This is your life

It’s strange when you realise you actually have everything you were working for.  I would say everything you wanted, but we know that the moment you get what you want, you start wanting something else or something more.  Shopenhauer was right about that.  He wasn’t right about the fact that we live in misery all the time, but the fact that we spend our lives striving for things we don’t have, achieve or attain them and then want something different – that he was right about.

Everything you worked for.  Years worth of effort.  Hundreds of hours of study, months of work experience, a decent amount of euphoria when things go well and doubts when they don’t.  It’s a strange concept, maybe because you get so used to working towards something, being in the wrong place and wanting to be somewhere else, but to finally be where you were aiming to get to – that’s strange.

And it’s strange that it takes some adjusting to.  You would think that once you’d got to this wonderful place that you’d spent so long dreaming about that everything would fall into place and you’d realise, yep, you’re home.  But it’s not like that.  There are still anxieties and concerns, things that fit and things that don’t and you still wonder, is this right?  Have I worked myself to the right place?

But then eventually, eventually, it sinks in.  I am there.  I have made it.

And then the journey really begins.  Still standing at the bottom of the ladder, but at last the ladder is leaning against the right wall. This is the exciting bit, where you can throw your heart and soul into it and see where the ladder takes you – how high up does it go and what tangents will spark off from it.  Maybe a ladder isn’t the greatest analogy.  Maybe it’s more like a tree – lots of limbs to climb out on.  Either way, it’s a really cool place to be and I would recommend anyone to try it.  Be brave, get out there and take your opportunities even though it’s scary.  Make your life happen the way you want to.  It’s the only one you’re going to get, after all.

Breakthrough

I had a bit of a breakthrough this week (on the first writing of that sentence I wrote “breakdown”, which would have a been a rather different blog post!).  As a result, I feel a lot more relaxed, a lot happier, and a lot more secure in who I am and what I’m all about.  Quite a breakthrough, I think you’ll agree, and I thought I’d write it down so I don’t forget it.

It started with this picture I saw on Facebook:

It resonates with me, this quote.  I know I’m guilty of all of those things.  I don’t always enjoy the present because I’m either driving myself too hard or getting freaked out about the future.  But I believe the Dalai Lama when he says the purpose of our lives is to be happy.  It’s long puzzled me why we struggle so hard to find that happiness and a big part of my life has always been trying to get the right circumstances to be secure and happy.  Yet I know – categorically know - that being happy isn’t dependent on my circumstances.  It isn’t at all.  It’s dependent on my attitude.

Let’s just remind ourselves that I have always wanted to be a personal trainer.  I’ve said that a million times.  And that’s what I do, finally, having spent several years as a bod working in a council, doing laudable things but being generally unhappy with my lot.  Yet over the last few months, I’ve found myself getting hung up on the circumstances and considering, again, whether I’m doing what I really want to be doing.  I do that a lot.  It’s quite exhausting.  And in a “life being reflected back through art” kind of way, I had just realised how pointless and tiring it was when in Marley and Me, which Emma and I were watching, the wife says to her husband when he’s bemoaning his career shift from columnist to reporter, a move he’d wanted to make for ages:

“It’s just – it’s exhausting sometimes, John.

You always wanting something that you don’t have.”

And I thought, yes, it is actually.  Exhausting.  I know I’ve used that word three times in as many paragraphs, but it’s the only word that conveys the sheer weariness that comes with an over analytical brain that just won’t let it lie.

Yes, being a PT has its annoying and/or disheartening qualities.  Getting up early and getting home late.  An inherent lack of financial security.  Being physically knackering.  But when I wrote down – on paper, where they cannot be distorted by fear of failure or future – the great things about my job and my lifestyle, they are many and not in any way to be sniffed at.  Here they are.

