Now, if you don't know who Joe Wicks is (A.K.A The Body Coach),
then quite frankly you have been living under a rock for the past year.
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| Google Images |
Joe is the king of
Instagram, I was first introduced to him by my boyfriend (Danny) just before he
became the household name that he is now. A mobile was thrust in front of my
face and I was welcomed to the world of Midget Trees.
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| Midget Trees |
Ever since then I
never really looked back, I followed him on every form of social media,
attempting to recreate the food that he made in his short and sweet videos. Joe
had this amazing ability of capturing the attention of millions within a matter
of weeks and he was an internet sensation.
He now has a
fitness DVD and 3 recipe books, with a fourth coming in the near future. We cannot
get enough of this guy! But why?
Let us start at the beginning, Joe utilised social media for his
own gain. Instagram had recently reinvented itself, no longer fixed to photo
uploads, the introduction of 15 second videos sent the social media world into
a frenzy. It is here that the #leanin15 tag that we associate with Joe was
born.
Joe never imagined how quickly this would catch on, stating in his
first cookbook “to begin with, no one was watching my videos, and my neighbours
thought I was mad. They often heard me singing or shouting, ‘Bosh, that’s Lean
in 15’ and ‘Oooh, midget trees’ (that’s what I call broccoli, by the way!)…To
my surprise, within a few months, hundreds of thousands of people all over the
world were following along”
Hashtagging (#) and catchphrases were beneficial to propelling Joe
into social media superstardom. This created a very relaxed and informal way of
viewing healthy food, Joe used social media to create a connection with his
followers. It’s as though you have a friend talking you through how to eat
healthier and make the right choices. However, you can see that he is not just
a fitness robot but he is human too, laced through his posts are photos of
sweet treats that we all love to feel bad for eating. Joe even says that he
thinks “people respond well to me, because I don’t eat perfectly all the time,
and I never pretend that I do.”
This friendly relationship and attitude is carried on through the
way in which he writes in his cookbook “Lean in 15 – The Shift Plan”. There is
an extremely conversational tone throughout, which of course you could argue is
the case in many other cook books. Although, unlike his rivals, Joe maintains
this friendly and approachable tone in every aspect of his book. Choosing to
stray away from the customary short introduction to the dish paired with a
regimental set of instructions that leave you little room to adapt the recipe to
your liking. Joe adapts this concept but removes the formality from the method
and ingredients.
For example, his recipe for ‘Tomatoes, eggs and chorizo’ lists the
measurements for the ingredients with the final one being chopped parsley,
which you only have to add ‘if you’re feeling fancy’. In his instructions he
offers an alternative to a frying pan lid (which I am sure the majority of
people do not have to hand at home), stating that ‘a big dinner plate or a
sheet of foil should work’, this really opens up the accessibility of this
meal, there’s no longer anything that could hinder your ability to knock this
up at home, unless you don’t own a frying pan! He rounds off this recipe by telling
you to “Sprinkle with chopped parsley, if you like, then gobble it up straight from
the pan”. By suggesting that we should ‘gobble’ it straight from the pan,
really highlights the informality of cooking for Joe, this isn’t michelin star
cooking, these are recipes that are meant to be easy and fun and most
importantly, delicious.
This casual friendly tone and the informality with regards to
method, really allows you to adapt each recipe to make it your own and I feel
that Joe’s attitude and outlook really makes you engage a lot easier with his
cookbook for healthy recipes than others.
Joe’s personality really shines through in all the outlets you can find
him on and you can truly see how passionate he is about his work and lifestyle.
Follow me onto my next post where I will be talking about the most
popular superfood of the moment and looking into how it became such a phenomenon!
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