Under the microscope
Television personality Spencer Matthews, 30, answers our health quiz
CAN YOU RUN UP THE STAIRS? I CERTAINLY can. I’m married to a particularly athletic woman, Vogue [who is a model] and we train together. I’ll do CrossFit when I can, and love running and cycling. I used to do a lot of weightlifting but I had the odd lower back problem, and now I’m more interested in flexibility. GET YOUR FIVE A DAY? VOGUE and I cook a lot at home, we absolutely love lamb and beef — we also love our veg and fruit. We have got weak points, I’ll probably have a bar of Dairy Milk every day and find myself looking forward to it. EVER DIETED? YES. I used to be a very different shape growing up, I was known as Fatty Matthew at school. I’m now about 12st and just under 6ft. But I’ve been as heavy as 14st 6lb through being lazy. ANY VICES? I ABSOLUTELY love chocolate — Dairy Milk probably isn’t great for you but I do just love it. I gave up drinking on June 13 last year and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. It’s completely changed my life: I’m far more active, far more business minded, just a much better bloke. It had a major impact on my productivity and self worth. WORST ILLNESS/INJURY? I DON’T get ill much, though I had a cold recently and got a headache — for me that’s so foreign. POP ANY PILLS? I MIGHT have a protein shake after a workout if I don’t have time to cook but I always find that cooking is better than all that stuff. EVER HAVE PLASTIC SURGERY? I THINK I look all right. No disrespect to people who love a plastic surgeon but I find it’s misrepresentative of who you really are. You see a lot of supermodels nowadays who don’t look the way they were intended to look. In young women in particular it can be a bit of a tragedy to play around with your face. COPE WELL WITH PAIN? YES, I had my legs waxed for charity once and I was absolutely fine with it, a bit disappointed actually. I’ve done a bit of boxing and don’t care about the end result being too painful. EVER BEEN DEPRESSED? I’VE ALWAYS been a happy chappy and I’ve only recently begun to understand the severity of anxiety and depression. In the back of my mind I used to brand it as weak, I suppose. Now I realise just how wrong I’ve been. Hats off to people who deal with it. ANY PHOBIAS? I USED to be an uncomfortable flyer, so my son Theodore’s godfather and I did a skydiving course and jumped out of 32 planes in two days to get over that. LIKE TO LIVE FOR EVER? GOD, I don’t think so. I’ll take a look at what the next place is like, thanks very much. I’d like our son to live for ever. But once my time is done on this planet, one lifetime will be enough. Spencer is an ambassador for Simply Beef & Lamb.