Gok Wan on DJing at 51: "I'm quite a fun-seeker"
Gok Wan might have made his name as a TV fashion guru, but now he’s more focused on being a DJ – calling his newfound career a "huge part of my exercise every single week".
Nowadays, Wan, 51, tours the country doing high-energy DJ sets at clubs and festivals, and says jumping around on stage (he absolutely does not stand still behind the decks) is helping to keep him fit and happy as he ages.
"I don’t think I’ve ever been this physical in my life – the DJing is a huge part of my exercise every single week, because I’m on the go and I’m travelling, and then when I’m performing I’m jumping up and down," he tells the Press Association.
"If I wasn’t DJing, I wouldn’t be doing that."
Wan previously presented TV shows like How To Look Good Naked and Gok’s Fashion Fix, but his shift towards music made sense.
"I’m naturally quite a happy person," he explains. "I’m quite a fun-seeker, so any situation that I shouldn’t be in, I want to be in it, causing chaos and having lots of fun.
"I love music, and I love dancing. I love going out, I love socialising, seeing as many people as possible."
Although fashion is still part of his life, Wan suggests his focus has shifted as he’s got older – and he’s keen on helping others feel good on the inside.
"It’s all about celebrating your age and not letting age be a number or take over your life, and not feeling you’ve got to follow any rules that you’ve reached a certain stage in your life and everything’s changed," he says.
"You should still have the same level of fulfilment and joy and happiness, while at the same time, maintaining a healthy body and a healthy outlook, and listening to your body as well, because I’m 52 this year, so we’re all ageing at a rate of knots – that’s what it feels like some days.
"But as long as you’re listening to yourself and staying healthy, it’s just as important to make sure your spirit is as healthy as your zest for life, making the most of all the good stuff around you."
Bouncing around to high-energy music is definitely helping to keep him healthy – although late last year he discovered his cholesterol was high. Wan says he "very, very briefly" went on statins, and now he’s managed to lower his cholesterol through a healthy lifestyle and using cholesterol-care foods like Benecol.
"I’ve done it with diet and exercise," he says. "I tend to walk a lot, and also DJing three gigs at the weekend, I’m getting all my steps in. It’s my aerobic workout."
Although he used to run and did the Couch to 5k twice, he doesn’t run now, simply because he gets so much exercise in other ways.
He says: "I still call myself a runner, because I think the minute you say you don’t run any more, it means you’re never going to do it again. I don’t run at the moment but to be honest that’s listening to my body. With my lifestyle and how busy I am, I know I’m getting enough exercise."
And he’s very proud to say that he no longer drinks alcohol.
"I don’t drink any more – I’m 17 weeks without a drop of alcohol in my system, which I’m very pleased about," he says. "I thought I maybe wouldn’t have as much of a need for going out, but actually it’s the reverse – I’m loving it. I’m going out and being a DJ every weekend, and I’m literally in heaven because I’m getting to appreciate every aspect of it."
As well as being a style consultant and DJ, the multi-talented Wan has written two cookery books, hosts the Magic Radio Breakfast Show, and has presented several TV cookery series, pointing out that he "comes from restaurants", as his parents ran restaurants in his home town of Leicester.
He describes himself as a flexitarian, saying his diet’s reasonably healthy and he’s "definitely in my vegetarian era at the moment.
"I love to cook, and I want to know what I’m putting into my system. But I’m not rigid with it – if I want stuff, I’m going to have it always, but I tend to eat on the healthier side anyway, because my parents owned restaurants, and we were surrounded by home-cooked food constantly, fresh food every single day, and that’s now in all of our systems."
He says he and his brother and sister cook "every single day", and he doesn’t really buy processed foods (although he admits to having a takeaway on the previous night).
"I’m not a massive junk food fan," he says. "I don’t crave junk food and that kind of thing, but if I want a bar of chocolate, I’m going to have a bar of chocolate, if I want a packet of sweets I’m going to have a packet of sweets. But I’m quite lucky because I crave things like rice, and I do look after what I’m eating."
But his relationship with food hasn’t always been healthy – Wan has been very open in the past about having an eating disorder. When he was around 20 he reached 21 stone and developed anorexia, losing 11 stone very quickly, but recovering with the help of his close-knit family.
So does his energetic lifestyle keep his weight under control these days?
"No, of course not," he says candidly. "I’ve spoken very publicly about eating disorders and my weight fluctuating up and down, and obviously it doesn’t matter how much exercise you’re doing, if you’re overeating and comfort eating or whatever, then you’re going to have signs of that, and so my weight will continue to fluctuate.
"When you’ve had an eating disorder, it never really goes away forever. But I’m very lucky that I’m very aware of it, because I’ve been able to talk very publicly about it. I guess that, in a way, has been my therapy."
Healthwise, Wan says he has the very early stages of arthritis and a wrist problem similar to carpal tunnel syndrome, but overall he happily declares "life’s great", although he adds: "It throws its difficulties at you with the age thing, but I’ve never been happier, never been more confident, I’ve never been more optimistic, and I’ve never been more sure.
"I think that’s another thing that comes with age –I feel like I’ve got good direction, and I’ve got less to either panic or worry about."
Gok Wan has partnered with Benecol to create a dedicated feel-good playlist, designed to Set the Beat for a Better Day. The playlist is available on the Benecol UK Spotify playlist.
If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, visit https://about.rte.ie/ie/helplines/
