Starting Imperfectly

In the inaugural episode of 'Showing Up Anyway,' Coach Adam shares his personal journey through the challenges of diet culture, body image, and the importance of embracing imperfection. He discusses his transition from personal training to creating content that promotes anti-diet culture and body positivity. Adam emphasizes the significance of starting imperfectly and the value of showing up, even when feeling scared or uncertain. The episode serves as a motivational call to action for listeners to prioritize their mental and physical well-being without the pressure of perfection.

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What is Showing Up Anyway with Coach Adam?

Showing Up Anyway is a podcast about unlearning diet culture, redefining health, and making peace with food, movement, and your body -- without needing to have it all together. Hosted by Coach Adam Wright, an anti diet-culture personal trainer and body-trust educator, each episode dives into the imperfect side of wellness and how to navigate motivation burnout, body image struggles, emotional eating and the pressure to be "healthy". This is your reminder that progress doesn't need to be perfect, and you'll still see progress as long as you show up anyway.

Welcome to Showing Up Anyway,
the podcast

for people who are not perfect.
On this show,

we talk about intuitive eating,
fitness without obsession,

and healing your relationship
with food and your body.

Hi, everyone! Today's episode
is called Starting Imperfectly.

My goodness, I am
so happy you are here.

We're finally doing this.

I have been asked a lot to do
a podcast and, if I'm being honest,

starting over on
a new platform like Spotify

or Apple Podcasts
has been super intimidating.

And so, I've been procrastinating
like hell.

Uh, and I've been trying
to get everything else in order

before actually recording
the content.

And then I realised, you know what?

That's probably an important thing,
I should do that.

So, here we are. You're listening to

the very first episode
of Showing Up Anyway.

If you're here,
you probably know who I am.

Um, I have almost two million
followers across my socials,

but I am so happy
to start something new and exciting.

And long-form content is something

I really haven't done
a whole lot of before.

Now, I'll be honest,

I am nervous about
starting this podcast.

It's not because I'm not confident
in the way that I teach

and my approach to fitness

and health and the content
that I talk about,

it's really because I don't usually
speak off the cuff like this.

You know, my content
is oftentimes scripted,

it is heavily curated to make sure
that I'm not flubbing my words

and that I say the right thing.

I'm going to try and be

a little more unedited
and real with you guys,

so you can feel my personality
and get to know me as a person

and how I feel about things
and my real,

honest approach to fitness
and the way that I coach,

because the way that I
talk is the way that I coach.

That's just me. So, let's start
with a little introduction.

My name is Adam. I'm 37, 38 almost,

and I have been training
for almost ten years,

I've been a personal trainer.
My journey started back in 2015.

Well, let's go even further back,
I suppose.

I grew up suffering
the harmful effects of diet culture.

I was overweight most of my life,

I remember being bullied as a kid.

I suffered an eating disorder
in high school,

and I remember it starting,
interestingly enough,

in a weight training class

when I had lost a lot of weight
because I started exercising.

That was really my first
introduction to exercise,

and I lost a lot of weight,

and I was getting compliments

and everyone
was telling me how good I looked,

and that was exciting for me.

And then after that class ended
and it was on summer break,

I was craving those compliments
and I wasn't, you know,

I wasn't exercising anymore.

And so, I really did
the only thing I knew to do,

and that was, um, that was purging.

And, unfortunately, that took over
my life for quite a while.

Thankfully, I had
really supportive parents.

Not everyone's so lucky.

They helped me get help,
and that's now behind me.

But the harmful effects of
that kind of lingered,

and my relationship with food
and my body has been

a real challenge for me.

And so, after high school,
when I was 19,

I joined the Army and I was a medic
in the military for three years.

I did a tour in Iraq,

so during basic training I
had lost a bunch of weight again.

More of that yo-yo cycle, right?

And I'd lost a bunch of weight
because, again,

I've been just exercising non-stop

and our food was very limited
and rationed very strictly.

And so, after the military,

when I got out and I didn't
have to exercise every single day

and I could eat
whatever I wanted to,

I sort of rebelled.
And I was like,

"I'm going to eat everything I can

and I'm not going
to exercise at all.

