This episode dives into the controversial topic of GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and their role in fitness and health. Host Liam O'Toole shares his perspective on these treatments, emphasizing that while they can serve as a valuable tool for those struggling with obesity and type 2 diabetes, they should not be seen as a magic solution. He discusses the importance of maintaining a consistent fitness routine and a balanced diet, highlighting that true long-term success derives from healthy habits and not solely from medication. Liam also reflects on his personal journey in fitness, illustrating how small steps can lead to significant changes over time. As he encourages listeners to embrace their fitness journeys, he reinforces the idea that these medications can be allies rather than competitors in the quest for a healthier lifestyle.

Takeaways:

• Consistency is key in achieving fitness goals, as it is the cornerstone of success.
• GLP-1 medications like Ozempic can be effective tools for those struggling with obesity.
• It's important to pair GLP-1 medications with resistance training for overall health benefits.
• Nutritional quality matters; focus on whole foods and proper hydration for better results.
• The habit challenge emphasizes gradual improvements in nutrition and physical activity for participants.
• Fitness journeys often evolve over time, leading to unexpected changes and personal growth.

Hey, everybody.

Welcome back to the Wakelow strength and fitness podcast.

I'd first of all, just like to open up this episode by saying a thank you to everybody who let me know that the audio wasn't quite 100% with last week's episode.

Just to let you guys know, I upgraded my microphone, and when I was recording in the gym previously, when I was doing it on my phone, obviously my iPhone didn't pick up a lot of the background gym noise.

But I think in recording last week's episode, it was, you know, like a Friday afternoon, I think, and, you know, the gym was in full swing in the background, and the new microphone was so sensitive that it seemed to just pick up everything in the background.

I went back and had a listen myself, and I could see how that would have been quite irritating.

So thank you for everybody highlighting that.

And I'm recording this one at home, so I'm hoping the acoustics are just that little bit better.

We had a great week in the gym last week.

It was absolutely hopping.

The atmosphere was great.

Coached a couple of classes myself, which I really enjoyed.

And, you know, personally, I just really enjoyed getting my routine back, you know, training.

I trained six days last week.

I followed all of our habit challenge guidelines that we've been putting out for people, and so far, I had a golden week.

So I'm hoping that ramps on into the rest of the month now and I can, you know, come out of January feeling refreshed and good.

I'm really enjoying training at the moment, too.

I think this cycle is.

Is working well for people.

So what are we going to talk about in the podcast today?

Well, we will touch on habits and stuff, but this one is.

It's an interesting one.

I think it's quite topical.

It.

It was born actually out of a.

A family event that I had before my brother went back to Canada, where I was talking about habits and fitness and nutrition.

And I normally try to avoid these topics with my family because I don't want to seem like I'm, you know, standing on a pedestal and talking down or talking about this kind of stuff.

I normally.

When a conversation around fitness comes up, I'll normally only dip my toe in.

I won't try and commandeer the whole conversation, but something came up about, you know, Ozempic, which is a.

You know, it's a huge topic in the fitness industry and in the world at the moment.

And obviously not just Ozempic.

Other glp minus one kind of medications and stuff that you can get.

So I thought I'd talk a little bit about that because I guess, you know, with WSF and you know, if you're listening to this, you know, about us, you're probably a member of past member or someone who is closely adjacent to it.

So.

So, you know, you guys know our main mission has always, well, one of those main missions has always been to, you know, change people's perceptions around what gyms can offer.

You know, we always say we want to enrich people's lives through fitness and community and, and show that.

But also, you know, a lot more happens in the gym than simply, you know, getting a six pack or, you know, these really dramatic weight loss events.

You know, these things do happen for sure, but you, you know, the goals you have, you know, they're no less important.

You know, a goal could just be the show up three times a week.

And you know, the magic of gyms happens through consistency.

And you know, consistency is king.

It's undefeated when it comes to achieving any goal.

And I think what's kind of concerning in the industry is that the marketing and you know, some of the opportunistic businesses that have popped up around GLP minus 1s, it is kind of concerning.

