I want to keep moving – Andy

I’ve always been a very active person and have always appreciated the benefits associated with staying active and fit. However staying active was a lot easier when I didn’t have responsibilities such as mortgages, bills and kids. If you’re like me and work in an office then you’ll understand that I don’t move around much at all during work hours and laughing doesn’t really count as exercise. Also throw in there the complications with public transport such as all the delays and cancellation of trains and all of a sudden finding the motivation to exercise becomes a monumental task. So it really does come down to the passion I have for exercise and staying fit, which pushes me to find new ways to keep active.

It was only after our second child was born that I started to take notice of how little exercise I do every day. My pre–kids weekly routine would be going to the gym between 3 – 4 days a week and sometimes I’d play a quick game of indoor soccer with the boys. However after our second child was born, that dropped to a nice round number of 0 days at the gym. As my partner doesn’t work and looks after the kids all day, she can’t wait to unload them on me as soon as I’m home. The kids in turn love hanging onto daddy as he’s the one who bends easily and gives them unlimited treats. Then on the weekends, it would be either taking the family out, gardening or visiting friends and families. So there really is no time for exercise.

I figured if there’s any time to fit in exercise it would have to be during the weekdays. The question was how? One fateful day the trams weren’t running, due to ‘another’ fault. As such I was forced to walk the entire 2 kilometres to work. After walking the distance once I figured it wasn’t such a big deal and in fact it worked in my favour as walking the distance was a form of light cardio. Also during the weekdays I’d notice that sometimes by the time I get home, the kids would be fast asleep after a day of running amuck. This gives me clear passage to grab my gym gear and run out the door. Although it’s not consistent I usually get 1 -2 days of gym a week. This meant I was getting 1 -2 days of weight exercises as well as 3 – 4 days of light cardio a week, by walking to work.

As personal trainers would tell you, training hard is not enough you also have to eat right. Having the correct and balanced diet also plays a crucial role in staying fit and active. In my case however, I can’t help but eat all the foods which are on top of the food pyramid. So what do I do instead? I just eat less during each meal and reduce my sugar intake to bare minimum, except for Fridays where I treat myself to chocolate at work, with the promise that the JBS team will do Tough Mudder training the following week. The training never seems to go ahead as planned for some reason.

Trying to stay active and fit in our modern lifestyle is never easy. However if we have a reason to stay healthy and active, we will always find ways even if it’s by accident. For me it’s not just for myself but also for my family. After all I still want to be able to keep up with my son at physical activities when he gets older so he can’t laugh at me.

– Andy Lay –