Getting Fitter, Healthier and More Capable

I’ve always wanted to be able to do things that my body probably isn’t quite ready for—handstands, tumbling, trampolining, gymnastics. Maybe even a backflip one day. At 48, that might sound a little ambitious, but I’ve never really wanted to accept that getting older automatically means becoming less capable.

There is another reason I want to get fitter too: I want to be able to be more active with my kids. We sometimes go along to soccer practice and I can get in goal, but the real problem comes when they want to play two against one. One of them in goal, me running around with the ball, trying to dribble, defend or chase them down. It doesn’t take long before I’m completely out of gas, or something starts hurting.

The kids don’t really care about any of that; they just want me to get out there and play, and I want to be able to. So this isn’t really about trying to become a fitness fanatic or chasing a number on the scales. It is about becoming a healthier, fitter and more capable version of myself.

Where it started

A few months ago I started looking more seriously at mobility, flexibility and strength training that I could do at home with little or no equipment. I had also started looking at calisthenics, where your own body becomes the equipment, and was increasingly seeing strength as the foundation for everything else I wanted to do. If I wanted to eventually do handstands, tumbling or gymnastics, I first needed to be strong enough to control my own body.

That led me to videos from people such as Isobel Garrett, Jack Woods and GMB Fitness, covering stretching, mobility, flexibility, bodyweight training and strength. It was exactly the sort of thing I was looking for, tapping into my long-standing interest in gymnastics and the idea that you can train your body to move in ways that most of us simply stop doing as we get older. So I decided to give it a go.

Just before Christmas 2025 I even went along to a gymnastics class. That was probably a little more enthusiasm than preparation. I ended up irritating my shoulder and eventually discovered that I had a rotator cuff injury. I finally went to a physio in May, where I was given some specific strength exercises to help recover it.

I have to admit I haven’t followed them as consistently as I should have. Work and life get in the way, and here we are in August and I am still dealing with it. That part is on me. But while all of this was going on, I started discovering something else.

I started listening differently

Podcasts have really become a thing for me during 2026. I listen to a mixture of shows. Some are about health and science, others are about comedy, psychology, relationships, life, habits, becoming a better person or simply understanding the world a little better. I’ve been listening to shows such as Chris Williamson’s Modern Wisdom, Jay Shetty’s On Purpose and The Mel Robbins Podcast, alongside plenty of health and science conversations.

But over the past few months, some of those conversations started taking me in a completely different direction. I found The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett, and through that I discovered conversations with people such as Dr Rhonda Patrick, a PhD trained biomedical scientist, Dr David Unwin, a GP, and Dr Benjamin Bikman, a professor, researcher and metabolic scientist.

Suddenly I wasn’t just watching videos about what exercises I should be doing. I was listening to people explain why. And that opened up a much bigger conversation about health, ageing, nutrition, metabolism and longevity.

Movement, fitness and longevity

One of the things that really caught my attention was Dr Rhonda Patrick talking about exercise. I have always had this idea that if I wanted to get properly fit, I needed to find a decent block of time, go for a long walk, do a long workout or somehow reach 10,000 steps every day. Then I heard her talking about the impact of short bursts of vigorous activity.

The idea that even very short periods of intense exercise can provide meaningful benefits really made me stop and think. Maybe I don’t need to find an hour every day. Maybe I need to stop thinking that exercise only counts if I have a huge block of time available. You have one minute, right?

Some of the conversations went even further, looking at exercise, ageing and longevity, particularly challenging the idea that 10,000 steps is some sort of magic number. For someone like me, that matters. I want to exercise, but I also need something that fits around work, family and everything else going on.

It brought me back to the things I had originally been looking at. Strength, mobility, calisthenics and bodyweight training aren’t just about being able to perform impressive movements. They are about having a body that is capable of doing things. And that is really what I want.

Then came metabolic health

This was probably the biggest change in my thinking. Dr David Unwin’s conversations about metabolic health, fatty liver and Type 2 diabetes really stopped me in my tracks. In his discussions, he describes what he calls the long silent scream from the liver—the idea that fatty liver can develop over many years without producing obvious symptoms. You can feel perfectly normal while things are gradually changing inside your body.

That hit home for me. I’ve had fatty liver and high cholesterol for several years. I have also watched my waist gradually get bigger and put a lot of it down to getting older. Middle aged spread. That’s just what happens, isn’t it? Maybe it doesn’t have to be.

The David Unwin episode of The Diary Of A CEO was one of the conversations that really sent me down this particular path. There is a chapter in the episode called These “Healthy” Foods Have More Sugar Than You Think, which really challenged some of my assumptions about foods I had always considered healthy. I thought I was doing the right thing. A banana for breakfast, wholegrain, high fibre bread for lunch, then meat and salad or vegetables for dinner. That sounds pretty healthy. But I was also eating large bowls of white pasta and white rice several times a week, and had been doing so for years.

