People often ask me how I stay healthy. They assume I must have incredible discipline—that I follow a strict diet, count every calorie, or spend each day resisting temptation. The truth is much simpler.
I don’t spend my life making healthy decisions. Years ago, I made them so often that they eventually stopped feeling like decisions at all. They simply became who I am. That is what Meta-Age is really about.
Every weekday at 8:30am, I am in the pool. At 11:00am, I drink my smoothie. In the evening, I eat a simple meal of chicken, beef, or fish with vegetables—usually whatever happens to be on special offer at my local Waitrose. Afterwards, I will often enjoy a few squares of Lindt dark chocolate, a satsuma, and quite often a cocktail.
People hear that routine and think it sounds impressively disciplined. I do not see it that way. To me, it is just another day.
A while ago, I asked a nutritionist to review my daily smoothie. I deliberately did not tell them my age because I wanted an honest opinion about the food, not the person. They scored it ten out of ten. Only then did I tell them. There was a pause. Then came the questions. What does the rest of your diet look like? How long have you been eating like this? What training do you do?
Every day, I blend exactly the same smoothie, not because I am obsessive, but because I genuinely enjoy drinking it. The recipe includes:
- 84g mixed nuts
- 33g beetroot
- Large handful of blueberries
- Large handful of mango
- Half a Hass avocado
- Three tablespoons of Fage Greek yoghurt (5% fat)
- One pint of organic whole milk
- One teaspoon of turmeric
- A pinch of black pepper
- One scoop of Cellucor Creatine
- One teaspoon of chia seeds
- Three Brazil nuts
- One scoop of Vega Performance Protein
- One teaspoon of Whole Earth peanut butter
I never designed it to be perfect. I designed it to taste good, keep me full, and fit naturally into my day. The nutritional benefits are simply a consequence of doing something I enjoy, consistently, over a long period of time.
I do not meal prep. I do not count calories. I do not punish myself for eating chocolate, and I do not feel guilty about enjoying a cocktail. I do not chase perfection. I simply show up, six days a week, year after year.
The irony is that people call that discipline. I call it normal.
After reviewing my routine, the nutritionist looked at my body composition. My weight is sixty-five kilograms. My skeletal muscle mass is thirty-three point three kilograms. My body fat is fifteen per cent. They told me these were the sort of numbers they would normally expect to see in someone much younger.
Then they looked back at me and asked, “How old are you?” I smiled. That was not really the point. The point was that twenty years of ordinary days had quietly produced extraordinary health.
When I started living this way, I had never heard the term Meta-Age. I was not following a philosophy. I was simply building a life I enjoyed. Only later did I realise what had really happened. I had not just developed healthy habits. I had quietly become the kind of person for whom healthy choices no longer felt like choices.
Meta-Age is not another diet, another exercise programme, or another set of rules. It asks a much deeper question: who are you becoming? Because identity shapes habits. Habits shape lifestyles. Lifestyles shape the way we age. Not the other way around.
A few months ago, I stopped taking most of my supplements—simply to see whether I noticed any difference in myself. I didn’t. Not in how I felt, my recovery, or my training. These days, I only take a few if I think they’re worthwhile—perhaps some magnesium and vitamin D during the winter months, if I remember. The rest, I simply get from the food I already enjoy eating.
You do not need my smoothie, my training programme, or my fasting schedule. You do not need to copy my life. But you can ask yourself one simple question: am I choosing participation over withdrawal?
That might mean going for a walk, swimming, cooking a healthy meal, meeting a friend, learning a new skill, or playing with your grandchildren. Whatever it is, keep showing up. Because one day it will stop feeling like effort. It will simply become who you are.
People often ask me what the secret is. They expect me to mention protein, or fasting, or supplements. But those are only the details. The real secret is much simpler. I built a life that I enjoy repeating—and over time, that life built me.
That is what Meta-Age means to me. Not living perfectly. Living consistently. Building an identity that chooses participation over withdrawal—one ordinary day at a time.
Ageing is inevitable. Withdrawal is not.
By the way… I’m sixty-eight.
Now you know why I didn’t mention it at the beginning.
