Hooked

From the age of 9 upwards, I absolutely hated PE at school. I was completely hopeless at every single activity we ever did, and came last in everything except for the long jump when I came…second last. The day when I finished year 11 and never had to do compulsory sport again was a happy one indeed. For the next two years the only exercise I had was walking to school and back (which to be fair was 3 miles a day so not a bad distance) and then when I started at university I did pretty much nothing at all. Over the past couple of years I’ve started to feel really unhealthy, and eventually I felt so unfit that I decided I just had to do something about it even if I hated it and didn’t lose any weight.

I’ve now been going to the gym three times a week since the end of October – and I absolutely love it! The feeling of pushing yourself as hard as you can to a soundtrack of brilliantly cheesy music re-mixed to a dance beat is just brilliant. I think the only word that describes it properly is “euphoria”. My favourite song from all the many CDs they have at the moment is Take On Me, and when it plays I go faster than ever and have to seriously resist the urge to wave my arm in the air in classic Sarah-dancing-like-a-nutter pose. When I’m exercising I’m the happiest and most content that I am all day, because I don’t have room for complex thoughts in my brain. I feel like the archetypal modern woman: successful day at work, gym, cooking dinner and then relaxing for a couple of hours, and I also feel like I love my life. I never would have believed it, but working out has become one of my favourite things.

Of course, it helps that it’s also pretty effective in aiding weight loss! I had my 3^rd weigh and measure today, and as well as confirming that I’ve lost half a stone it also showed me that 5.5 pounds of what I lost was fat which is excellent. On top of that, I’ve lost a total of 8 inches overall of which 2 have come off my waist! You can’t get much better motivation than that.

PS: Wish me luck for my event tomorrow…70 kids to entertain for a day and lots of potential for stress. I think that this time tomorrow evening I may well have a drink in my hand!