Gym Weights

So 2017 has finally started and like most people, the new years resolutions have been made and it’s now time to start acting on them.

A key thing for me this year relates to my health and fitness in so much that I am planning to cut down on all of the crap food that I eat and exercise more. This is easier said than done and is typically more about mental endurance than anything else. With it being a lifestyle change it’s about have willpower. It’s about breaking all of those lazy and bad habits. It’s about making better and more informed life choices. So that’s what I’m planning to do.

Eating healthier

I love home cooked meals and rarely ever have a complaint about them when the food group is something that I’m keen on (just don’t feed me risotto or pasta bake!). However every now and then after a long and tiring day at work it’s all too easy to open that Domino’s or Just Eat app, sit on the sofa, put the TV on and wait for the food to arrive.

I’m also a bit of grab breakfast at work kinda guy and working for a major retailer means there’s a full on canteen at head office offering a huge range of food. Despite there being some great healthy options I’ll be the first to admit that I always head straight over to the hot plate for a fry up or bacon sandwich – not a great choice really and if I’m completely honest the food doesn’t even taste that good. But again this has become habit. It’s not through avoiding the healthy stuff it’s more to do with being so used to eating the unhealthy stuff that it’s simply become the norm.

Exercising more

I’ve been a member of PureGym for over a year now and I’ve always found it hard to motivate myself to get into my gym gear, jump in the car and get down there for a workout. Once I’m there I’m pretty motivated and enjoy it, it’s typically the mental block of having to go to the gym that holds me back.

My PureGym membership is a mere £5.99 per month for an off-peak membership – it means I can’t go until after 9pm on weekdays however that really suits my lifestyle as I commute in and out of London every day so rarely home early enough to head there any sooner. And herein lies a key issue for me. After a long day in the office, come 9pm there’s very low motivation for me to want to get down the gym. And I mean seriously low motivation. The times I head down there with Sarah it’s usually reminiscent of a toddler screaming and kicking their way to bed at 7pm when they want to stay up late!

Positive lifestyle choices for 2017

This combination of lazy eating and avoiding the gym doesn’t make for a good lifestyle both in terms of health or my bank balance. Chuck in a few “fancy a quick pint” post-work London drinks during the week and 5 pints and a Euston Burger King meal later there’s one hell of a lot of additional calories sitting around my waistline! Not to mention the getting home at 2am with a 6:30am alarm so a day of work on no sleep to contend with.

So for 2017 my health and fitness goals are going to mostly reside around the mental block that often prevents me from making better choices. I’m going to force myself away from fry ups at work. I’m going to force myself to get to the gym 3 or 4 times per week. And I’m going to stop spending so much money on eating takeaways.

Someone I’ve been following in recent years is Joe Wicks, “The Body Coach”. This guy is fantastic offering plenty of healthy, cheap to make, calorie controlled meals, coupled with some good all round body workouts for the gym. I’ve also had plenty of run ins with the Hairy Bikers and their ‘fakeaways’ amongst other things – the food looks and tastes great without too much hassle or cost. So that’s going to be more my style in 2017 – great tasting food that is calorie controlled.

I’ve also been following Men’s fitness for a long time now and in particular their training programs which interest me – I do in fact have a couple of books from last Christmas which have barely been touched. I’m certainly never going to be anything like Dwayne Johnson or Vin Diesel – I mean come on, who can seriously get to, and maintain that sort of body mass(!) but gaining a bit more muscle mass over the next 12 months is certainly on my list of things to do. I’ve always planned to get a personal trainer so in the coming months I’m going to see if I can afford to get one – the plan here is to see if the money saved on drinking less in London and eating fewer takeaways can be reinvested in the gym.

So for now I’ll save your eyes from my “before” photo just in case things don’t quite turn out as planned in the weeks ahead however I’m confident that with a bit of willpower and a little planning there’s going to be some good results to report back on by March.

So here’s to 2017 – a new attitude and a healthier way of life.

By Nick

Nick is the founder of Life of Man with a passion for trying out the latest technology, eating out at the best local restaurants, trying the latest IPAs hitting the craft beer scene travelling the world. As a parent Nick loves to spend time with his family and write about days out as dad blogger.

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