This is a longer email today, and something a little different...so stick with me.
First things first, I'm super passionate about health and wellbeing.
Hopefully I've made that pretty obvious through what I portray in these newsletters, on my socials, and other forms of media.
It's a pretty solid foundation upon which to build (I believe), and hopefully I've been able to inspire you to do the same.
But I thought this email would be a little different, and let you get to know a bit more about who I am, my background and what drives me to be the way that I am...
Sport and fitness has always been an integral part of my life.
That's an understatement.
From a very young age, I realised pretty quickly that I was good at football (that's soccer for my American friends) and became obsessed with it.
My school days saw plenty of other sports come into the mix: tennis, rugby, cricket, swimming...basically if it involved activity and competition, I was right there.
My footballing passion ultimately took me on a journey that led me to the United States, Norway and Austria in a bid to find a professional contract in my 20's.
It was something that, despite the incredible experiences, was ultimately an unfulfilled dream.
I became a bit disillusioned with life and unsure of where to go in my mid-20's (I'm 35 now), and in 2017 while trying to figure out life I came across the documentary What The Health which was the catalyst for my passion for plant-based nutrition.
I also met an incredible woman who I would go on to get married to in 2021.
And then so began my deep-dive into all things nutrition.
Books, podcasts, scientific papers, you name it...I really went in to understand the power of a plant-based diet, and how I could maximise it for training, performance and health.
It's funny as before this, my nutrition knowledge amounted to 'meat for protein' and 'dairy for calcium' - basically non-existent.
I then started writing my own blog posts, and then also wrote for a digital lifestyle magazine in 2018 called i the Stylist, which helped to grow my passion for communicating health-related information.
It was becoming a core part of my life, and I was really enjoying it.
I also then started sharing plant-based recipes and information on social media (ironic as I really did dislike social media!) simply because I wanted people to know about all of the scientific benefits of a plant-based diet, as well as the positive changes I was noticing.
Better sleep, more energy, feeling lighter, more mental clarity...it was quite something.
I continued doing this for a few years and building out the community on social, as well as appearing on different podcasts and writing my newsletter.
(The newsletter is one of my favourite mediums, as a) I love to write and b) it allows me to connect with you on a deeper level and provide more info to benefit your life).
Fast forward to 2021, which was a year where best thing happened to me – followed by the absolute worst.
I got married in May of that year, only for her to sadly pass away in November, leaving me as a widower at the age of 33 (which still seems really surreal at times).
It would take an entire book to write just how much of a positive impact Jacinta had on my life, and it's hard to put into words what that period of life was like.
I'm grateful to have had friends, family, the peace of God, plus continuing to lean into health habits to get through that time – and I'm also lucky to have been blessed with another chance to get married next month to a beautiful, thoughtful and compassionate woman. Wish me luck!
The ups and downs of life aside, I've always felt that leaning into health-promoting habits is always a good way of not only reducing our disease risk, but strengthening ourselves and building resilience in the face of tough moments.
David Goggins – yes the savage that runs 200 miles at a time or whatever it is – said something interesting that stuck with me some time ago.
He said that 'in order to deal with the unchosen suffering in life that comes, we have to put ourselves through chosen suffering'.
I saw that as leaning into hard training; being disciplined with things like your diet and sleep habits; reading your Bible, another book or studying something when your lower self wants to relax and do nothing.
You could also go a step further and explore things like cold showers for the mental benefit, but that's not 100% necessary...regardless, you get the point.
I feel maybe that some of the setbacks I've faced in life have been made ever-so-slightly more manageable by the foundation that I've built.
And as a result, it's probably added another layer to the passion that I have for health, because I know that it can benefit us on so many different levels.
So, that's the short version of my story (and thank you if you've made it this far).
I wanted to write that because it's one thing wanting to put health information out there (which I love), but I wanted you to know where it truly comes from.
What I enjoy about social media, the podcasts I've been on, my newsletter and any other related work that I've done is that it's borne simply out of passion.
Health is such a vital part of a good life experience, and no one can convince me otherwise – and that's why I do all of this.
It's to help you find your path to becoming the best and healthiest you that you can be.
And now hopefully you understand a little bit more about who I am, what drives this passion, and how I ended up here in the first place.
Stay healthy,
Jeff
If you resonated with this I'd love to hear some feedback. Send me a message on Instagram or Twitter, or reply to this email.
In the meantime, have a great weekend!