8 minute read
Wellbeing
the g Force ―
By Laura Burgoine
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International bodybuilding champ, ex Turkish Airforce sergeant and Dulwich PT Gokay Kurtuldum has shifted over 1000 kilos off his collective client base and there’s no slowing him down!
A member of the Southwark Community Sports Trust, Gok uses Dulwich Sports Ground as his base; the Trust put the outdoor fitness area under his supervision so he could develop it. The trainer and his team of five run outdoor High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and boxercise classes, as well as 1:1 Personal Training and a customised 3-month body transformation programme.
“I developed my own methodology for the 3-month transformation,” Gok tells the South Londoner. “In addition to my clients' outdoor face to face PT sessions, I also have my own training app for clients to use, so I design a workout plan they can do at home or in the gym on their non PT days, which is uploaded onto the app along with a food plan with your macros calculated where you can log your meals. It’s great for accountability.”
People looking to drop weight can lose around 10kg during the course of the 3 months. The programme mainly attracts those between the ages of 30 and 60-years-old who want to find time to get fit amidst a busy schedule. “I’ve noticed a pattern in the people I’ve been training for the past ten years,” Gok says. “They were fit at school and enjoyed being active and playing sports, then they graduated, started working and wanted to be really good at their jobs so they work long hours, then they get married and have kids and lose all their fitness because all their time goes to their work and private life.”
The trainer believes the key to fitness - and avoiding injur y- is consistency and discipline, which he learned firsthand back in Turkey, where he attended military school before going on to work as a technical and sports sergeant for the Turkish Airforce. Outside of his Airforce duties, Gok would train on his own time. “I also trained the pilots because they have to be very fit to be able to handle the G force,” he says.
Gok’s love for fitness started young, competing as a professional international bodybuilder and winning a gold medal for Turkey. “I started bodybuilding at 16, which is a good age to begin. The community in the gym I went to was really supportive and everyone helped me. Within 3 years, I found myself on the stage competing for Turkey as I became a national sportsman,” he says. “I competed about 5-6 years and won Mr Turkey in 2005.”
“I don’t compete anymore,” he continues. “The diet is so strict. Basically you eat chicken breast, eggs, rice, and steamed vegetables every single day. I’m quite disciplined -you don’t want to embarrass yourself on stage - so you push yourself to the limit for 12 weeks and you lose a massive amount of body fat and you learn so much about your body by doing this. You read all these books and you apply the lessons to yourself.”
Losing both his parents at a young age had a strong influence on Gok’s attitude towards health and wellbeing.
“I think this is why I chose this career,” he says. “My mum died from a heart attack when I was 13, and when that happened my sister, who had always struggled with her weight, began looking after me and during that time her weight went up to 150kg. She had tried everything and been to the best doctors in Turkey but nothing worked. Whereas I ate whatever I wanted and was athletic and sporty and didn’t gain weight.
“When I was 22, my dad also died of a heart attack. He was really unhealthy: he drank, smoked, had a bad diet. It felt like everyone around me was unhealthy and I wanted to do something about it. I chose this profession because I wanted to make people feel good about themselves, mentally and physically.”
After moving to the UK ten years ago, Gok began his Personal Training career, working at Nuffield Health UK before launching his own business. He has always lived and worked around Dulwich and loves being part of the local community. Gokay Fitness is a sponsor of this year’s Dulwich Festival and is hosting an Open Day on May 21 from 11am-3pm with free 20-30 minute HIIT classes every hour.
In 2020, Gok released his own book Get Fit Stay Fit, an 8-week programme workbook specifically for men over 40, which is now available on Amazon.
Between running around with clients, the PT still manages to fit in his own workouts and says his favourite kind of training is always bodybuilding. “I just love pumping iron.”
