A quick scroll through Jimmy Nicholson’s Instagram account shows that our newest Bachelor lives a pretty healthy lifestyle. Interspersed with pictures of friends and puppies are images of Nicholson swimming, hiking and surfing. “I’ve always been really, really into my exercise. It’s a massive part of my life,” Nicholson told POPSUGAR Australia. “I’m always at the gym and outdoors running, I kind of do a bit of everything.”
While Nicholson says his mother got him involved in triathlons many years ago, for the last few years, his focus has mainly been on the gym. Before his stint on The Bachelor, Nicholson decided to also work with a personal trainer to get ready for the TV cameras.
“Normally in the gym, I’ll be doing the circuit style stuff, just training by myself. But leading up to The Bachelor, I actually got a PT for the first time ever, and I’d never done as little cardio as I’d did with that PT. He’s like ‘No, no running, you’re just lifting weights.’ And it worked. I was really happy with how I was looking leading into it.”
While the aesthetic outcomes of exercising are welcome, Nicholson also loves the post-exercise endorphins he experiences after being active. “I love the feeling after you go for a run where you get runner’s high and you feel a bit gassed, so I trained with a mate yesterday and we do what’s called EMOM training — every minute on the minute,” Nicholson told POPSUGAR Australia.
“It’s 42 minutes so you do what you need to do in the minute and if you get it completed in 42 seconds, then you have the 18 seconds of rest so it’s pretty intense. And then I went for a run afterwards, so walking up the stairs this morning was difficult!”
Given how important a healthy lifestyle is for Nicholson, it would make sense for him to want to find a partner who is similarly invested in their health and wellbeing. “I mean, look, it’s not the be-all and end-all obviously, but I’d love to be able to go for a run with that particular person once this is all over, but I don’t need someone to be as active as I am,” he said.
“But certainly, it’s positive if they are. And if they are into their exercise, it’s not so much about looking good, it’s more about feeling good, right? Like, we’re all a bit vain at the end of it, but I just like the feeling of, I don’t know, you can just eat a massive pasta or a massive pizza, guilt-free, and you still feel good if you’ve done a workout that day. So as long as they’ve got their own little passion, whether it’s Pilates or marathon running, you know, if we can share something like that together, that’s great.”
Nicholson eats pretty healthily most of the time but does have “cheat days” every now and then, making sure to enjoy his favourite Italian food. For our newest Bachelor, it’s all about balance, so as long as he’s moving his body and feeling good, that’s the main thing. But, in the lead-up to filming The Bachelor, Nicholson was much stricter with his diet.
“I think because I do a lot of exercise, I can reward myself with having a few cheat days, I’ve always eaten pretty well. I think everyone will know that when we were filming I was pretty strict about what I ate, I just had healthy meals for me. So a lot of boring chicken and broccoli and that kind of stuff.
“But leading up to The Bachelor, I didn’t usually eat meat during the week, but I had to put all that aside because I had more important things to focus on. So I’ve been eating a lot of those, like pre-made delivered meals lately. Which I was put onto and they’ve been really good. When you’re eating for one, it’s like, you know, I love to cook but also…it’s just easy, isn’t it?”
The Bachelor Australia premieres Wednesday, July 21 at 7.30pm on Network 10 and 10 Play.
