a lot of weight, they can still get some mass gainers and things like that.
But if their diet and if their sleep isn't good, and then supplements are not just there to just magically make everything work. So people need to understand that. So you need to be able to make sure that your diet and your sleep's really well, and you're getting your training sessions at the gym. And your supplements are there, key, just to be able to supplement that and to make sure that it can help you reach your goals. There's obviously your proteins which are really, really important. That you need to obviously take for certain goals, especially if you're trying to obviously build up muscle mass. A lot of people find it hard to hit their carb intake, so there's also carb supplements that they can take. There's a range of supplements, and there's information on that readily available for people to actually have a look at.
Jess: So you're talking about the foundation, which sleep keeps coming up a bit. What are some tips that can help people with sleep? Because I know that we're all a bit wired at the end of the day, especially exposed to Netflix, and our emails, and our phones, and what have you. So what are some tips to help us unwind and get better quality sleep?
George: Well, the best thing to do is obviously put your phone away a couple of hours, or try to put your phone away a couple hours or an hour before you sleep. That helps a lot. Look, sleep is really important. We have a lot of people that suffer a lot of anxiety and depression that have come across, and the key to it is getting enough sleep. A lot of people tend to get four to five hours, or even six hours of sleep. And I'm talking about broken sleep too, because they're so wired up and they're thinking about everything that they have to do. Little things that you can do as well as journaling all your thoughts down before you go to sleep, so just writing all your stuff down. And just reminding yourself that you have to try to switch up as best as you can. Whether it's trying to meditate, or talking to your loved one, or spending a bit of time away from TVs, and Netflix, and being on your phone, or being on TikTok or Instagram. I think that's one of the big things to try to help you to unwind.
And obviously, also trying your best not to eat.. Look, I'm not talking here about calories. I'm talking more about from a health perspective in regards to if you eat just before you're about to go sleep, you're most likely going to have broken sleep throughout the night, and you're not going to get a good sleep. So it's really important to give yourself that two-hour time to basically be able to just digest the food just before you go to sleep. Just doing those little things will help a lot. Making sure you're not drinking lots of water before you go to sleep too. Drink tea that's obviously not caffeinated. The permanent tea just before you go to sleep will help you a lot. Doing things but also taking into account the amount of caffeine that you have throughout the day and at what times you have it.
So obviously, try not to have a coffee at 5:00 PM. Just knowing that you need to sleep in four or five hours. Just taking into account all those little things will help a lot in terms of basically getting a good sleep. It just depends on what's triggering you not to be able to sleep. So all those different methods can help you out a lot.
Jess: Thank you so much, George. You've given us so many great tips and really tangible things that we can go away and do. I've learned a lot. And I guess, overall, you can really see that there's so much more at play to just going to the gym. It's all mindset. It's about the foundation of your nutrition, your sleep, your habits, even just walking, getting movement throughout the day. But if listeners want to learn a little bit more about you, a bit more about your gym and your programs, and even your supplements, where can they find you?
George: So you could jump on social media, it's just breakthroughfitness_, and be able to jump on that to basically get all the information on what we do at the gym. We also put a lot of tips out there for people in regards to training, so you can obviously jump on there. On our website as well. We have www.btfitness.com.au. We have a lot of blogs on there in regards to training as well. So there's a lot of helpful tips in regards to starting off, and what you can do to get into the gym or whether what to do at home. And obviously, we've got the supplements company. The website's getting made at the moment, but you can jump on Instagram, just Breakthrough Supplements, and get all the information in regards to ordering and what supplements you could take, and what we have.
Jess: Great. Thank you so much, George. We will link all of that in the show notes. And if any of the listers have any more questions for us or George, feel free to send it through at info@optimalehealth.com.au. And if you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please share it, like, and review it on all the major podcasting apps. Thanks so much, George.
Louie: Thanks, George.
George: Thank you for having me. Thanks so much, guys.
