Yes I do. I loathe it. If I had my way I would never don my trainers or sports bra or sweat ever again, but that is the Road to Perdition. So yesterday morning I found myself at an exercise class with the usual pounding music, the cries of Work it Work it and gritting my teeth and getting on with it and thinking I HATE THIS. But the bottom line is that you cannot sit round all day and do nothing physical at all. After retiring I was so overcome with joy that I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn any more and fight my way onto the trains, no half hour walk to the office when I arrived in London etc etc that I just wallowed. I got up late, I stayed in bed, I did nothing. Result? I put on two stone and got so unfit it was unbelievable.
Well I have shifted about 18lbs in the last year and yet I still really need to get rid of some more and oh gosh it is so dispiriting to have to watch what one eats and be careful in order to shed the avoirdupois. I can put on 2lb just by eating what I want for a day but then it takes me about 2 weeks to get that poundage off and it is just not fair. I first decided I wanted to lose weight and get fitter when Florence arrived. Looking after a baby is tiring and now she is a toddler and full of energy it is even more exhausting so that was why I lost the weight and went off to a Fit Farm. Now the Fit Farm was in Somerset and it was in some of the most beautiful countryside in England and it was all quite rural and lovely and we did hikes over the moors etc and that is where I really decided I loathed exercise. When I go out for a walk in the country I like to take my time and look around me and think how gorgeous it all is, but when you are on one of these endurance marches (well they are to me, other members of the group were legging it like gazelles) and I had my walking boots on, two pairs of socks and trudging along with every muscle in your legs shrieking STOP, then it ain't much fun. This time I loaded up my iPod with marches and military music to walk to and it really did help to get into the swing of it all. The end results of my last stay were excellent but not sure I can face it again.
Anyway, this week a book arrived for me: Margaret Campbell - Pilates on the Go, sculpt your body in 14 days. Now Pilates is one form of exercise I really do enjoy and in the last year have found a local class and attended regularly and I can feel the difference in my body. However, no way is my body going to be sculpted in 14 days, I know that for a fact. My sculpting days are long over but as it has 5 minute work outs for bums, tums and arms I am going to have a crack at it, that can't be too hard to manage can it?
Now not sure that Margaret Campbell would have had a book published at all if it wasn't for the fact that one of her regular pupils is Pippa Middleton. Yes, I know yawn yawn. But since she enchanted most of the nation with her appearance at her sister's wedding last year and everyone going mad over her butt, Ms Campbell's classes are packed out and have been marketed in the papers as the place to go if you 'want a butt like Pippa'. Well, I don't want a butt like Pippa thank you very much. I have one of my own, it has been my friend for years and it may not be an object of beauty, but I am quite happy with it. If pushed, I will admit that it needs a bit of tightening up, but as only a couple of very close 'friends' see it, I really don't think I need bother too much.
However, it is not Ms Campbell's fault that she has suddenly become terribly well known and if she wants to get a book out of it why not? Pippa certainly has. She has secured a very lucrative deal with Michael Joseph to write a book on Party Planning but has decided that she will not have it published until 2013 as it might interfere with the Queen's Jubilee and she doesn't want 'to be seen as cashing in on her royal connections'.....
But putting that aside this is a pretty well laid out and straightforward book with lots of pictures and explanations and, as I said earlier, broken down into five and ten minute works outs. No faffing about or pretentious dialogue, just plain common sense and this always appeals to me so I am going to give it a whirl. Having already being attending Pilates classes for a few months now I can attest to its benefits, has helped my back no end so am, for once, recommending through knowledge.
With Pilates I have found some exercise I actually enjoy and that is a miracle. Let's face it, most of us join a gym and then give up within a few weeks because deep down we dislike going and if you dislike something well you are not going to persevere are you? I read an article the other week on a woman's page somewhere or other that unfit fatties should not be put off by other slim, fit women in the gym, they were probably once like you and will understand that you are nervous.
CRAP total CRAP. None of these skinny, flat stomached, flat chested females with abs like rocks were ever fat and unfit. They were born like that all ready to go in leotards, leggings, headbands and all with matching designer sweat. There they are pounding away on the treadmill, iPods in and making it look so easy and yes, I know, they have probably worked hard to make it look easy but please don't try and tell me that we should not feel inadequate. Get next to one of these goddesses and then look at yourself in your old greying trainers that have not seen the light of day for years, baggy track suit bottoms, baggy t-shirt, your generous C cup bouncing around and with perspiration pouring down your face and try and feel good? HAH!!
As I said I Hate Exercise....
