Before reading this article, please understand that this is not a personal attack on anyone, more a venting of frustration after an offer of help to to the island. I don’t wish to try to bring down any one or group of individuals more to show Joe Public how closed-minded and stuck in the past public health services can be.
Please note that the responses were not personally from Mr Cooke who I am sure (and have been told) is a very respectable professional, but from one of his staff.
If you live in Guernsey, you may have heard that like many governmental departments in recent times, the Health and Social Services Department in the island have been struggling recently in reaction to increasingly common budget cuts.
Now please do not reply about what you believe is right or wrong about Guernsey’s budget cuts, the fact is HSSD has been told to make changes whether they, you or I like it or not.
I also appreciate there is more to HSSD than just health and fitness but this is the corner I have chosen to fight in my life, so in my perceived wisdom I thought it would be the ideal solution for HSSD to link up with Storm Force Fitness in some capacity in order to…
…reduce the pressure on the HSSD from poor-health related diseases
…get our methods which clearly work, out to a larger audience in the island
…educate the Guernsey public in order to address the causes rather than the effects as is typical with modern health care and medicine.
This is the exact letter sent to Mr Cooke, head of the HSSD
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5 December 2012
“Dear Mr Cooke,
I am writing to you in the capacity of Head Coach at Storm Force Fitness.
I hope you have heard of our growing reputation for changing a lot of lives in the island through our training and nutrition services.
At present we have 200 members on our Guernsey Fitness Camp, a steadily growing personal training base and coach the Guernsey Rugby, Cricket and Squash teams.
Given the results we are achieving now both in the short and long terms, it is clear we have developed our exercise and nutrition plans to a stage where we can significantly decrease the pressure on Guernsey’s health services.
Our testimonials detailing fast and lasting fat loss as well as improved energy, health and vitality are so numerous now we are compiling a ‘story book’ to help encourage others who are in desperate need of help.
I must admit to being in the dark as to how the HSSD views links with private companies but I have reached a point where I feel it morally wrong for us to not offer our services in a wider capacity to the island’s public, having seen the effects it is having on so many people already.
We are currently planning a free nutrition seminar for early 2012 and I would like to discuss the potential for setting up a more regular, structured education program in conjunction with the HSSD.
Obviously we are happy to do all the ground work on this, we just require some input from HSSD as to what you feel is lacking, required or hard to fulfil without support from the private sector at this time in Guernsey.
We truly hope you will take this opportunity to become part of the growing Storm Force Fitness movement in Guernsey and we’re happy to answer any questions.
I can be contacted on ***** ****** or jon@stormforcefitness.com and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely,
Jon Le Tocq (Head Coach)”
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You will notice that no remuneration is requested in my letter as I am open to community projects running alongside private initiatives.
The response?
Below are the important extracts from the return letter received.
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“We are unable to promote any particular company when talking about physical activity or weight management – there are so many fitness instructors that we are unable to promote one business over another.”
“However, if clients ask if we could recommend any weight management companies we do direct them to those that adhere to the NICE (National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence) clinical guideline 43, see attached extract. Therefore this may be something you would like to consider when promoting your programmes.”
“With reference to your nutrition seminar, if the content was based on the Eat Well plate model, we might be able to help with the supply of appropriate resources. Perhaps you could contact me at the above address to discuss further”
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So we looked up the mythical Eat Well plate….
So rather than write an essay here’s my beef with the reply in short:
- Anyone who has even taken a few minutes to research milk should know by now the detrimental effects it can have on blood sugar, the likelihood of contaminants from the animals food supply, the negative effects of pasteurisation and the more obvious problems of nearly EVERYBODY being lactose intolerant in some form. Some with severe reactions, others with less obvious symptoms such as temporary increase mucous production. Every single fitness coach I know that gets great results for both fat loss AND health, recommends eradicating or massively restricting dairy intake bar perhaps some raw goat’s cheese or milk.
- A third of your plate apparently should be filled with starchy carbs such as rice and potatoes. Why does some overweight, sedentary person who lies down in bed, gets up to reach the car which they sit in to drive to work where they sit down all day before reversing the process, need a constant stream of carbohydrates into their body. Carbs are the easiest source of fuel to burn for energy, so such a diet prioritises carbohydrate as the option of choice leaving fat cells untouched. Isolating one source, we now know that potatoes have a high glycemic load, in other words, potentially making blood sugar problems even worse.
You will also see a nice white bagel in the photo and corn flakes.