I work with many, many lovely people.  I actually make a real difference to people’s lives.  I laugh often during the course of a day and so do my clients.  I don’t have to sit behind a desk but instead get to play silly games with balls and viprs and crash mats.  I have so far won 2 staff of the month awards, been voted hardest worker by my colleagues, been to the Star awards and received loads of thank you cards.  I met my future wife in my gym.  I have found many new friends in my clients.  I sometimes get to come home in the middle of the day for a few hours.  I find fitness fascinating, still.  I earn more than I’ve ever earned (on a side note, is “earnt” a word?).  I am the top trainer in my club, have been for months and have no intention of letting that slip.  Even though getting out of bed in the morning is hard, that’s because I don’t like getting up, not because I don’t like my work – I do like my work and quite often I adore it.  Virgin is a very funky employer who I’m proud to work for.  Some days I get to go to work in fancy dress.  There’s all sorts of scope to develop myself, my skills and my business as a PT.  I’m pretty damn good at what I do, and still have loads of room and time to improve.

That’s not even an exhaustive list.  So my breakthrough was this.

That for the first time in my life I’m actually happy with where I am and what I do.  I’m proud of it and excited about the future and ready to be 100% committed.

That in order to preserve that awareness, I need to shut my brain up when it tries to work out whether I could be happier somewhere else.  You know how when you’re in an area where there’s no phone signal, how your phone will search and search till the battery’s worn out?  That’s what my brain does when it detects any level of discontent.  All I need to do is switch off, like you would your phone.  Funny how everything brings me back to meditation.  A peaceful mind is a wonderful thing.

That, actually, what seems like a valid reason not to do something is often – for me at least – a fear of failing to do something well.  Like I say, I’m doing pretty well at my gym and for the first time in my life I honestly like what I do.  All my thoughts of changing jobs were a self protection mechanism – get out before anything goes wrong, even though there’s only evidence to suggest it will continue to improve, nothing to suggest it will get worse!  In my high school philosophy course, I always remember being taught that with the greatest reward comes the greatest risk.  I guess when you truly love something, the idea of losing it is hard to bear and causes all sorts of scary to be let loose in your mind.

So to bring us back full circle, being happy is always about your attitude.  Because even if you have put in place all the right circumstances, you can still look at them askance and find them lacking.  But that said I must admit – the right circumstances do help.

So there you go.  I’m sticking around.  I could be hyper-cheesy here and post a link to a Yazz song from the 80s.  But I’m not going to.  I think you’ll probably thank me for that.

Generosity and Exuberance

I got a parcel this week.  This was what was inside it.

It was sent to me by a life coach, Nicola, whom I worked with about a year ago but whom I haven’t spoken to since.  This book appeared out of the blue, for no other reason than that Nicola read it and thought I would like it – how nice is that?

It’s a wicked book – really simple, but powerful.  It contains two A to Zs – one which picks out characteristics that help you have a happy life, like Adventure, Balance, Compassion, and one that picks out qualities and emotions that need to be overcome, like Anger, Boredom and Criticism.  And then it gives you a little kick to do what you need to do to dial up the good ones and dial down the bad ones.

This is my favourite one so far (that’s our carpet in the background by the way).

 It says, in case you can’t read it, this:

“For enthusiasts, life is an adventure, a playground, a theatre, a movie set, a laboratory, a love story, a test track, a roller coaster, a dance, a gift, a blessing, a blast, a thrill.

Let your enthusiasm lift you higher.  Wherever it takes you, it will be the right place.

To get all you can from life, put all you can into it.”

What I love about this is the reminder that life is meant to be fun.  It’s meant to be joyful!

This is a good thing to keep in mind, especially when you’ve got to do something that scares or intimidates you.  It was extraordinarily timely as this week was something of a daunting prospect for me, what with the 39 sessions and all.  It’s brilliant and let me just point out that I am mega happy about having a busy diary, because that is what I’ve always wanted and I love it.  That said, I was a bit concerned about my ability to complete the task set before me.  39 hours of PT is not like 39 hours in my old job, as it’s more or less 100% focus for every single one of those hours.  In my old job, I could wander off, make a cup of tea, chat to a friend in the office, all that sort of stuff.  Unless I was in a board meeting.  Wandering off to make a cup of tea was not then an advisable course of action.

