Simon Dutton (@kingsleydutton) is an online fitness coach and trainer currently living in Hong Kong. After working in fitness education for a number of years, he has since transitioned back to his roots of helping clients achieving life changing results through fitness. He is the host of The Self Made Podcast and you can learn more about Simon’s coaching at https://madecoaching.com/.

Perfectly fitting with the overall theme of this entire podcast, Simon has learned that the most important lessons from the gym often have a greater impact in our life outside of the gym. The recent James Bond movie was a bit of an inspiration to him to focus on building men’s confidence through fitness. *spoiler alert* we did talk about the movie briefly. Building an amazing body and putting in hard work in the gym is almost guaranteed to improve your confidence in yourself, and spill into everything else you do.

A large part of the conversation was centered around managing one’s expectations. It’s ok to expect exceptional results, when you put in an exceptional effort, with an exceptional plan. It’s very hard to expect greatness, when your effort and methods don’t match. And it’s not that we all should strive for the best physique in the world. It’s moreso about understanding what it takes to get what we want, and then determining whether or not we are willing to do what it takes. If not, then we adjust the goals accordingly. This is an excellent way to reach your goals, and we touched on these concepts in several different contexts throughout the episode.

Simon’s got a term he hates in fitness: “sustainable dieting”. Nothing about dieting (as in, eating in a strict way or in a restrictive caloric deficit) is meant to be sustainable. A diet is meant to achieve the goal of fat loss. Once achieved, the diet should stop, and normal eating patterns are resumed. Now, the caveat, is that “normal eating patterns” doesn’t mean chips, chocolate and constant junk. It can certainly include those things, but within reason. Making things seem easier than they are circles back to managing expectations and setting yourself up for success.

 This was a thoroughly enjoyable conversation and I’m sure you’ll find lots of value in this episode. If you do, please share this episode with a friend! Be sure to follow Simon on IG, check out his website, and tune into his podcast as well. 

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