The more I listened, the more I started questioning whether the balance of what I was eating was actually working for me. Dr Benjamin Bikman’s work on insulin resistance and metabolic health added another layer to that thinking. I’m not going to pretend I suddenly understand everything about human metabolism. I don’t. But I was hearing information that challenged assumptions I had held for years, and it made me want to experiment rather than simply carry on doing what I had always done.

Changing what I eat

For the past six to eight weeks I’ve been experimenting with a low carbohydrate approach and intermittent fasting. I’m not following a strict keto programme, nor am I doing 24, 48 or 72 hour fasts. I’m simply eating considerably fewer carbohydrates and paying much more attention to when I eat and whether I am actually hungry.

I’ve aimed for around 30 grams of carbohydrates a day or less. That has meant almost no bread, crumpets, pasta or rice, and no banana first thing in the morning. Instead, I’ve moved towards more protein, plenty of eggs, more full fat dairy, olive oil, avocados, spinach, nuts and omega 3 rich fish.

I’m still learning and still trying things. Some days I can get through to midday before having my first cup of tea and eating. Other days I might have a cup of tea at 9 or 10am, eat my first meal later in the afternoon and then have dinner in the evening before fasting again.

My tea is probably the biggest remaining source of carbohydrates in my day. I’ve gone from drinking six to eight cups a day to around three or four, usually with a teaspoon of raw sugar and full cream milk. So I’m not pretending I’ve eliminated carbohydrates completely. This is just what is working for me at the moment.

So has it made a difference?

The early results have certainly encouraged me. I was 81 kg and now I am 75 kg. My waist was 103 cm and it is now 96 cm. The waist measurement is actually the one I am paying more attention to. One of the measures I’ve come across is keeping your waist below half your height. At 179 cm, that means getting below 90 cm. I’m not there yet, but I’m heading in the right direction.

Something else has surprised me. I’m less hungry, I’m eating less and I’m finding it easier to go for longer periods without food. Overall, my digestion also seems better.

None of this means I’ve solved everything. My shoulder is still not right, I still need to be more consistent with my physio exercises, and I’m still learning about nutrition and experimenting with fasting, exercise and what works for me. But for the first time in quite a while, I feel like I’m actively changing the direction I’m heading in.

Where the podcasts have taken me

The interesting thing is that this whole journey didn’t come from one podcast or one person. It has been a collection of conversations and videos that have sent me in different directions.

Movement and mobility

Isobel Garrett, Jack Woods and GMB Fitness were some of the first videos that got me thinking differently about flexibility, mobility and what the body can actually learn to do. I started with things as simple as one minute mobility routines and stretching, then moved into bodyweight movement, calisthenics, strength and eventually gymnastics.

Exercise and longevity

Dr Rhonda Patrick has been a big part of changing how I think about exercise, ageing and longevity, particularly her discussions around short bursts of vigorous activity.

Metabolic health

Dr David Unwin and Dr Benjamin Bikman were the conversations that really challenged my assumptions about carbohydrates, insulin, fatty liver and metabolic health. The more I watched, the more questions I had.

Life, mindset and becoming better

Chris Williamson’s Modern Wisdom, Jay Shetty’s On Purpose and The Mel Robbins Podcast are part of a different side of my listening. Their conversations are not necessarily about health. They are about life, relationships, habits, discipline, psychology, purpose and becoming a better version of yourself.

Even Jimmy Carr has surprised me. His stand up persona is probably not for everyone, and I understand why people might have preconceived ideas about him. But some of the conversations I’ve watched have shown me a very different side of him. You have to park your judgement of his work persona for a moment and listen to the person behind it. His conversation with Chris Williamson about self help, psychology, thinking frameworks, luck, the inner critic and how to approach life was genuinely interesting.

And that is probably why I keep coming back to podcasts. They don’t always give you an answer. Sometimes they just give you a better question.

I’m not finished

I don’t know where all of this is going to lead. I have more things I want to try: more strength training, more mobility work, more walking, more nutritious food, more omega 3 rich fish and more attention to sleep and recovery. And hopefully, eventually, a healthier shoulder.

I’m also still figuring out exactly what I believe about all of this. There is an enormous amount of health information out there, and not all of it agrees. I’m trying to listen, learn, question things and then work out what makes sense for me.

But there is one thing I do know. I don’t want to accept that getting older automatically means becoming weaker, heavier and less capable. I want to be able to get on the soccer pitch with my kids and still have enough energy to play. I want to move better. I want to get stronger.

And maybe one day I will finally manage that handstand.

The backflip might be asking a little too much.

But I’m 48. I’ve still got time to find out.

Some of the things I’ve been watching and listening to

I’ve included some of the videos and podcasts that sent me down these different paths. Some of the full podcast episodes are an hour and a half, two hours or even longer. That’s a big commitment when you don’t know whether a conversation is going to be worth your time, so where I’ve found a shorter clip that covers the particular idea that caught my attention, I’ve included that as well.