How healthy would you say your life style is and how do you balance up things?

Is their things you would like to cut back on/ improve? What's your vice?

Do you ever feel like you are too health conscious and don't spend enough time relaxing. Does it have an effect on your social/home life sometimes?

How often do you eat out and do you have a 3 courser? Do you think about what kind of place you are going to and your choices from the menu based on health etc?

What will you be up to over Christmas? How much will you let go?



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Id say I run at about 75% healthy. I don't base my lifestyle on your average Joe as I think that's a recipe for complacency as just doing enough to be better than the average isn't good enough in my opinion. I base it on my own idea of a 100% health conscious life style.

I don't drink as such. I have on average 1 beer per weekend and have "a drink" only a few times per year. I don't enjoy drinking and would probably do it more often if I did tbh. I don't smoke or use recreational drugs although I used to do plenty of both. I dotn want to go into my vice on the open forum

Id like to cut back on very little tbh. I think I have a pretty good balance and perspective on things with regards to diet and training vs. "normal life". I think its easy to lose track of things in the blind pursuit of your goals and end up doing more harm than good- i.e. - getting stressed out if you cant get your home made healthy meals made up and have to rely on other not so good options etc. That does you no good! Eating more fruit and veg is always something that I could improve on a little more but wont stress it too much.

I can get very focused to the detriment of social/ home life and its more about blind pursuit of goals rather than health tbh. that's why im only at a bout 75% imo

I eat out regularly. once a week consistently. Now and then I go for a 3 courser, but usually a main and a sweet for me. I always pick the main with protein content being the second most priority behind what I fancy (which is slightly sad while out for dinner). I go wherever we fancy (Indian, Chinese, hotel etc) and I don't give a shit about its health contents as such as most fresh coked stuff is good ..plus im out for dinner! Desert is what I fancy, usually chocolate cake and lots of cream (Carbs and fats oooh). We also get a take away Curry most weeks aswell. Cant knock a curry on a friday night after a long weeks work. Realyl good Indian restraurant that delivers near us.

Ill be keeping things fairly tight over xmas. Loosen up a bit and do some cardio as im off work as of today so have plenty time. As long as I continue to get plenty porridge and protein for breakfast and before bed, making up the numbers in between will be rather dirty at points I imagine

ALso forgot to add

How high on your agenda is health in balance to persuit of gains/targets etc in your training?

How healthy would you say your life style is and how do you balance up things?

I can't put a figure on it - but I'd say generally pretty healthy. Could do with doing more cardio intensive sports like squash (which I loooove), and get back into rugby. But other than that I eat pretty well, my blood pressure is ok and my cholesterol is ok too. I don't sleep as much as I should and work long hours and don't have much "me" time. I like to keep busy and do things. Can't stand doing nothing - I'm not very good at doing very little. However, I can treat myself to some "beach" holidays from time to time and able to shut down - but I find it exhausting because I guess I live quite a stressful lifestyle so the shock to my body as I'm not stressed is quite intense.

I could eat more veggies, although I have 3-4 servings a day I feel I don't eat as much as when I go to Cyprus for example where the fruit and veg are just leaps and abounds above what we get in the UK.

I've never had so much as a cold in my life, or *touch wood* any diseases or infections etc... broken a few bones but nothing to stop me going to work or getting on with my life.

I try and catch up on sleep during the weekends, but always find it hard to wind down. If I eat a lot of naughty foods (out with friends, parties, michelin star restaurants etc...), I will spend a good week not eating anything naughty at all and maybe upping aerobic workout more.

Is their things you would like to cut back on/ improve? What's your vice?

Generally eat healthier foods all the time and be able to have time to make healthier foods for lunch. Get more sleep. Train more rather than blowing it off for another day - which I do do. Get more sunshine!

I don't really have many/any vices, I don't smoke/do drugs/drink much etc... I do love chocolate, but good quality 70+% cacao chocolate. I also like real savoury snacks (i.e. homemade) things like homemade saussage rolls, cornish pasties etc... I also love home baking - I make a lot of tartes, pies, crumbles etc... and put lashings of cream with them. However I don't do this often (once a month or so) so I guess it's not too bad?

