It's Time ..................

Guess we can all loose some weight.

Increase our fitness levels.

Eat healthier foods.

Do you eat your 5-a-day?

How active are you?

Like most people, I've invested lots of money into gym memberships overs the years, thinking that I was going to go 3-4 times a week, loose weight, meet new friends, and in a few months people will start to say 'OMG you look amazing, Have you lost weight?' and I'd beam.

Several friends over the years have done just that.

Transformed themselves into incredibly healthy, slimmer versions of themselves.

Now I'm not talking size 6, or skinny minnies. Just being the right size, feeling good about yourself weight, in the clothes you enjoy wearing. Being able to keep up with the kids. Go for a play in the park without huffing and puffing. Not always looking for the escalator in shopping centres.

I've never been into sports, or the gym depsite joining lots cos in the '80's and '90's it was the done thing. Even at school, I preferred to be organizing things behind the scenes, rather than being on the field. I still felt part of what was going on, just didn't want to be doing it.

G was a sports-jock in his younger days, in fact, he went to a selective academic/sports high school. He competed in swimming, hockey and squash. He's not done a thing other than golf since we met - shows you how influential I can be!

Things change and waist lines get thicker, favourite clothes don't look so good anymore, you go up one maybe two jean sizes, clothes get baggier and more layered which thank goodness is a very popular fashion trend. You delete too many photos cos you're seldom happy with how you look ..... oh gosh and here comes summer holidays AGAIN when you promised yourself last summer to do something about it.

While all that's going on, you're not feeling so good emotionally. You're lethargic. You KNOW you don't look as good as you could, nor do you FEEL as good as you could. You berate yourself cos it's been at least a year since you committed to doing something about it! You realise there are very few photos of yourself cos you've deleted them cos you think you look not-as-good-as-you-could. You rejoice in how fantastic friends look, and admire their perseverance while hating yourself for being so lazy.

I joined Curves Gym in Dublin the first time round, and then again in Winchester. I really do enjoy Curves, tho once you're confidence is high and you're in a routine, for me at least it got a bit repetitive, tho a full on gym work out still doesn't appeal.

You will recall I was a member of Winchester Wonder Women for the Moonwalk in London earlier this year. As hard as those first few walks were, I did enjoy them. And I did start to loose weight. My jeans got loose, I slept better, when I missed a walk I felt it.

Eighteen months in the UK and I'm a little bit lighter than I was arriving, and have lost a few centimetres, but gosh there's still a few more to go. My AHA Moment! was when I realised we live a life of beginnings, middles and ends. We can measure all sorts of things by the length of time we live somewhere.

We had 18 months in the UK to loose the weight we put on in Japan. We didn't loose that much, in fact G put on more.

This time round, I am absolutely committed, I HAVE NO CHOICE but to acknowledge that we are here for 2-3 years and in that time I am going to leave here lighter, smaller, healthier than we arrived.

It's a life lesson - seize the moment!

And take G with me!

Long story short - we just joined David Llyod's. It's a family oriented gym/leisure centre. There's an indoor and outdoor, yes, an outdoor pool; numerous tennis courts, a large selection of classes, a weights room, a spin room, a circuit and free gym equipment.

We can each have a personal trainer, and a program written for us.

MissM has a membership too so she can swim and participate in weekend and school holiday activities.

There's Friday Family Movie nights;  there's arts'n'crafts, yogo, gymnastics, ball games and more for her to try.

We figured, it'll be like the YCAC - a place to meet new friends, hang out on a cold, wet winters Sunday, MissM can be occupied for an hour during the holidays and I can still do a gym class, or a walk on the treadmill; G can swim a couple of times a week and maybe consider the possibility of touching a machine.

Keep you posted on our efforts and results,

With friendship
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