#16 Bore off Bartlett!

In this episode I talk about *that* claim that three glasses of wine 'ruined' Steven Bartlett's life and why Slimming World is a business plan, not a diet plan. 

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SPEAKER_00 0:04

Right, hi, welcome to episode 16, I think it is, of the MSK Runner podcast. Um, so yeah, thank you for listening to all your previous episodes. Uh really appreciate the support and really appreciate the feedback. Um, we're gonna dive straight in. Um, in fact, before we do that, um I forgot to say actually on the last podcast, I got an email last weekend from Lisbon Half Marathon, which is one of the super halves, um, to say uh that my ballot application was unsuccessful. Um being honest with you, having gone to Lisbon the previous weekend and seeing how hilly it is, I'm not overly disappointed with it. Um, in stark contrast, like I'm doing Valencia in October and it's like flat as a pancake. But yeah, um, yeah, running up steep hills in Lisbon when it's gonna be really warm, it's not the most appealing thing ever. But um, nevertheless, I'm gonna keep applying for it every year until I get in, basically. But uh yeah, you win some, you lose some. Um good news is so kind of like with uploads and with podcasts. I discovered something earlier in the week called Buzz Sprout. Um, to cut a long story short, I don't really know what I'm doing still in terms of like recording and uploading podcasts. So previously I'd just been like manually uploading them to Spotify and YouTube, and it's a bit time consuming. But BuzzSprout basically allows me to upload them to everywhere all in one go. So um you can now listen on Apple podcasts and a few other set other streaming services that I've not even heard of, to be honest with you, like Amazon as well. Um, but yeah, that's um you know, it get puts it out to like a bigger audience. And I've looked on like my analytics actually, and I've even like had somebody in Ohio in America and uh, you know, listen, which is like quite cool. So yeah, wherever you are in the world, um, yeah, let me know. Um because um yeah, it's quite surreal, really, knowing that like there's people on the other side of the world listening to this, like who knows why, but um, yeah, quite cool. Um right, I'll go straight into it. I'm gonna talk about nutrition and slimming worlds in a bit, but um I'm gonna talk about something else first. Um there's um, you know, if you've been looking at uh social media over the last week, um you'll know that there's a guy called Stephen Bartlett who he's an entrepreneur, he's one of the dragons on Dragon's Den, and he's got a podcast and he's got a big uh following and presence on social media. Um, in fact, a couple of weeks ago, like one of my colleagues was talking about him in like a positive way, and I said, like, to be honest, I think he's a bit of a knob because he talks like a shite. Um, and then literally, like a couple of days later, like one of his clips was like doing the rounds and it went a bit viral, and he's got quite a lot of stick for it. Um, where basically he said that like one evening he drank three glasses of wine and it ruined his life, you know, not to be dramatic or anything. Um I'm gonna play like devil's advocate. Um, so I think you know, having three glasses of wine on an evening or like, you know, going out and getting drunk, for example, it can definitely affect you like the following day and possibly the day after. Um, so for example, if I if I go out for a few drinks with the lads on a Saturday night, um, you know, even like um before I get a taxi home, what do you tend to do when you're drunk? You know, you tend to get hungry, so you'll go to the takeaway and get yourself a kebab or a pizza or whatever, like before you get your taxi home. And then, you know, the following day you're hung over and naturally you're kind of like um less productive. Um, you know, you're craving like kind of unhealthy, sugary foods, and sometimes you might just kind of like um sit down on the sofa all day and not really do a right lot because you're not feeling very good, and then you know, you're also like dehydrated and what have you, and then you kind of feel a bit tired as well and a bit lethargic for the next day or two. You know, that is normal to happen when you've um you know, when you've had quite a bit to drink, you know, the night before. But you know, one thing I will say is that um I think there's more benefits actually to having a few beers with your mates, for example, because I think it's like, you know, just like having a catch-up with your mates is like obviously really good. Um, you know, just a good way to like let your hair down and just enjoy yourself um and kind of like you know push all your everyday problems to one side in essence. I think um yeah, I think like um you don't need to be like serious and thinking about work like 24-7, like when you're not at work, I think it's very important that you do wind down and let your hair down a bit. Um it is important to enjoy yourself. Um, you know, for me, like um if people want to like give up drinking alcohol for good, that's you know, that's like a personal decision, and it's absolutely cool if