For years, I loved smoking, slurping large glasses of wine and gobbling wings from overlit chicken shops. I tried to be healthy: I would make overnight oats; get only the small mixed sushi from Wasabi; and drink prosecco because someone said it was keto-friendly. I even did Veganuary back when it was such a gruelling feat of strength to be vegan for a month that people would sponsor you in horror and amazement.
I felt I had more in common with a pair of old socks than with gym-goers. Terms like “reps”, “leg days” and “core strength” made me cringe, mainly because they were the secret language of an exclusive club to which I wasn’t invited.
Yet I still believed I could magic up the motivation to work out profusely and daily. I signed up toFitnessFirst because it was opposite my flat, so I knew I would definitely go. (I went twice in a year.)
Then I realised the problem: I had set the bar sky high. Just like any fad diet, the plan was always doomed to fail. One day, I wondered if I could stick to doing a 40-second plank, every day for a week. Just to see. Forty seconds was all I could manage at the time, and a week seemed doable.
Five years later, I can now do a two-and-a-half-minute plank and various other strength exercises. I still do it all religiously every day and the domino effect it has had has changed my life.
About a year in, I began to encounter a tantalisingly unfamiliar feeling: physical strength. I noticed I was standing differently, taller perhaps, my core naturally taut. There were even the beginnings of – dare I say it – abs. Am I someone that has abs, I wondered?
The feeling was exhilarating. I had spent years body-shaming myself: as a teenager, I existed on a diet of pasta and worshipped Kate Moss, so I always believed I was overweight because I wasn’t a waif. Now, suddenly, I was accepting my body, even liking it. But my body hadn’t changed size – I just felt stronger physically and, consequently, mentally.
This newfound confidence led me back to my childhood sport: competitive swimming. I am better at swimming now because my core is stronger and my core gets stronger the more I swim. A coach recently referred to me as “an athlete” and I laughed (before spending the rest of the day smirking and in my head trying out the word “athlete” next to my name).
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Because of the regular swimming, I’ve lost weight, I’m inspired to eat more healthily, I’ve quit smoking and my mental health is the best it has ever been. Sometimes, I even crave vegetables.
I haven’t become totally insufferable (yet) – I still drink wine and gobble fried chicken – but my life is different, and I can trace it all back to one, wobbly, 40-second plank on a rainy Monday evening. I’ll have to plank for ever now for fear of losing my streak.
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