This Is Why I'm Always Talking About Mindset

"That mindset stuff sounds great Hattie but will it really help me get lean/shredded/on stage and looking amazing."

"Maybe I should focus on nutrition and training first and come back to It once I have the body I have always wanted?"

To understand why only focusing on training and nutrition won't work
we need to understand how your metabolism ACTUALLY works.

Your metabolism determines what your body looks like and how much it will change over a period of time. A lot of us think of our metabolism as fire that we need to stoke so that we can "burn fat". But this analogy is sabotaging you and your results.

Your metabolism is like a thermostat that measures total stress from all of your sensory information.

The amount of light entering your eyes
the temperature
the amount of food you have eaten,
the amount of activity you have done
the mechanical stress applied to your muscles and relayed through the nervous system.
Your thoughts and emotions also signal to your metabolism be communicating if you are loved and safe,
happy or sad,
excluded or included
if food and resources are plentiful or if you are worried that you will starve.

As humans evolved on the savannah in Africa this information was crucial to our survival as a species. So emotions and negative thoughts feed straight into your metabolism and tell it that you are under stress.

This is next bit is the important part for transforming your physique.

After your metabolism measures your stress it uses hormones to send a message to your cells about what actions they should take.

Only after receiving the message from your metabolism do your cells determine if they should build more muscle or burn your body fat for energy.

This means that you can exercise and eat and do "everything right",
but your metabolism won't do what you want if you haven't got a process for understanding and creating the right thoughts and emotions.

The Sports Model Project isn't just the number one team in the world,
although we did win that award last year. The Sports Model Project isn't just a team that helps girls get featured in magazines, although that happened over and over again last year.

The Sports Model Project is a process of personal transformation that starts with how you think and will transform how you look.

This process will guide you to the most important feeling of all.

Self confidence.

Which may NOT be something you have ever truely experienced before
But The Sports Model Project is not for everybody.

You must be prepared to challenge your current thinking.
You must be able to train at a higher intensity than ever before.
You must be prepared to do the work in the gym,
on your habits and on your thoughts.

But the reward, at the end is you; transformed.
The shining radiant version of you.

 

Love and radiant shining light
Hattie xoxo

Ps: this is my radiant shining light photo.
(It's my favourite)

 

Apply To The Sports Model Project by clicking on the banner below.

Should I Add Weight Each Time I Go To The Gym?

Yes, add weight to every session where possible.

Your goal should be to get stronger at EVERY single rep range.
You should try to get stronger at 20 reps or 15 reps or 12 reps or 5 reps or 1 rep.

Pat yourself on the back when you can’t add weight to an exercise in a given rep range.

You are at the outer boundary of what this body can do.
Now your metabolism will send messages to all of the cells in your body.

“We need to build a new body”

Which, is exactly what we are here to do when we train.
We want to build a new body.

So what do I do? I can't put the weight up any more.

This will happen. This should happen.

The plates on machines may be too big a jump,
the jump might be to big from one set of dumbbells or kettlebells to another
or you just need to get more confident in the movement before you go up.

But you need to increase the tension your body is experiencing EVERY training session or your metabolism WON'T send the message to your cells to build a new body.

Instead the message your cells receives is:

"We can handle this, no need to change this body"

So you need to keep making the session harder (progressive overload)
Once you have maxed out the weight there are a heap of strategies we can use.

This list is in order of effectiveness
Try to increase the reps you can do with that weight.

Max out the reps every time with that weight. Once you have increased maximum the number of reps you can do at that weight try again with a heavier weight at your original rep range.

As a very rough rule: if you increase the reps you can do by 20% you will have gotten appreciably stronger.

Ie You're doing kettlebell squat at 20kg x 20 reps but 24kg is too hard.
Next session try to increase your reps.
You do 20kg x 24 reps (+20% of your original reps at that weight)
In your next session 24kg should be available to you.

2. Next option is to increase the time under tension for each exercise. Specifically increase the time you spend in the eccentric phase (muscle lengthening under load) this will get you stronger at that weight.
After a few sessions try the 24kg.

