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Text five one five five one Brendan O'Connor on RTG. Radio one Joe Wick's.

Good afternoon. No pressure here, right? But you are what we need now. I'm going to keep busy. Yeah. Good to read. A bit of a delay there, Joe. Listen, no pressure, but what I want to say to you is we really need you right now because it people are getting cranky out there. I think people are tired. We're losing our motivation are resilient, getting a bit less resilient. So we need a shot of Joe Wick's magic and and motivation.

But listen, first off, you've had an amazing pandemic, haven't you? Well, I mean, I've obviously missed my family and friends, it's been an emotional time being disconnected, but obviously in times of pain, which I would reach, those people been being crazy of exercise of like millions of people in the past year. So I'm proud of that. You know, I've been there for people during a difficult time.

I bet I bet you I listened. And we were talking to Keith Barry, who's an Irish magician and mentalist earlier about cold showers. But you've actually, I believe, got a cold and proper ice pack in your garden. No, you're taking cold baths. Yeah, I've been a bit inspired by kind of the whim of all the kind of breed around, you know, mental health and your mindset, and I got an ice machine which holds 50 kilograms of ice.

You fill up with ice. I jump in that they're like two or three minutes at a time. And I really feel like physically describe it, the mental health benefits. I feel really relaxed and kind of energised afterwards. Yeah.

And listen, I know your whole thing about exercise and food and everything else. It is about looking better and getting fitter and everything. But really your thing is that this is all about our mental health, isn't it? Yeah, you know, when I was younger, it was about the same image and I didn't want to be skinny, I wanted to change the way I look. But now I got older. I realised that exercise is so important for our mental health and for me now with kids, you know, I'm a parent to two young kids and I feel like when I exercise, I'm more patient.

You know, I'm calm, I'm a better parent. And so it really affects life in so many ways. It's not just about how you look. And that's what I'm reminding people this year, that you've got to exercise to feel good for your mental health and your mindset. Absolutely.

And then, of course, there are people thinking, well, look, I'm never going to be your weeks and I'm never going to be a fit person. And it all sounds like too much. But you're kind of philosophy is that it's about like small little choices each day and small little habits, isn't it?

Yeah. Obviously, you don't have to be doing like training to be fit. You could do, you know, go for walks or, you know, on a bike and get some bike rides for kids. It's not just it's about finding what you love, but it's really like I said, it's about getting outside, getting some fresh air, you know, doing it for your mindset. And if you combine that with a healthy diet, you know, you're not actually going to start to lose a bit weight, start to feel better.

But really, it's just about doing the exercise or any movement that makes you feel good and gives you some energy.

Yeah. And listen, there are already people texting in general about how you have changed their lives. I texted her saying, I really want to thank her for weeks. On the 30th of April last year, I weighed my heaviest ever. I read that your Wicks was doing daily workouts, decided to start. I don't need you to get me through the first Lockton. His enthusiasm kept me going and my weight loss. I'm now down four and a half stone.

I feel great. And and this texts are saying my husband brought me the 30 day plan book in January and had me get over Christmas Eve. So your new book is this 30 day plan. And on your promise, I suppose, is that if people follow it for just 30 days, they will feel the benefit. Wait 30 days. Well, that's wonderful to hear that story. It's so nice to hear that she's done really well. So congratulations on that.

Yeah, the new book, The Saturday Kickstart Plan, it's all about starting new habits. It's like small changes, you know, daily exercise, healthy meals that really quick. And it's not promising a massive physical Statler's transformation, but it's really about changing your mood and your energy and feeling good. And the food's great. You know, the workouts are sure and it's it's just giving you that focus time to put yourself in a positive position. Hopefully it'll kick start the whole year so you can continue to be around.

Yeah.

And I guess in 30 days, if people are kind of getting rid of bad habits, I suppose it's about getting newer habits, good habits and 30 days would be enough to bed in some good habits. Would much. Yeah, and I talk a lot about, you know, setting goals that small daily challenges like her being able to drink a couple of litres of water today, or I'm going to do, you know, five k walk or something small just to get you in that mindset of it's not just about your body image and your weight.