Thankfully it seems to be more isolated to the states, but I'm not too sure, you know, it's eventually going to come here.

You know, I've seen already a lot of social media posts kind of touting these easy fixes to people who don't require them.

And I think that's what we want to try and avoid because it makes the basic understanding of these medications effects uneasy.

And you know, I have to be quite honest, like I've seen a lot of people in my industry, in the fitness industry coming out against the GLP minus ones, the medications like oic.

And to be honest, on I'm completely on the opposite end.

You know, I think they're a much needed option for, you know, so many people.

You know, we've never really had something so potent as them in combating obesity and diabetes, know, type 2 diabetes, they are, they've revolutionized it, to be quite honest.

You know, but I think I view them personally as an ally because if they can help people lose a certain amount of weight that they now have the confidence to step foot into a gym that they might not have had six months ago, say because they felt like they were, you know, too overweight to do it, well, then that's a winner for me.

You know, the more people who can now view activity as attainable to them.

Well, that's just amazing for anyone in the fitness industry.

So these, you know, OIC is not my competitor, it's my ally in terms of getting the people of Ireland, the people of Wicklow fitter and healthier.

Because I always say there's a compounding effect to fitness.

You know, I didn't join a gym, planning to own one.

I, I joined the gym to lose weight so that I could try and find a girlfriend.

At the time, it was a couple of months before my 21st and I wanted to look good at my 21st, so I joined the gym.

Fast forward, you know, 11 odd, 11 years and a bit from that now and I own that gym and I work with gym owners and I work with clients and I love fitness and I train every day.

But I didn't start off by training every day.

I trained maybe two or three times at the start and that was plenty.

And I had no interest in training more.

And it's gradually snowballed.

Right.

And you listening to this, you probably have a similar story.

You know, you might have joined WSF or another gym to lose a little bit of weight.

Maybe you were just looking to meet some people.

And if you look back now at the person you were when you joined or when you first got into fitness, you're probably completely different.

You know, it's probably snowballed to the extent that, you know, you only planned on doing two sessions, now you do five.

You only planned on joining for a month or two months or three months, but now you've been here three years.

Things like that happen all the time.

So for me, I view ozempic and GLP1s as a stepping stone because what does a person do when they lose weight?

Well, now they've lost fat, well, they probably want to build some muscle.

Right?

It's, it's okay to be skinny for sure.

But now I want to capitalize on this and start to make some changes around resistance training.

Now I want to be fitter, I want to start running, I want to start, you know, being well conditioned.

So like when it comes to, I guess to harness the full power of these GLP -1s, we need to accept that they're not for everybody.

They are for people, you know, battling type 2 diabetes and obesity.

And the long term success of these treatments actually depends on more than just the pill itself.

It is not a magic bean.

You know, you still need to focus on nutrition, you know, for long term success.

You know, once You've got the, the ability to reduce the appetite and increase satiety that goes with the GLP minus ones that help you eat less.

You know, because we're now focused on eating less.

Like we can focus on eating quality too, right?

Because we're not going to be snacking as much.

We can prioritize eating real foods.

You know, going around the outskirts of the supermarket, making sure we're eating all natural stuff, you know, single ingredients, right?

So we're not talking about processed, we're talking about single ingredient foods.

We're staying hydrated.

And then maybe these people can embrace physical activity, as, you know.

You know, I just mentioned a moment ago, like, exercise is the core, is a cornerstone of amplifying the benefits of any of these pills, of Ozempic, of any of the GLP minus 1s, because it's going to improve your cardiovascular health and preserve the muscle mass.

Because if you're not eating as much, well, you're inevitably going to lose a little bit of muscle.

So what we want to do is make sure we're building on and maintaining muscle mass to protect the metabolism as the weight decreases.

And we want to be engaging in, you know, aerobic activities to make sure that we're looking after our cardiovascular health.

And this is just a stepping stone to that.

You know, and then there's obviously there's things that if anybody is taking these pills and they are listening or they are on these treatments, you know, you do have to manage your gastrointestinal.

