Health

Around September time last year, I decided I needed a swift kick up the butt and decided to take up some regular exercise. I'd just got back from an indulgent few days in Rome and was feeling lethargic and generally a bit poopy about myself. I've always been one of those people who likes to keep active - I get really antsy if I sit in front of the TV for too long, and I feel lazy if I come home from my (very sedentary) job and don't do some kind of exercise. Saying that though, I'd begun to notice that I was getting a little slack and wasn't really trying hard enough to keep it up. Motivation stations ahoy! 

I downloaded an app on my phone (which has a rather original name of... "Workouts") that has exercises that are easy to do at home, and I bought some weights, a workout mat and some extremely cheap trainers. To my surprise, I actually got into it very quickly and easily. I started off doing around 30-40 minutes of exercise (a mixture of cardio and strength exercises) 4 or 5 days a week. I actually didn't detest it as much as I thought I would, and I gradually increased the duration and lengths of exercises as time went on. It's been such a good feeling knowing that I'm improving and I feel quite proud of myself when I reach milestones (albeit rather small ones). Last night, for example, I did bicycle crunches for a whole minute without stopping! Not exactly a record breaker, but when I started I couldn't even do 10 seconds without writhing around in pain.

In January this year, I also started going running!! This isn't really a big thing to most people but to me, who is (was?) truly horrific at running, it felt like a gigantic leap. The first time I went running, I collapsed through the door on my return, dizzy and broken. A week or so later however, I started to feel myself improving - the exercise I'd been doing at home for a few months before this definitely helped! I've only been going for maybe 4 weeks and only once or twice a week, but I pair this with my at-home exercises, and I aim to do 5 days a week of at least 40 minutes exercise. Some weeks it doesn't happen, and I try not to beat myself up about it, but I find myself actually looking forward to exercise. I'm not one of those crackpots who say they love it, but I do feel so much better afterwards, and that's what I keep going back for. It's a good feeling knowing that I'm getting fitter and healthier, and that can only be a good thing.

That said, I'm still prone to the odd cake/chocolate scoffing sesh, but now at least I can just run it off... right?