TMHO Exclusive! Interview with Mark Bailey
By: tmhogirl (12 December 2008)
.jpg)
I sometimes wonder whether people are like their TV personas, or simply faking it. And sometimes, we get a chance to meet the stars who are exactly like they come across on TV. Take for example, the night I met X Factor's metro-sexual hug-it-out Dermot O'Leary, and we had a friendly good laugh after I demanded (and got) a kiss from him in front of my partner, or the rather shy Gareth Gates, who blushed when I asked for a snog. I promise you that I'm not a stalker.
Another example was the night I met the former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and like I had expected, he was full of premier first class shit of the bull variety. But enough about some of my encounters for now, if you want some gossips, check out our Entertainment or Blog sections.
I guess what I am getting at is that from his TV persona, you would expect the fit, handsome and multi-talented talented Mark Bailey to be likeable, kind, caring, sensitive, supportive, alternative, *nice* and to like hugs. Well, Mark is all those things, but he is also a hell of a lot more. He is a thoroughly decent human being, considerate, intelligent, brilliant at his job, and most importantly, he keeps it real and is not a bullshitter.
I first encountered Mark at an extremely dark period in my life. I was a complete stranger who needed a bit of help, and without knowing a single thing about me, Mark went out of his way to be helpful, and with absolutely nothing at all to gain from me.
It is therefore absolutely no big surprise, that when we wanted someone to talk to about health and fitness for our launch edition, Mark was top of my list of experts to interview.
Thank you so much for agreeing to talk to us at the launch of our website. You have quite a reputation for being cool, calm, collected and very kind. But here on Tearingmyhairout.com (TMHO) we always want to know at least three things that make even a cool guy like you to tear your hair out both professionally and personally?!
Bad manners - especially if it is me doing it. London can be quite a frantic place and we are often in a hurry so it is all too easy to be too pushy. I think manners maketh the man or woman and speak volumes about us.
I also tear my hair out at (oh God here goes), groups of people who walk slowly down a street but take up the entire width of the pavement. They seem to have eyes in the back of their heads and when they know you are in a hurry they spread out wider!
I am also not particularly fond of people who talk over everyone else because they think they are more interesting. I was at a party once and someone, who was a bit off their head I think, said,
"Yeah we've never really spoken before but you're actually quite interesting".
The bit that pissed me off was the word "quite" but the fact is they had never bothered asking me anything before - they just talked AT me!
We all know exactly the kind of people you mean! Now, let's talk about your work. You probably don't need any introduction as we all watched the Biggest Loser UK where through diet and exercise, you helped the winner Aaron Howlett to shed 10 stone in 20 weeks. But for those that are not very familiar with your work, tell us more about you and the kind of work you do?
Well I do both training and psychotherapy. Most of my work now tends to be the latter but as part of therapy, I often encourage clients to introduce exercise or regular movement into their lives and I absolutely believe that a healthy body can equal healthy mind. If you look at the effect of chemicals in our foods, they have a profound effect on our nervous system. In my works, lifestyle management can play an important role.
What inspires you both personally and professionally?
People I suppose. I have great respect for people's individuality. There is no one correct way in life and it is up to each of us to find a way that works for us. I think when people begin to open up and blossom and come in and say "Something big has changed for me", that is joyful.
Your work on advanced coaching sounds fascinating. Could you tell us a little bit more about the programmes you offer?
Sure. Coaching is a combination of many different things but in a nutshell, sometimes we know roughly what we want but can delude ourselves into believing that we don't want it, simply because it seems like too big a mountain to climb and we don't have a structure. Coaching adds a structure so we feel safer and more enabled to climb whatever mountain we face.
You are a NLP expert and teach people how to handle stress and achieve a state of calmness instead of tearing their hair out. What relaxation tips do you have for our TMHO members when they are stressed or when they need to overcome nerves to give a confident business pitch?