Do you ever feel like you are too health conscious and don't spend enough time relaxing. Does it have an effect on your social/home life sometimes?

Social life during the week doesn't happen - I work long hours and *need* to go to the gym for more than 1 reason. I love the health benefits, I also love the feeling of lifting weights, I like being strong and getting stronger, there is a small amount of vanity (but I'm so fucked up in self image perception that that's fairly low down in the list). I also use the gym for mood control - I'm an exciteable person, passionate and emotionally diverse - and things get to me and I need to let it out. I'm a passive person though so never take it out on people, but I do get grizzly - the gym soothes me. IT also helps break up the week. I need to gym to destress.

I don't have many friends in London so I wouldn't socialise during the week that much anyway, furthermore I don't socialise with people at work as they're not really "my kind" of people - yes I'm a snob, I don't care.

In general my fitness doesn't affect my lfie - I'm quite a lazy person at times (which is why I'm a contradiction as I also like to be active and hate to be bored lol!). I will eat well over the weekend, or go out and buy popcorn at the movies, and am not overly fastidious over the specifics of what I eat. I do avoid buying shit food, and refuse to go to take aways. I will often choose food by nutritional value before taste - but not always, sometimes I just want to eat good stuff and to hell whether it's good for me - such as foie gras and other luxuries.

People in my social circles know that my fitness/gym is important so it never really affects home life. I will sacrifice the gym for social occaisions, but will try to catch up during the week. 1 or 2 days here and there will make little odds really.

I've got the rest of my life to keep fit, 1 weekend, 1 night out, whatever is not worth sacrificing because of the gym - it's not as if it's my livelyhood, or that I'm actually on the cutting edge of fitness, low BF or anyting like that.

I don't have any issues of going into a bakers and buying a croissant or pain au chocolat, or a sandwich (though I try to go wholemeal if at all possible). I just don't do it all the time and eat well the majortiy of the time. A bit of indescretion or a bit a of a treat isn't going to do you any harm.

How often do you eat out and do you have a 3 courser? Do you think about what kind of place you are going to and your choices from the menu based on health etc?

I'm a food snob and love to go out to good restaurants. This is one of my vices. Good quality dining - some people call it "pretentious" well, I call them "ignorant" Anyway, that aside, yes I do eat out, and often have 3-4+ course meals. If I'm going out for decandence and fine wine/eating I don't care about the health side of the food I'm eating. I'm out to enjoy the experience and the atmosphere, and the company of the people with whom I'm dining. I eat out twice a month, and once every 2/3 months to "higher tier" dining (if going out for a celebration, after a theatre show, or "just because").

If I'm eating out because I'm out and about and fancy some food rather than going out specifically TO eat, then I will place more importance on the nutritional content and what I'm eating, but within reason.

What will you be up to over Christmas? How much will you let go?

Christmas is just a quiet one this year adn the first Christmas I've had off in 8 years so intend on trying to relax. I'll let go a little as I won't be able to go to the gym as it'll be closed. I'll still do some skipping, and bodyweight exercises at home. I'm going skiing for a week as well, and although I'll be drinking over Christmas (I have some amazing wines I've brought back from my last trip seeing my family in France recently), and on the ski slopes apres ski and lots of warm food will no doubt not help. But it's a celebration ir's the end of the year, I'll be with people I love, I don't care about the gym. Skiing will keep me busy/fit anyway. I'm not that obsessed about my fitness to let it affect my life that much.

Rab wrote:ALso forgot to add

How high on your agenda is health in balance to persuit of gains/targets etc in your training?

I'd love to be twice as strong and twice as big. However I know it's never going to happen, or at least not with silly juice, so I'm not really overly bothered. If I can drop my BF and improve my fitness and strength then I'lm glad. It's important to me to keep healthy, and I don't think I'd ever not do any gym or fitness training. However I'll never let it rule my life. It's a hobby with beneficial side effects. It's not my livelyhood or my lfie, it adds to my life that's all.