It's not just about fat loss. There's many more things you can measure against your progress, keep you motivated. So, yeah, I'm really it's really helping a lot of people that work is done so well here. And I'm hoping I've they're not. And people also enjoy it. Yeah.

And, you know, something to some people would say that. And you think I was just trying to sell books, but I think you genuinely feel that this is kind of your purpose, isn't it, and that you found this purpose and you feel lucky to have it.

Yeah, totally. I've always been on a mission to help people get get healthy and fair, even when I was a personal trainer. My mission hasn't really changed, obviously, on a much larger scale. But I just love seeing people feel good and eat well and, you know, have energy and just be happy. And I just think exercise and good food is the fastest way to feeling good. And with what's going on now is a level of anxiety and depression.

What's going on? You know, this it can really help, you know, food and nutrition and good exercise can really change your life. So I'll just get, you know, keep trying to get people in it and give them a go and get motivated for it. Yeah.

And you mentioned their food, nutrition, exercise. You have four pillars you mentioned in the book. Sleep is a very important one for you as well, isn't it? Yeah, I think, to be honest, sleep is one of the most important factors in our health, especially our our energy and our mental health, I think without it, with a broken sleep or not enough sleep. And I'm a parent. I know when I have a really rough night sleep, I'm I'm not the body coach the next day.

So it's important to, you know, get a good night's sleep focus on the importance of that. And, you know, but doing that, you're going to set yourself up for a day of energy, really much more energy to try and work out. But also you make better food choices. I think when you're stressed out and you have not lost sleep, you go for the junk food. You know, you go through the gin and tonic and your energy drinks and all that stuff.

And I really think sleep is such an underestimated part of of our fitness and well-being.

And, yeah, and that that kind of thing comes across as when you're talking about there, which is the kind of wise of why we might be tempted to not eat well or to not exercise. You're big on that. We need to try and understand ourselves a bit psychologically and emotionally as well and why we do things. Yeah, I asked questions in the book, you know, what's left when I watch led you to be out of shape or is there anything you know that you've gone through that might have knock your confidence in the or within fitness?

You know, was it when you're at school or university, different things can sort of have an effect on people's perception of exercise and fitness. Everyone who's understand, you know, what's holding you back or what is a successful look like to you, because it might not be doing a hit work. I could just be like, I just want to go for a walk with the dog and I want to that's my that's a successful day to me. So it's about unlocking those days where you feel like you can have a block or binge or go the other way.

You can kind of see those signs and start making better choices. And that that makes a difference. All these things add up and it can really help you get a healthier body.

And when you talk about good days and bad days and stuff, presumably you have good days and bad days yourself as well. You. Yeah, I totally you know, especially during lockdown, I was drinking more gin and tonic, I was having a cup of gin and tonics every day was like today I was overeating. I was bored because you're in the house. And also it's a stress response and being upset and a bit up, you know, bit low.

We tend to eat. So it has to make. But I think it's about acknowledging it, knowing that you're not alone. You're not you know, it's a totally human reaction, but it's trying to become a bad week, a bad month and just kind of get back into the routine of cooking food at home and enjoying that. And also just doing that small, tiny bit of exercise is going to change your mind and lift your mood a bit.

Yeah. And you know what? People will be delighted to hear that even Joe Wick's hates the old gin and tonics, the diet. So in terms of if people do want a little drink, I some people do.

If you're trying to be good, but you want to have a drink, do you reckon a gin and tonic is kind of do I hesitate to say the healthy option, but they're healthier option.

Yeah, I mean, in terms of calories, like all alcohol, but it kind of slows down the fat burning process. But I mean, if you like a little James and I have one a day, I have one jeans and it's more for the flavour and just does a nice thing to relax. But, you know, if you're if you really are serious about fat loss and getting lean, alcohol will be holding you back. So it's a case of, you know, reducing as much as you can.

But at the same time, don't deprive yourself of the things you love. If you like a little gin and tonic or a little chocolate bar every now and again, it's fine. I just think if you're exercising consistently and the majority of time you're cooking, you're cooking healthy food at home, you know, it all kind of balances out in a way. Yeah.