Tuesday was my toughest day – 10 hours of PT spread over 13 hours and on Monday afternoon I was scared.  But then I remembered the Enthusiasm page, and decided to take that idea with me into my Tuesday.  I made my day into an adventure, and decided to be excited and playful with it.  I decided to be the woman with the bouncy springs on her feet, rather than any of the ones dragging their feet on the ground with their eyes on the floor.  And it was a great day!  Although I did look like this at the end.

 But you can’t get more exuberant than that.  Enthusiasm is the heart of exuberance.  It makes life much more fun for a start so it’s worth remembering, especially the next time you’re approaching a challenge.  Play with it, be excited not daunted and don’t get dragged down into fear or worry.  Odds are that you can handle it beautifully, whatever it is.

And many thanks to Nicola for the reminder, and for being so thoughtful as to think of me so many months on.  Here’s a link to her page in case you want to see what she’s all about!  www.ripplescoaching.co.uk

Miracles do happen – Arthur said so

Emma and I had a cultural experience on Wednesday – oh yes, we did – we went to the MAC to see The Insatiable Moon.  It’s an independent film and it was riveting.  Emma says it’s about the treatment of those with mental health issues within the community.  I think it’s about whether Arthur is the second son of god.  Emma reckons of course he isn’t, he has a mental illness.  I reckon he might be.

It’s interesting how you see what you are predisposed to see.  Emma works in the health profession and has a great deal of compassion for people being treated well and that’s what she took from the film.  I am interested in the idea that you are or will become what you believe you are and Arthur believed, completely and without question, that he was the second son of god and lived in a way that was congruent with that.  He made little miracles happen, in my opinion because he was expecting them to happen and he believed in his ability to create them.  He came unstuck when one miracle he was trying to create didn’t come together – but it was a big ask and he hadn’t given it much mental energy.  Big miracles require a lot of focus.  Little ones less so.

The best thing about this film was that it reminded me to be happy  - Arthur was a really happy dude, here’s a picture of him…

see, what a happy chap - and that miracles do happen.  Even if you can’t see the route to need to take to get where you want to go, just believe in it, work on it and things will shift to get you there.  That’s part of the reason I have 37 hours of PT in my diary next week.  I have been using an affirmation about having a full diary on and off for a couple of years now.  And that, coupled with some hard work at the gym, has brought it to pass.  When I started, I didn’t know how I was going to get my diary full – I couldn’t see a clear path, so I just did whatever I could think of.  Whenever I got scared I just repeated my affirmation in my head.  And little miracles happened.  People came to me.  Not usually the people I’d been speaking to in the gym either – other people!

To some extent, the Oomph challenge was a little experiment – I wanted to see how many of the people I connected with would come back to me wanting PT.  I didn’t talk to any of the people I met about PT and I wasn’t trying to sell anything to any of them – I just talked to them and tried to make them smile while they worked out.  The resulting number of people out of those I met coming back for PT was….0!  But the following month, 11 other people wanted me to be their PT.  Interesting, no?  The conclusion I draw from this is that by putting the energy in with no expectations but a general desire for a specific outcome – in my case, growing my diary – the universe gives you what you’re looking for, but does it in way that benefits everyone – in this case, by selecting the right people for me to work with and sending them down the gym.

Actually, it’s better if you don’t have a preconceived route you want to take to achieve what you want, because our knowledge is really limited.  We will quite often pick a path which would give us messed up results.  The people I chose to speak to may not have been people that I was best able to help.  The universe knows a great deal more and can find the way that really will work best for everyone.