Thats a pretty complete reply there Will lol. CHeers. That was good

I dotn think it makes you pretentious to enjoy eating out at top end restaurants. If you can afford it and thats what you like then why not. I would!

I only have a small budget for eating out (maybe £100 per month) though and go for middle of the road/cheaper palces that are value for money and nice,but consider myslef really really fortunate for what i have. I dotn take it for granted for a second, every meal i enjoy out. Thats still a lot of money in real terms and a "small budget" isnt really a good description infact. thats more money that most Brits have as total disposable income per month probably!

I dont have any issue about getting take away food. A chinese or a take away pizza now and then for me is the norm but i avoid the chippy at all costs. mostly because i cant suffer them over the health aspect if im honest.

The money I save by not drinking is spent of treating myself to good food!

I found the topic interesting and I started writing and got carried away!

When I meant take away, I meant stuff like burgers, chips, battered saussages, fried chicken etc...

We have an excellent wood oven pizza place near by run by a lovely italian family - people flock from miles to get pizzas from there. It's lovely, but it's a naughty meal let's face it - but I do treat myself to it - usually on a Friday night if ever I do take a takeaway.

A good takeaway place that does good food exist, so it's a little unfair I guess to list them as "take away". However I guess I just meant the shit greasy ones that people associate with them.

I love eating out as well, and don't take it for granted. If there's a really nice menu being released for a favourtie restaurant of mine, I'll save up so I can afford to go. It's not like I can just go willy nilly - but it's important to me so I budget it into my lifestyle.

That's true mate. you have to budget things in

I get funny looks from family for how often we eat out especially if its during the week. They consider that OTT and indulgent. They wouldn't and don't bat an eyelid if my brother and his missus go to the pub on a tues or thurs for instance, which will cost the same money as us going for a meal. £30 doesn't go far in a pub...few rounds just. That's a nice wee meal out for us where we live. Scottish mentality right there! We dont drink or smoke etc but hey!

As for the take aways. Naw mate im talking about some real shitty greasy stuff. The Chinese I get from now and then is so greasy its just what you need when starving. Some satay chow mein, or a pizza from the kebab shop. Not often but often enough

I dont smoke, drink occasionally, my eating is terrible tho, so long as i get enough protein to sustain strength gains and enough carbs/fat to fuel my workouts im not fussed what goes in.

If i eat out i go for something meat heavy, usually a large steak or mixed grill.

After xmas i am planning on cutting out all sugary crap and booze completely tho and will start doing some sort of GPP, probably HIIT and swimming.

In general id say im not a total slob and do live healthier than your averge Joe, but i need to do a lot more.

Apart from the bad, I lead a 100% healthy lifestyle these days. I'm not going to waffle on about the good, because it's boring , but I don't eat dairy/gluten or grains, don't eat any sugar, get plenty of veg and lower-sugar fruits, lots of good oils etc. Probably by concentrating on the bad, it'll make me sound extremely unhealthy, but I don't think that's the case personally.

The bad:

I often don't sleep enough. I like to train in the morning to free up my evenings, work some long hours at times, and on top of that every so often won't get to bed until 6-7am on some weekends. Being in the formative stages of a relationship doesn't help on this front either.

I tend to try and cause my body as much harm as possible during festivals.

I drink quite a bit when I'm on holiday.

I smoke the odd doobie from time to time...seldom now though - every few months or so. Nothing like it used to be when I smoked virtually every day for the first 5m of 2008. I became a bit withdrawn socially and am a much better person for knocking it on the head.

