JAMES MCVEY: MY RELATIONSHIP WITH TRAINING AND EATING
We had a personal chat with guitarist from British pop-rock band The Vamps and new Hogarth member, James McVey on his complex relationship with training and nutrition throughout his teen years and rise to fame. We touched on the fine line that is prioritising your fitness and ‘eating well’ to obsession and poor mental health. When does a healthy pursuit go too far? What are the warning signs and what attitudes should be avoided?
How often do you exercise at the moment and how often would you like to?
My relationship with exercise is very up and down and has fluctuated quite a lot over the 15 years that I’ve been going to the gym. At the moment, almost all of my days revolve around doing promo work for our new album via Zoom, so I haven’t had much of a chance to get to the gym and exercise. This has lead to many moody days! So I’m hoping to incorporate exercise into my routine more, to add more balance and positivity into my life. When I have time, I’ll try to get out on my bike for a cycle or go on a run. Now I’ve joined The Hogarth, I intend to get back to the gym more, if my schedule allows me to!
I would ideally like to exercise every day, but I recognize that this isn’t realistic, sustainable or healthy for me. So I would say about 3 times a week would probably work best!
What inspires you to keep active?
I haven’t always had a healthy perspective on exercise and eating, which I continue to struggle with at times, but I am much more conscious of it now. A lot of the issues I have stem from 10 years ago, when I thought I had to go to the gym to look a certain way to gain acceptance and to seem “popular” or “successful”. At the time, the Abercrombie & Fitch campaign was really trending and influenced the way guys my age would want to look like.
I felt pressured to achieve this ‘buffer’ look through heavy dieting and going to the gym a lot – I was going everyday at the time. Looking up athlete or celebrity diet and training plans online would also be my go to. But looking back now, these were all unhealthy triggers for me and were never sustainable, healthy lifestyles and were way too extreme. My mental health really suffered as a result. A better, more balanced approach to exercise and being aware of any triggers keeps me more healthily motivated to keep active.
A way to keep inspired to stay active, especially for guys it seems, would be to have a friend as a “gym buddy” to train with. In my opinion, this is really important for a guy to have. Not only does it encourage you both to show up and train the best you can – it can also be a chance for you both to communicate any issues that either of you might be dealing with, or act as a way to take your minds off any life stresses. I can understand this might be a little hard in Coronavirus times, but there are still ways to train safely together.
It’s important to be motivated to exercise for the right reasons. I think the best approach to exercise is wanting to be healthy, functioning and as happy as possible. Finding a place or environment where you feel comfortable to train is also important. I’ve found The Hogarth to have a much more welcoming and community vibe to other gyms, which I really connect with.
James Mcvey at The Hogarth Club in Chiswick, West London
Do you feel pressure to eat or exercise a certain way as a male? and has this heightened in your rise to fame with the band?
Growing up in Dorset, which is a very sports-lead place, I definitely felt different. I got into football and played cricket for the county, which I really enjoyed, but it wasn’t my biggest passion. Around the age of 15, I got really into song writing and had the whole skinny jeans, long hair look which wasn’t the stereotypical mold of guys at my school. After a lot of my friends went off to grammar school, I didn’t feel like I really fit in with many of my classmates and definitely felt like the black sheep. The ‘Abercrombie & Fitch’ Rugby guys were considered popular and successful.
This is around the time when my issues with dieting started to spiral. From feeling like I needed to be accepted or to fit in, I started drinking whey protein shakes to build up my physique. Although, I started to develop an obsessiveness over them and would take it to the extreme – I would be drinking shakes around 3 or 4 times a day, including casein overnight and creatine just before training. I substituted most meals for them, which really messed up my body internally. From overloading my system with dairy at such a young age, I developed severe acne and IBS complications. My entire life would revolve around when I would have my protein shakes, which I struggled with when The Vamps were taking off.
Suddenly I was travelling all around the world with the band, while not knowing when or where I could have my protein drinks. I would take travel sized protein powders with me when touring, imagine how dodgy that looked at airport security!
I remember having a lot trouble with the hotel we were staying at in Buenos Aires because I wasn’t able to just get plain oats and water to mix my protein powders in. While touring America, I would refuse to eat anywhere I wasn’t able to have my plain chicken and broccoli. I would dictate where a crew of 20 of us would always eat, which looking back now, was a low point. I was losing control with my eating and being on the road with the band really accentuated that because our schedules were so unstructured, and I’ve always been the type of person to best function on a routine. It became a bit of a vicious cycle – the lack of structure in my life made me become more controlling with my eating.
It took me a long time to gain perspective on how bad things had got, which I still have to consciously be aware of now. The main thing that helped me was speaking about it. It’s easy to get into a rut and feel isolated in my thoughts, as I would fear that I would come across as narcissistic for having these issues. But I wonder if punishing yourself through extreme dieting and exercise is the opposite – you aren’t thinking about your wellbeing enough. I’m lucky to have my fiancé Kirstie who will always tell me if I’m going down a dangerous path.
If you could give advice to your younger self now, what would you say?
I think if I could say something to my 16-year-old self it would perhaps be to try reach out to someone that’s close to me – to ask if they could watch the direction I’m going in and to catch any negative signs or patterns with my eating before they got worse. Although those with certain mental disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia, can become experts in concealing any signs of struggling. Also, I could be quite confrontational when someone would bring anything about my eating up. I think vulnerable people can try to push people away when they want to be loved and need support the most.
I appreciate that not everyone has someone to point them in the right direction. Figuring out your own triggers and negative patterns is the first step in getting better. Try your best to be conscious of the little things and the overall picture. If you’re excessively exercising or obsessively structuring meals over an extended period of time, maybe something needs addressing?
My advice to anyone wanting to get into the industry – guys and girls – is to be mindful of your mental health and any potential underlying issues before you do.
Find your support system first.
In the past, I’ve looked to aspirational athletes and celebrities on Instagram for training and nutrition advice, but this can be more damaging than constructive. Celebrities that adopted an extreme fitness and diet plan for a particular role within a certain timeframe, would be the first to say that it made them feel absolutely awful and after the filming they would go back to “normal.” This goes to show that this isn’t a healthy or sustainable way of exercising, eating or living. I don’t feel as though social media is explicit enough when you’re being advertised to and I feel as though influencers or celebrities should take more responsibility in protecting the wellbeing of others in their content. Editing photos and spending almost all of their time and energy on their physique should be highlighted to show the younger, more impressionable generation on social media that this look just isn’t realistic for everyone! But again, it’s a vicious cycle – those influencers are just victims of society and their own insecurities too. As long as we stay conscious and communicative about these issues, it could save lives.
I always want to encourage men to talk about their issues and emotions more, to break down this construct of men not showing any emotion to be ‘strong’. It’s unhealthy and unrealistic to achieve happiness. ‘Fit and Healthy’ looks different on everyone.
James has entered himself as a team captain in a tight-knit team of 2 with his friend for the The Hogarth 500 charity fundraiser. Both avid cyclers, aim to complete the 500 miles between them in November to raise awareness and donations for Sport in Mind. A charity that supports mental health through sport and physical activity.
Find out more about The Hogarth 500 here!
Email Vojin to register your interest
Find out more about The Hogarth Club