Exercise

A few years ago, I took a bus into town to work. I was carrying a bag with me as I was going to visit a friend after work.

I got off the bus and walked towards work when I realised I no longer had my bag with me, and the bus had already moved on. Queue panic and beads of sweat (more on those to come). My only option was to run after the bus and catch it at the next stop – before it left Whitehaven.

I ran/jogged/walked with pace and managed to catch the bus up at the next stop. However I wasn’t able to speak at this point, and had many more beads of sweat about my person! I can only imagine what the sight of me trying to chase the bus looked like! It was a this point that I really realised that I needed to do more exercise. Strictly speaking, I needed to do some exercise.

Last year I completed a ten mile run and I’ve also done about half a dozen other races. So it’s fair to say that I’ve came quite some distance. Literally, in fact – according to the app on my phone (Runkeeper, for those who are interested) I ran over 120 miles last year. That’s just the runs I logged, too.

An important part of my initial weight loss journey was definitely exercise. In fact, I think part of the reason I put on a bit of weight at Christmas was because for the first time, I wasn’t doing much exercise at all.

So as well as healthy eating, I try to do four or five exercise sessions a week. I also try to vary what I do. From a position four years ago where I did no exercise, I now swim, go to the gym, run, go spinning and go to circuits on a regular basis.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I do sometimes cheat and don’t quite stick to my diet plan. I don’t mind that so much when I am doing lots of exercise.

In the last week I’ve restarted running, having had a few weeks off. I have ran a 6.5 and 4.5 mile run this week. The first was hard, as was the second, but I really enjoyed both. My goal for the next few weeks is to continue the running and try to quicken my pace.

I’d like to go one further than last year’s 10 mile race and compete a half marathon. I feel confident that if I put the effort in, I could do it.

And that’s some step up from trying to catch the bus!

Will feed back on weight loss tomorrow. I’m struggling to get to a group, but will weigh myself somewhere if I don’t make it.

The only man in the room.