In episode 227 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Juan Jose Estrada.
Juan or ‘Pedro’ as he is known to his friends, works as a personal trainer in his spare time and in this episode we discuss his fitness journey, from being introduced to sport at a very early age by his parents, before focusing on road cycling and weightlifting as he reached his late teens.
As I did with previous guests Mark Wyatt and James Roffey, we emphasise the importance of the relationship between our physical health and mental health, as well as having the right ‘mental diet’ alongside your physical diet.
For Pedro’s mental health journey, he was born in Colombia to Colombian parents and moved back and forth between the UK and Colombia several times when he was younger.
This brought a lot of instability and he struggled to fit in at times during this period.
He moved to the UK permanently when he was around 14/15 years old and we discuss how he worked to fit in at school as the ‘new kid’ initially before finding a positive and supportive friendship group, with his mental health improving from that point onwards.
We also discuss his Colombian roots and how his identity as a British-Colombian was formed.
When Pedro was 19 he moved out of his parents home and wasn’t making the best choices for his physical health, with some bad habits including smoking cigarettes and weed and we discuss the importance of habits and how little habits can have a big impact on your mental health, for better or for worse.
We finish by discussing a bad injury he sustained which hospitalised him and made him bed bound for a few weeks, which impacted his physical and mental health to the point where he was really struggling at one point.
We discuss why having a supportive and emotionally intelligent support network is JUST as important as having the courage to open up about your mental health as a man, if you feel it will help you.
As always, #itsokaytovent
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