3. The third option is to change the exercise order.

Take the exercise that you have plateaued in and put it first in your training session. That way you will have more energy and training drive for that exercise.

The last option is to decrease the rest time between each set.

I don't always recommend because it more often leads to "junk" training.
If you aren't ruthlessly applying this principle to you training you will not get to the next level.

The days, months and years you spend in the gym will not lead you to the promised land, they won't be wasted because training is awesome
but they won't be maximised and you won't be either.

You will be stuck back in the pack with everybody else.

It's time to break away from the herd.
It's time to step up with the leaders.

 

Love and light
Hattie xoxo

Apply To The Sports Model Project by clicking on the banner below.

 

There's No Point Getting Ripped And Being Sick

I think we would all prefer ripped and vibrant but a lot of girls are ripped and sick because of their nutrition.
So how do we get both?

How do we get shredded and be healthy and vibrant?

How do we exude life and vitality?

To achieve optimal body composition we need to manage the amount of food we eat.

I teach all of my girls how to track macros and over time we work out exactly how their body responds to certain intakes of protein, carbs fat and fiber.

Once we are on top of the amount of macros, we need to focus on micronutrients and food quality.

Most people never get to that point, they are purely eating way too much food and have no discipline or they are cruel to themselves and are starving themselves of energy.

In both these cases, their body composition suffers.
They are either fat
or
skinny
or
skinny fat
all which are all bad options.

So we need to get our macros right to have ideal body composition.

If you need some help with that you can download my Ultimate Macro Plan here.

But micronutrients are also crucial to our health and performance and most people who are trying to achieve ideal body composition ignore their micronutrient intake. Often they try to make up for this by using supplements, vitamins and minerals or foods fortified with micronutrients.

I think that this is a mistaken approach.

Supplements can have their place but we want to be deriving most of our micronutrients from a wide variety of unprocessed foods.

Micronutrients are about 40 essential minerals, vitamins, fatty acids and amino acids that we have to get from our diet. Food is the vehicle to deliver micronutrients and compounds that are beneficial for health.

So we want food to be the delivery system for micronutrients,
food; not pills or powders or potions (again there are exceptions).

Most genes that encode enzymes require micronutrients as co-factors.
Enzymes are the machines that do work inside of your cells.
Enzymes are involved in your
metabolism (energy levels),
neurotransmitters (your mood and how you feel),
repair and damage (how you recover from exercise).

All the things you need to be working optimally to have elite body composition and to feel vibrant. These enzymes and processes need more than just energy to do their job, they need micronutrients to work properly.

There are recommended levels (RDI in Australia) of micronutrients that are suggested to make sure we get adequate amounts.

However adequate is a long way from optimal.

So whilst a recommended amount of micronutrients may stop us having symptoms of disease or deficiency. The RDI’s don’t mean that we are operating optimally in the short term or reducing aging in the long term.

The RDI also don't take into account genetic variations and individuality.

Often the types and quantities of micronutrients we need are dependent on where our ancestors are from making RDI less useful for us.

So what to do practically?
1) Try to eat your macros from whole foods. Protein from whole food rather than powder, Carbs from veggies and fruit rather than pasta and rice. Fats from marine creatures, seeds and nuts.

2) Eat a lot of green leafy vegetables. Probably three times the amount your eating now. You need to have at least handful with every meal. Greens are really good in protein shakes.

Here is a recipe: 1 cup spinach, 1 cup kale, Half a cup frozen pumpkin, Half a cup frozen blueberries, 1 banana, 1 tbps chia seeds, 1 scoop hemp protein, 1 tsp slippery elm bark --- Blend.

3) When eating out, order oily fish and vegetables. Most of us aren’t great at cooking these so we don’t have them at home. Make these a preference when you eat out.

4) Add fresh herbs to all of your meals. Herbs are kind of like little super vegetables. Even better grow your own and eat those.

