My Relationship with Fitness, Nutrition, and Recovery is sometimes like a ball of string and other times like a well oiled machine.
I’ve always been up and down with my fitness and health. I tend to go in phases of either acquiring so much weight that my clothes don’t fit, I feel miserable, I feel depressed, and I compound that by eating more as a comfort strategy. Inevitably that fails, and I hit a kind of critical mass point where I decide I’m going to change and do something.
Sometimes that change comes from my own will, and when it’s driven purely by willpower it tends to fizzle out quite quickly. I don’t really lose much weight, and then I drift back again. Other times, something on a deeper level flips and change happens. It’s less about willpower and more about stern discipline. Less about motivation and more about this is what I do now. And eventually I catch the bug.
Another part of my on-off relationship with fitness comes from this familiar mechanic of setting a goal, aiming for it, training, and either meeting the goal or failing. I go back to being 16 and joining the Marines, and then in my twenties joining the reservists. I’d go through phases where training meant chucking boots on, heading out in combat trousers, running around in wet, boggy places, sometimes even carrying webbing.
There was one moment in particular that stuck with me. I was running a woodland route in Wales on my own and came across a water tunnel. I thought, that’d be a good idea, just like the Marines. I crawled through it, got my webbing caught, and as the tunnel began to fill with water I had a life-changing moment of panic. I managed to keep my composure enough to get out, and that moment fused my relationship with fitness to my love of the outdoors.
When I neglect that outdoor connection, I tend to procrastinate and do nothing. The outdoors is my cathedral where I feel most myself and present without the need to numb. Mountains make me feel the most alive.
Right now, I’m over 16 stone, (correction at time of publishing I’m back in the 14 stone bracket)
My catalyst is to revert to something that’s worked for me before, while recognising its limitations, and use structure: a mix of running, bodyweight exercises, Tabata, kettlebells, and getting outdoors to hike or cycle.
Today, I’m heading up to Woodbury Common to do the endurance course route with a mate of mine from the marines. No tunnels or obstacles, just varied terrain. A bit of cold, wet, miserable type-2 fun to benchmark where I’m at.
The reason I sometimes struggle to sustain this is because food can become that little whack-a-mole in my recovery. When I’m unhappy with myself physically, it destabilises my overall recovery because my self-esteem takes a hit. Then it becomes harder to stay in a good mental and emotional space day to day.
This is me sharing where I’m at and putting it all out there.
So Here’s What I Normally Do to Whip Myself Into Shape
Nutrition and Food
I track my eating with a food app. Historically that was MyFitnessPal, but I’ve switched to an app called Lose It. Both let you scan barcodes if you’re on the move and manually enter meals if you batch-prep regular portion sizes.
One thing we often do is make a big pot of chilli, portion it out, and freeze it. Once the meal is entered, it’s easy just to drop it into a food log. I also find it useful to track macros. Protein is the one I aim to keep high, with carbs kept sensible.
Protein-wise, a broadly accepted guideline for fat loss and muscle retention is:
0.6–0.8 grams of protein per pound of lean body weight (or roughly 1.6–2.2 g per kg of body weight)
I don’t obsess over perfection, but I aim high enough that hunger is managed properly.
When I treat food logging like a budget, I tend to eat more for hunger and fuel rather than emotional regulation.
I weigh weekly on a Saturday or Sunday morning before eating or drinking anything. I go to a pharmacy that has scales which print out height and weight, and I keep the slips as a physical record of progress.
Running
Running is my primary form of exercise.
Sometimes I’ll use a Garmin plan if I’ve got an event, otherwise I just make sure that over the course of a week I get:
One interval session where I run mostly at Zone 2 (able to hold a conversation), then push up to Zone 4 for around two minutes before dropping back down again One longer run at the weekend, which is really just time on legs
I vary terrain, distance, and time depending on where I’m at. Garmin and Strava are both solid resources.
Weights and Circuits
Historically, I use circuits more than traditional weights. Exercises like burpees, sit-ups, push-ups, and pull-ups when I’m able to do them. Pull-ups can take time when I’m starting from an obese, sedentary state.
I use music and Tabata timers to structure sessions. I’ll often put something like this on the TV and run music through a speaker:
Basecamp Recovery 