As many of you will know, I went to Rome last week for 5 days. During those five days we must have walked for miles and miles (well, it certainly seemed like it). I wish I'd brought my pedometer so that I could have calculated the number of steps I'd taken and the calories burned. Alas, I didn't so I could only guess. The guessing game was great as I could delude myself that I had burned more calories than I probably had while sinking my teeth into yet another delicious slice of pizza!
Now that I'm back and autumn beckons I have decided that I would like to work on and improve my fitness levels. I was never a sporty child or teenager. I'm afraid the lure of books was always far too strong. And anyway, I was never interested in team sports like netball, volleyball. I played squash and tried tennis, but again racquet sports were not something I particularly enjoyed. I have always preferred individual sports like running, walking and keep fit.
As an adult I got into fitness through aerobics in my early 20s and ever since then, I have been fairly consistent with getting and staying fit. However, like a lot of people my weight has fluctuated over the years. There were times when I put on weight and went up a few dress sizes and then the opposite happened and I lost weight and dropped down a couple of sizes.
Nearly thirty years on (I can't believe I just wrote that!), I'm very conscious that the older we get the more work we have to put into staying fit and maintaining a healthy weight. Most of us lead sedentary lives and it can be a real challenge to stay fit and healthy let alone try and lose weight.
I remember, a few years ago, I had a personal trainer who told me that if I wanted to lose weight I would have to halve my food portions. I was shocked.
I really thought that that would be impossible to achieve as I was worried I might get hungry. He said that that would not happen as I had enough fat in my body to sustain those hunger pangs! Cheeky monkey!
However, he was right. The less food I ate and the more exercise I did, the weight inevitably fell off. It is simple maths, isn't it. If we consume fewer calories than we burn, we will lose weight. There is no need to go on a diet or follow all those fad diets that, as far as I am concerned, make me obsess over food the moment I'm on one of them.
My job entails a lot of sitting around. I also work from home which means that I don't even have the excuse of running to catch the train. It is, therefore, very important that I get some exercise during the day and week.
We have a cross-trainer in our garage and I also enjoy running (actually it's more jogging!). I alternate between the two forms of exercise so that I don't get bored. The longest distance I've run has been 11km. I am not a fast runner but speed is not important for me. I am more interested in getting some exercise that will help boost my energy levels. I do enjoy my runs. I plug in my music, switch on my running app and off I go. I like the way the running app records my running sessions. It allows me to observe my progress or in some cases, lack of progress!
Teaching can be an exhausting activity and the only way I can sustain my energy levels is by doing some exercise. I have to admit that occasionally the sheer thought of going for a run, even for 5km, sounds very unattractive. However, as you have probably experienced, you always feel so much better after an exercise session.
So far this week I have run just over 5km and had a 45-minute session on the cross-trainer. I intend to work hard on my fitness so that by the time Christmas comes, I can go mad!
What do you do to keep fit and stay healthy?
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Ciao for now
Shanthi
Key to the colours
The expressions in blue relate to health and fitness vocabulary and the phrases in pink are expressions and collocations you can use anytime. The expressions in orange are idiomatic or slang expressions with, in some cases, a link to explain what they mean.
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