I'm sick of it." And I gained
a bunch of weight, obviously,

to the point where,
when I was about 25,

I saw a picture of myself
and I realised

that I was not happy in
the body that I was in.

And it's not really
because I was fat, I don't think.

I'll admit back then,
that's something...

I mean, I was, you know, 25.
That seemed like everything.

I wanted to look hot.
(LAUGHS)

But, looking back now,

I realised that I just
wasn't happy with who I was

and so... I didn't really
know what I was doing.

I DID know about exercise,

so I was doing a bunch of that and
I was just trying to eat less.

I didn't have the best habits,

but I don't think I was doing
anything incredibly dangerous,

thankfully.
But I did lose some weight.

And then, on a whim,
I started working...

I was going to college,

I started working at a gym

and the gym I started working
at had a pretty cool culture.

I really liked the personal
trainers that were there.

I was there in the early morning
and got to talk to them

and got to see their
clients' faces light up

when they came in the room

or walked in the gym,
and I was like,

"Man, you guys have
a really cool job."

And I started talking to
the general manager of the gym,

and I was like, "I think
I'd be really good at that."

I'd just undergone a
weight loss transformation myself.

I'd always loved helping people,

I was a medic in the military,

so, like, that was something
that was pretty natural for me.

And they were like, "You know what?
We believe in you.

Why don't we get you sponsored?
We'll pay for your certification."

And I said, "Yeah, let's do it,
man."

So, they paid for my certification,

I began training.
I loved what I was doing,

loved working with people,
loved getting to know them,

hearing their stories.

And it was really great for me
because it let me work

with people of all
different shapes and sizes.

I worked with old women
who had their hips replaced,

I worked with amputees,
I worked with millennial women,

like, I worked with everybody,

and it really helped
me become versatile and understand

that everybody had
a different story.

And I think that really helped me,

because I learned a sense of empathy

that I don't think that I really
would have understood

if I hadn't done that.

I quickly moved up the ranks,
I became a master trainer.

I became... Which just means

that you have done a certain
amount of coaching, right?

You've coached a number of hours,
whatever. Um,

I think it was like 2,000
at the time,

2,000 hours of training,
I've worked with,

you know, dozens and dozens
and dozens of clients,

and then I became a fitness manager.

And I worked so hard
to become a fitness manager,

and after just a brief time,
I realised I absolutely hated that.

And it was because I
no longer was training,

I had to give up every single client
that I had, except for one,

and... I got to
keep one, thankfully.

But I had to go in
and do administrative stuff

and it just wasn't
what I wanted to do.

It was about the numbers,
it wasn't about the people.

And so I left that job and I said,
"I just can't do this anymore.

This is not what I became
a personal trainer for."

And I started my own business.

And, for a while, I was
working out of my garage.

I had a gym set up
and I was training clients in there,

and it was very cool.

But then 2019 came and Covid hit
and everything changed

and I realised I couldn't

really train clients
in person anymore.

I had to adapt, I had to change,

and one of my clients suggested
I started posting on TikTok,

which I was, like... How old was I?

I was in my 30s and I was like,
"I don't know what TikTok is.

I'm too old for this app. What?
What do you mean?"

However, I took her advice.
Uh, I started posting on TikTok.

I didn't really know
what I was doing.

A lot of it was trends

and typical tutorials
and fitness advice,

and it took me
a while to really find my niche.

But, eventually, I started realising
that the stuff

that people really resonated with
and cared about was

the anti-diet culture content
that I made,

things about body positivity
and inclusivity,

and things about people's
relationship with food

and their relationship
with their body and exercise,

which worked out great
because I liked talking about that.

And, to be honest, there's not
a lot of people talking about it

in the industry and there's not
a lot of men especially.

So, that worked out in my favour.

But, uh, it was something
I was really passionate about

and I think you can feel
that in my content.

And I get wonderful messages
from people every single day

telling me how my content
has made a difference in their life

and that is so, so important to me

because everybody deserves
to feel their best and to live

a happy and healthy life.

But for so long we have been lied to
about what that looks like.

