Meet My Co-Host #FitFamilyFriday

What does being "healthy" mean to you?

To me, being healthy is all about having a perfect mineral balance in the body, eating sufficient naturally produced food whilst avoiding artificially produced food and doing enough physical exercise in order to keep your body running at optimum levels.  Health is not defined by weight, nor is it defined by image.  Of course a natural byproduct of eating well and exercising efficiently will be better aesthetics, but a ripped physique does not always equal optimum health.

What are you currently doing to change your "health" and what do you plan to do in the future?

At the moment I am trying to make better food choices and exercise more efficiently. Unfortunately I am still hounded by the desire to look good, so sometimes I forgive myself for eating rubbish provided I still look good.  The most difficult part for me is life.  Life is most definitely getting in the way of me eating natural whole foods such as fresh veg and good quality meats as I have no where to store prepare or cook them.  The only thing that I have control over right now, is the exercise that I do.  In the future when there is significantly more stability in my life, I would like to reach the ultimate aim of only eating fresh whole foods and avoiding processed junk altogether.

What positives and negatives have you seen so far?

One positive that I have found is that through better education and application of that knowledge, I have managed to find a formula that works for me and one that my body responds to for better health and performance.  The negative is actually putting it into practice.  As I said before, I have no control over the food I eat as I have no where to store, prepare or cook it.  The cost is a massive influencer as well.  We have just bought a house and the mortgage and essential bills take a huge chunk of the salary, so luxury shopping trips for top of the range grass fed beef is out of the question.  The canteen at work provides a horrendously inappropriate meal, but for the cost of less than £1.50 for 2 courses.  When I weigh that against £3.50 for a single tin of salmon, the natural default is to go for the cheaper option.  I have also found that I can look really good living on rubbish.  The adage of you can't out exercise a poor diet is rubbish.  I've been doing it for 10 years or so.  My diet is horrendous, but I've been able to get down to 6% body fat and still eat crap.

What one tip would you give to anyone trying to be "healthier"?

Ignore controversial news headlines that are designed to sell papers, find out what's right for you and try to choose whole foods.  As a rule of thumb ask yourself, "Has this been made in a factory?"  If the answer is yes then don't have it.

What is, in your opinion, the most controversial bit of "healthy" advice you have seen recently?

For me it's this incessant fear of fat we have.  There is too much confusion over trans fats, saturated fats and unsaturated fats.  Certain types of saturated fat is good for you, certain types of unsaturated fats are bad for you if cooked at high temperatures, all trans fats are bad for you.  Also  vitamins A, D, E and K are all fat soluble.  This means you have to have fat in your diet to absorb and use them.  I shouldn't need to tell you the consequences of having a deficiency in any one of these vitamins.  If something is low in fat, it will almost certainly be high in processed chemicals designed to make it taste better, plus artificial sweeteners and increased sugar, all of which is extremely bad for you.  Please, oh please, stop worrying about fat and start including it in your diet!

How do you fit personal fitness around family life?

Right now it's ok, but fitness has never been something my wife has been into.  It's generally expected that I will do my fitness training during work time, if I don't get around to doing it during work, it's not usually tolerated to do it afterwards.  We came up with a compromise though that I don't do any training after work, and I can do it at the weekend.  Sometimes life would be simpler if my wife was as much into training as me, but she isn't and it's something we have to work around.  The kids love it though.  When I was doing tabata training and the press up challenge, they would either jump on my back to make the press ups harder, or they would do press ups beside me.

Do you do anything fitness related with your children?

Nothing as strict as getting them to do a full body circuit with me, but I'll encourage them to have fun with it.  Me and my daughter would have competitions who can do the most amount of jumping jacks in a minute, or we would do tabata and see how we get on.  Of course there's all the other stuff as well like playing tag and racing around as well as rock climbing on park walls and balancing on beams, all of which is good fun active play.  When they get older though, I would love nothing more than to take them down to the gym and have them work out with me.

Don't forget to read my answers to the questions over at Tony's site, which happens to be the host page to this first installment of #FitFamilyFriday and make sure you join in and share your posts on fitness, health and wellbeing or weight loss whilst you're there!