.png)
My story
Fitness saved my life
Welcome to the stage…
​
“This is Anthony, 40 years old, HR recruiter based in East London.”
​
This was a very similar introduction I had on Saturday 9th November 2019. I had just entered my first-ever Fitness Bodybuilding competition. Once the euphoria had worn off, I actually thought to myself “what the…. have I just done?” ... and I didn't look like that geezer over there at the time... so you’re probably wondering how I got to that point. Here’s my story.
​
A party lifestyle
​
From my early 20s until around when I turned 30, I was quite erratic in my behaviour, and heavily involved in a party lifestyle with binges of alcohol and drugs. This pattern continued most weekends and more days in the week than I can remember. After heavy sessions I would always look to do some form of training, mostly gym work, it would often help with my comedowns and help me feel better mentally. However, it took me several years to realise that this cycle couldn’t continue. I am happy to say that I came away from all the madness and feel so much better for it. It has been about 11 years since I changed mypath.
Once the party lifestyle stopped, it was amazing how quickly the weight crept up! I am sure a lot of us can relate to this! I had always considered myself to be a fairly active chap, a regular gym user with a love for food and protein – I guess I could be called “meathead”.
​
Back in 2015, we were lucky enough to go and spend Christmas in Mexico. This was the moment I realised my love of food had taken over. When looked back at the pictures of us on that holiday, I realised my weight had crept up to just over 97 kgs. I had never been that heavy in my life and something had to change.
​
The change
​
When we returned from Mexico, I was straight back to the gym hitting heavy sets, low reps, and long rest periods (not great for weight loss by the way!), so I met with a Personal Trainer. Over the next few months, he taught me how to make some subtle lifestyle changes - increasing my cardio, changing my milk to almond milk, removing red meat from my diet and other small, gradual changes.
​
Hand on heart, this is one of the hardest things I have ever done. Over the coming months, I was training well and adopting good eating habits, and starting to see some changes to my physique, fitness and mental well-being. After about four months into training, this became a good habit. Of course, I would have times when I was tired and occasions when I couldn’t be bothered. Trying to train every morning and working full-time has been hard. My trainer broke this down in a simple analogy “One meal at a time and one workout at a time”. It is better to have a bad training session than no training at all.
The plan
18 months later, my training and eating habits changed dramatically and I started to get myself into a fair condition and a good level of fitness. I joined GymBox in February 2018 just after my 39th Birthday. For me, this was the best move I made. It was here that I was able to get into the mindset of structured training. I spoke to my wife and let her know that I had a goal for my 40th birthday and that was to see if I could get on stage ready for a fitness competition. She was on board; this plan was now taking shape. (No pun intended!)
​
So, now my wife knows, she is on board - now to put the plan into action. Out comes the debit card – I am now registered with Pure Elite – “Amateur Fitness Model over 35” category for their November 2019 competition.
​
Preparation is key
​
We are now in June 2019, and this now become set in stone.
We are now up to full speed with training, diet etc. and this is all progressing. Now the most uncomfortable part for me; learning how to pose, hold position, and look like you want to be on stage! I would consider myself a good people person but standing in a pair of briefs in front of a load of strangers and on stage with ripped personal trainer types, was daunting, to say the least! I attended a posing workshop with Pure Elite, and I have to say they were the most welcoming bunch of people and fitness professionals that I have ever met. They were very supportive and interested in each person’s journey and ready to give advice.
​
I had a good PT in place, we would check in every few weeks to see how things have been going, what has been working or not so well, and changing things around.
​
The build-up to the day felt like torture for me, I was nervous but trying to keep my emotions in check, we arrived on the Friday to register and had a chance to meet some of the other competitors.
By the time competition day had arrived, I had the strangest feeling of calm on the day. Having had the chance to speak to other competitors some of their stories have been nothing short of inspirational.
