Dave

‘For me, health was never something that was strictly defined, but was guided by my parents. From a young age I was told that there were certain things that were good for me and certain things that weren’t. My parents tried to follow the typical guidelines, making home cooked meals, ensuring I ate my greens and minimising sugary things. I was extremely active and was always doing at least two sports. They were happy as long as I was outside. The only time they complained was when I was sat indoors on the computer. As they were both English teachers it was inevitable that I loved reading and our house is completely filled with books.

When I think about it, the habits I have now are ones that I was doing in some form from a young age. It is natural that we model our behaviour on our parents which in my case was a blessing. As I got older, I became more conscious of my diet. I was part of one of the best amateur rugby teams in the country and many of my friends were going to professional training camps and coming back with diet advice and goals for strength and fitness targets. My love for rugby meant I was becoming more conscious of what I ate and how it would help me to perform. Eating poorly meant I would train poorly, in turn affecting how I played. I would fluctuate in weight and size depending on what part of the training cycle I was on. I was never self conscious about my body from an aesthetic perspective, even though I definitely didn’t fit the male profile endorsed by mainstream media. My focus was performance based and still is. Looking at how both male and female aesthetics have changed, even within the last twenty years exemplifies how arbitrary our notions of beauty are.

As far as what I consider healthy now, there are things I choose to do because I find they help me. I find if I eat too much sugar or processed food I don’t sleep well and can’t concentrate. The same happens if I don’t exercise. There are things we know are categorically bad for you such as smoking but I’ve seen outrageous claims being made about the benefits of certain foods or activities and the negative consequences of others. In reality there is a huge grey area when it comes to health and ironically it can be unhealthy to become too obsessive about it. It has been well documented that happiness is key to vitality so do what you enjoy.’