Having a buff body is great but don’t sacrifice your health to look chiselled
REALITY TV star Spencer Matthews has posted before and after photos to show his dramatic body transformation.
He says: “In the picture on the left, my life was spiralling out of control. It was during Made In Chelsea and I had a drinking problem . . .
“ . . . On the right, ten years later, I’ve embraced a different lifestyle and have self- discipline and a purpose.
“I’ve been training religiously, weightlifting three times a week, running, not drinking and being mindful of my health.”
Good for him.
After all, it’s clearly taken a lot of slavish dedication, effort and sacrifice to hone his body in to the chiselled shape it is now.
READ MORE ON HEALTH NEWS
But for all the young men who might see this transformation and feel inadequate by comparison, it’s important to point out that, visually, the body in the left-hand photo is normal and the one on the right is the exception.
In his younger years, 34-year-old Spencer’s excessive drinking may have been slowly damaging his vital organs, and it’s right that, now he’s a father of three, he’s making healthier choices.
But if he’d just stopped drinking and adopted a healthier diet, the chances are his body would look like a slightly leaner version of his old self.
The primary factors behind the look on the right will be the regular weightlifting, the running and the self-discipline that means a hell of a lot of calorie-counting and, who knows, perhaps the occasional bout of juicing?
Most read in The Sun
It’s perhaps fair to say that, for some, achieving this look can border on the obsessive.
In 2015, a BBC Newsbeat documentary called Bigorexia: Never Buff Enough revealed that one in ten men training in UK gyms struggle with a body anxiety, aka muscle dysmorphia, that’s been compared to anorexia in reverse.
“The day you started lifting was the day you became forever small, because you will never be as big as you want to be,” says gym fan and influencer Dom Mazzetti.
Back in 2015, when Spencer first made the admirable decision to change his lifestyle and be healthier, he initially went too far the other way.
After spending just three days in the I’m A Celebrity jungle, he was forced to leave after revealing to the production team that he was taking steroid-based medication.
‘Serious error’
He said at the time: “When I started taking this programme of pills it was in preparation for a charity boxing match which, ironically, never took place . . . taking these pills was a serious error of judgment, which I hugely regret.”
The following year, he revealed he took them “completely out of vanity” because he wanted to “look good in the shower”.
Credit where it’s due for taking ownership of his mistake.
But let’s hope this new, steroid-free version of Spencer is solely about health and staying super-fit for the gruelling marathons he runs in aid of The Michael Matthews Foundation — the charity set up in memory of his then 22-year-old brother who died whilst descending Everest in 1999.
With the nation’s obesity rates spiralling out of control, the message to drink less alcohol and exercise more is an admirable one.
But visually, the entirely normal body shape on the left could easily be that of someone who generally looks after their health but doesn’t weightlift regularly or pound the pavements with the fervour of Mo Farah.
And it’s important for young men everywhere to know that.
A.I. can write? Wrong
THE publisher of local newspapers such as the Oxford Mail and South Wales Argus is recruiting an “AI-powered” reporter to create artificial intelligence-generated content.
It says it is “the forefront of a new era in journalism”.
Gulp.
So, in the interests of knowing whether next week I could be replaced by a robot, I went on ChatGPT and asked the question: Should Dominic Raab have resigned?
It replied: “As an AI language model, I cannot provide personal opinions or beliefs about political issues . . . Ultimately, whether Raab should have resigned or not is a matter of personal opinion.”
Phew.
Columnists live to fight another day.
Meanwhile, having read the Raab “bullying” report several times, I can’t for the life of me fathom why he had to go.
Remember the hit TV show Wife Swap?
Perhaps we’re due a 2023 reboot in which civil servants do a job swap with those in the private sector and get a much-needed dose of life in the real workplace?
Alarming news
I HAVE no issue with the national emergency alert sent to our phones on Sunday afternoon – as long as the capability isn’t abused in the future.
The second I get a nannying-style “See it, say it, sort it” message, I’ll be hitting the off switch.
NHS in poorly state
SHADOW Health Secretary Wes Streeting says it will take a decade to fix the “broken” NHS.
He pledged there would be “serious progress” by the end of a first Labour term in government.
So, considering that NHS Wales has been run by Labour for the past 25 years, one must assume that it’s a shining beacon of excellence?
Think again.
According to BBC reports, services there are described as being “on a knife edge”.
One young man had to physically carry his own grandfather in to A&E following a cardiac arrest after being told no ambulance was available.
The unpalatable truth is that, nationwide, the NHS is on life support.
So the time has come to stop using it as a political football and set up a cross-party initiative to start essential root and branch reform.
Return to sender
GARY Glitter has reportedly been deluged with fan mail since being recalled to prison after being caught discussing the dark web in a hostel.
Firstly, who are these “fans”? They clearly need help.
And secondly, it’s been revealed that the convicted paedophile has chosen DVDs from the prison library that star female actresses as young as ten and 12.
However innocent the movie plot line, the eye of the beholder might not be.
So why take the risk and not vet the DVD selection accordingly?
Brian has a Licence To Thrill in Bond TV show if he channels Logan Roy
BRIAN Cox, who plays the ruthless Logan Roy in Succession, has taken on a new role as the “controller” on a James Bond-style reality TV show, where contestants travel the globe while undertaking
various challenges.
Fabulous.
In an increasingly vanilla world where everyone has to be told how brilliant they are regardless of effort or attainment, let’s hope he channels some Loganisms along the lines of “You’re not serious people”, and “F***ing morons”.
It will make the acerbic Anne Robinson look like Pollyanna.
Edna, a true queen
WHEN Buckingham Palace first opened its doors to the public, I interviewed the “Queen’s friend” Dame Edna Everage in the back of a white Rolls-Royce.
As we approached the majestic gates at the end of The Mall, half of the queuing public left their cherished spot to run over for a photo.
Within seconds, two police vans had arrived to move us on . . . but not before themselves posing for a snap with Dame Edna and getting an autograph.
A true star.
Parentcare
A TOP lawyer has suggested that the shop Mothercare should change its name to reflect modern times.
“For the love of God, rename it Parentcare. Naming a shop after motherhood reinforces patriarchal roles expected of women but not men,” says Charlotte Proudman.
Or should that be, Charlotte Proudperson?
An old story again
HERE we go again.
A “17-year-old” migrant has turned out to be a 42-year-old IS fighter.
Despite his beard, receding hairline and numerous tattoos, he applied for asylum as an unaccompanied child and was placed in local authority care in London with under-18s before being rumbled a week later.
That was in 2021, and it won’t surprise you to learn that, two years on, he’s still here – staying in a three-star hotel at our expense while fighting deportation, also at our expense.
So, he’s a fully grown man who used fake ID to lie about his age, he was first recorded as “a terrorist” by the UK and US in 2006, and is still regarded as a security risk.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
And yet we still haven’t managed to kick him out.
It beggars belief and surely suggests we might never solve the migrant crisis.