Andy Ramage is the co-founder of Aalpha Energy, one of the largest independent commodities brokerages in the world. He is also co-creator of One Year No Beer, also known as OYNB. This is an alcohol-free challenge you can embrace for 28 days, 90 days and even a year. Eliminating alcohol from his life caused him to lose 42 pounds and cut his body fat from 28% to 10%. He is totally passionate about being fit and healthy. Andy meditates and exercises daily and has studied habit change in order to succeed at his amazing goals. Oh, and did I mention he’s also a master practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming, aka, NLP and he’s studying for his Master's Degree in Positive Psychology. Andy is also a Mindfulness-Based Awareness coach.
Contact Info
Website: OneYearNoBeer.com
Blog: Take the 28 Day Challenge
Book: 28 Day Alcohol-Free Challenge: Sleep Better, Lose Weight, Boost Energy, Beat Anxiety by Andy Ramage and Ruari Fairbairns (To Be Released Dec 28, 2017)
Facebook Group: OneYearNoBeer
Instagram: OneYearNoBeer
LinkedIn: Andy Ramage
Most Influential Person
Andy Puddicombe (Co-founder of Headspace)
Effect on Emotions
I'm so much calmer. I was a classic red-head in many ways, so that (the temper) was part of my character makeup when I played sport to win and had that super passionate energy around me. Mindfulness has helped me quell that and I'm now a much calmer person to be around.
Thoughts on Breathing
Breathing is everything. That is my anchor. Breathing is what I go to. I have experimented with every type of mindfulness you can think of, but really my practice is just on the breath as my anchor.
Suggested Resources
Book: Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan For Finding Peace In A Frantic World by Mark Williams
App: Headspace
Bullying Story
 When you are playing football at a high level at the young age of 16 it is super tough. It's not an element of bullying as such, but it is so cut-throat in the sense that every bad pass, every bad tackle is almost overwhelming to you as a young man because your life is riding on this thing.
You're dreaming of becoming a professional athlete in your field. I remember clearly around that age of 15 or 16, I was almost crippled with performance anxiety in so many ways because every time I would make a mistake, it would haunt me for the next 15 minutes whilst the game was going on.
This is where mindfulness for me is so beautiful and so powerful. If I'd had the ability to just let that go and actually come back to the moment and concentrate on what I was doing, I know I would have been a better professional and a better player.
I would have been able to let that error go. It's the classic case of, when you're worried about that problem that has just passed, you're not using all your mental capacity. Then you make another problem, like another back tackle or another bad pass.
All of a sudden you've snowballed. You've gone from nowhere to this negative spiral. I had no idea of mindfulness at that stage in my life. In my younger days, this would have been so helpful to have known how to let these things go.