Gastrointestinal symptoms and the discomfort that can come along with it.

You know, opting for smaller meals, avoiding the kind of trigger food, the trigger foods like grease, greasy options and spicy meals, for example.

And I think the major point of this was, as I discussed with my family at that event that I was saying is, you know, for the people listening to this podcast, you're not the type.

You're not the target demographic really, I imagine over GLP minus one.

Maybe you are, maybe you're listening to this and you're looking for inspiration to start a fitness journey.

And that's incredible if you are, and I hope you feel supported in doing so.

The reality for me as a gym owner is that, and I suppose as someone of the fitness industry, is that I really, I really dislike the marketing that comes around fitness and the gimmicks that comes with it.

You know, when you see Weetabix with added protein that, you know, only contains 4 grams extra, but it also contains like 4 grams extra sugar or something like that, and probably costs an extra fiber.

You know, there's so many gimmicks and things around fitness now that I suppose the marketers have just capitalized upon.

And I think the marketing of GLP minus ones and things like that towards people who don't necessarily need it is a negative trend.

Although they are an amazing tool for the people who do truly need them.

And for anyone who is taking them, if you are, I would just say make sure to incorporate resistance training to help build, maintain muscle, prioritize eating high quality foods and proteins to make sure you're looking after your body.

And that's pretty much it.

I suppose it's just to make a comment on the fact that these things are here now.

They can be an incredibly potent tool for the correct people.

And as I had to say to my family, they are not my enemy, they are my friend, they are my ally in making people fitter and healthy.

But I hope you know that they are for those more extreme cases and that resistance training and correct diet is going to be the case for long term success whether you start on these pills or whether you're at a stage where you don't need them anymore.

And I suppose that kind of leads nicely into the habit challenge that we're running now.

You know, we've had our first week of it.

We prioritized getting some non gym based activity in through our steps.

We made sure we got some gym based sessions in with 45 minutes to 60 minutes of focused movement.

We focused on our sleep as well with seven to nine hours.

And then we had vegetables that started off looking for half a meal a day or sorry, one meal a day where half of your plate was vegetables.

And then we increase that towards the end of the week for two meals per day to be half vegetables.

This week we're adding in protein and we're going to look for a palm sized piece of protein per meal.

Okay, we're going to look for, if you're thinking of the plate, if it's half vegetables, a quarter of it is now protein at each meal.

So breakfast, lunch and dinner.

And that one is the one that I think is going to be a little bit trickier for our members to make sure they're getting, but hopefully we can gradually build on it throughout the rest of the month.

If you have the nutrition course, please go access the protein section and it'll give you some ideas on where to find different sources and give you a good understanding of the role that protein plays in the body beyond just muscles.

You know, it's responsible for building all tissues in the, in the body.

That comes down to hair, nails, so, you know, skin cells, everything comes back to protein.

So we're going to make sure that you're getting enough.

For the rest of our challenge elsewhere, we are building towards an assessment week.

Now we're on to week two of this program that started last week.

We're building towards doing some three rep maxes in a couple of weeks and then we're going to switch to a kind of power building focus as we lead towards the Open, which I'm going to talk about in our newsletter.

It's kind of crazy that that's coming up again because I feel like we only just wrapped up the winter series, but we're kind of coming in hot at the end of February to another version of it with the, the CrossFit Open coming around and you know, the version of it that we'll put together for our members.

But yeah, it's exciting.

I'm enjoying the training and I hope you are too.

I think that new cycle, we're gonna try some new stuff coming up to the Open that I'm, I'm almost itching to get to, if you know what I mean.

Like, we've got this, this phase that we're going through now for the next five weeks and then we're going to go on to something that is new.

I don't think I've ever kind of programmed like it before and I'm excited to try it out and see what results we can get for people through it.

And that's pretty much it for today, guys.

That was a shorter episode.

I hope you enjoyed it and I hope the audio quality now that I'm doing it at home is a little bit better.

Other than that, I'll see you guys in the gym.

And yeah, for those doing the habit challenge, stick with it.

We're going to get there.

Chat to you later, guys.