5) I’ll add one supplement on here. Get a fish oil supplement. Do your research because you get what you pay for. Cycle between fish oil and cod liver oil.

6) Eat a variety of colors every day. Eat as many different colored vegetables as you can.

I saw big changes in my physique and how I felt, once I started eating more fiber, greens and getting a better balance of fats in my diet.

My skin improved, I had better energy and my workouts were good, even when I was dieting and on lower calories before the worlds.

I want you to feel as vibrant as I do

Love and Light
Hattie xoxo

#1 Miss World WBFF Fitness Diva

Access the Ultimate Macro Plan by clicking on the banner below.

Here's Why Setting Goals Doesn't Work

Are you casting your mind back over the year that has passed
and towards the year that is beckoning us?

What most people focus on is goals they had and didn't achieve.

"I still want to get on stage"
"I still want to be confident in myself"
"I still want to win a fitness show"

"But I didn't do it this year."
"So I need to set some goals for next year and then I'll finally get there"
So we write down these goals yet next year when we reflect
those goals remain unfulfilled once more.
Next thing you know you have been thinking about it,
setting goals and not getting there for two or three or four years.

Most people just don’t get past the goal setting phase.

That goal is really just a nice thought that we have projected into the future and create positive thoughts around.

It's a dream
“My dream is to get on stage and win a fitness shows that iIcan finally feel confident in myself”

We have lost the plot when It comes to motivation, goals and positive thinking.
We have started to believe that just THINKING positive will make things happen, that BEING positive is the way to achieve our goals and ambitions.

Just "putting it out into the universe" is not going to make it happen

We get so focused on goals and dreams
and the negative flip side
which are worries and anxieties
that we totally neglect the things that actually create change.

So what actually creates change? It’s our daily habits.

It’s the things that we do over and over again.
It’s the things that actually have control over.
What we eat
What time we go to sleep
What thoughts we think
What we do in the gym

Setting goals will not change what you do each day
but if you set your daily habits up right you will inevitably progress towards your goals.

The trick with creating new habits is not to change too many things at once.
You’re a human just like the rest of us, changing too many things at once leads to overwhelm and it also leads to doing a poor job of allot of things rather than nailing a few things and ingraining them in your psyche.
Pick one or maybe two habits that you want to adopt.
Work on those habits for two weeks.
Aim nail those habits 90% of the time so that over a two week period you’re nailing 12 out of 14 days.

If you’re successful pick another habit and try nailing it AS WELL for the next block two weeks.

If you don’t nail your habit 90% of the time sit down and do a little analysis using the simple 5 Whys Formula. I

Essentially keep asking why you didn't hit your habit until you get to the root of has stopped you. Often it's not what you imagine.
Ie: "I only meditated 4 out of 14 days"
Q: Why didn’t I mediate?
A: "I was too busy"
Q: Why were you too busy?
A: "I had heaps of work on and the dog ate my homework"
Q: Why was work so overwhelming?
A: "I didn’t organise my calendar the week before and all of this stuff piled up on me."

Q: Why didn’t you organise your calendar
A: "I don’t have a habit of doing it."
Outcome: "I actually need to start using a diary to organise my work training and life. I'll nail that for two weeks and then start my meditation habit"

That should be the habit she adopts first so that she can organise her time and then fit in a ten minute meditation each day

You have dreams
You have goals
The next step is to learn the habits that will make you successful.

That’s what I teach the girls in The Sports Model Project:
How to make dreams and goals a reality by tasking control of your daily habits and your mindset and at the end they are transformed physically and emotionally.
I only accept girls who have been training
HARD with weights for at least 12 months
sorry F45 and bootcamps don’t cut it.

Want in? Come and join us by clicking HERE.

Love and light
Hattie xoxo

 

 

 

Lost?

"Lost In the heat of all it all
girl you know you lost
lost in the thrill of it all."

Sometimes when your right in the thick of it you feel totally lost.

Nothing seems good enough.

You haven’t done enough or
achieved enough or
gotten far enough
and yet if you really look back properly you realise just how far you have come.

