FIX is a brand born out of sheer frustration. Founder Jake Hitchcock, a personal trainer, continually observed clients trying to force their bodies into a shape, size, or routine that wasn’t healthy for them and decided to enact change.

FIX aims to change the conversation around lifestyle to encourage a cultural reset; a mindset shift that looks at health for each individual rather than following a mass, fad, trend. FIX is designed to give people the tools needed to nourish body and mind for optimal health; both physical and mental.

‘The Top Ten Healthiest Foods You Can Eat’, ‘The Ten Foods You Must Avoid’, ’12 Foods You Need to Stop Buying and 10 You Should Be Eating More Of’…

These sorts of headlines litter the press, flood our inboxes, and are a sponsored post away from any health-related Google search. For those who are, or have been, interested in optimising health and nutrition then this sort of click-bait is likely to lead to confusion – as messages tend to contradict each other. As if food were fashion, the do’s and don’ts and must-haves seem to have gone from seasonal recommendations to an unsustainable, never satisfied industry which demands more response and expense than ever before. Meryl Streep’s next role might well be in ‘The Devil Eats Banana’ (*if only banana was Keto).

It’s the same with exercise as with diet. Once upon a time, only seasoned athletes or body-builders tended to push and train and strain. Now everywhere you look there are messages to bulk up, trim down or ‘sculpt’. Sculpt! –  an endeavour which we should all understand requires a scalpel, not a personal trainer!  

It seems this runaway train of health advice has gained so much momentum because we continue to be dissatisfied with our physical image rather than our physical health. We focus on the external and are told, by external media, what perfect should look like.

Let’s be honest, most people who look for diet cues or training tips do so because they want to look good, so, where’s the harm? Interestingly this increased appetite for perceived ‘perfection’ has also spiked a rise in mental health issues, affecting both men and women of all ages; most prevalently those aged 15-26 but also extending to children as young as nine years old. Issues such as eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and body dysphoria have all risen since the possibly not coincidental rise of social media.

So, what do we do about this? Where do we start?

The shift that needs to happen needn’t be a drastic one. In fact, FIX promotes taking the stress, rules, and pressure away, by asking only for a simple check in each day and tailoring advice to the results.

Contrary to what many may think or fear, our bodies intrinsically know what we need and will recalibrate daily to try and keep us at our natural set-point. This is a common reason for why many diets fail, or fitness regimes become detrimental and, in some cases, life-threatening. It’s because we are working against our body without realising it. Have you ever heard of the guy who continually ran marathons and then dropped dead? The weight trainers that may look impressive until they are hospitalised with kidney failure? 

We are all different and have slightly different needs and temperaments. We are each born with a genetic code which works as a set of coordinates to map our maintenance for optimal health. The persisting problem in modern-day culture is that we don’t recognise or tune into this, and instead look to someone else for guidance or ‘body-goals’. The truth is that nobody knows what you need better than you. 

So, why does looking to ourselves feel so problematic? It’s common to think; “no way, if it were left to me, I’d eat three packets of biscuits between breakfast and lunch”, or “I only crave foods that are bad for me, I need discipline”, and the very common “I need someone else to push me, otherwise I just won’t do it”. All of these messages are setting you up to fail from the start, creating a disconnection between yourself and your…self. The head is afraid of what the body might want, rather than working in alignment with it.

The guilt and shame that many of us carry or work hard to keep at bay is a barrier to our connection with our bodies. We are suffering from the lack of exploration of taste, emotion, and pleasure, not to mention how these negative feelings wreak havoc on our digestive system. 

By continuously listening to our bodies, we can better navigate what our nutrition and wellness needs are on a daily basis. We eat only the foods we love, and get the energy, rest, and repair to not only keep us healthy, but also stave off disease and premature ageing. 

FIX is about building and repairing each person’s relationship with themselves and to take every body on a journey back to the optimal health that will lead each person to feeling and looking the best they’ve ever been. Remember, real health radiates from the inside out.