For instance, people who want to improve their diet will maybe pick a method like Atkins, or cutting calories to a really low number, but a better method might be to develop an affirmation like “I have a healthy, wholesome diet, which nourishes me from the inside out” and let the universe will help you find the right way.  You’ll start finding you come across articles or people who can teach you, and you’ll find that your food desires change.  I’ve just started using this one; my cravings have gone and my choices are better.  But all I’ve changed is my mental talk – instead of thinking “I’ve got to stop eating junk”, I’m using the affirmation above.  Because we all know, deep down, what we need to do – less sugar, unrefined carbs, lean protein, lots of veg.  We know this stuff and often ignore it because we’d rather have a quick fix, which is where Atkins comes in.  Atkins is evil by the way.  Leave it well alone.  Dr Atkins does not, in my estimation at least, have your best interests at heart with his horrible calcium leaching, halitosis forming eating plan.

So yeah.  Miracles do happen so have faith and be confident in achieving your desires, whatever they may be.  Use your mind to help you.

By the way, the MAC is a wicked place to see a film.  The people in the audience were so respectful of each other – I’ve never heard anyone open a bottle so quietly in my life as the woman behind me, or felt such stillness and focus in a body of people before – unlike in the Odeon, for example, where popcorn wars and a backdrop of rustling and giggling is a generally expected part of the experience.  So if you don’t want popcorn hitting you in the back of the head when you watch your films, check the MAC out.

It’s the thought that counts.

If you remember nothing else about this blog, remember that it’s the thought that counts.  What a phenomenal book.  Ok, so I haven’t quite finished it yet, but it makes my head spin with all the possibilities it throws up.

The basic tenet of the book is that you can change your life, your body and the world with your thoughts.  You can switch different genes on and off in yourself, you can heal yourself of pain or illness.  You can affect other people with your intentions and they can affect you.  Collective thought can bring the crime rate down.

I won’t try to explain it (because we’d be here all week if I did), but the point is that it gives a lot of backing to something I’ve talked about before – the law of attraction.  Whatever you give life to in your mind, you give life to in reality – it’s like your thoughts are instructions to every part of the universe.

So…if you want to be happy, think that you are.  Or successful, or…well, anything.  Believe that you are.  There is nothing that’s out of bounds.  It depends on how much belief you have in this being true – the more faith you have in it, the more it works for you.  The quote of the book (so far) is to the cynics who say that they’ll believe it when they see it.  Wayne Dyer says it’s the other way round. He’s written a book called “You’ll see it when you believe it”.

It’s about using visualisation, belief, affirmations – any kind of thought process.  One of the most interesting things is our ability to clear ourselves of illness – there’s a really cool story about a guy who uses the power of visualisation to heal a diseased liver, by imagining himself cleaning it one cell at a time with a toothbrush and seeing in his mind’s eye his liver getting cleaner and healthier every day.  Apparently, this guy completely reversed his illness and was back to full health despite being given a very poor outlook by the doctors.

This may all sound like bumph (bumf?) to you, but it’s backed up in the book by loads of scientific evidence.  Particularly around the placebo effect.  Belief in medicine makes people better just as well as medicine itself.  And isn’t that an exciting thing?

And with a great deal of faith, we can have almost immediate results with anything we choose to focus on.

And what’s weird is, that I have been experiencing this first hand myself.  Over the years, I’ve used the law of attraction to my advantage in all sorts of ways – I found my house with it, for instance: exactly the right location, exactly the right size and exactly – to the pound – the right price – but it seems to be speeding it the more I use it these days.  Sometimes I’ll look at something and think “I’d like that” and no sooner have I thought it than it comes to me in a happenstance kind of a way.  The most unlikely things too, things that are just too damn freaky to be down to chance.

The best thing about it is it leaves you fully equipped to create yourself the life and the person you want to be.  All you need is a willingness to put your mental and emotional energy into whatever it is you want to create, and a little faith.  Don’t just believe in yourself – believe in the universe and the power of its energy to form whatever you want from life.

I believe Noel Edmonds used this monumental power to get himself back on t.v with Deal or No Deal.  But we mustn’t hold that against it.  The power can be used for good and bad.  But if it can do that – then anything is possible!

Was this picture strictly necessary?  No, but I have to try and make you laugh somehow and what better than Noel’s hair to do that?  Made me laugh anyway.  But that was probably just the inflicting of a picture of Noel Edmonds on you poor unsuspecting people.