I still like the odd rave... I was a bit of a latecomer to dance music. However, I'm cool with this as I'm comfortable that mdma is a lot less harmful than booze, and for me the experience has been more than worth it (for the most part anyway, crying over the washing up one Sunday last year did make me question that, but that's the only time I've ever had a comedown worth mentioning). I don't do it often (6-8 times a year tops), and when I do I always take protective measures - lots of anti-oxidants and vitamin c before and after, as well as 5-HTP and l-tyrosine for the serotonin and dopamine systems. I genuinely feel that it's had a beneficial impact on my outlook on life. Its allowed me to open up to friends and talk about things that would normally provoke way too much anxiety, and that's brought me closer to a few people as a result. It melts social barriers and I can see the world in the most positive light possible, which is quite a special feeling. For me, relationships are the most important thing in my life, so anything that has a positive impact on them is a good thing...I may well knock it on the head in 2010 though, as I don't want to have to keep it a secret from Nat. It'll probably become a once/twice a year thing for a while. Anyway, I don't really need to justify it in any way other than by saying that for me the experience is well worth the risk.

December is always a bad month for health - I drink too much, eat way more sugary foods that I normally wouldn't think about, eat out a lot etc. Had an 8 course meal on Friday, for example.

I think that's about it.

So I'm quite a walking contradiction at times. My friends all say this, but I guess it's my way of finding a balance. No doubt that I could be healthier at times, but there's no doubt that being extremely healthy 99% of the time and unhealthy 1% of the time is better than make a half-hearted effort to be healthy 60% of the time and steering clear of the odd dab of mandy. Anyway, I'm young and want to enjoy my life, so I don't really care. I enjoy every second of it and don't worry about it, so overall the letting go side of me has a positive impact on my life, in my opinion

Nice reply Ollie

MDMA is really enjoyable stuff although not easy to come by. I burned out on that kinda thing and the club scene far too young and suffered some awful come downs that has put a downer on the experience for me. If i was to go out clubbing and take uppers like that id be on a negative spiral come 3am thinking about the pending come down which is brutal so not for me any more. Not saying if i was to come down to Fabric i wouldnt indulge and have a good time though

The odd doobie doesnt count. Neither does weekends in Amsterdam

lol. Fair enough. No point if you suffer from comedowns, as you say.

The problem of prohibition is well illustrated by the lack of negative impact that MDMA has on society. The reason it's now so hard to come by is that saffrole oil has been banned globally under a UN agreement, which means it's now very difficult to come by the ingredients required to crystallise the molecule. It used to be grown primarily in China, which cracked down on it before the Olympics. Rumour has it that it'll start coming out of Russia before long though.

As a result of this, things like mephedrone (which is hundreds of times more toxic than MDMA) are on the market at the moment, being sold legally at the moment. It's even being put into pills sold as Es, when they're just not. At the moment you'll pay £10 for a good genuine one, anything cheap is probably meph. It's a ridiculous situation considering that when MDMA was made illegal (originally in the US in the 80s), it was being used by every man and his dog without issue.

The thing in Dallas was that the DEA went in to investigate cocaine and heroin use (which was spiralling out of control) and found that everyone was using MDMA. Not just the kids, but their parents as well. I guess it was a minority that spoiled it for everyone else. Forget the guy's name but there was one chap who had a virtual monopoly on it out there, he made millions.

I eat and drink what I want, but 2010 is the year of being clean - I wonder how that will go?!

Spit wrote:

simon m wrote:I eat and drink what I want, but 2010 is the year of being clean - I wonder how that will go?!

Remember, if it all gets too much then Febreze is your best friend. Ghetto shower!

I shake n vac if it gets too bad!

2009 has been pretty damn clean and healthy, prob a 90/10 as opposed to the common 80/20 rule.

For me it's at the sweet spot where it dosn't take much effort to maintain but is providing good nourishment and pleasure eating the foods, exactly how it should be.
I don't feel i 'need' treats that much, i tend not to get cravings for things etc, for me a nice solid nutritious meal is a pleasure....venison burger, curly kale, some boiled potatoes and a nice glass of wine.

Of course i occaisionally have the odd bit of crap when i get caught out, helped someone move house a few days ago and all they had in their house was biscuits and pizza....so that's what i ate!
As long as most of your diet is healthy it dosn't matter one bit!

Getting too anal and complicated with diet will make you less healthy anyway, too much stress is bad, thinking about food is bad....just take it easy, don't eat shit and you'll do just fine.