For more information on Gok’s Fitness Hub (member of the Dulwich Community Sports Trust), SE21 7AF, visit: www.gokayfitness.com or follow him on Instagram @GokayFitness
JABBED & CLEARED FOR TAKE OFF
It’s never too late to come forward for your first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine if you’ve needed a bit more time to make up your mind. And if you had your second dose more than three months ago, it’s time to get extra protection with a booster dose. Get ready for the summer holidays.
You can join over 1.5 million people who have had a first dose and over 1 million people who have had their booster vaccination in south east London alone, protecting them against Covid-19. Being vaccinated against Covid-19 means you are well protected, with evidence from the UK Health Security Agency showing that a booster jab prevents around 75% of people getting Covid symptoms. It also makes life easier, especially when it comes to planning holidays, work trips or visiting family abroad. Thinking about the rest of your family, remember, everyone aged 12 and over, and, from April 2022, all children aged 5 to 11, can get a first and second dose of the vaccine.
Getting your free NHS Covid-19
vaccination is easy. In south east London we have Covid-19 vaccine walk-in clinics available for those 12 and over and a few for 5-11s. Find out more here: www.selondonccg. nhs.uk/popupclinics. If you want to plan in advance, you can book online at nhs.uk/ covidvaccination or call 119. You do not need to be registered with a GP to get your vaccination. Sarah Birch, south east London resident who works as cabin crew for Virgin Atlantic said: “As someone who loves to travel and also loves to work in the aviation industry, I know a bit about travel tips and how to have a stress free break abroad. These days, being fully vaccinated against Covid-19 is a brilliant way to make traveling so much easier.”
Vaccines are safe and effective
If you want to read more about the vaccines visit www.nhsselvax.com
ready to meet your soulmate? check into the relationship rehab ―
Forest Hill love psychologist Nancy Elliot helps you identify what’s standing in the way of lasting love
To quote a wise man (Rumi): “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
Why are you single? What are the things that are not working in your relationships? Are there patterns you keep repeating? Or perhaps the problem is that no one can quite measure up to your exacting standards.
Perhaps you are ready for Relationship Rehab. A place where we get to stop! To take time solely for the purpose of identifying the obstacles within us that are preventing us from attracting and sustaining lasting love. Self love, that is.
I started the Relationship Rehab to get the bottom of what’s not been working in our relationships. Not our relationships with others but our relationship with ourselves. It’s important because until we fall deeply in love and interest with ourselves, our relationships might suffer from codependency, resentment and bitterness. By focusing on ourself first, we build confidence, strengthen self esteem, learn to validate ourselves and acquire the tools to generate a foundational sense of wellbeing from within, rather than looking for someone else to give these things to us. This way, we put ourselves in the strongest position we’ve ever been to get the love we deserve. This is a very, very exciting proposition.
I have been a psychotherapist and coach for almost ten years and have worked with many single high-achieving women. Many of these women were also challenged by the task of attracting and sustaining healthy, lasting love.
Such women know that they can find a man, even a husband, at the drop of a hat. The key for them is to find a healthy, peaceful, happy, exciting and sexy relationship. Not just someone to settle with. So take a deep breath, channel Yvonne Elliman, and repeat after me, “if I can’t have you, I don’t want nobody, baby!”
No matter how intelligent or successful you are, if you’re a woman who is disconnected from herself - and I was one of them - being in a relationship can mean losing yourself and giving away a disproportionate amount of power to your partner. Well, at first glance it may appear this way but the reality is rather more delightful. The loss of power a woman believes she is experiencing in love is perfectly aligned with her journey towards greater self understanding and self awareness. Our partners are our mirrors. They give us our own personal set of coordinates to our very own treasure.
How can we know what we are looking for from another if we have not yet understood our needs in relationship with ourselves? We could be in greater alignment with the truth of what it is to be human by normalising finding love in your 40s, discovering and chasing new dreams in your 30s, finding your purpose in your 50s. Most of all, normalise slowing down and getting to know yourself more deeply at every pivotal stage of your life. Get still and be with self more often. Do this before embarking on a journey to get to know another romantically. It’s a game changer.
