AMG Body Sculpt - Straight-Talking Health and Wellness Podcast AMG Body Sculpt

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This video was long overdue. It has been 5 months since I posted my last episode on this podcast and now is the time to start back again.



A well needed break from the gym and any kind of fitness routine was needed and to make a fresh start, I had to get rid of things that I felt were holding me back in my fitness journey, such as throwing out the trophies and medals from competitions that hold no more meaning for me.



I went through each of the trophies and medals in this episode before I finally threw them out (I had donated and had also given away some of them to people that I know).



* Note: between the timelines 8:56 -11:22 in this episode, my voice sounded slightly faint and faded. The reason for that was I had a tickly throat whilst recording that segment.



* I know that £50 is still expensive for a stage bikini for most of us regular folks, but compared to what most competitors actually spend, which could be a price range of £300 - £2000, (the cost of hiring a bikini can start from £200), £50 is cheap in comparison, which is what I was meant in this episode.









My book reviews podcast

Romania/Moldova Episode (Video)

Romania/Moldova Episode (Full Audio Version)


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UPDATE: Since recording this episode I had permanently deleted my YouTube account, which means that I don't have any online profiles at all. An internet/technology cleanse is necessary sometimes and it is something that I highly encourage.



This episode was recorded outdoors.

I had come across some website articles and video content about people who have no friends and they feel ashamed about it or they think something is wrong with them.

In this episode I give my perspective on this.


I had travelled extensively and lived in a lot of different places for many years. Whilst I found it really easy to make friends and had built close relationships during those times, it was much harder to maintain these friendships because I was always moving on to the next place.
As I have gotten older (I'm now in my 50's), and I am not the social butterfly/party animal anymore, it is more difficult to meet genuine people who are on my wavelength. However, I am also now really enjoying being alone and in my own space. This allows me to focus on things that bring a sense of calm, contentment and peace in my life.

Some people prefer not to have any friends, whereas other people want to make new friends, but are unable to for various reasons. Either way, as humans we need some form of connection with other humans for our well-being.


I hope this podcast episode has helped in some way. Here are some links that might be helpful to anyone out there reading this:


https://www.verywellmind.com/i-have-no-friends-what-to-do-5200867
https://www.healthline.com/health/relationships/i-have-no-friends



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What also helps a lot is getting off social media (permanently deleting social media is even better), and spending more time in real life. This does wonders for your mental health when you are able to switch off from the internet from time to time and focus on what matters most.



Monplaiser - Internet, the day when all humans will disappear.

#positivity #2023 #winter2023


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I explain why I decided to compete again and why I have come to the conclusion that bodybuilding is definitely not for me.



I am very anti-diet. Therefore, I didn't bother tracking or weighing the food I ate (I don't even have any weighing scales, so there you go). I experimented a lot on the diet side of it and I didn't train in a way that competitors are expected to train when prepping for these pageants/contests. Hence me looking the way I did in all of these contests. In a nutshell, I didn't take these shows seriously. The whole pagentry aspect of these competitions were a turn off. I still did it as my way of sticking a forefinger up to the whole vanity industry.



I mentioned the UKDFBA federation as a natural federation which technically it is not. The UKDFBA allow competitors who have been drug free for the last seven years to compete, meaning that those who have taken steroids/sarms/peptides, testosterone, fat burners and all other androgenic compounds/performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in the past and are clean for seven years can compete in this federation. But, and this is a big BUT - If they are still using and they manage to clear it out their system a month or even a week before show day then they are laughing. I have given my thoughts on this issue in this episode.



I competed with the other natural federation NPA, who say they are a 'lifetime natural' federation. I was picked to have a polygraph test when I competed with them. These polygraph tests do nothing to check if competitors are in fact natural or not. I don't believe there are any natural federations out there that can truly claim that ALL of their competitors are really natural, unless they do a thorough and extensive blood, urine, hair and skin tests. This wont happen due to the expense. This is also how fake naturals can easily slip through in these competitions.

I have also stated in this episode why I chose to coach myself during these competitions. I don't trust any bodybuilding coaches.

If I was to ever choose a coach for a competition, especially when it is for something as intense as a bodybuilding competition, then they would have to have a very good reputation and solid track record comes in (and I am NOT talking about a track record of how many champions or pro-cards that they have got on their team, because it is some of these same awful coaches that are the first ones the brag and boast about this). But the coach must be qualified and knowledgeable on physiology and how women's bodies work. This is especially important when it comes to hormones and health, particularly with older women. Unfortunately there are too many bodybuilding coaches and also fitness coaches in general that don't have this knowledge or expertise and I was not going to take my chances with anyone. I have no regrets coaching myself, because I know that by doing so, I am taking full responsibility for my own body, health and actions. If it did go wrong then I have no one else to blame but myself.

Regardless, I will never compete again in these types of competitions, so none of this matters anymore.

A big thanks and appreciation to those who did come to support me in a couple of the shows that I did this year.



Here is the link to a post made by another fitness competitor explaining why she will never compete again. Her reasons resonate: I Won a Bodybuilding Competition, Here Is Why I Will Never Compete Again | by KXF | Medium



Disclaimer: I am NOT a doctor or a medical professional. All the information provided in this podcast is from my own experiences along with information sourced from online medical research and science sources. No information is to be taken as medical or other health advice pertaining to any individual specific health or medical condition. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.



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This is a short episode where I show how much my physique had changed from 2022 to 2023 during my bodybuilding prep. I did a total of 14 bikini fitness/bodybuilding shows during those 18 months. 11 of those shows were done in seven months.



Yes, that was hardcore. As I have said in this episode, I am a completely natural competitor, I am middle aged and I really pushed my body further than I should have. But I was always someone who had previously done things to the extreme.



Not anymore though. And please do not follow my example by doing this craziness.



The reason for the weight gain during my last season of prep and the bloated/excess water weight when I competed in my final season of bikini/figure competitions, was due to me being in a deficit for far too long and overtraining.



Whilst being in a calorie deficit does aid in weight-loss/fat-loss, especially when combined with eating healthy foods and regular exercise, it can also have the opposite effect when done to the extreme for far too long, as was the case for me. But I was doing a bodybuilding/physique competition prep, and these types of preps are extreme and not healthy at all. Your metabolism can slow down a lot, making it much harder to lose weight and cause your body to hold on to fat and excess water weight. The additional stress that your body goes through can also make this worse.



So the lesson here from my experience is this: If you find that your fat-loss has stagnated after being in a deficit for a certain period of time and you are holding a lot of water weight- to either up your calorie intake or find out what else is going on in your body that is causing the weight loss/fat loss to stall such as: are you getting enough sleep (as in a proper deep sleep)? Are you over-training? Are you drinking enough water? Have you checked your hormone levels? Stress levels? Are there any underlying health issues that may need investigating?



A lot of things could factor into this and getting expert advice from a health advisor/professional can help in these situations.







Sugars Gym - Where It All Began






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I was two weeks out from my first Bikini competition of 2023 (my second season of competing), and had taken a short trip to Cyprus.


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