I'm pretty clean on the whole but I do find I eat far more cheats when I'm more physically active as the hunger never goes away and I have to really keep portion size in check. Loading up on fillers doesn't really make much of a dent as I'll just start craving something else. When I'm less active, so mainly weights and little cardio, then my hunger tends to decrease and I can eat far cleaner without craving food.

I will howver try and stay at least 90% clean through next year despite the inevitable cravings.

My diet i'd say is pretty clean... although am no way as anal about it as I could be. I do think about what I'm eating, and make a conscious effort to ensure I get a good balance of omega fats and that I have enough protein each day. Beyond that though my tastes are pretty healthy anyway so the rest kind of takes care of itself. I do indulge though - and have absolutely no guilt when I do, as I have faith that my body can deal with a little bit of junk so long as most of my diet is healthy.

In respect of drink and drugs, hardly touch alcohol at all - maybe will drink two or three beers one night every couple of months. Likewise I don't really do drugs, but will smoke the (now very) occasional bifta. Don't do anything else.

For exercise, when I train it's pretty good. Being quite ectomorphic of frame, i did for a while when I first started training consider myself a 'hard gainer', but as I've now actually learned how to train and eat, and understand the physiology a bit better, I now know that I can gain quite well when doing it all properly and so can't blame any lack of progress on genetics. Am not built to be a Mr O, but then wouldn't want that anyway. Don't consider myself a bodybuilder, more as 'someone who works out'. Never taken AAI's and don't use stims.

My biggest downfall and problem is with bipolar depression. When I'm ok all is as above, but when I'm either depressed or hypo I don't take care of myself properly and can spectacularly undo six months work in the gym in just four or five weeks by hardly eating anything and not training. This has been my biggest problem by far in the last few years - just going around in circles always building up back to where I was six months ago then going off the rails for a bit and screwing my body up again.

Also had some shit side effects from antidepressants & antipsychotics - arthralgia, and swollen bladder & urinary retention the worst two. Hate taking those chemicals but at times they've probably saved my life so for that I'll take the sides as a price worth paying in trying to find a good med.

Things are getting better overall though, and am really encouraged by how I am now compared to how I was twelve months ago, but still got a way to go before I'm back to where I should be.

mine! your having a laugh arent you

i have the best intentions- but due to family, work stress- all goes to shite, food, training and alcohol wise.
prime example- today, i was going to go to the gym this afternoon, when KABOOM, supply policy come through and drop a bomb on my lap, a customer of mine has all of a sudden been shown to having irregular purchasing patterns.........kind of makes sense, some healthcare staff double script over xmas.
oh no, far worse than that, purchasing off the scale
so rather than going to the gym, i have a phone glued to my ear for 3hrs trying to get to the root of it all. still on email now!
bad part- just so happens that the account belongs to a political spearhead, and i am taking it from all angles

so, being caught in that situation, i have not been to the gym, i have bought a beef madras, and to try and chill me out, i am working through 8 beers.

i know i can go to the gym and use that as my cathartic mechanism, but it is far too easy for me just to hit the ale.

2010, i am allegedly going to immerse myself back into the game proper- consistency!

Feck it

Christmas is here and my manny just gave me a big tub of Shortbread and mince pies

YUMMMMM

Whoo whoo! Next stop my thighs

ollie wrote:Whoo whoo! Next stop my thighs

brian's cousin?

Diet is usually spot on, with 1 cheat meal a week consisting of junk food, sugary stuff and maybe a magners or two. Alcohol binges very rare (every 2 months tops), no drugs, usually get 8+ hours sleep a night. Don't do enough 'cardio', but i question whether it's needed to stay in good health if you're working hard with weights. Going to do some 400m interval training and plyo's when my knees better which should really work my cardio system and maintain strength.

Diet past 4 days has been quite bad, alcohol binge and a lot of junk food. Boozy night out was due, but bad diet has been down to knee injury, xmas and having a week off the gym. I find it difficult to eat clean when i'm not exercising hard unfortunately.

Karlos wrote:

ollie wrote:Whoo whoo! Next stop my thighs

brian's cousin?

One of the guys out of N*Sync, as portrayed in the Simpsons