THE LEAN MACHINES
5 STEPS TO HAPPINESS @THELEANMACHINES

Our legion of columnists continues to grow. This month, we’re delighted to welcome John & Leon, aka The Lean Machines, the UK’s biggest fitness YouTubers with over 20,000,000 views and hundreds of thousands of social media followers.

Outside of YouTube, the guys are certified personal trainers, nutritionists and best-selling authors (Eat Well, Move Better and Feel Awesome). These two best friends are on a mission to help as many people as possible find happiness, get healthy and understand that getting in great shape and staying there can be fun!

Here, in their debut column, they list six ways you can restore happiness and balance in your life:

The fitness world has been an intimidating place for too long now, which is why we’re here! We’re trying to break down those barriers. Most people don’t want complication; they want to know what they need to do and how they can do it. You don’t need to overcomplicate things, which is why we’re trying to communicate with people in a way that resonates. Hence, here we are in BESTFIT Magazine…

We find that people are often looking for different things than what they tell us. For example, they might say they want the abs or bigger arms, but actually what they’re after is happiness. In our book – nudge, nudge, wink wink! – we talk a lot about happiness and balance, so here are our top tips to ensure you have both:

The secret to happiness is realising that it’s not a destination or something you achieve, it’s the way you live.

For example, you might be buying a new house, which in itself should make you happy, but you might think to yourself: ‘no, I’ll be happy when it’s decorated’, or ‘I’ll be happy when I have a family to fill it’. It’s like people put happiness off until the next event. We’re all guilty of it! However, by doing that, we’re never truly happy. It’s important to be happy in the present and understand that happiness is all about the journey. You’re never promised tomorrow, so make the most of today. You woke up this morning, that’s awesome. Make the most of it.

Manage your time.

If you ask people what they do for fun, they might list one or two things. If you then ask them how much time they spend doing those things, they’ll tell you it’s minimal compared to everything else, like work, for example.

If you like walking in the countryside, don’t just do it at the weekend. A lot of people feel guilty about being selfish, but it’s important to do that. Don’t keep giving yourself away. Take time to give yourself some headspace. Imagine being on a plane that’s about to crash, the first thing you’re told to do is to grab your mask before helping others. You often need to do this in everyday life. You can’t help other people if you’re not looking after yourself.

Live in the now.

This can be tough but try not to worry about what’s happened in the past or what might happen in the future. The past has been and gone and the future may or may not happen. The only thing you can control is now.

Get eight hours sleep a night as often as possible.

Your body needs to repair and restore itself from day to day. There are points in life where sleep will suffer and you can do nothing but suck it up, such as when you have kids, but for the majority of people there are no excuses. We have young people commenting on our videos and social media posts at all hours, then they’re off to school the next day. It’s no wonder levels of anxiety and depression are rising. Try not be too anal about it, that in turn can increase anxiety. No, just aim for eight hours as often as you can. It’s a fact that you’ll last longer without food than sleep. Sleep is essential.

Don’t turn positive steps into negatives.

For example, If you’ve been smashing your healthy lifestyle with regular exercise and an improved diet but you have an off day, don’t beat yourself up and throw all your hard work away on a week binge. It’s ok! In fact it’s normal, just have a word with yourself, accept it and get back on track. These irregular slip ups are small in the grand scheme of things.

Don’t judge your life by social media.

Social media can sometimes be a lot of smoke and mirrors, with so many editing apps, filters and colour-correcting tools, it’s important to consider that they might not be showing you the whole picture. We’re transparent in our approach in that our photos are untouched. Even if we use a filter, it’s listed at the bottom so people know the gradients. Outside of this, everyone has bad days and everyone is human, so don’t be taken in by it all. Anyone can smile for a photo, but that picture won’t tell you how they’re really feeling.

The Lean Machines will be back in our next issue.

Until then, you can follow their latest antics over on their YouTube channel YouTube.com/TheLeanMachines, or you can buy their book, Eat Well, Move Better & Feel Awesome, on Amazon.co.uk now.