When native americans moved to a diet based mainly on corn they experienced increased rates of….
- Anemia
- Dental cavities
- Osteoarthritis
- Bone infections and other bone problems
Good for you then….?
- They want me to do a presentation saying that it’s okay to have foods such as cake and coke at every meal? Are these guys for real?
- You see NO mention of healthy fats such as olive oil, coconut oil or fish oil (other than indirectly getting a little if you choose to eat fish as part of your minute protein intake) These are indisputably critical to human life from strengthening the immune system to building cell structure and ensuring basic brain function. Oh and they are also a critical piece of the fat loss jigsaw.
- YOU HONESTLY WHAT TO GIVE ME ADVICE / SUPPLY RESOURCES WHEN YOUR METHODS PLACE A BOWL OF BAKED BEANS IN THE SAME CATEGORY AS EGGS, FISH AND MEAT?
- You said in one sentence that you don’t recommend individual companies. You then said straight after that you DO, if they follow this bullshit on the Eat Well plate.
- Storm Force Fitness has an established and rapidly growing reputation in Guernsey and have offered you a helping hand in reaching OUR local community. Instead you have chosen to firmly route your principles in those of the NHS which has proven itself incapable of managing or changing the UK’s health requirements.
- Based on that plate, I could have a meal made up of a white bread bagel with cheese, some tinned sweetcorn, baked beans and a can of coke.
Any authority recommending this should be shot in the head, never mind encouraged to speak to those of us who have actually figured out what works.
What About The Extract Mentioned?
There are some valid points in the extract enclosed with the letter regarding addressing both diet and activity, including behaviour-change techniques and ongoing support.
However, the first two points are:
1) Endorse such programmes only if they meet ‘best-practice’ standards by helping people decide on a realistic healthy weight target weight (usually to lose 5-10% of their weight)
2) Endorse such programmes only if they meet ‘best-practice’ standards by aiming for a maximum weekly weight loss of 0.5-1.0kg.
First, where the hell does 5-10% come from?
I helped a lady go from 20 stone 10 to around 10 stone 9. Her health issues such as IBD cleared up, her energy soared and she went on to cycle from London to Paris. Had she only lost 10% she would have still weight 18 stone.
There are many, many women and men out there like this so she is not a rare exception in modern times.
Second what is realistic? Most people are so down-beat on themselves that realism to them is a dreary, depressing world in which the gods shit on them every day and deal them a bad hand every time they step out of the door. Their view of reality is based on false impressions of life because they have been misled and likely surrounded by other fat, negative, sick people.
In reality, there is NO reality – just what you create.
Finally this maximum weekly weight loss of 1-2lbs (0.5-10kg approximately), has long been shown to be utter rubbish.
Again I can provide mountains of testimonials from people who have done much more than this and felt more energetic, happier and reduced or eliminated diseases within their bodies.
So why are we restricting Joe Public to a slow, mediocre journey to health and fitness.
I agree that there are many stupid crash diets out there which deliver a fast weight loss initially followed by a return to old weight after the diet causes and inevitable binge in conjunction with a slower metabolic rate after hitting a mild form of starvation.
However, careful management of nutrition can deliver safe and lasting fat loss much faster.
What Now?
Clearly entire books could be written on all the topics above but I am simply trying to illustrate at this point the battles that are faced by Joe Public and the kind of archaic thinking which is guiding YOUR health care.
I don’t question the moral principles or intentions of those in charge, just the knowledge and research that has been done IN THE REAL WORLD, and the willingness to listen to fresh ideas which clearly work and are doing so right under your noses – by Storm Force Fitness and other fitness companies as well.
In my humble opinion when people are getting sicker, fatter and suffering more mental health problems strangely in conjunction with changes to modern nutrition practices, it is time to at least give these companies a chance ESPECIALLY when they are offering it as part of community education program for free.
I have no intention of changing my methods to anything like the Eat Well plate and unfortunately will have to continue with organically growing our reach into the Guernsey community one person at a time without the help from the powers that be who could help us to help many more people, much faster.
Funnily enough this is one of the core values of Storm Force Fitness “Seeking and sharing of knowledge”.
If only more public and private enterprises thought like this, we could make change happen much faster before it’s too late for another generation.
I don’t claim to know everything, in fact I am aware of glaring holes in my knowledge which need filling.
My point is that this is already a desperate situation and if the health authorities are unwilling to even listen, the future looks bleak for the masses in Guernsey.