Firstly breathe. It sounds simple and it is. Breathing deeply changes the patterns in your nervous system and then throughout your brain. It allows the axons and dendrites of the billions of cells in your brain to communicate better. When we're stressed the energy flow in your brain can be irrational, over-impulsive and above all lead to us fleeing for cover!
Wow, we are all guilty of forgetting to breathe when stressed. Let's talk about TV. You seem to crop up on our TVs and radio quite regularly, the Biggest Loser, Richard and Judy, BBC, ITV etc. Tell us about some of the programmes you have appeared on.
In addition to the ones you mentioned, I have also presented a few shows. I did a big action/adventure show for ITV many years ago called Swap Team. It was produced by TV legend Nigel Lythgoe who created Pop Idol and American Idol. It was great fun. I have a busy year ahead in 2009 with a big strand for BBC World starting on executives getting fit. We will follow the progress of 2 CEO's under my wing and see what changes for them! It is deliberately aimed at those who work long hours and have a lot of stress to deal with.
This sounds very exciting. Is there a website where our members can get more information?
Yes, you can get more info at: www.bbcworldnews.com/fasttrack
OK Mark, I'm not trying to embarrass you here but I think that every woman who watched the Biggest Loser UK, probably fell a little bit in love with you, and we're not talking about your obviously fit body, how do you do it?! What I mean is the way you came across as a genuinely nice person, supportive and caring to the contestants. You also seemed to have a heartfelt appreciation and empathy for not only their struggles with food, but also the psychological struggles that come with obesity.
Wow, thank you.
Do you have personal experience of being overweight, losing weight and getting fit because we look at you and you look like the kind of person that has been fit forever.
Oh yes. I was about 15 stone at one stage. But to be honest my biggest problem over the years was denying my feelings and pretending it was all okay. I really wanted to be in good shape but my method was up the spout. I had a bad routine, got bad advice and got bad results too. This will explain why I KNOW all those miracles are B*l^h1t! I have tried them all!
If you can go from 15 stones to being as fit as you are, there is hope for all of us. Talking about losing weight, I really enjoyed your YouTube pages and one of my favourite videos is the 5 steps to a beach body video. [See below]. I love your no nonsense approach to losing weight, especially the bits where you talk about the 80:20 rule and say something like eat the bloody cream cake if you fancy it! I will leave it to our members to watch your videos for themselves, but can you tell us more about the 80:20 rule?
Easy. In my lunch bag today I have loads of vegetables (like cabbage, broccoli, and carrots) cooked this morning - takes ten minutes to do while I make my breakfast or shave etc. I also have two bits of chicken and I eat it through the day as and when. Then later I will have a Starbucks cheesecake as a treat. I eat treats every 2 or 3 days. It is that simple. Here's the difference though. I never eat sandwiches from a sandwich shop and I never eat normal breakfast cereals or any other highly processed food. That stuff is basically in the same category as treats: i.e. it is crap. But they label it like it's good for you. So unknowingly most people eat 80% treats and 20% good stuff but under the misapprehension they are doing well. That was my biggest mistake.
You are obviously not an advocate for "diet" foods, and seem to say that eating natural, wholesome foods is the way to achieve a fit and healthy body. Why don't you think "diet" foods work?
"Diet" foods do not work for 2 simple reasons; they are terrible quality most of the time and they are dramatically overpriced.
Are you effectively advocating what some would refer as the caveman diet?
Yes! And with occasional treats - or you go nutty.
Interesting but how do you answer the argument that man has evolved since his cave days, and such diet could be unrealistic today?
True. We have evolved - we've got fatter.
Nice one Mark. Now let's talk about fitness. You have had some impressive successes with seriously obese people. What is your secret?
Simple training. No machines, using bodyweight exercise and functional caveman-like movement patterns. This works far better and wakes your body up in every sense. It gets more neural linkage activated in your body so you feel more engaged in it.
What would you say are the best kinds of exercise for both weight loss and general fitness?
