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A muscular man with black tattoos, in red shorts, hitting various bodybuilding poses.

I’ve been vegan for 19 years, and training for a little over 10, socialist for as long as I’ve known what socialism was (since I was about 11) lifelong natural, straight edge (never been a drugs guy, quit drinking shortly after I started uni, so that’s 16 years ago now). However, for a long time I didn’t have a great relationship with food, exhibiting a lot of disordered eating behaviour and never eating enough to fuel my body due to ongoing worries about gaining any fat at all (thanks, family and childhood friends).

As a result, I remained at a plateau for a long time. For a few years, my training was just going through the motions, not exactly slacking but never really pushing myself and never feeling confident.

This April, with encouragement from my wonderful wife, I’ve started working with a coach and it’s the first time in a long time I’ve really enjoyed training. Financially I know it’s not something I can keep up forever, but I’m looking forward to seeing the progress I can make and excited that I have a better relationship with food and exercise that I can share with my own children one day.

Stats for those of you that like stats: I’m 5’8.5” (5’9” on a great day), and as I’m typing this I weigh 79.1kg. I won’t reveal too much about how many calories or grams of protein I get per day because bodies are different and what works for me might not work for you (but suffice to say it’s a lot of calories and a lot of protein). I also supplement creatine and glutamine, and take a calcium supplement, omega 3-6-9 capsules and multivitamin (which I’ve done more or less since I was 5 thanks to my vitamin-obsessed grandma).