You know, when you you say in the book about having a bad day, you talk about you hate the junk food hard, don't you, when you have a bad day? And I suppose what happens for a lot of us then is that we get on a roll with it and we go, OK, I've fallen off the wagon now and, you know, it bleeds on into the next day and suddenly the week is gone. And so how do you pull back if you've had one bad day?

I mean, it does happen to me every now and again, and I you know, I work on a little black pizza and a tub of Ben and Jerry's and I eat all that. And I think ice is great, but I ultimately like my stomach. It doesn't react well. My body doesn't digest that kind of food. I always feel a bit rough afterwards, but I kind of, you know, I acknowledge I just say, well, I was just one day I was just eating some food.

I had some ice cream or whatever. I don't I try not to let that become like, oh, just keep going. You've ruined your mom for your week. I just think it's important to acknowledge that these days you sometimes, as you know, stress, stress, and because you're just you upset and other days you tend to exercise. So don't worry about it, put it behind you and get up the next morning and use all the energy to do a really good workout.

Yeah. And the thing is that the recipes in the book, they don't seem that Doretti in a way, I suppose a lot of them are there are kind of low carb, more so than low carb meals.

But it's kind of it is high flavour and you're not calorie counting, so you're not.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the calorie count, anything. I think it becomes a bit too complicated and, you know, overthink everything. And I think when you just cook healthy food and you focus on three meals a day, like decent portions that give you energy, I think you can live a healthy life. You don't have to overthink it. So for me, you know, it's important to cook with butter and oil and have nice cheese and cream and have fatty foods because they fill us up, they give us energy and we're not, you know, snacking and grazing in between meals.

If you have a really low calorie diet like a, you know, really low kind of like yoghurt for breakfast or a soup, you know, by the end of the evening you're hitting that, but you're hitting the top of the 10 a biscuit. So you're having a blast and you're eating junk at night. So it's about fuelling your body of real food. It's going to give you loads of energy.

And listen, it's funny, isn't it, that you're like you're not a trained chef by a long shot, but your recipe recipe, unexercised books, they outsell a lot of the actual chefs and everything, like, do you actually cook all those recipes and are they coming from you?

Yeah, I mean, it's a long process, cracking a book, so each book has 100 recipes and I would say I come up with recipes, I test them, I have people that help me test them because it's too much. We test each just about four or five times. But, yeah, I'm still coming about this is getting tough because I've done, you know, 10 books now. I've done a thousand recipes in the past of three or four years.

So it does get challenging. But it's also fun coming up with new ideas because I'm I eat in a nice restaurant or I'll see a restaurant, Instagram or someone when I'm travelling, you know, so I'm always kind of getting ideas. But yeah, I just keep it very simple, very basic food that anyone can cook at home. Yeah.

And the thing is with you that I suppose you are a great example of how someone can maybe change and escape their upbringing and their destiny. Like you didn't grow up eating food like this, did you?

Oh, no, I had a terrible diet as a kid, you know, my mom, it was all these, you know, ready meals and frozen food and chocolate and sandwiches. And Chris, we didn't eat well. But, you know, I really went when I grew up. I wanted to try and start to enjoy cooking one on the journey. And now I really love just promoting healthy food because I know how good it makes you feel.

And it seems quite daunting at first. Once you start cooking basic things, you get a bit more confidence and then you want to you know, you're trying new recipes in the book and you get a bit more experience and then you start to feel really independent in the kitchen.

OK, Joe, before you go, if there was one takeaway for people today or one little thing that people could try and set an intention for today, why would you why would you say to them? I would say let them know how you're feeling, how stressed or low energy you've got, or your mood or your feelings are anxious, you know, exercise will change the way you feel, even if it's temporarily. So try and do some today, you know, get out and about and do it to feel good.

You never, ever regret a workout.

OK, Joe, thank you so much. And the book is called A 30 Day Kick Start Plan. One Hundred Delicious Recipes with energy boosting workouts. And it's published by Bluebird.

And it's the end of the month. Right. So if you want to try during the 30 day workout for March, we have books to give away. So text into to five one five five one our email, Brendan, or and tell me why you think you deserve it or maybe why you think you need it. Joe, thanks a million. Let's take a break.

My guys have a party, Dotti.