I recently announced that I was on a mission to shred quiet a lot of weight that I had put back on last year, and I wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to gain some of James wisdom and knowledge and in the middle of the interview I had an AHA moment, here’s my interview with him.
1. What advice would you give someone who’s lost their way with their health & fitness and are trying to find the drive to get back?
We all have an emotional relationship with food and so much of it is based on shame and guilt, and shame and guilt is more fattening then anything else and we don’t talk about that. It’s about letting go of shame and guilt, nourishing your body and celebrating food and understanding that you deserve a happy healthy life. A lot of people don’t believe that they don’t deserve a happy healthy life,that they’re not good enough or they’re not worst it, all those kind of things. When you can get into the habit of reminding yourself that you do, all those decisions that you have to make become so much easier, so for instance I don’t drink alcohol and I made that decision 20 years ago and I’ve stuck to it, because I’m a firm believer that you need to be impeccable with your word. I said I was never going to drink again so I stuck to it, and I go to a lot of events so on and so forth, for the first five years it was challenging people would tell me come on have a drink don’t be ridiculous but I stuck to it.
Remember any change or transformation that happens in your body, happens in your mind first, understanding that you deserve it, then letting go of shame and guilt which you will read about in the book how shame and guilt catches all of us at different stages for different reasons and we sort of form different habits that don’t work for us, that will put weight back on and for whatever reason it’s hard to take it back off. More often then not it’s usually more emotionally driven, you have to recognise there’s an issue there that can be changed in a heart beat all in the mind is really what it is.
It can be tough, social media is kind of a dangerous place at the moment and it’s quite sad. I’m working at the moment with two of theist famous women in the world, one of them I had a conversation with last week and she said I feel awful I’ve just been on Instagram for an hour and I feel so bad because all I see are these perfect lives and perfect bodies. I even know that it’s fake cause I know what goes on behind it, but it still has a physical effect on me and on my emotions. So we went on an Instagram diet and we just unfollowed people that made her feel bad.
Australia’s leading the way in terms of these young 22 year old girls that are Wellness bloggers that have thousands of followers, and they’re selling 12 Week bikini guides that do so much damage. They play on the deepest insecurities of all of us. I’m dealing with refugees from these bikini guides now that have ruined their metabolism because they’re so heavily calorie restricted, or so full of biometric exercises that ruin people’s bodies.
Luckily I didn’t grow up with it, we weren’t kids with this pressure, so my heart goes out to the kids who are dealing with this pressure and lack of authenticity and truth because there’s so much ruthless opportunism going on on social media with these young unaccountable girls. Journalists if they write something dangerous or not true they get in trouble, but on Instagram they just delete posts or whatever.
Losing weight is actually really simple but the industry isn’t happy with that at all, they need to complicate things in order to sell their things. I wrote “Clean and Lean” in a simple accessible way, but that doesn’t really work for the industry because it demystifies things. We’re all really human and that’s a beautiful thing but it leaves us vulnerable to this industry.
2. What’s the one thing you want people to take away from the book?
It’s to Value themselves and be Kind to themselves, that’s the core message and it’s what I’ve been saying for 15 years to please be kind to yourself and chose foods that work for you, and chose thoughts that work for you and make you feel better. Life’s really long and you don’t want to spend it constantly dissatisfied with yourself, or who you are or how you look, self expectance isn’t just ok this is me and I’ll never change. Self acceptance is saying I’m a really good person and I deserve to be able to transform that’s how I see it, the take home is to be kind to yourself and of something sounds crazy then it is crazy.
It’s quite easy if you make a couple of key little changes to your life, and do more of things like even just waking is huge. I’ve seen more people lose weight just from walking then anything else, I’m working with an actress now who has been through the mill in the last six years, has had all of the best trainers in the world putting her through punishing exercise regimes. Getting up at 3.30-4 in the morning before filming and going through gruelling exercise regimes, and also supplements 30 pills at breakfast lunch and dinner, and other things like protein every 2 hours. All these different things she went through, she went through the top 10 trainers in the world and none of it worked she just kept getting bigger.
We’ve just changed it, she trained so hard she injured herself chronically, we changed it and relaxed it right back down to walking and took her off all the weird diet things and did “Clean and Lean” which is nothing its just listening to yourself, tune in to the foods that make you feel good as opposed to eating foods that make you bloat, tired or upset or any of those kind of things and she’s lost so much weight and she looks amazing. She keeps saying I’ve never eaten more and I feel amazing, and it’s being really amazing to watch her come out of that self loathing to a place of self acceptance.
This stuff is so simple, the dieticians association of Australia is sponsored by Kellogs and Nestle how that’s not criminal I’ll never know, so it’s difficult to know where to look so you have to trust yourself, who else will be a better expert on you then you. Whether it’s dairy or gluten or whatever that doesn’t work for you, I would say that sugar addiction is a big one for a lot of people. There are lot of trendy fancy ways of eating sugar, whether it’s coconut sugar, or stevia or whatever it’s still sugar.
You don’t have to go crazy with exercise and wreck yourself, find a balance, do a yoga class once a week, a high intense fitness class, walk everywhere, find a balance.
3. Do you think now you’ve said everything you want to say in this book?
Things will change different studies have been conducted of the years, for example 5 years ago when I first published the book I had to fight my publishers to get quinoa and kale in the book now it’s so common.
The World Health Organisation has just come out and said we were kind of wrong about that low fat thing, and butters better then margarine and so on and so forth, I mean millions of people died because of that its not joke and it’s hard core what they did and it was all based on a fraudulent study.
Things will definitely change five years ago social media there wasn’t much social media, now with social media there are new ways of helping and reaching people but also new ways of exploiting people, that’s my real crusade at the moment. I get really upset about these Instagram opportunists and people need to not just accept information they’re given but to look into it and find out for yourself.
4. Finally Whats your tip on finding balance?
Like I’ve said it it sounds crazy it Prob is crazy, and by valuing yourself you won’t do this ridiculous things to yourself so keep it simple. Do a yoga class, do something high intensity, do some lifting and walk everywhere. Walking is amazing it’s simple but can be critical in helping you lose the weight and get fit and highly.
I’m so excited for 2016 and my new health & fitness goals thanks to James Duigan and his advice, and I think his book “Clean and Lean for Life” is a definite Rogue Homme Must Have for 2016.
To purchase the book and or Supplements from James range go to
[ follow my progress by checking for the hashtag #ArrnottRevampMe ]
by Arrnott Olssen
Editor Rogue Homme
