Let’s say that tomorrow you meet one of my friends or a member of my family and you ask them about my lifestyle. Probably, they would tell you that I am a bit obsessed with healthy food and that I do a lot sport. Yes, they are right, but it hasn’t always been like that.
Fortunately and thanks to my mum, I’ve always eaten healthy food without really knowing it. She always cooks natural food from scratch. My family doesn’t know what a ready meal is. However, my contact with sport and physical activity was practically non-existent a few years back. I did nothing at all until one day I decided to enrol in the gym and I haven’t stopped since then. That was approximately 10 years ago.
I don’t regret this decision, because I believe that my daily physical activity has an impact on my health. Despite the fact that I train minimum 4 times per week, I rarely feel tired and I can’t even remember if I skipped one my gym sessions recently. On top of that, I work full time, which is to say 5 days a week. As you can imagine, I have a busy life, the same as the rest of the people living in London. I could opt to come back home after work and sit down in my living room watching something on TV or spend more time in front of my phone or computer. But I am not a really a “coach potato” person.
Yes, I religiously go to the gym after work. Sometime I go before work. I have to add that when I can’t manage to go to the gym, I really miss it, for example when I am away on holiday. I think that I am addicted to it, but I’m not obsessive about the whole training thing. I believe that I know how to prioritise things in my life and, if I have a chance to meet a friend that I haven’t seen for a while, the gym can wait.
My goals
Ever since I started with my trainings, I’ve followed different routines. I don’t have any deadline, I don’t really need to meet any defined goals. My unique goal is to keep myself active and moving, because we are designed to move as much as we can. Our lifestyle has massively changed over the past 50 years in which we’ve passed from an active life to a sedentary routine. A routine that makes our society sicker in form of chronic conditions such as diabetes type 2, obesity, arthritis, cancer… So, I try to avoid to be affected by any chronic disease.
I have to admit that sometimes I’m stricter or more focused in achieving a particular result. Through all these years, I’ve mainly focused on gaining muscles or loosing body fat, in order to look more defined. But to be honest, I feel more myself when I gain muscles, while I keep my actual weight.
I am 183cm tall and my current weight is 96kg. For the Body Mass Index (BMI) measurement, I am obese. The BMS system doesn’t make a difference between fat and muscle thus, by this inaccurate method, I appear obese by although I am not at all fat. I am chunky or beefy, however you prefer to call me. The funny thing about my weight is that more than 10 years ago I also had 96kg, but back then I didn’t go to the gym. And believe me, at that time I was very fat. I had a pear shape body, while I believe that I now have a decent shape.
My workout is mainly weight lifting, but from time to time I include intensive cardio. I like to change my routine, to keep all parts of my body active. At the moment, I’ve been following a workout divided in two parts: upper part and lower part. It means that one day I do just my upper part which includes chest, back, biceps and triceps. The following day, I do my lower part which is my legs and core.
I have also been thinking to start a routine with a personal trainer. I have never really been taught how to do exercises in the gym and I believe there is room to improve my technique, which can help prevent injuries.
So, my advice is to keep moving and keep positive. Ten minutes of cardio or weight lifting every day is better than nothing. There is always a start.