When you decided to change, your life diverged from the path it a was on.
You went in a new direction. Yet you judge yourself by your new standards
rather than the place you started your journey from and the direction you WERE heading in

I see it all the time with women that I coach.

Didn’t get a result for years and were totally under-eating.
I mean literally nothing had changed and they were eating half as much food as the should be, down around 1000 -1200 calories.

They work with me for 6 months lose 6-10cm of their waist whilst eating 2x as much food and then are mad became as hell because they haven’t lost enough weight or they aren’t world champion.

They are angry because they aren’t “there” yet.

It’s actually a thing we all do, all of the time.

We grew up with a belief in girl power
with an unbreakable belief that we could
well, we should do a whatever we set our minds to.
That we shouldn’t take no for an answer, and we shouldn't

But, and its a big but…

We need to give ourselves a break.
We need a chance to breathe and not just in a yoga class or a mediation but within our life and within our own mind.

Recognise your progress.
Realise how far you have come.

You want to grow, but if you never feel like you are moving forward you will poison your own drive. You will stunt your future growth as you become frustrated with your "lack of progress", which in truth is just progress you haven’t taken the time to acknowledge.

I’m the worlds greatest advocate for standards and measuring your process and progress but if you never look back at where you started and compare it to where you are right now, you’re missing the forests for the trees.

If nothing has happened
if you didn’t get a result
if you haven’t changed any of your habits then take stock and make a change.
But if you have made progress celebrate it in your own mind,
tell other people about it and use to fuel your continued and further development.

Be lost no longer, be guided by your ongoing growth and progress.
There is no point being the best version of yourself if you don't even acknowledge that your already there.

If you need help we are here for you.

The Sports Model Project will put a structure and team around you for success. You will have a team, coaches and teammates dedicated your success.
You will get me guiding the whole ship.
You have to be prepared to work harder than ever before

You have to be prepared to let go of your own rules and follow mine.

It’s not a shortcut, it’s just the best path to physical and mental transformation.

Click the banner below to apply for my elite program.

Love and light
Hattie xoxox
Proud leader of the Sports Model Project

 

Three Books I Recommend To All Of My Girls

There is no point getting the body
or the house
or the relationship
or the money or the promotion
if we stagnate or hate it when we get there.

We all believe that possessions or achievements or recognition determine how much we enjoy our lives,

but it is our mind that determines the quality of our experience.

We know this right? But knowing it and living it are two different things.

I was anorexic as a teenager and I know first hand how our mind completely alters our experience of this amazing, precious gift of life.

I have experienced having a powerful mindset from both angles,
the good and the bad.

How do we move from the bad to the good.
From the weak to the powerful?
It's a combination of
Love for ourselves and others.
Making a conscious decision to change.
Taking on daily practices to support that change.
Taking in the best knowledge available.
There are a couple of books I recommend to all of my girls.

There are three that I really like and they are all from Ryan Holiday.

The Ego Is the Enemy: Addressing the things that upset and an cause us pain.
The Obstacle Is The Way: This is mindset required for success in any field
The Daily Stoic: Has one idea or aphorism for each day that just gives you a little something to think about.

I really like today's entry in The Daily Stoic
We go through our days responding and reacting, but it's rare to really pause and ask: Is this thing I'm about to do consistent with what I believe? Or, better: Is this the kind of thing the person I would like to be should do?

The work of living is to set standards and not compromise them. When your brushing your teeth, choosing your friends, loosing your temper, falling in love, instructing your child or walking your dog - all of these are opportunities.

Not, I want to do good- that's an excuse. But, I will do good in this particular instance, right now.

Set a standard; hold fast to it.
That's all there is.

This is the standard we hold ourselves to in The Sports Model Project.

Every word
every thought
every action
Is an opportunity to be the kind of person that we really want to be.

We achieve amazing things because we live an examined life
where we pay attention to our actions and we make the right choices,
in this instance right now over and over again.

You can apply to join The Sports Model Project by clicking on the banner below.

