Fitter at 40

I say fitter at 40, but 40 is now well in the rear view mirror. For me I am fitter in my 40s than in any other decade that I have lived.

Through my teens, 20s and 30s I was a professional footballer, and would say that I trained relatively hard throughout this time. My diet was ok or decent in general, and I would say that I slept relatively well.

What I would say, is that I never ever felt full of energy. Probably because of a combination of the stress and demands I put on myself, the fact that my diet could have been better, and that the volume I put in wasn’t beneficial to my goals.

My goal would always be more is more, and if more is enough then even more must be better. That may have been ok, but if I had absolutely dedicated my diet to optimal performance, then perhaps I would have felt better.

I would look at my diet and generally due to the volume of training, then I would absolutely hammer food and generally poor quality food.

After retirement I know that my activity levels will generally be less, so I consciously made an effort to improve the quality of my diet. I made sure my diet was filled with more fruit and veg, protein, water and finally improved the quality of the food I was consuming.

I really made sure that a large portion of the food I was and am consuming is of single ingredient foods, home cooked freshly made meals and cut down on takeaways and poor quality food.

This means that not only am I improving my health with food quality, but based on eating a higher protein content I was able to build muscle, recover after sessions and feel fuller for longer (great added benefit of eating more protein).

This alongside my training load and type became more aligned with my overall long term goals. Training for me was not about doing as much as I possibly could anymore, it was no longer about burning the candle at both ends.

It was about training smarter not harder.

My over 40 goals were about feeling fit, strong and having energy for my day, sleeping well and feeling the best I could.

I have never looked at food as fuel, and never will, but I recognised that by improving the quality of my food that in turn my goals were easier to achieve. I am much more mindful of what I am consuming and how that affects me.

If i have a night out or extra social calories, I know I have to pull back on them later in the day/week, this for me is all about balance.

But, making these decisions have impacted me so much, sometimes when people drop me messages they think that to change their life they need to make radical changes, when in reality they don't.

By simply being more active, going to the gym, and moving more as well as improving your food quality, life can feel so much better.

On top of that, you might find you sleep better and then in turn have more energy.