Day 7 Bad Day

A full day of teaching and lots of rain has impacted today. In the end I just did a few weights, a plank and some hoola-hooping. Pretty poor show, but I saw on a  Janathon Facebook post today that what counts is doing something you wouldn't normally do!However, I was dismayed to read that cycling two miles to work is not exercise. Normally, in non-Janathon times, my main form of exercise is walking to meetings and appointments. Alas. Still managing to be 'dry' as well. All a bit of a struggle today.

Day 6 More Epiphanies

Epiphany Number One. I find it hard to schedule exercise into my days. Or maybe that should be I find it easy to find a reason NOT to exercise at all? Today was my first 'desk day' since the start of the silly season and I sat there trying to sort through papers so I could actually see my desk and answer emails which included several requests for singing lessons when I'm already maxed. My immediate feeling was to make more coffee and stay put until I had ploughed through the lot, rather than keep my appointment with myself to give Aqua Aerobics a whirl at midday. Frankly, had it not been for Janathon, I would have done just that, but a promise is a promise so off I went.

Epiphany Number Two. I don't actually like exercise. The gym had a very different feel to it on a Monday than it had at the weekend. In fact it was like an old folks' home with lycra, but fair play to them - these 'senior' people are keeping fit in for their twilight years. Come to think of it, at 56 (albeit possibly the youngest client in the building), that's what I'm doing too. Actually that is probably Epiphany Number Three. Sobering thought. And, what with Dryathon, I am very sober.

But back to number two. During the 45 minute class, I must have looked at the clock at least six times. I would have looked more, but the clock was behind me and it took all my concentration to stay upright during a pacey class. We did jumping jacks, spotty dogs, grapevines, jogs, walks, runs, squats, straight jumps, twisty jumps, boxing - all the things I used to do in exercise classes 20-odd years ago, but on land. I was glad of the water to support my body; the same could not be said for my bright pink swimming costume that struggled to contain my bouncing baps and belly. We then did all of the above again with weights. They looked heavy, but were actually light, being made of foam. However, in the water they assumed much more weight and resistance, but at least I was in no danger of dropping them on my toes. I wondered whether I will come to love exercise if I manage to do it every day this month. We'll see...

Epiphany Number Four. I am not as fit as I thought I was. Up to now I had felt smug about my regular brisk 5 or 6 mile walks with my friend in the flatlands of Chester and that I had coped well before Christmas with 7.5 miles on the Sandstone Trail, complete with token Cheshire hills. But my body seems to be reacting to these new exercises by aching and making me feel generally more physically tired and I'm not finding it easy. Maybe my body was to used to walking and it's in shock at being required to do something else - something more aerobic, using different muscles? On the plus side, I feel fitter (that is probably just psychological), am standing straighter (this will be good for singing) and breathing more deeply (ditto) and am sleeping like a log.

If only I could just enjoy the process, rather than the benefits...

Epiphanies  - 4         Squats, jumps, twists, runs etc - far too many to mention.

Day 5 An Epiphany

The plan today was to take my making-do gym kit to church, then walk to the gym, do some weights, then walk home. I managed the first bit - getting the kit to church, well actually I left it in the car, but wimped out totally when it was time for the five minute walk to the gym, because of the pouring rain. Decided going home, in the car, for a decent cup of coffee was preferable and further procrastination set in once I got there. However, the prospect of The Husband yelling at the telly for the next 90 minutes while West Ham got a pasting was enough to propel me out again, though I had to make two trips because I forgot my membership card the first time. The up-shot was sampling a few machines while watching silent simultaneous screens of West Ham losing to Notts Forest and Sheila Hancock losing out in a mixed race romance. It turned out right in the end (for Sheila Hancock, not West Ham) and staying to find this out, necessitated me doing 5 extra minutes on the treadmill and 5 on a cross-trainer that was going backwards. I rewarded myself with 10 minutes in the sauna and a further 10 in the bubbles. Not the ones that fade and die!

I haven't mentioned yet that I am also doing Dryathon, that is to say no alcohol throughout January. So far, so good until I got to the communion rail this morning. To sip or not to sip? Or change my beliefs to the doctrine of transubstantiation? A conundrum for mind, body and spirit.


Treadmill  - 20 minutes
Cross-trainer 10 minutes
Steps - 5 minutes
rowing machine - 5 minutes
Various weight machines for arms and legs that I can't remember the names of - 20 reps on each & 20kg weights

Day 4 Procrastination is the thief of time...

Day Four. QOTD 'Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.' Charles Dickens.

Day four - last visitors gone and excuses running out. Or are they? First, I urgently needed to write yesterday's blog, then load the washing machine, then email another actor with an idea for a project. And another actor. And chat to a friend on Facebook. Then  eat a bowl of soup. Home made broccoli and stilton, if you're interested. Then take down all the Christmas cards ahead of getting all the dex down tomorrow. The plan had been to walk to the gym, do some weights and come home. Mindful of the lack of gym kit, this changed to 'drive to the gym, buy some kit in the shop and go for a swim.' The flaw in the plan was that the gym no longer has a shop that sells gym kit, but the genius of my procrastination was that I arrived there at the same time as two lovely thespian friends and, mindful of the time my procrastination had thieved, I collared them. A quick chat and social arrangement was made with one before she headed off to the treadmill and I went for a swim with the other. In the children's pool. The advantage of this is that it is warmer than the main pool, but you have to dodge children including, on this occasion, triplets. Surely actually getting triplets and oneself to the pool and changed into swimming gear is enough? I'd just change them back and go to the café. Anyway, my friend and I caught up on all Christmas-tide gossip, swimming slalom-style, in the children's pool and lounging in the hydrotherapy pool. She then made for the steam room and I headed for the lanes in the serious pool. Shower, sauna and home.