You’re welcome.

Back!

The 21st of March!  Wow.  That’s a long time to go without writing a blog post.  I hope you are all well?

Over the past 6 weeks, a lot has been happening.  It has been a time of growth, of learning, of extremely busy diaries…but not of temples.  I think we can say that the “body is a temple” challenge bit the dust a while back.  I guess the incentive is not strong enough – whilst I fully believe in eating well, I know there is room for chocolate in my diet.  There just is.  I feel it is time to simply accept that as even Frank Forencich eats cake – I know, I saw him!  There’s no room for McDonalds, mind, and there never will be – but mini eggs may feature.

On balance, I do believe in the 80/20 rule – if you eat good, wholesome food 80% of the time, you can afford to be somewhat less disciplined the other 20%.  Food is part of the enjoyment of life, it’s a sensual pleasure as well as a survival necessity – we’ve just got to be careful not to get addicted to any of it, particularly sugar.  And that said, the 80/20 rule does feature in as an integral part of several well respected weight loss plans – the 20% is often known as a cheat day, where you allow yourself a less disciplined day of eating as a method of shocking your metabolism into a faster pace and to offset the psychological strain of holding yourself strictly to an eating plan.  Of course, this cheat day should not be seen as a chance to binge…!

So back to the exuberance challenges and this time it’s a biggie.  During April I went to the Fit Pro Spring Convention, which is a 3-day learning-fest for fitness professionals.  It’s the third year I’ve been and I work my passage at the Convention, i.e. I don a blue “Event Staff” t-shirt and for half of each day I check the paying delegates into their lectures, support the lecturers, direct people to their venues etc, in return for attending the other half of the day as a delegate myself.  So from April 9-11, 8ish till 6:30ish each day, I was listening to the wisdom of the icons in our industry, the likes of Annette Lang, Bobby Cappuccio and Scott Hopson.  I learnt a lot, as I always do.  This year though was slightly different, in that I was stationed on the lecture rooms rather than the netball and badminton centre like I have been the previous two years.  Which means that instead of lugging Bosus (Bosi? ;0>) around, blowing up swiss balls and packing and unpacking hundreds of mini dumbbells (hours of fun), I was rubbing shoulders with lecturers I’ve admired since I was a rookie PT.  Strengthening my resolve to be like them one day.  To be an author, international speaker and role model for other rookies in our industry as well as a phenomenal coach/trainer for those that I coach and train.  The Fit Pro Spring Convention is where dreams are born.

So my new challenge is to get to work on that.  Stage one: to read one professional/personal development book a week, and to begin writing my own book.  How exciting!!  The book of this week is “It’s the thought that counts” by David Hamilton, a recommendation from my best friend and, I can already say with conviction, a fascinating read.  I will report back in due course…

Till then, sleep well!

4 days and not one blog post. Ooh!

How tardy of me.  But my reason – and I do have one – is I was mega busy at work with a few marathon PT days.  By the time I got to Saturday afternoon I was like a zombie and barely able to move my eyes, let alone anything else.  And as no one has yet invented a way of blogging by just thinking about the post you want to write, no blog post was forthcoming (although even if they had I don’t think my brain was functioning on enough cylinders to take advantage of it).

Aaaanyway, I’ve been getting on ok with the whole “body is a temple” thing for the most part, although when I’m tired I just want to 1) eat everything and 2) eat junk, and I’m tired.  The mini-eggs nearly got me on the way home.  But they did not, the dastardly little things.  My strength of will is stronger than that.  But not strong enough to sneak me past the pizza in the fridge.

In my defence, it looked like this:

and it was lying in wait for me when I got in.  What chance did I have?!

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, maybe it wasn’t.  Oh well – you win some…  Back on track now.

I will write more tomorrow.  Still not firing on all cylinders!