people want to do that, um, if it if they want to have a positive impact on their lives. Um, you know, me, for example, like you know, years and years ago I did I did used to go out drinking all the time, used to go on nights out and what have you. Nowadays, not very often. Um I very rarely drink in the house anymore. For me, like drinking is just like um it's purely a social activity. Um, you know, like for example, I went on a stagdo a couple of weeks ago. Um I've got a couple of weddings in the summer as well. You know, I I can't imagine I'll be getting drunk uh between now and those two weddings, but I think kind of like my point is is that you know, it there's nothing wrong with like having a few beers or having a few glasses of wine on an evening. Um I think um, yeah, for Stephen Bartlett to say that it ruined his life is like overdramatic and exaggerating to say the least. I think he's you know, as much as I'm not a big fan of him, he's obviously like a very smart guy and a very clever guy, and I think he's kind of used that as kind of like clickbait, um, you know, to get more people watching his videos and what have you. And obviously, like it's done the rounds, but like, you know, lots of people have like slated him for it. Um, I just think it's um, you know, a good timely reminder that like you are allowed to indulge in stuff that's not necessarily healthy, you know, with you know, in terms of like drinking alcohol, like for me, like it's very few and far between, and it's not like I'm going out and getting pissed like every other day, it's literally like maybe once in a blue moon. Um I just think um it is important to enjoy yourselves, like enjoy living your life, and you don't have to think about work all the time. It is it is okay to like not think about work and just like have a social life as well and do what you enjoy doing. And you know, I think it's important that you know to remind ourselves that we're not robots, you know, we're humans, and yeah, it is okay um, you know, to have a few glasses of wine on or whatever every now and again, you know. Yes, it might make you feel crap the following day and make you less productive um in the short term, but you know, looking at the bigger picture, like if if one of my mates like rings me now and says, Oh hi Harry, if you of us are off to the pub tonight, fancy join us. Or if you I'm not gonna turn around and say, Oh no, I'm not gonna bother because it's gonna ruin my life. Just such a ridiculous statement to say. Um, so yeah, that's kind of that really. I think, you know, when I said that, I told my work colleague a couple of weeks ago that I think Stephen Bartlett's a bit of a knob and he's not really to my liking. Um, I do think he talks a load of crap, and that's just like one example. But you know, he has like a podcast where like he'll have um he'll have like guests on his podcast and they'll make kind of like um they'll make very like bald claims about important things like mental health and nutrition and kind of like various diseases, but they're not actually backed by science, and he just sits there and like nods and smiles and doesn't challenge it. And it goes back to when I was on about Joe Wicks a few weeks ago, like just because somebody has millions of followers and a blue tick next to the name on social media, it doesn't necessarily mean that everything that comes out of their mouth is credible, it's kind of like unearned legitimacy, if you like. I just think like, yeah, it's very easy for people to um kind of like listen and agree and go with it just because, like I say, of like the amount of followers and the blue tick that those people have. But my point is it's not necessarily true. Um, you know, and he was on about kind of like how um I can't remember what the manufacturer of the watch is actually, but basically it's it's like a obviously like it's a sponsorship plug. He's like mentioned like the name of the type of watch he has, and he said that like you know, it ruined his sleep score and what have you. But if it's only for one day, does it really matter? No, it doesn't. Like, like I say, I'm not gonna you know, when I go to a mate's wedding in the summer, for example, I'm not gonna turn around and say, Oh, I'm not gonna enjoy myself, I'm not gonna have a few beers tonight because I don't want it to affect my sleep score on the watch. It's just like just like wise up, basically. I think, you know, like I have a watch myself, so you know, I'm wearing it now. Um, just like a bog standard garmin, really. I mean, with watches, you know, they do measure like your heart rate, um, your sleep score, resting heart rate, um, how many calories you've burned, um, even like your stress levels and your blood pressure as well, even in some cases. Um, personally, like I have all of those things switched off. I only use my watch uh as a step counter because I like to know how many steps I've done in a day. And also to like um record my activities. So if I go for a run or a hike or a gym session, for example, I like it to like track what I'm doing so that I can like measure my progress. But like I have like my heart rate and stress levels, sleep score and everything all switched off because when