This section of the website is where some of your favourite celebs come together to share their tips to staying in shape and keeping healthy, to help you do the same:

Leon Lopez, Actor (Hollyoaks in the City ) Singer ("Love Got in The Way")



www.myspace.com/leonlopez
www.leonlopez.com

Fitness for me has become part of my life. I don't live life for the gym or anything, i go the gym to help me live my life well. I find that the way I look affects the opportunities i am given in the entertainment industry and keeping fit and in shape, not only helps me through live performances but also helps towards promotion and the types of jobs i am offered.

When i was younger i was over weight. The way i looked and the food i ate was not always a priority. Chocolate was my main vice, i was a sucker for sweet things and unfortunately became a chocoholic (and a pretty serious one at that)...lol... I come from a working class back ground were football was like a religion but i was never into sports, i was always enticed by the arts, music, acting and writing. Whilst my friends ate the same junk i did such as biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks, they where also burning off the calories playing football and sports. I however, was getting fatter by the day. It wasn't until one day at college we where producing a play and had hired in all the costumes from the local theatre. All the other actors fitted perfectly into their costumes whilst none of the outfits came near to me. I thought that they were all small sizes and just had to squeeze into the largest one i could find. I then saw photographs from the performance, and realized the costumes weren't small, i was large, in-fact xxx large. I then went on a trip to Russia with a school project and decided to weigh myself on the baggage scales. I t was in Kilos so i had to work it out into pounds... I weighed 17 stone! 17 stone and i was only 17! I had never lifted a weight in my life so i knew it wasnt muscle, i was fat. Too self conscious to join a gym i decided to loose weight through dieting, i did several diets and found that the atkins diet kicked everything into shape very quickly, and after about 2 years i was down to just over 12 1/2 stone. Sadly though this wasn't the great success it seemed as it disturbed my stomach. I wasn't eating enough greens, salads and vegetables as the diet stated so i had to revert to eating a balanced diet to help get my digestive system back on track. Afraid i would gain weight again, and quickly, i was prompted to join a gym I exercised 3 to 4 times a week and ate the way i wanted, still cautious of simple carbs such as white bread, pasta and sugar. I started eating salads, brown bread and keeping my protein high and as i started to gain weight i noticed it was muscle instead of fat. As my weight increased along with my strength and fitness i started introducing the occasional treat such as biscuits, chocolate every now and then. But since having issues with food from a young age i found this difficult at first and to this day still do but i realize in order to keep sane as well as healthy, you have to indulge in a little of what you fancy every once in a while. Now a days if i eat too may biscuits i do an extra half hour on the cross trainer.

Diet has been just as important to my training as the training itself. I truly believe so long as you train well, eat healthily you can look good and still splash out once in a while in the small indulgences we are told are bad for us. I noticed that as my shape changed over the years peoples perceptions of me also changed. As a chubby teenager people saw me as cute and cuddly. As a muscular adult people see me as more grown up and treat me with more respect. I am now in a position where i can maintain a healthy life style and maintain my body shape. Of course i have the occasional comment of "how vain are you????" and "you love yourself"... But I think in order to be happy in life you have to love yourself. And I think the term "vanity" is over used and miss used. I don't see myself as vain, I see myself as self aware of how i look and how i want to look in order to gain the results from my body and achieve the goals i have set out for myself in life. In this day and age your image affects so many things. The way you live, the way people act towards you and in my industry the type of work you get. If i can look good, be healthy and at the same time influence my life in a positive way does this make me vain? Or just sensible????

www.myspace.com/leonlopez
www.leonlopez.com


Aaron Renfree, Former member of S Club Juniors



“The best way I keep fit is through dancing. I go to a performing arts college which has a heavy schedule of dance and we also do pilates which is very good for your body. Dancing is a good way to stay in shape because it’s a fun activity and is a very good form of cardio. It beats going on a running machine facing a wall for 15 mins…….I try and eat as healthy as possible. I ALWAYS have breakfast every morning or else I wont get through the day. with dancing all day I drink a lot of water because you get dehydrated easily - this means I don’t snack a lot through out the day. I have a sandwich/salad and some fruit - normally a banana because it gives me that energy boost. I’m not going to lie I do enjoy my chocolate so I will have 1 bar at some point in the day and just hope I’ve burnt it off. I always make sure I have a big dinner around 6ish so then I wont get hungry later on because it's bad to eat before you go to sleep. Normally I’ll cook either a pasta/rice dish with meat n vegetables etc…….I do go to the gym pretty much every other day after college and do some weight training. I don’t go too over the top because I don’t want giant arms for dancing but I like looking toned. I also try n do the odd sit up/press up sessions in my room but normally we do them during warm up for a dance class.”



Note: There will be New Celebrities and New Advice added regularly