Love and light
Hattie xoxox

PS: Check out Ryan Holiday HERE.

 

 

You Know How It Is, All Women Are Crazy

"You Know How It Is, All Women Are Crazy"
A women told me this on the phone.

In fact it was pretty much her opening statement.
“Oh well you know how it is, all women are crazy”

My mind screamed

“NO!”
“THAT’S BULLSHIT”

“That’s just your excuse for a poor thought process,
or to allow you to get away with your negative cycle or your negative internal dialogue” “

It’s you not knowing how to control your thoughts or your feelings or your actions and then using being a woman as an excuse”

Worse than that it just completely validates every sexist, bullshit excuse men have for discriminating against us. (Yes, that's real)

The truth is we aren’t crazy.
We have intense feelings and emotions
and we need to develop the ability to build the personal power to say

“Is this true emotion or am I just emoting?”

“Am I just giving myself a pass to behave badly?”

Rather than examining
our thoughts
or feelings
or actions
or words.
We just say
“I’m feeling emotional”

So that we don’t have to accept responsibility
for what we do
or what we say to someone else
or what we think to ourselves.

The other way we weasel out of responsibility is to say

“I’m stressed because of _____ insert excuse”
Work, boyfriend, no-boyfriend, friends, body, family

We use stress to justify why we were mean or angry or sad or ate a whole wheel of cheese.
Stress is the "reason" we couldn't track your macros or didn't go to the gym.

But stress is just a word busy people use for feeling emotional.

It’s the version of emotional that people with careers use as an excuse for not examining their thoughtsand taking responsibility for themselves.

It’s martyrdom,
which is defined as

“a display of pretended or exaggerated suffering to obtain sympathy.”

"Oh poor me I’m so stressed"
"Oh poor me my boyfriend didn’t do what I wanted"
"Oh poor me I got fat because I didn’t train or exercise"
:Oh poor me I’m upset because I don’t have exactly what I want yet
and because of my exaggerated suffering, I deserve sympathy"
"I now have a "reason" a "reason" not to do the things I really want to."

But in truth you have built a "reason" that truly is an excuse.
This is not the route to happiness or success.

I want you to know, you're not alone worth this.
We all battle with this at different stages in our life.
I battled with this for years.
But if you want to go to the next level its a battle you must win.
What do successful people do?

What do the winners
the happy ones
the ones who shine
what do they do?
Would you believe it?
It’s the same for Men and Women.

The winners surrender martyrdom and accept responsibility.
They stop giving “reasons” why they didn’t do something
and

Start accepting their responsibility to come up with solutions.

So stop using “feeling emotional”
or “feeling stressed”
as an excuse for not doing the things that actually want to do

You want to compete.
You want to be happy.
You want to feel confident
So find ways to train, hit your macros and meditate, no matter the obstacle.

When it get's tough don't give yourself reasons you can't
find solutions so that you can.

I sent you this quote from The Daily Stoic earlier in the week
and it has been rattling around my brain ever since.

We go through our days responding and reacting,
but it's rare to really pause and ask: Is this thing I'm about to do consistent with what I believe? Or, better: Is this the kind of thing the person I would like to be should do?
The work of living is to set standards and not compromise them.
When you're brushing your teeth, choosing your friends, losing your temper, falling in love, instructing your child or walking your dog - all of these are opportunities.
Not, I want to do good- that's an excuse.
But, I will do good in this particular instance, right now.
Set a standard; hold fast to it.
That's all there is.

Are you ready for every one of your actions to be an opportunity?
Are you ready to accept responsibility?

There are a few spots left In my high-level program.
We only accept women who are dying to set a standard and hold fast to it.

Click the banner below and apply to join The Sports Model Project.

Mic drop 🙂
Love and light and overwhelming passion
Hattie xoxo

PS: That quote is from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holliday
I recommend his books to all of my girls.

You can check Ryan out HERE.

Stop Asking Me To Motivate You

If you haven’t done it yet I’m not the answer.

If your not training 3-5x per week and using some kind of a plan with your food I can’t help you.