Same answer as above!
OK. Lots of people who want to lose weight become distracted with working out in fat burning zone, own zone, and it all gets very confusing and complicated. If you are interested in losing weight, and have a polar counter or such like, is there any particular zone one should be concentrating on?
I don't think so. I think unless you are expressly going for a target like a marathon you don't need to get distracted by heart rates. They can however sometimes be inspiring for people. In my experience people want to look fitter and feel fitter and not get obsessed by measuring things!
Like you said a great deal of your work is psychotherapy. As someone who has benefitted from psychotherapy, I am a great advocate for its benefits. How do you convince a sceptic that psychotherapy is not about being scrutinised or someone screwing with your head?
Oh God. That is my one f**king hatred of some of the perceptions of therapy. And the trade has not always done itself favours. Happily most therapists are good people. You do get the occasional loony. My biggest value is that the client knows more about their problem and how to solve it than I will ever do. I may know lots about the brain and patterns of behaviour but I can only ever guide. From my own experiences, we all need an opportunity to say some things in a place where we feel safe to do so. We all have bits of lots of things in our heads and sometimes only by saying them out loud can we make sense of them. It can be useful to do that with a therapist so they can assist you NOT scrutinise you. Any therapist who needs to scrutinise a client has a big ego and needs a kick up the arse!
You also work as a hypnotist and one of the episodes that I remember from the Biggest Loser UK was when through mind control and visualisation you got one of the contestants Alexis to balance her body like steel bars on two chairs! [See below for link to the video] I'm a control freak and the idea of hypnosis freaks me out because I always imagine some kind of loss of control – is that true?
There is no loss of control in hypnosis, you are always in control. This was self-hypnosis. Some people can use it better than others and I didn't DO IT to them - they did it. I taught them what focus and trance can achieve and the chairs thing was the result of a few days of practice. They then had that tool for life.
You are a member of the Hypnotherapy Association. What tips do you have for choosing a properly qualified hypnotist or therapist generally?
I think my previous answer is a big factor. A lot of it is on intuition. You don't necessarily have to like your therapist but you need to feel safe and to trust them. You can also look at the UKCP website for other types of therapist.
You are obviously very much in demand with television and radio shows, working with executives and celebrities. However, I have no doubt that some of our members would be interested in your services. Do you take on clients who are "ordinary" people, and if so, how can we get in touch with you or buy any of your products?
I work with lots of different people and yes some happen to be famous. I am very excited because we have just launched an online shop with some great hypnosis and motivational products at www.markbaileyonline.com
What advice do you have for any aspiring fitness trainer or therapist out there?
Take your time. It takes years not weeks or days to learn the job. Be patient with people and encourage people never to give in!
When you are not healing the world and looking after our physical and mental wellbeing, what do you do for fun?!
Lately, I've been doing a lot of DIY. I think my biggest recreation is socialising, watching DVDs and reading.
Lastly, what is next for Mark Bailey?!
I am really excited about the BBC World project for next year and the online shop is gathering momentum. After that who knows??!!!!!
Thank you very much, Mark. It has been a real pleasure chatting with you. We are very grateful for your time, and we really hope that you will join us again very soon. Our members would also be interested in reading a post or four from you and we look forward to welcoming you again on TMHO.
Thank you, my pleasure.
You can also find out more about Mark on his website www.markbaileyonline.com
Mark's 5 steps to a beach body video can be found on his YouTube pages http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=siemUeW2dD8&feature=related
Mark's self hypnosis video can be found at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8arSr18RwA&eurl=http://markbaileylifechange.co.uk/HypnosisNLP.html&feature=player_embedded
Votes: 12 Log in to vote for this item, post a comment or report abuse.
Comments on this post:
"I'm inspired to start dieting and exercising tomorrow instead of waiting until after Christmas!"
summer (14 December 2008)
Votes: 1 Log in to vote or report abuse
See all posts by tmhogirl | Back to main health page