I first got the watch, I found I was like constantly, like every other minute, like obsessing over it and just kept looking at my watch like that. And I just yeah, it just became like too much for me. Um kind of like sucked into it, and I felt like it just kind of made me like very health conscious, if you like. I don't really like want to think about it, I just want to like live my life and live in the moment. So yeah, like I say, I've turned all those things off. I'm not saying that's what everybody should do, that's just like what works for me personally. So yeah, that's why I wear mine just as a step counter and to trap my activities. Um, and I just think like, you know, when I become like overly obsessed with my stats when I'm, you know, and constantly looking at my watch, it just like causes me to feel a bit anxious, to be honest with you, and that's the last thing I want to feel. So yeah, I just think it's important to just like enjoy your life and live your life is the bottom line, and you know, you you know, you don't have to think about work 24-7 um is my point. Um moving on, um, gonna talk about Slimming World. It's been around for a while, and the reason why Slimming World has been around for a while is because it's an incredibly good business plan, um, very good for retention and keeping people coming back through the door. Um, but for me, it's not a diet plan, it's not a nutrition plan. Now I'm gonna kind of like play devil's advocate a little bit. You know, people obviously do lose weight with Slimming World, and there have been success stories. So I'm not gonna, you know, I'll give credit where credit's due, but I just think it's not educational and you know, it just teaches you like a load of bollocks in essence. You know, it doesn't like for me, like people join Slimming World because they want to lose weight or they want to lose body fat. And again, I'm gonna like simplify it. If you want to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit, so you need to burn more calories than the amount of calories you consume. Move more, eat less. Simple as that. Don't starve yourself. And you can still enjoy stuff but do it in moderation. I think it is that simple, but you know, with Slimming World, there's no mention of calories or calorie deficit. They call um everything sins, um, which I think is quite a bad word, really, because you know, if you eat something and it's worth like X number of sins, I think that that subconsciously makes you feel guilty about it, and you then sort of punish yourself. And I don't think that's the right way to kind of live your life and go about your your day-to-day business. I think um what's also really bad is that one month, you know, a jacket potato might be worth, I don't know, I'm making this up, let's say three cents, and another month it might be worth five cents. It's like, well, it's the same jacket potato, why is why is that changing? You know, I just don't get it. Like it's still going to contain the same number of calories, so just fine. Like it can be a bit misleading. Um, but there's also like foods that Slimming World class as free foods, so in other words, they have zero sins, and they class things like fish, rice, eggs, and pasta as free foods, so that kind of like wrongly implies that you can eat as much of those foods as you can, which is obviously not true, you know, if you use your common sense, because if I eat um, you know, let's say I eat 10 jacket potatoes, that doesn't mean I'm not gonna like put any weight on them, obviously like increasing the calorie intake. Um, but that's what I mean. It's just like um it's kind of like a yo-yo, like people might lose weight initially, but then they'll put the weight back on because they don't actually know why they lost the weight in the first place, and then that's what keeps people coming back through the door. When you hear somebody say, Oh yeah, I've been going to Slimming World for years, like in my opinion, like that's not a positive thing. You know, Slimming World should only ever be a temporary measure. If you keep coming back like years later, then it's obviously not working, and you need to do something different. But another thing that kind of like annoys me a little bit, um, a lot of you will have probably heard of this. So, like a banana, for example, is classed as um a free food or like zero sins. However, if a banana has been mashed or crushed, then that means it has sins. So they're trying to say it's healthier to eat a whole banana than it is to eat the same banana that's been mashed or crushed. And again, for me, like that's a load of crap because if I put a banana in my mouth and I start chewing it, I'm mashing that banana with my teeth before I swallow it. So somebody please, unless I'm being like really stupid, like please explain to me how eating a banana is different to eating a banana that's already been crushed. Like, it's just like absolute nonsense. And that's what I mean about Slimming World, like not being educational. It doesn't actually teach you anything about nutrition, in my opinion. Like I say, people obviously have lost weight and there have been success stories, but I think as a whole, it's not going to like teach you