‘I’m a health coach for A-list celebrities. Here’s exactly what my job involves.’

Like most people, the first thing I reach for when I wake up is my phone. 

Not to scroll through my social media or world news before 4am, though. I have the privilege of waking up to a blitz of text messages from my clients in various time zones, who range from Hollywood A-listers to platinum selling rappers, mega musicians, television presenters and even royalty.

So what kind of problems could possibly be plaguing the rich & famous? Probably not what you’d expect, so here’s a few actual examples from the last few weeks …

“Just letting you know that the restaurant tonight has changed, can you check the menu at XYZ and advise what you want me to have?” 

“Filming schedule has been delayed/extended/changed – will you contact catering?”

“FML I didn’t get my exercise done, do two tomorrow?”

“Sorry for calling you at 2am your time – thanks for talking me through.”

Watch: Easy, healthy snack ideas. Story continues after video.

There’s usually somewhere between 30 – 50 text messages to answer, and these are just the non-urgent things that have come through during the night. 

If it’s urgent or they’re struggling with something, they know they can phone me during my night time… and they do! 

They also know they’re welcome to FaceTime me rather than phone, although I do make them understand that the risk they take is that I will answer the video call in my PJs (and yes - I have been on a FaceTime call to Mel Gibson while I’m wearing my Cookie Monster pyjamas.)

I get asked a lot if I’m intimidated by working with the rich and famous – and my answer is always ‘not in a million years’. 

For a start, these people seek me out – I don’t chase them for work, and because they know I’ll be the ‘secret weapon’ behind them looking and feeling the way they want to, they approach me with humility, courtesy and respect. 

They treat me as their confidant, their trusted advisor, their coach, their external conscience and ultimately their friend. Not always to start with, but hey – I’m sure we’d all use big bad swear words at someone making us do burpees and battle ropes, right? 

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My name gets whispered around behind the scenes rather than promoted on social media, and to be honest I actually prefer it that way. I’d much rather be significant than prominent, and the connections I have are genuine, not sponsored. 

What that also means is that I need to have lock-tight confidentiality at all times. Needing assistance in any area isn’t something anybody should be ashamed of – but at the same time, these guys don’t want it making front page news either. And it will. 

Maybe I’m a little blasé about what I see behind the scenes in the normality of the celebs I work with. I see them in their daggy jeans and shirts, their sweaty workout gear and with unshaven faces and messy buns, so the fascination of ‘celebrity’ has well and truly gone for me. 

In my experience, they’re completely and utterly normal people who just happen to have seriously cool jobs.

When they do have an acting job coming up, I’m madly working with the film production team to find out what their individual filming schedule is – are they working days, nights, just a few hours a day? 

Will they be in prosthetic makeup, how long is it going to take them to get in and out of costume and how many days are we talking here? 

Do they have to travel, what will the facilities be like, do they have an area where they can work out that isn’t hot, cold, getting rained on, and who is catering the set for food because I’ll need to have a word with them too.

Once I’ve got all of this information, I can organise how I want them to keep fit and energetic during the filming period, so I give their exercise schedule and catering requirements that I want them to follow to both the talent and their on-set assistant and I make darn sure it all happens. 

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If it’s a music tour it’s a similar story – I have the last say on what food will be on the tour bus and for the catering at the venue, and I need to know what hotels they’re staying in, do they have a gym, how many days they’ll be on the bus and what level of air travel is involved.

Again, once their manager has given me all of this I can get to work on designing their food and exercise for the road. 

While the muso’s are touring from city to city they take a few sets of resistance bands with them and I train them using those instead of dumbbells (they weigh too much and take up too much room). 

When it’s ‘go time’ for them, my job is keeping their energy levels high, their general fitness able to cope with the demands of their job, and their heads clear and focused. 

We’d all like to sit back and say ‘oh, it must be so easy to do what they do’. Let me tell you, it is neither easy nor glamorous. It’s long hours of constantly being ‘switched on’ and it’s exhausting. 

They’re tired, they can be grumpy, and all they feel like doing is relaxing and snarfing some pizza and I’m making them eat balanced, sensible meals and getting them to train with me on a video call.

Do I go on tour or on the film set with them? No. It’s hectic and already crowded, so adding an extra body in the mix takes up a lot of unnecessary room. Am I *constantly* checking on them via SMS and FaceTime, and running PT sessions with them over Skype? You bet. 

As Mel said to me years ago, “you doing what you do best enables me to do what I do best” – and that’s a responsibility I take very seriously.

When they’re not acting, touring, playing or getting ready to do so, most of my time with the celebs is spent doing what I call ‘mental CPR’ or in other words, I keep their head in the game. 

Sure, they’re all oh so motivated when they have a role or an event or a tour coming up that they need to look a certain way for… but in between times? Well, they’re human, aren’t they. 

As we all know, looking after yourself ‘just because’ is hard work unless your habits and mindset are absolutely unshakeable… and there are not too many of us who can raise our hands to that one, celebs or not! 

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No amount of money or fame awards you a strong mindset; that one needs to be well and truly earned the hard way. 

Actors who put themselves through some serious rigour to either lose or gain-then-lose body fat for a role, or bulk up and get muscly, understandably just want to relax and let their hair down when they’re no longer filming that piece. 

Which I do let them do… within limits and temporarily. I coach them not to stray too far from the healthy centre line during their downtime, because I care way too much about their health and wellbeing to have them taking a yo-yo diet approach. 

Mel Gibson is my longest-running celeb client - we’ve been working together consistently for four and a half years now. 

We’re in touch every day, whether he’s preparing for either acting or directing, setting a new goal for himself or just going about his day to day.

Since Mel ‘outed’ me, I’ve had the honour of helping many thousands of people - not just celebrities - improve their health, be energetic and strong and never diet again. And I’m far from finished.

Mel and I often joke that we changed each other’s lives back in June of 2018 … and it looks like we’re going to continue doing so for a long, long time to come.

Feature Image: Supplied/Instagram.