But before I log off, let’s address the issue of the cat picture. In a nutshell – if you think that’s making it on the blog, you lot who are clamouring for it, you’ve another think coming!!  So there.  ;0>

 

Super-chilled…

A good day.  All round a good day.  Feeling remarkably chilled out and calm.  This is partly to do with the book I’m re-reading –  ”End the Struggle and Dance with Life” – which talks about, amongst other things, focusing on the journey not the destination, in order that we don’t become so focused on the attainment of goals that we miss the richness of life as it is right now.  It talks about giving up competing with others and just giving what you have to give, whilst being comfortable with others giving what they have to give.  And most importantly, it talks about not looking to the external world and your circumstances to find your happiness and peace, because its got nothing to do with those things.  It’s in you, you just have to learn to access it.  It’s good to be reminded of these things now and then.

So. Food-wise, good.  Veggie burger at the Organic Cafe.  Chicken stew cooked by Emma.  Stewed apple and organic yoghurt.  Goooooood.

Meditation-wise, good.  There was no formal meditation – today I tried to be mindful.  Which basically just means being present and engaged in what you’re doing at any given time, rather than doing three things at once.  So while I was walking to the cafe, I was walking to the cafe, listening to the birds singing and feeling the fresh air.  Instead of constantly checking my Iphone.  While I was eating, I was concentrating on eating.  Rather than constantly checking my Iphone.  When I was reading my book, I was lost in my book.  Rather than constantly checking my Iphone.  When I was playing the piano, I was…well, no, I can’t really claim that one as I was simultaneously listening to the marathon Chris Moyles show.  But I’m guessing you catch my drift.

I do love my Iphone, but it does get in the way sometimes.  Email, facebook, twitter – they just create distraction and my Iphone tears my attention in two – half my mind will be trying to read/blog/play; the other half will be reaching for my phone to check something which at the end of the day is just a frivolous application.  It struck me on Sunday night that I had planned to get into my book about cortisol (rock and roll!) and practice the piano but that I had ended up doing precisely nothing except look up some people on twitter and read people’s status’ on facebook.  It’s great to be so connected to everyone, but does reduce your focus and prevent you from getting stuff done.  Plus, I never really feel peaceful when I’m checking facebook repeatedly – it’s like it creates interference in the mind.

So I’m endeavouring to reach for my Iphone less.  I think that’s quite an exuberant enterprise.  Today I have made a concerted effort to do that, and I’ve done loads of stuff I’ve wanted to do for ages and am feeling pretty relaxed.  And have I missed anything?  Er, probably not!

The spinathon at the gym was good – we kept the bike going from 8am till 8pm.  I have not bought a red nose yet.  So I got a red nose painted on me.  Here I am…

enjoying myself immensely.  Bike dancing was afoot.  Well, pedalling in time with the music at least.  I’m not sure what we raised but we’re doing it again on Friday.

Also on Friday – the day that I have 10 clients in; the day I’ll be in the gym the whole day, we’ll also be – wait for it…wait for it: painting each other’s faces.  Yep.  I will be PTing with my face painted.  Who knows what that’s going to look like.  I think I might request a tiger.  I’ve always wanted to PT with a face like a tiger*.

*lie

Should be fun though.

Imagining Hotel Chocolat for purposes of self control…

Hey.  Sorry for the quiet day yesterday.  I was otherwise engaged with – now, what was I doing yesterday?  Nope, can’t remember.  Oh well.  I’m here now.

The “body is a temple” challenge is going rather well.  Today I have been tempted to eat nutritionally bankrupt food, but fairly easily managed to resist as I was reminded how much decent food is out there and how much nicer it actually is than the crap you get from takeaways.  It was just tiredness that tried to lead me down that bad path.  I dread to think what I’m going to be like on Friday when I have 10 sessions and 2 meetings booked.  15 hr day, anyone?  Nobody wave a Toblerone in my eyeline that day, okay?

(in case you don’t know me, this is not a picture of me, just so you know.  It is merely a pictorial representation of what could happen…)

 

 

 

 

I included this one just because of the sheer size of the Toblerone – I mean, it’s practically half the size of the girl!

