Leading a sedentary lifestyle has been linked to a higher risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, and early death, according to the NHS<\/a>. But a 2023 study<\/a> published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that increasing the amount of exercise you do by just 75 minutes a week (or 11 minutes a day) can decrease some of these risks \u2013 and then you might get the bug to start training harder, like Smith.<\/p>\n __<\/p>\n During my 40s, I just let myself go. In my 20s, I was decently fit, playing sports<\/a> and training at the gym. But health and fitness became a very low, almost non-existent priority in my life as I got older because I had family and work commitments.<\/p>\n I was drinking too much<\/a> and eating for convenience \u2013 I used to call my diet the \u201csomething and chips\u201d diet. I was a chief marketing officer at the time, and my job involved long hours and lots of travel, which left me unmotivated to even go for a walk. The only exercise I was getting was kicking a football around in the garden with my son, and that used to tire me out far too quickly.<\/p>\n New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n I hadn\u2019t really noticed much change in myself on a day-to-day basis, but I was feeling fatigued all the time<\/a> and down, mentally and physically. I was 98kg \u2013 obese on the BMI scale \u2013 and I had a very high body fat ratio of 27 per cent. I was also pre-diabetic, and taking drugs for hypertension, high cholesterol, and depression.<\/p>\n I thought that maybe I was just meant to be a bit overweight, have a \u201cdad bod<\/a>\u201c, and feel lethargic, stressed, and demotivated at this age. I blamed myself for having let myself get to this point and had accepted that this was going to be how I felt for the rest of my life. But in January 2019, I decided to make a change.<\/p>\n It\u2019s really weird \u2013 the thing that triggered this thought was seeing a picture of Bilbo Baggins, from the film The Hobbit, on Instagram. I wanted to feel the same joy, energy<\/a>, and sense of adventure as Bilbo looked like he was feeling. I decided to improve my life and try to feel better.<\/p>\n So, I put on my old trainers I used to use for gardening and went for a run. Such was my state of fitness that I couldn\u2019t do much actual running, but it turned into a rather nice walk. It was one of those crisp, sunny, cold days and I really enjoyed it. I actually felt like I was Bilbo Baggins, in the Shire with the sun shining, and I was so happy because I was doing something for myself for the first time in a long time.<\/p>\n Going out for that walk made me want to do more, because I hadn\u2019t felt that good for a while.<\/p>\n The more physical activity I did, the better I felt<\/p>\n My walks<\/a> became a regular occurrence and then turned into runs. By the end of February 2019, I had joined a gym and started lifting weights, and began taking swimming lessons once a week.<\/p>\n Exercise<\/a> creates these feel-good hormones which spurred me on. At first, it was just 20 minutes a day, but I found that the more physical activity I did, the better I felt. The regularity helped me form a habit and enjoy the effects of what I was doing much quicker.<\/p>\n I felt amazing \u2013 I found it much easier to get out of bed, and I had the energy to make the most of the day and play with my son.<\/p>\n I was never really chasing physical or aesthetic changes, but when I first saw some veins in my forearm around April 2019, it gave me more motivation because it showed that what I was doing was working. <\/p>\n I had also changed my diet. The biggest thing I did was quit alcohol<\/a>, which made a big difference mentally as well as physically. I also stopped eating so many chips and oven foods, and started eating more vegetables<\/a>. I would combine pre-prepared packs of stir-fry vegetables with lean proteins like chicken, turkey, and tuna. I used a calorie and macronutrient-tracking app at first, until I had built the habit and knew what I should be eating.<\/p>\n My wife, Catherine, was very supportive. We both became much more conscious of what we were eating, and she came for walks with me. We got dogs, too, which made walks a lot more enjoyable!<\/p>\n At my annual GP check-in, my doctor was amazed to see that my blood pressure and cholesterol levels<\/a> had dropped down into the normal range, and I had lost about 15kg and reversed my pre-diabetes. She said that I didn\u2019t need to take my medications any more \u2013 I just needed to keep doing what I was doing.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t foresee myself becoming an influencer<\/p>\n By 2020, I had decided I wanted to make changes to my work life, too, by getting out of the corporate world. I thought I could help people around my age get fit <\/a>like I had, because I understood the pressures of their stage of life. So, in late 2020, I took all the qualifications to become a fitness coach and personal trainer in Surrey, where I live.<\/p>\n About 18 months later, I realised that there was a gap on social media for people my age getting fit. I started posting under the \u201cFit in Midlife\u201d brand on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook in March 2022, and it took off really quickly.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SEI_276352061.jpg\")
By his 40s, Smith says health and fitness became a very low, almost non-existent priority in life <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SEI_276352069.jpg\")
Smith started with just 20 minutes of exercise a day, but found the more physical activity he did, the better he felt (Photo: Toby Phillips Photography)<\/p>\n