It Starts With Why

I help people navigate the complexity and confusion surrounding common health and performance advice, and help them to focus on building the essential elements so that they can increase their energy and capacity for life.

Jamie Scott is a university-trained Nutritionist, holding post-graduate qualifications in both Nutrition Medicine, and Sport & Exercise Medicine, as well as undergraduate degrees in both Science (Human Nutrition) and Physical Education (Sport Science).

Setting a Direction

 

I first started training people in 1994, working in a Dunedin "big-boy" gym to pay my way through university. It wasn’t glamorous. Despite my official job title of 'gym instructor', I actually spent most of my time picking up weights after the gym members, realigning the dumbbells and barbells for the OCD gym owner, making protein shakes for the "big boys", and scrubbing toilets and the shower block after the 9pm closing. I knew that learning how the human body worked and using that knowledge to help people’s health was what I wanted to do as a career, and if making protein shakes and cleaning toilets was a stepping stone to that, so be it. Eight years, two undergraduate degrees, and a couple of post-grad diplomas later (I started at Otago expecting to just finish a 3-year degree), I started that career in earnest…

Starting Out

Over the past 25 years, my career has spanned a number of roles in the ‘health & fitness industry’, including personal trainer, nutritionist, group fitness instructor (spin and circuit classes), rehab assistant in a large physical therapy clinic, manager of personal trainers (I don’t recommend that one much), and a manager of a new start-up gym (I don’t recommend that one much either).

I’ve been involved with high-performance athletes across various sports, including strength coach and nutritionist to a track cycling squad, to NZ-rep Ultimate Frisbee and canoe polo players, and elite Enduro and Downhill mountain bikers.

New Horizons

In 2009, after a decade inside gyms, I started full-time as the lead researcher, writer, presenter, and programme developer for one of New Zealand's largest workplace wellness providers - Synergy Health.

In 2016, I took the skills I had learned in that job to an international audience, researching and developing a USA-based behaviour change programme designed to get people doing less ‘Face Time’ and more face-to-face time (‘More Social, Less Media’). Upon the completion of that project, I became the main researcher and draft writer for the book, 'The 4-Season Solution', a book on biorhythms, seasonal health, and human connection.

I am now based in Central Europe, splitting my time between writing for Synergy Health once again and coaching individuals.

Sharing Knowledge & Ideas

I’ve been fortunate to have had many opportunities to travel and speak to various groups and conferences across the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand, and now Europe, as well as give countless podcast interviews on a wide range of topics. Each experience has given me the opportunity to share knowledge and ideas with a wide range of individuals - from regular people, to health professionals, practitioners, academics, and researchers.

I’ve been on both sides of the lectern, attending many events and conferences as both student and speaker as part of my ongoing professional development. I’ve worked behind the scenes too - organising and hosting international conferences for other health and fitness professionals to share their knowledge and ideas. I love to read research, synthesise ideas, connect dots, and deepen/broaden my knowledge and understanding.

A Sense of Purpose

For those who like to put people in boxes based on what they do (or worse, what high school they went to; a state co-ed school in the wrong part of town, in case you were wondering), the above is a short précis of my career to date.

But 25+ years after starting work in that Dunedin “big-boy” gym, I’ve come to understand that the important thing is not what I do (or have done), but rather why I do what I do; the sense of purpose and fulfilment which fuels my passion for helping people.