 

 

Anyway…

 

Randomly, I was drawn to browsing the Hotel Chocolat website today.  I’m not sure why.  I must have been taken with an idle fantasy that I was in a position to make use of this wonderful resource of chocolate delights.  I did read a research study once which suggested that those who spend time imagining consuming many pieces of “candy” (the study was clearly American) ate less of the real thing when given the chance.  Apparently this is due to “habituation” – repeated exposure to a food dampening the desire to eat more of it.  So, they suggest that we spend a few minutes really imagining eating the food we crave or that we are going to eat so that we will then eat less.  It goes against the grain somewhat as we would naturally try not to think about the foods we are not meant to eat in an effort not to want them, but it may be worth a try.  And this was obviously what I was doing on the Hotel Chocolat website.  Reinforcing my resolve to not eat stuff like that.  Obviously.

I meditated today.  Properly, with the use of a guided meditation, not just freestyling like I have been.  I have been meditating – trying to fit it in first thing after I wake up and last thing before I go to sleep – using my affirmation technique, and it seems to be working as I am drawing to me the things that I am affirming in quite a funky and synchronistic manner.  And I find myself the possessor of a quiet, calm mind.  The guided meditation I followed suggested I focus my attention on imagining a hot air balloon carrying away all my problems and worries.  I found I had very little to put in the basket.  Result!

Tomorrow I have a day off – except for one session and a hour on a spin bike (part of a comic relief challenge to keep the spin bike going from 7am to 7pm) – which is needed as I could do with being less tired.  A piano lesson is scheduled which will be the first time I’ve played in 2 weeks. *gasp*  Don’t tell my piano tutor that…

And I am tempted to get my sticks out for a walk in the morning.  Let’s see whether the people of Moseley can handle sticks…

p.s. if you like the blog and read it regularly, you can always subscribe to it – that way, it’ll email you when there’s a new post out, save you having to check a hundred times a day.  Just a thought…

Body is a temple. More or less.

It’s 7am on Sunday morning. I’m not sure why I’m up – I’ve only had 4 hours sleep – but I am.

The 4 hours sleep is courtesy of Emma’s leaving do last night in a nice little pub daan saaf (that’s “down south” in case you were wondering), a prime opportunity to eat and drink merrily in the traditional way, i.e. a lot.

Only when you’ve got around you several people who read your blog, on which you have stated your “giving up crap” best intentions, that traditional pig out really isn’t going to happen. Especially when one of said people immediately upon walking in references the “body is a temple” claim that I’ve attributed to this challenge, just to remind you (thanks John!). And sitting next to you is a gorgeous girl, whom you wish to support in her efforts to kick the sugar habit.

In these circumstances, doing what you’ve said is easy because you’re now accountable to a whole lot of people who are in your presence. It takes being accountable to the next level – you’ve got to be true to your word otherwise you’re going to look like a wally at best, a hypocrite at worst. Your word has got to stand for something, right? Otherwise you’re just full of hot air and any credibility you had goes straight out the window.

So on the whole, last night was pretty good on the food front. There was one thing which I must own to – there may have been a (single, solitary) Jack Daniels involved. I will concede this could be perceived as contravening the rules of the game, but in my defence I’ll say this – sometimes when meeting a load of new people, it’s useful not to come across as a fitness and nutrition robot. There’s a balance to be struck between looking holier than thou and being true to yourself. And leaving the chips in favour of eating the carrot sticks, especially when combined with the fruit salad we had for dessert whilst surrounded by a sea of sticky toffee pudding, looked quite holy enough.

In other news, yesterday I also taught a famous radio presenter and author to nordic walk. Mad but true, and really quite brilliant as they’re someone I’ve long looked up to as a writer. I was quite* surprised when I trundled along to the park to teach a couple to walk with sticks when I realised who I would be teaching!

*mahoosive understatement

So yeah. Trainer to the stars, me! And it’s reminded me how much I enjoy nordic walking and made me think I should start spreading the nordic walking love (as it were) once again. So expect blog posts about poles to make a comeback with a vengeance soon(ish)!