How is it that 60-70% of Brits, Americans and Canadians have become overweight? How did 30% of the world become overweight? Oh, don't forget about cancer, heart disease and diabetes all at a record high.
Not sure about you but I don't enjoy being in pain or the thought that I might end up with heart disease (common in my family). I also do not want my friends and relatives to be in pain or die of some horrible disease, seems a bit rubbish. So fortunately for me, I found the desire to sort myself out despite 60-70% of the population going in the opposite direction.
Que sob story...
I was always a slightly fat kid, not obese just a bit of a 'chubster'; I liked to play rugby (most fat kids do, as it is the only sport we have an advantage in!), basketball (was not so good at that) and pretty much anything outdoorsy. I was not an entirely inactive kid, though I did spend way too much time playing video games/watching TV. Despite staying reasonably active, I was still an overweight kid. This continued into my teens when I started doing a lot more 't-shirt workouts' and spending a lot of money on supplements because fitness magazines told me that it would make me strong and ripped.
“Fruit salad is still a pudding Price”
I got a bit of a wake-up call when I was 19 and tried to join the Army; I was told that I was overweight! I thought this was ridiculous of course and laughed it off, instead blaming the BMI test for not taking account my 'huge muscles', despite the fact I clearly had a gut and was not that strong. So anyway, I was only a few points in the red, with a bit more running and less fast food, I got down to the required weight, and the Army let me in... apparently, I was fit and healthy.
Going through Army training, I was usually one of the slowest and sure enough, the Physical Training (PT) staff started taking a particular interest in me (never good in the Army). I was promptly banned from puddings... to the great amusement of my colleagues, who consistently reminded me of it for the rest of my career... it still gets brought up… “Fruit salad is still a pudding Price” the PT staff would remind me as he singled me out in the cook house. I also began smoking and drinking a lot more than I used to, as is the Army culture.
Yes, I did skip leg day
I began taking a bit more interest in my fitness as my Army career progressed and made a few attempts to quit smoking, all failed. My problem, though, was with my idea of what fitness was. All I wanted was a bigger biceps/triceps/chest and to be able to pass the Army fitness test... Yes, I did skip leg day it was still all about the t-shirt workout. I was getting happier with how I looked. But deep down I knew that I was not that fit.
The first major phase of self-education took place while I was on my second tour in Afghanistan in 2013, on the first tour I just did bench press and ended up with very sore shoulders, so we will skip that story. On tour, I read through Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 'New Encyclopaedia of Modern Bodybuilding'. I still think this is an awesome book and it taught me a lot, one of those was that I really should NOT skip leg day. Now I was starting to look great, but then again I was working out for about 2 hours a day in the sweltering heat!
Writing this now at the beginning of 2017 I feel pretty good. I am the fittest I have ever been (ok before Christmas dinner I was fitter) and do not need six strong coffees to get me through the day. I visited some friends in London last weekend, who I had not seen in two years and everyone commented on how much better I looked and few also said that I looked much younger! So something worked. I am leaving the Army after 8 years and started thefitnessmasters.com, not to advertise how amazing CrossFit is, or tell you all how awesome and fit I now am. But to actually help people make a start on improving their health and fitness.
Cigarettes: Zero Calories, no added sugar or salt
Like it or not most industries do not care about your health and fitness, they want you to be addicted to things like sugar, salt, cigarettes, fast-food and caffeine, they deliberately confuse the information space with conflicting information (remember when cigarettes use to be good for you?). They are the ones with the largest budgets, the loudest voices and biggest influence when it comes to your decisions about health and fitness. Most of the time we tend to focus only on the cure, not preventing the cure from ever being needed (do you think pharmaceutical companies would like that?). This is the way of the world, and individually we might not be able to much about it in the short term, but one thing you can do right now is...
Be Proactive – The First Habit from Stephen R.Covey’s book ‘The 7 habits of highly effective people.'
Effective people are proactive, to be effective at improving your health and fitness you also need to be proactive. You have been proactive enough to find this website and read this far, take another step by shooting us a message on Facebook or to admin@thefitnessmasters.com. Find out if we can help you! Every journey starts with a single step. I hope we can make that journey a whole lot easier for you! Thanks for reading and thank you Denmark for running awesome Crossfit classes! Ben |
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