Colson Smith "fell in love with running" during lockdown.
Colson Smith on how running changed his life
The 23-year-old actor - who is best known for having played the role of Craig Tinker on 'Coronation Street' since 2011 - managed to shed 10 stone during the COVID-19 lockdown and now claims that running is something he "couldn't possibly live without."
He said: "During lockdown I changed the way I look at life and changed the way I live my life, which changed my appearance. I lost weight and massively fell in love with running. Now it's something I couldn't possibly live without."
The soap star - who also hosts the 'Sofa Cinema Club' with co-stars Ben Price and Jack P. Shepherd - went on to explain that while he "probably hated" every run in the early days of his health kick, it soon became a source of "pure enjoyment" and that weight-loss was simply a "side effect."
He told The Metro newspaper's SixtySeconds column: "When I first started, it was purely to lose weight and in the first two months I probably hated every run I went on. I did it because it was going to benefit me for the rest of my life. In my head, every run was going to make me less fat. Then what I learned was that running was the only time I had in the day for me. When I was running, I'd talk to myself and make a to-do list, and suddenly I realised I wasn't running to lose weight anymore, I was running out of pure enjoyment. From then on, losing weight and changing my shape was a side effect - it became less relevant."
Meanwhile, Colson is set to take part in live fitness show 'The Games' on Monday (09.04.22) and claimed that the chance to battle it out with other celebrities in front of Holly Willoughby and Freddie Flintoff was an opportunity that was almost "too good to be true" following his weight loss journey.
He said: "It's always weird when you get asked to do a show as yourself because I'm so used to hiding behind my character Craig in 'Coronation Street' I've wanted to show more of my personality but it's been a case of waiting for the right opportunity. With everything I've been thorough, when 'The Games' came up it seemed too good to be true. It's a different job to what I've been doing for the last 10 years. I get to show everybody Colson and it's related to fitness."
'The Games' - which also features the likes of Craig's former co-star Ryan Thomas and ex-Strictly pro Kevin Clifton in its lineup - airs live on ITV on Monday 9th May at 9pm.
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