Time swimming (and talking) in obstacle course children's pool - 30 minutes
Time talking in Hydrotherapy pool - 25minutes
Time swimming in serious pool lanes - 15 minutes
Time washing hair - 15 minutes
Time drying hair 45 minutes

Day 3 Stealing Time.

Day Three. Visitors still here and nails had to be done. Gels, I'm a slave to them. Then we had to leave at midday for the matinee of The Snow Queen. These are my excuses up-front for being squeezed for time for exercise. So much so that it is Day Four now as I write this. So, quickly before I try out the  local gym for Day Four's exercise.

I walked to the nail bar and back. Half a mile max. Then attempted to be extra vigorous in the Umbrella Song in the show, adding a twirl, a perambulation and extended arm reach in umbrella waving. I added 20 lunges per leg in the interval but it upset the backstage crew so I had to wait till I got home. Once I had made the soup and pudding for our visitors, I retired to the bedroom with my dumbells to exercise in private before we served up and cleared away after a lovely three-course meal - the last of many we have served to visitors this past fortnight. So, not a great day for exercise, but so far I have seen the difficulties with setting aside time to exercise and why I have never done enough of it in my life!

Crunches 16    Lunges 50 per leg (with added dumbells)    Squats and dumbells 20    Curls 20  Lifts 20    triceps 2 (the end of the bed was the wrong height)    push-ups 25     Squat against the wall  60 seconds. Walk outside  0.5 miles. Walk inside (waiting on etc...) many miles.   Umbrella twirls  several.

Day 2 Toddlers and Housework

Day Two and we still have visitors, but two of them, my son and daughter in law, are also doing Janathon. Their two year old daughter, my granddaughter Grace, is not. However she decided to join in. This mainly entailed pulling away her princess pillow, which I had put under my elbows for my elderly version of planking, or climbing onto Matt or Claire's back when they were doing proper planking. She also did some crunches. All in all, what with running around and shouting 'that's enough', a sentiment with which I heartily agreed, Grace probably did more exercise than the three of us put together. We were further challenged by the cleaner mopping around us. Come to think of it, she probably did more exercise than the rest of us too! There were three circuits of squats, lunges, planks, crunches, press-ups, but I went to make the coffee after two of them and Matt went for a run. I did a few circuits of the outside of the house with Grace including mad dashes to retrieve her from bushes and puddles. After a spot of bed-changing, tidying up, polishing and ironing ready for my parents-in-law's arrival, I wondered what else I could do to make this a good day of exercise, aside from alarming them with some hoola-hooping sans sports bra and decided to walk the two mile journey to the theatre where we are coming to the end of a five week run of The Snow Queen. In the end, I opted instead to make the most of the last hour of daylight and walk to Morrisons to take my coat to their dry cleaners. Unfortunately The Husband decided I should take a couple of his suits as well and a pair of trousers with chocolate on them. I'm guessing that the heavy bag also counts as weight-lifting? After a brisk walk there and all items checked in, I was told that I had to pay the £27 up front and I had only brought enough cash to buy more milk for the many cups of tea we need to provide. So the The Husband had to come and bail me out and after a tussle with the self checkout for the milk (unexpected item in the bagging area) I succumbed to being driven home.

Squats 50    Planks 2     Press-ups (well, HALF press-ups)  30     Lunges 60 per leg      Crunches 50 (not very good ones)    Wall squats (50 seconds each) 2      Tricep things    about 20    Miles jogged 0 Miles walked briskly 1     Weight-lifting with right arm 20 minutes      Weight=lifting with left arm 0
Thought of the day - maybe cleaning IS exercise?

Day 1 Putting the Jan into Janathon

I'm not going to lie. I hate jogging. As someone once said of me, 'You're built for comfort, not speed.' So I begin with What To Wear? I fished the redundant-for-several-years, sports bra out of a drawer and wore it on the tightest fastening. As my main form of exercise these past seven years has been walking and swimming, suitable jogging-wear was woeful, so I made do with some leggings and a t-shirt over a shape-wear vest. This would have been alright if the leggings were not trimmed with lace at the ankles and the electric blue t-shirt did not have a low V-neck thus exposing most of the white sports bra and squashed baps. No matter, these things I covered with husband's sports socks and an old cagoule; respectively in case you were wondering. At least I have some trainers. Pink. NYE hair had drooped so I scraped it into a ponytail and added a baseball cap that I found in the porch. I thought I looked a bit like Madonna on her power walks - same age but about four stone heavier with less scary arms. After a brisk walk for a warm-up, I started jogging in the park and thought it was going well, easier than I had feared, till I realised the wind was behind me shunting me along. The only problem at this point was the shape-wear vest riding up and hugging my ribs while allowing my post-party season belly to do a jog of its own. Wrestling it back down while on the move was tricky what with all the dog-walkers about. At least my boobs stayed in place. To be honest, once on the pavements, I alternated walking and jogging. To be totally honest, mainly jogging only when a dog-walker or car was approaching. Then there was the added problem of the leggings riding down so the waist-band was on my hips and the gusset fast approaching my knees. But I blundered on, wondering why a 10 mile walk is a doddle but one mile part-jogging is more effort. Maybe it's the outfit? Maybe it's being 'in flight'? Anyway, I made it one mile which isn't bad, in the wind and rain, for a menopausal Janathon virgin. In fact it was rather invigorating so I topped it off with a bit of hoola-hooping.