new habits to improve your nutrition, improve your lifestyle, and then once you lose the weight, keep it off. It's designed to kind of like me make you sort of relapse and keep coming back to Slimming Worlds and keep paying you subscription, which, like I say, brilliant business plan, but not a good diet plan. Um that's kind of like my rant over about Slimming World. Uh, Ryan actually asked me what do I um like about Slimming Worlds? And that would be like asking me, What do I like about Spurs? I'm really having to scrape the barrel, and uh yeah, not really gonna come up with any positives um for that one. Um, but yeah, we've um I have actually already mentioned this on like a previous podcast that I did like weeks and months ago about kind of like losing weights. Like I said earlier, calorie deficit. How do you know if you're in a calorie deficit? Literally just go on Google and type in T DEEE calculator, which is total daily energy expenditure. So it works out like uh your BMI, your basal metabolic rate, which is how many calories you burn when you're resting all day, and then there's like a scale where you multiply that number based on how active you are each day, and that comes up with your TDEEE. And then if you eat less calories than your TDEEE, then you're in a calorie deficit, and then over time your body fat and your weight will go down. Um now another question Big Ryan asked me is what are the most common mistakes that people uh make with nutrition, aside from Slimming World, I think one is that people overcomplicate things um instead of just keeping it simple. Um, two, cutting out entire food groups, I think is another problem. So, like, for example, if people want to lose loads of weight, um some people um think that they have to completely cut out uh carbohydrates. Now, don't get me wrong, like reducing uh your carbohydrate intake can help with that, but to completely cut them out is like an unrealistic goal because like you need carbohydrates um obviously for like energy, like um slow releasing energy. And you know, when you've like done exercise, it is important to get carbohydrates in afterwards so you replenish your muscles with glycogens that they recover better. But um, if you don't have any carbohydrates at all, then your body will end up using reserves uh such as like fat reserves and even skeletal muscle um as sources of energy, which you don't want to do. Uh, you don't want to like use skeletal muscle as energy because then if you lose muscle, then that can like cause injuries and cause you to become like more frail like later in life. So you don't want to do that. Um, but yeah, you obviously like don't get me wrong, you can reduce carbohydrates, that's quite a good thing to do, but to completely cut them out, you'll also be feeling like tired and miserable and you know just like starving yourself. And yeah, that's not good, and it's just not sustainable. Um, the third one I think is like prioritizing supplements over foods. So again, like I go back to a few weeks ago, especially like um without being like stereotypical, like guys who like want to like build muscle, and there's a lot of emphasis on getting their way protein shakes and creatine and all sorts of different supplements. Um, but I think like the bottom line is that like um your diet and your food and your nutrition is more important than your supplement, is just there to support that. So you still need to get um your macronutrients and your micronutrients in like through your food, um, you know, first and foremost, like, and then your supplements should be kind of like a secondary support act, if you like. Um, it should be like food over supplements rather than the other way around. Um, and I think the fourth mistake that people tend to make is kind of like falling for how things are marketed and packaging. Um, so the way like foods are marketed, whether it's on adverts or whether it's like packaging that you see in supermarkets, it might imply that the food is actually the food is really healthy when in reality it might actually not be as healthy um as you think it might be. Uh so I do think it's important to kind of like um if you're unsure, just like look at the nutrition values on the back, or you can use like food apps to like scan the barcodes and it'll tell you uh precisely like kind of like what percentage of your daily fat intake or salt intake if you like um it contains. But um, yeah, 10 generally speaking, like um looking at like certain foods um and the way it's being marketed, yeah, it's um it's easy to assume that certain foods are healthy, but if you do a little bit of research and dive a bit deeper, quite often actually it's not as healthy as you think it might be. So I think like um to answer Ryan's question, they're kind of probably the four most common mistakes that uh people make. Um so that's kind of um it for me today, really. Um please like and subscribe if you haven't already done so. And like I say, if there's anything you want me to talk about in next week's episode and beyond, then just like drop me an email or send me a message, comment below, and I will do my best to accommodate that. But until then, thanks for listening and see you later. Goodbye.