Diet culture has had

an absolute vise grip
on our parents,

our grandparents

and us, talking about what is
healthy and what's not healthy.

And immediately
when people think of health,

they think of, first and
foremost, a thin body, right?

They think of extreme restriction,
they think of non-stop exercise,

juice cleanses, diet pills,

giving up carbohydrates
or fats or whatever.

And I just don't believe

that is sustainable or
realistic for most people.

So, what I intend to do,
through my content,

through this podcast,

through my message in general
is to reject harmful diet culture

and unrealistic expectations
to create a sustainable

and inclusive and accessible space
where everybody can

celebrate their unique strengths
and can understand

and listen to their body in a way

that makes them feel
confident and happy.

But the big thing that I want you
to take away from this,

and the reason that I called this
episode Starting Imperfectly

is because it's okay to be nervous

and scared
about starting something new.

And, obviously, I can relate this
to starting a fitness journey

or starting a road towards wellness
and repairing your relationship

with food and exercise.
For many of you,

this is going to be the first time
that you've done it.

Or maybe you've done it before,
but you're having to start again.

Um, and that is scary. Maybe it's
because you're scared of failing.

Maybe it's
because you're scared of success.

And I think that's going to be

a topic we're going to approach
in a future podcast is,

you know, the reasons
why we have those feelings.

But the important thing
that I want you to remember,

and the thing I try
to remind myself,

is that perfection is not the goal.
The goal is presence.

The goal is progress, even if
that's a little bit at a time.

That's why the podcast is
called Showing Up Anyway,

because even when you're struggling,
you're trying.

And if you're doing your best,
you're doing enough.

Real change does not start
with mastery,

it starts with vulnerability.

It starts with you taking
that first step towards change.

Just being there. I remember one of
my clients texted me and she said,

"I went to the gym today

and I stayed in the parking lot
and I cried.

And then I went home,
but I went."

And we celebrated that
because that was a big step.

That's the first step of many.

It's not about doing
everything right.

It's not about making giant changes

that immediately make
you this perfectly healthy person.

That's not real.

You're not going to be
what you see on social media.

That's not who they are.

You're going to have times
where it's scary.

You're going to have times
where you cry.

You're going to have times
where you are angry.

You're going to have times
where you are frustrated,

where you seemingly

are doing everything right
and nothing is working,

Where you're doing everything well,

until one day you make a mistake
and then it feels like everything

is falling to pieces.
That's being human.

And so, I'm going to be here

to help remind you
that you're human.

I tell my clients all the time,
if you ever achieve perfection,

congratulations - you're the first.

You don't have to have it
all together.

To begin, this podcast is not
going to be perfect.

I'm not going to always
say the right things.

I might mess up a line
or lose my train of thought.

But the importan.. the important,
but the important thing...

See? It's already started!

The important thing is
that I'm showing up,

I'm doing it.

And whatever your goal is, I think
if you show up, you can do it too.

I recently became really

good friends with
a guy you might know.

His name is ScottyKFitness, and he
has a phrase that I really love.

He says, "Let's do it afraid."

And that's something

I reminded myself
when starting this podcast,

and something
that I'm going to pass on to you.

It's okay
to do something you're scared of,

you're nervous about.

The important thing is that,
even if you're feeling that way,

you show up anyway.

I'm not going to dredge on too long,

this is our first introduction
to each other in this podcast form.

Please be patient as I
figure out the timeline,

but I am super happy
that you tuned in

and you listened
and you let me speak,

and I love that so many of you
care about what I have to say.

Thank you for helping
me spread this message

and for being so open minded
to learn something new.

I'll see you next time.

Thank you for tuning in to this
episode of Showing Up Anyway.

You can find it
for free on Spotify

or wherever you get your podcasts
and wherever you're listening,

if you like the show, I'd love it
if you gave me a five-star review,

because that does help other
people find the show,

and hopefully it will
help change their life,

just like you're looking
to change yours.

If you're listening
on Spotify, though,

you can follow me and
tap the bell icon

so you get notifications
when new episodes come out.

I'm Coach Adam. Remember,
when things get challenging,

keep showing up anyway.