The Fitness Makeover

My name is Nicki and I carry fat! There, I’ve said it! I enjoy eating good food, cooking for friends and when I do get round to proper me time I love to lie on my sofa reading everything from trashy magazines to classic literature. 

My job involves sitting at my lovely PC writing about the people, businesses and events of Perthshire. My son is 23 and living in Glasgow so there are no children to chase after and my partner loves my cooking as much as I do.

A sedentary life if ever there was one.  That said, it is also a very busy life with my job taking me all over Perthshire – largely to eat and drink at varying hours of the day and night!

I work closely with Live Active Leisure delivering their web content and PR and a three years ago I wrote a fitness blog for them.  It was by far the healthiest I have ever been; not only that but as an honest account of an average woman attempting to get fit, people could identify with it.

It struck a chord because we chatted about everyday people with everyday lives and helped them realise that not only could they find a way to fit exercise into their day but, most importantly, they could learn how to enjoy it.

Because that’s the thing isn’t it – we fall into two camps when it comes to exercise – we either love it or it’s a necessary evil.  If like me you fall into camp two then no matter how necessary that evil is you will find a way out.  Suddenly you can’t make the spin class because the cat looks peaky, or you cancel the swim because you MUST help your neighbour hang her new painting. I know you’ve sat at lunch-time, scooping up the last of your Markies chocolate pot while dreaming up excuses to tell your bouncy / eager / muscly “I love the gym” pal.

I'm a wee bit annoyed at myself though, as I had changed all of this terrible attitude to exercise but found myself thrown of course by a wee slip on a wet pavement and a few weeks with an tubigrip. Throw in a diagnios of exercise induced asthma (yes really!) and suddenly I had rediscoverd my healthy, respectable attitude to cakes and dairy and found that I have put on a little weight (Ahem! A stone and a half!).

For me, weight started creeping on slowly throughout my thirties and its safe to say in the past decade I have probably lost and gained 18 pounds several times over.  And even though I know that my successful weight loss, general sense of good well being and positive energy levels have all come when I’ve committed to regular exercise I have STILL secretly wanted every quick fix in the book to work.   I know they won’t – I am an intelligent person – but I have convinced myself that Jennifer Aniston Arms can be found at the bottom of a tub of powdered meal replacement.

“Oooohhhh Beyonce only drinks syrup and paprika water for 10 days before a show to get in shape. And she LOOKS GREAT!” – let me tell you I did not last until tea-time on day one of that diet! I almost fainted, couldn’t concentrate and was writing paragraphs that would have sent an eight year old to the corner.

I seem to have built up an odd relationship with exercise in my head. The hippy in me has always loved a bit of Yoga but the procrastinator in me has always found herself “too busy” to regularly attend. The mother in me was determined I would not raise a child who would sit glued to the sofa gaming and so, as a young family, we cycled and walked a lot. I thought we’d have to surgically remove my son from his bike in order for him to get to Uni; so that part of my plan worked out just fine!  Unfortunately my own bike has been gathering dust since he was first allowed out with his mates “on his own”.

But I turned 44 last week. Have you read the stats concerning sedentary lifestyles and the over 40s? Grim is an understatement.  Heart disease, stroke, obesity… just three of the friends you could gain if you don’t get off that sofa and find a way to break sweat and get a bit breathless.  So it is time to drop this odd relationship and find a new and happy one that I can enjoy again.

This wee video is a great example of just how easy that should be>>>

So here I am – I want to lose weight, be fitter and have a healthier heart.  These are my goals. BUT I want to stick at it this time. I want to find an exercise that I will enjoy; that can fit into my busy – sedentary yes but still busy! – life and that will give me a reason to put down the Heat Magazine / Book Club Choice and pull on my trainers. There seemed only one logical thing to do. Try them all. 

So I plan to get out and give all of the classes and clubs a go; I will step up and ask about that weird looking piece of equipment; banish to the back of my head the fact that I am, and always have been uncoordinated. I am going to embrace it all and find my exercise nirvana. 

Over next wee while I am going to outline how this foodie plans to shed the pounds and find a love of exercise.  There will be pain barriers, sweat and, I highly suspect, some tears.  Possible?  I’m given an emphatic YES – but first up is a fitness review... Watch this space!  GULP!

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If you're just getting back into exercise, have been working out for years or are as sporadic as I am, please do comment below and let me know what you're up to for the summer.