The 16kg That Changed My Life

My entire life has changed because of 16kg. This weight I am referring to is maybe not what you’d expect. It is not the weight I lost giving me the body I had always dreamed of (this aim is problematic for many reasons but we will get to that later). It is not the combined weight of my children at certain ages. 16kg is not the amount of steak you have to eat to have your photo taken and placed on the “mega meat challenge” at my local eatery. It is the weight of my kettlebell and that kettlebell has entirely changed my personal and business life. You can’t buy happiness. But you can buy a kettlebell and for me, it is sort of the same thing. 

Welcome to the Andrew Sillitoe Show.

I’m an active person. Sometimes too active. I have pushed my body to its limits and asked it to do more than it is able. I have set myself unrealistic goals, given myself too little recovery time and done myself serious damage. Often when we think of being unhealthy we think of 3 of the 7 deadly sins; gluttony, sloth and greed. 

This seems to feed into this idea that the worst thing we can do is sit down and consume, and that’s sometimes true. However, I think it is important to acknowledge that putting yourself through too much is equally as damaging. It is all harmful. I have managed to find a way to set myself regular, achievable goals and it has dramatically changed my life. I’d like to share with you the secret. 

As business leaders we are naturally target driven. We feel in competition with everyone, sometimes even the people in our team. I have certainly stayed later than everyone else, got in earlier than everyone else and asked more of myself than I would of anyone in my team. I told myself it was because I was the leader, the example, the person in charge. However, over time, I have come to realise it was because I was trying to push myself too far. This realisation combined with my family history of working to an early grave felt as if I had been struck by lightning. The way I was behaving was not long term. I couldn’t keep it up and so I had to make changes to improve my life. This thing that improved my life was the kettlebell. And the kettlebell is not the small mechanism my wife rings when she wants a coffee, but the 16kg weight that has changed my life. 

I started to use the kettlebell in 2012, but with very little strategy, until I met StrongFirst Master Instructor Pavel Macek. Pavel uses the kettlebell daily. He uses it to improve his flexibility, strength and stamina and said I could do the same. He looked me straight in the eye and said “This will change you”

First off, I didn’t believe him...I have grown up, as you have, surrounded by the messages from companies that tell you you need to buy, and keep buying things to make you happy so the thought that I could get everything I needed from one purchase and hard work didn’t ring true. How could I get everything I need from the kettlebell?.. 

The truth is businesses rely on you feeling that you “are not good enough” and have created multi-billion pound industries that produce pills, clothing, equipment, dietary supplements, shakes, retreats and gyms to keep you buying things that will not give you what you need. What I needed was a kettlebell and a lot of patience. 

Once I bought a kettlebell and started using it, I did not look back. I did not need to spend time away from my family because I had to workout for an hour at the gym. During the lockdown I swung it everyday, I didn’t spend my time desperately trying to navigate work, homelife and exercise in an attempt to “have it all”. I discovered that you can “have it all” you just have to readjust what that looks like for you...

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