Day 79 – Week 12 – 12 mins
OK – I braved the lunges and survived. I have to tell you – I think lunges are the least enjoyable exercises possible, but I’m told there is nothing better for pert bottoms, so I feel they are essential for every girl’s exercise routine.
If you haven’t tried them – do so, at once. I have added a minute of the buggers to my strength routine.
I have just been browsing the internet to come up with a new cardio exercise for the bosu – and have decided on these. Jumping onto the bosu straight into a squat, and then stepping back down into the floor. Rise and Repeat for a minute. Now that is bound to get that heart rate up.
Here’s to 12 minutes,
Suzi
Day 78 – Week 12 – 12 mins
Feeling decidedly average this evening. Might be the warm and muggy weather, might be the need for a holiday, or it could be a whiff of swine flu. Who knows? But an early night and a dose of general enthusiasm would go down quite well right now.
I added one minute to my run this morning, and was once again frustrated by the fact the gates to my favourite park seem to be permanently locked. When are they going to let us back in there in the mornings? The idea of spending the summer running around the streets instead of a lovely garden really takes the enjoyment away.
I’m not really used to this whole locked park thing that happens in the UK. I don’t think there’s such a thing where I come from in Western Australia. I certainly never noticed the locking up of parks at night until I came to live here – and I do sometimes wonder what happens if you end up getting locked in, as they go round closing the gates. Is there actually a way out?
Some of the parks in London are always locked, day and night, and you can’t get in without a key – and you only get one of those if you live right next to it. Very odd! And somehow, not quite democratic.
But I digress. Blame it on the Swine Flu. It’s week 12, and tomorrow I must come up with another minute of non-cardio exercise to add to my strength routine. I fear that there may be some lunges approaching….
Suzi
Day 77 – Week 11 – 11 mins
And so I make it to the end of Week 11 – and it feels a long way to go until I reach Week 52.
I’d be lying if I said it is getting easier, that it feels as natural as breathing, that I can’t imagine living without exercise – all things I’d love to be able to say. If anything, it is harder than when I first started, because it is much easier to convince yourself to do something that only lasts one minute, than it is to do something that lasts 11. So, I can only hope that one day I WILL find it easy, that I am bursting with this irrepressible energy to put my body to work.
And what if it never happens? What if I find it this hard, or even harder to keep sticking to the plan? What if, after a whole year of this, it feels like nothing has changed, and I look and feel exactly as I did before I started? Could that actually happen?
Only one way to find out I guess….if you are doing this with me – then stick with it. I don’t want to be the only crazy one trying to make it to day 365!
Suzi
Day 76 – Week 11 – 11 mins
Gritted my teeth and got myself out of bed for my nine minutes on the bosu and two minutes of stretching – always a little tougher on a Saturday. But it was all worth it when I got to climb back into my bed after my shower and feel virtuous. One more tiny step towards fitness and vitality….
Suzi
Day 75 – Week 11 – 11 mins
I have discovered that trying to call Sydney from London during Sydney business hours is quite a challenge. You see Sydney’s eight hours of business, are the exact same eight hours that we in the UK are generally asleep. So this morning, when I got up, I had to make a phone call BEFORE I could do my minutes, or I would have missed the close of business in Oz. To make the call, I had to turn on my computer and find the number on the internet. And all of this is how I discovered Michael Jackson had died overnight.
So it was difficult not to think about our mortality while I was doing my strength exercises half an hour later. The man was only 50, and while still a good 12 years older than me – he wasn’t THAT much older. Somehow thinking about all of that made me put a little more effort into my minutes.
It reminded me that you really have to do whatever you can to keep your body in a working condition. This is not to say that MJ didn’t do that – I’m almost completely positive he was far fitter than I have ever been – but still, I have to do at least the minimum to keep the blood flowing around my body in a healthy way and do whatever it takes to remind my muscles that they are there to be used.
And you can’t help feeling a little grateful that you are alive and healthy, with all the bits working as they should….and so you have no excuse to whinge about doing a little bit of exercise…
Suzi
