The Outdoor Bloke
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My Story - Survival to Revival
Being outdoors and reconnecting with my primal self has been key to my personal growth and health optimisation. It has helped me to overcome stress, mild depression, overwhelm, anger, anxiety and frustration on a mental level, but also fight the blubber, resolve chronic back pain, runners knee/ weak joints and lack of fitness. Most importantly though, these have helped me to overcome confusion of who I really am, in order to find a deeper meaning in my life.
The Outdoor Bloke is Born
As a discontented youth, I soon broke out of the big smoke (London) and started seeking my own answers. I took 3 “gap years”, followed by 10 years as a wilderness bushcraft & survival guide, outdoor instructor and expedition leader – travelling all around the world, often off the beaten track. This is where “The Outdoor Bloke” was conceived.
Some highlights include, trekking through the Kenyan wilderness with Maasai warriors, living “off grid” in Costa Rica, staying with rural villages in Uganda and having my mind blown by the powerful plant medicine, ayahuasca, deep in the Peruvian Amazon. I came to understand that there is so much more to life than meets the eye and that happiness and meaning is not acquired by conventional means.
The Indoor Bloke and The Caged Animal
In 2017, I had a major shift in work and personal circumstances. I had taken on too much and become burnt out and overwhelmed professionally. I had stopped caring for myself. This coincided with the birth of my daughter and all the feelings associated with becoming a new parent. I dropped a lot of what I was doing and entered the rat race for the first time in my life! And I soon felt like a “caged animal”!
Physically, I was carrying some blubber and was unsatisfied with my body. I was weak. I had picked up persistent injuries, particularly of my lower back, which at times was crippling and incredibly frustrating. As a result, I was unable to remain consistent with any exercise regime. Nutrition/ diet had become unconscious and was just for convenience – although, I still believed I was consuming a “healthy” diet – but I was soon to learn how wrong I was!
Mentally, I was struggling, but didn’t want to accept this. I was unable to think clearly, my attention was scattered, I was overthinking the little stuff, was over engrossed in work and boundaries between work/life had merged. I was anxious about the future – worried about getting things wrong, about being a bad dad and about money. I lost a lot of confidence in myself and felt very discontented with life.
On top of this I felt isolated and mis-understood – which was a hangover from some of my mind-expanding travel experiences years back. I recognised that I had grown considerably over previous years – that my perception of the world had shifted. I found it hard to “buy in” to the conventional methods of health and happiness.
Gradually, I identified that my time as the Outdoor Bloke, 1.0, fed my soul, fed my inquisitive nature and kept me on a balanced diet of adventure and challenge. We humans need these to thrive! It was fun and exciting; I was outdoors all the time, among good people, inspired by amazing vistas, calmed by the presence of nature and more often than not, I had to trust myself and my intuition – in a moment’s notice.
At the same time, I started to realise that I had become the “Indoor Bloke”; living a typical 9-5, sedentary, overly domesticated daily existence – This did not feed my soul. I had become stale, stagnant and stopped “listening” and trusting myself. I had lost my identity and this showed up in my physical and mental decline that I had recognised. I was just existing!
Rewilding mission; The Outdoor Bloke is reborn
Having had the time to reflect, I then set myself a personal mission to reconnect with what I knew best – wild places. I started to prioritise myself and immersed myself in trail running (green exercise). This not only made me physically fitter than I’d ever been, but as a by-product of receiving mega doses of vitamin N (Nature) it transformed my mind and mental health as well.
But I didn’t stop there, I became curious of my potential and so fully embodied the primal lifestyle by adopting the diet, exercise and lifestyle habits of our hunter gatherer ancestors, as well as going alcohol free, barefoot and throwing myself into ice cold water. As a result, I became healthier, fitter and clearer than ever, which led to me completing a 70-mile ultra-marathon and qualifying as a Primal health coach to share the love.
However, not only have I felt the benefits, my relationships to those closest to me have improved and my work results increased dramatically.
Primal Health Coach
Now I am on the other side of my “caged animal” experience, I whole heartedly believe that modern living is out of alignment with our human design! We live in-authentic lives to our human design and so is it any wonder why we are now seeing an epidemic of obesity, chronic health issues, mental health issues and countless other social and global problems.
I now want to help other “over domesticated individuals” to get back to basics and like me, go from “survival to revival” in their own life.