Andrew Elston's Story
Andrew Elston's winning Lunch Box life-changing story.
Andy has been featured in Sport Magazine with his success on the Lunch Box Diet!
Imagine the situation; high flying executive, a lot of stress, but nothing I couldn't handle. Then those corporate lunches and dinners, and of course the obligatory daily high consumption of alcohol (beer, wine etc). Great! Or maybe not?.... Add the downside; lack of sleep and concentration, lack of proper exercise, not eating properly and constant waking up feeling drained and unwell. Well that was me at the back end of last year.
I became more and more aware of my poor lifestyle and the effect it was having on my health. The high volume intake of alcohol actually stunted my hunger to a large degree, which meant that mealtimes became intermittent and usually no more than snack breaks i.e. not eating healthily but more like trash intakes, you know chocy bars, crisps, burgers. Don't get me wrong, you've got to have a little of what you like, but when it becomes the staple, then you've got a big problem if you're not eating healthy. The old adage "you are what you eat" is true. If you don't eat healthily, lack of concentration and poor energy levels will follow and are going to be the least of your problems in the medium to long term. The government bangs on about obesity and the health dangers therein. But I'm afraid it's all true though. Couple that with excessive alcohol intake on a daily basis, and you are going to be ill at some stage. Just recently, the news has been full of stories of young (sub 30) people being treated for liver-related diseases due to excessive alcohol. Wow! That's going some! Only a few years ago, liver sclerosis was associated with a lifetime of alcohol abuse i.e. when someone reaches their middle to late age. Maybe 30 is a now a contemporary lifetime when it comes to drinking? We are in trouble...! And hey, let's top this particular cake with the issue of not taking regular strenuous exercise. It's a fact that most people do not... in fact most people take little or no exercise at all. Put it all together and you have a bigger time bomb ticking within you than an Al Qaeda raid.
Andy's Circuit Training Video
(As well as performing a 4 day split of weight training, andy also performs hi-intensity intervals and ciruit training sessions)
That was I in December 2006 and I knew I had to do something quick! I had another personal motivator to make me want to do something about it. On one of many trips to the pub, one of my friends recommended that I do test photo shoot to find new models. To cut along story short, I was offered work modelling suits. One thing led to another and I was offered the chance to do some work for a sports clothing company - on one condition, I built my body by March 2008. They were saying very diplomatically to me that I was too thin. It was then it dawned on me how unhealthy I had become. Given that I am 6 foot 7 inches, I was a stick insect! No real shape, no strength and what body I did have was sagging badly. Christmas over with fast forward to January 2007, and I saw a flyer for Fitness First in Exeter offering discounted membership to the gym. You know the form,
New Year, new body and all that. Well I thought it was worth a try, but I didn't have much time, so decided to seek the help of a personal trainer, which turned about to be Simon [Lovell].
I explained to Simon that I needed to build muscular shape for the shoot in March and was prepared to be "beasted" by him so long as I achieved the results. Simon told me it wasn't just about pumping iron, it was also about diet and cardio-vascular fitness. He ran a diet check for 1 week to see what was going in. It didn't look too bad, except that I was depriving myself almost completely of carbs (that's carbohydrates to the uninitiated). More rice, more pasta, but not more potatoes or chips (bad Andy!) It was at this point that Simon introduced his Lunchbox Diet to me.
The Lunch Box Diet is designed to eliminate snack and pig-out eating and replace it with more fruit, more vegetables, more protein, more vitamins and minerals that boost the body's energy and immune system. The good news was that I already enjoyed these foods. However, I needed to increase my intake if I was to have any chance of building the body beautiful. Many people now use it to lose weight successfully.
So off I went with diet and training. It was hard work on both fronts to begin with; my strength was poor and my cardio-vascular performance pathetic. Not unusual for someone who had been on an alcohol-fuelled binge for the last few years! The diet took a little time to acclimatise to, and I'll impart a little piece of advice to you here. Don't go at it like a bull in a china shop. Wean yourself off those crisps, burgers, chips and choccys. It you do it knife-switch style, you will almost certainly buck against it, if not fail. I was lucky in that I did enjoy salad stuffs and vegetables. If you are someone who has previously not "done salad or vegetables" thediet will gradually build you in via Simon's impressive 'slowly but surely' method that builds up over time. Over this time and with some persistence, you will learn to like these foods as your body adjusts to eating healthily. Your energy levels will subtly change and grow. After a while, this new found energy will be less subtle, it will scream. If you are training like I was, I suddenly felt strong....very strong. I felt somehow detoxed and able to face the day. True, I stopped my intake of alcohol completely; you may just wish to take the foot of the gas to ease your consumption down. Do it, it really is true you don't need so much alcohol in your body to get through the day. Alcohol, is, despite what anybody tells you, an addictive drug just like cannabis etc. Your body gets used to it and therefore needs more and more to get that nice feeling called being drunk - you know the one. But it is harming and upsetting your body's ability to perform like it was designed to do.
Given my "revelation on the road to Damascus" regarding diet, I now got up in the morning and fixed muesli or bran, 2-3 eggs, chicken breast, toast & honey and tucked in. No tea or coffee just a gallon of orange juice or a homemade smoothie. Smoothies don't take any time to make and the combinations are endless. Try a berry mix in the morning e.g. blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, Goji, cranberry with milk and if you are feeling adventurous add a little fresh ground up (without seed) birdeye chilli. Yes that's right chilli with fruit. Yumm! Not much mind you or you'll blow your socks off!! Overall though, the natural sugars and antioxidants will rev you up right away for the day ahead. No really they will! By the way, lay off the tea and coffee. Drink them only in moderation. Coffee in particular dehydrates and blunts you appetite for all that new food.
Back to the training. I devised a diet which included milkshakes, protein drinks and supplements throughout the day which meant that I was eating 6 times a day. This brings me to another important tenet of the Lunchbox Diet. Here we go, and as Simon says "graze don't gorge!" In simple this means eat little and often from your lunchbox not 3 square meals a day with nothing in between. By doing so, you'll invigorate the body's metabolism. This will help turn the food into energy which is what you need for training. Also if you are trying to lose weight, assuming you are eating the right food, this concept is key to weight loss.
Over the weeks, I started to change - significantly. My strength and stamina grew and so did those wonderful muscles. The shape is really fantastic when it starts to appear for the first time. The Lunchbox Diet together with a high intensity training programme devised by Simon allowed me to build the body shape I needed. I didn't quite achieve the full extent of what I wanted in 3 months, but the change in me was truly astounding. In just 3 months I had significant body shape present. Further I was lifting, pushing and pressing weights I never thought I would. Now I have a body shape I am truly proud of and I feel really healthy and I am still in training with Simon.
As far as lifestyle goes, you have to be prepared once and for all to make permanent changes to your diet and exercise if you want to achieve your personal fitness goal and be healthier. You can't, as some people do, just follow it for a few months and then give up again. Picture it, Christmas or summer hols are just a couple of months away, so you go to the gym to drop a dress sizes or stop your bum or guts from sagging. You need to give it commitment constantly if you are going to be really fit and enjoy shape and health.
One thing's for sure, I've no intention of going back to my old ways, I like feeling so well. I am still engaged in heavy weight training and cardio-vascular interval training and still enjoy it a lot!