Guess what?

There isn’t anybody else who is the answer either.

“Hattie the only thing that is missing is the right coach 
if i just had you as a coach I know i would finally be motivated and successful”

Bullshit.

Stop giving away your power.

There isn’t a coach or a guru who can “fix” you. 

You’re actually fine the way you are, 
you just need to take action.
Then keep taking the action. 

You don’t need me or anybody else to get started. 
You don’t need me to become motivated.

That can only come from you. 
You CAN do it.

If you start telling yourself you can 
and you stop giving away the power to control your own life. 
“But Hattie your a coach, what gives?”

I definitely believe in the power of having the best mentors and coaches possible they magnify your progress enormously and help you unlock your potential.

Going to see Tony Robbins this year was a massive game changer for me, not because he “fixed me” but because he gave me the tools I needed to maximise what I’m doing now.

I wasn’t leaving it up to Tony though. 
I was working on my mindset all of the time.
I was training 
I was working my butt off
I was following my nutrition plan.

Seeing Tony helped me maximise what I was already doing.

So…
You have to want to go to the next level.
You have to want to do the work

You have to be doing the work

What I’ll do is maximise your results and magnify the effect of all of your effort.

I mean I know I could sell more coaching if I told you that

“you’re screwed without me” 
but the truth is your not,
I actually believe in you. 
You don’t need me to motivate you, the answers are inside. 

But you do need me to maximise you.

I see so many girls who are super motivated, putting in the work but not getting the result because the method that they are using sucks,
because they are trying to use a chop stick to chop down a tree and no matter how hard you try the tree will still be there standing sat the end.

I can make a massive difference If you have been putting in work but not getting anywhere

Click the banner below and apply for my team.

Love and light 
Hattie
xoxo

There Is Only One Way To Get Results From Your Training

Often it’s confusing to know what that one thing is
and we get lost worrying about other things which are irrelevant.

In fact, whenever we go through our process with a new client
we see that they have put virtually no emphasis on getting this one thing right
but they are stressed out about which exercises to do
and doing cardio and if they should "lift heavy" or not.

Exercising will not change your body on it’s own.

It will help you burn energy but this won’t get you the result you want

You want lower body fat AND some glutes AND a six pack

without looking washed out and exhausted. Just exercising will not help you achieve that, you need to be training.

So what is the difference between exercise and training?

When you exercise you are performing an activity in an essentially random way. Bootcamps, most circuits like F45 and Crossfit and the way you are doing weights right now fall into this category. The amount of reps and sets and the weights you use varies each session and depends on how motivated you are at the time.

Training is a systematic effort to improve in each session and to increase your output. It’s the only way to guarantee that you will get better. The mindset of training is completely different to exercising. The science is different too.

By training we are applying progressive overload to the body which forces it change. You must do more reps or sets or use a heavier weight or have more time under tension or density in your training program.

This is the case whether you are "lifting heavy" or using lighter weights it's even the case if you are doing interval training or cardio. If you are not training and using progressive overload you are just exercising.

Now for 90% of people exercising is a good option because it beats the hell out of doing nothing which is where they are stuck. Exercising is great for good health and for staying fit.
But you want more than that.

We are talking because you want to be the best version of yourself, you want elite body composition and there is only one way to achieve it and you can’t just guess…

If you aren’t using a program that you stick to or
If you aren’t recording your training sessions or you just “go off how you feel”
you aren’t using progressive overload and I guarantee that you aren’t getting better.

Once you apply this principle for 3-6 months you will no longer be saying
“I think something is happening”
You will just hear people saying to you

“What have you been doing?”

My girl Sarah Edwards Applied Progressive Overload For 12 Months

 

That’s why the girls in The Sports Model Project get results
The Sports Model Project is only for women who have been doing weights, hard for two year. Sorry, Yoga F45 or bootcamp doesn’t cut it.

The Sports Model Project is for women who are ready to push themselves each and every day and go to the next level.

Click the banner below to apply

Love and Light
Hattie xoxo