In my Job there is ample opportunity to sit around watching the world go by the window eating poor quality food and getting fat. Couple that with the 3% humidity air being recirculated around an aircraft cabin for 10 hours and you have bad food and dehydration to cope with.
I chose to make a conscious effort to adapt a healthy lifestyle and avoid the "pilot gut" that traps so many in this job. I was only trying to work out to stay in shape at first wandering around the gym from machine to machine not really ever understanding what i was doing and before i coupled up with a gym buddy, Since then we have both undergone a physical metamorphosis in a very short space of time, always challenging each other and pushing the envelope. What started as run of the mill keeping fit and gut dodging has become a never ending mission to pack on as much lean clean muscle as possible, I can't call them before and after pictures.. its more before and during, Who knows where it will lead? At the moment we are living and training in the temperate and usually sunny climate of Tenerife which is one of the Canary islands off the west coast of Africa, i have to admit the weather helps. nothing like a sunshine jog along the beach!
A lot can be said about being in good physical shape in general, it affects everything in your life from the moment you wake up, your outlook on life, your self confidence, and discipline which have major impact on relationships, motivation, your job, the list goes on. That sense of achievement when you commit yourself to a goal and reach it.. there's no feeling quite like it and it becomes a self perpetuating cycle, the more you achieve, the higher you aim, the higher you aim, the more you achieve.