The Time I Met Joe Wicks

Before we get to today's post, I want to share a really important open letter from Nutrition Action for Palestine (check out their instagram page) calling on major nutrition organisations in the UK to condemn the genocide in Gaza and take steps to ensure aid distribution, and long-term food sovereignty. UK nutrition organisations have remained conspicuously absent from calls to end the genocide, protect our colleagues and civilians in Palestine, and have failed to take action to pressure the government. As a profession who supposedly prevent and treat malnutrition, we cannot remain silent. If you are a UK-based registered nutritionist/dietitian, associated nutritionist, dietetic assistant, student of these disciplines, researcher or lecturer in these fields. Please sign the letter and circulate among colleagues.

Right now, I'm down a deep rabbit hole researching and writing next week's essay on Joe Wicks. When I ran a poll on Instagram asking if people would like me to write about Joe, or Jamie Oliver, the vast majority of people picked Wicks. This was surprising to me, because in my mind, Oliver is the bigger op. Anyway, he'll get his comeuppance eventually.

As I've been thinking about this piece, I've thought about touchpoints I've had with JW in my career, usually via people I've worked with. One of the earliest and most memorable was when I was filming a marathon documentary for BBC one in 2017. The concept was that ten people – who all struggled with their mental health in one way or another – would be followed as they trained for the London Marathon over the course of six months or so. My job was to advise on nutrition, ofc. Now, I am decidedly not a sports nutritionist. But this was irrelevant because it turned out that most people weren't even covering the basics, let alone in a position to optimise nutrition (whatever that means). Virtually everyone was using the marathon training as a way to try and control their weight. But specifically, people were using Joe Wick's low-carb Body Coach approach while trying to run 26.2 miles non-stop. Rampant carbphobia is just one of JW's many gifts to the world.

Throughout the years of supporting people to have a more peaceful relationship with food, Joe's name is undoubtedly one that has had the biggest impact on people (followed closely by Slimming World). So it was kind of wild when my book was picked up by the same inprint that published Joe's books and we ended up at a publishing showcase together.

What follows is the story of when I met Joe Wicks.