FIIT Dad Podcast

David is a social media sensation who rose to prominence in 2018 after his daughter, Beth, began documenting his weight loss journey through Instagram. With a history of performing both on the stage and to a high level in multiple sports - David certainly embraced the camera to put it mildly, and thanks to his quick whit, comedic timing, adorable delivery and ongoing weightloss progress turned the heads of many, almost instantly.

Fast forward to 2020, David is now 87 years young and captures both the attention and the hearts of thousands of engaged followers on a daily basis. Through his regular Instagram lives and daily updates David has become a source of inspiration to a community of over 100,000 followers.

His influence even extended from social media to mainstream media on a global scale – giving David a newly found mission to inspire, motivate and put a smile on the faces of those who tune in to absorb his content.

David was born into a generation where stereotypically men were not very conscious of their health, nutrition and image so it was fascinating to hear first hand how David’s relationship with food and with his own health has developed over the years. After suffering a heart attack some years ago, David became acutely aware that he had to make positive changes to his nutrition, if he were to avoid any further health scares. Around 5 years ago, with the support of his beloved family David joined a local Slimming World group.

Now many personal trainers and professionals from the world of health have certain reservations around the slimming world plan. I’m certainly not anti-slimming world, in fact I’m PRO whatever works for you. Whilst my own, personal opinion is that things can be fundamentally improved within the plan, particularly around educating members on the normality of ‘weight fluctuations’ and nutritional education which done correctly I do believe could help improve the relationship members have with food, their weight and themselves long term. However there’s no denying the power that a supportive community can have on an individual when it comes to adopting new habits and having consistency within their actions and David is a great example of that.

In this podcast we explore David’s story, as well as his relationship with slimming world and his whirlwind adventure with social media.

I found David to be incredibly warm hearted, inspiring and just an all round gentleman. One comment David frequently gets through social media is ‘I wish you were my grandad’ and having sat down with hi­­m for the length of time we did to film todays show – I certainly feel the same. If you aren’t already following Davids story via Instagram, then I can highly recommend you do. If nothing else, I can guarantee you a smile a day. You can find David by searching davidyril_sw .

In todays episode, I was joined by an old friend & industry expert, Beverley Bugeja. Beverley is the owner & operator of Ignite Performance; a 1 to 1 and group Personal Training facility in Bury, Greater Manchester. Bev has a strong belief that fitness should enhance your life, not take away from it & so has built an incredible facility where her clients can do exactly that. Within this episode we explore the importance of long term sustainability when it comes to finding new physical activity and dietry protocols as well as the importance of simply enjoying the process. In this free flowing, candid interview myself and Bev openly discuss a broad range of topics ranging from the use of social media, to nutrition and exercise. A brilliant, raw and unedited interview to help you in your fitness journey. To connect with Bev, you can find her on Instagram: https://instagram.com/beverley.bugeja?igshid=1wpz8tkl8pwwa. To find out more about Beverleys studio, check out her website here: www.ignite-performance.com

This is the first episode following a 'Q & A' style format. Ben takes 5 questions from his Instagram story feature where his audience ask him questions on all things health, fitness, fatloss, mindset or business. Todays questions are as follows: 1) Struggling to understand how many calories I should eat - help. 2) How long should I use My Fitness Pal for? 3) How do I increase my max squat without doing more volume? 4) Early morning runs are killing me, but is this better for fat loss? 5) My weight is staying the same, or even increasing - Why?

The actions we take regularly quickly become processes and after a period of time become habits. Once those habits are engrained into our lifestyle it's more likely that we will stick to them habitually. However, the habits we adopt can be positive & constructive, or negative and deconstructive toward our end goal. In any case, it all starts with taking action. How important is that first workout?

In this episode, Ben elaborates on a common question that has been asked through his 5 question Instagram Q & A. Let's face it, some of us love to exercise, others not so much. Do you have to exercise to achieve your goals? Listen to todays episode to find out.

In this episode, Ben combines a very none sexy topic, with a very none sexy back story as he explores the history of 'the calorie'. We discuss different strategies to calculate how many calories you should be eating to support your goals based on your history with food, your goals & time boundaries. A must listen for anybody who is unsure as to whether or not they are consuming the 'correct' amount of calories.

In this episode, Ben introduces the podcast, gives a brief over view of his own experiences with fat loss & sets an outline of the future topics he plans on covering.