'EXERCISE'

I thought I wold set up this section separately from the 'Weight' section, because exercise, and running, do not necessarily fit into everyoe's plans. I'm going to try to outline the three stages I have gone through, with fantastic help from the staff at my local gym.

About half way through the 'project' (in late spring of 2006) I was hitting what I think of as a plateau - I hadn't got into any bad habits, but the weight loss was held up and needed a booster to get going again. So I thought, why not take advantage of the loss so far, and try to get a bit fitter. But how?

'Exercise' had, quite obviously, not really been a part of my 'regular routine' for decades...

Walking

So I began by explroing the paths and cycleways around my locality - quite literally a whole new experience. Not just from the point of view of 'doing exercise', but actually getting to know a complete new set of perspectives of the river, the meadows, and the country park; nature reserves I previously had no idea existed; access to parts of the river I never knew you could get near; little pubs that were completely new to me. I gently built this up to a good level, and I have to say enjoyed doing it. But in the end I realised that - it was very time consuming for the amount of exercise it gave; it was limited from the point of view of longer term build up; and it could get extremely unpleasant in the rain so was very seasonal!

Now I quite often drove past a big Gym by one of the industrial estates, and I had heard some people talking about it, so I thought - why not take a look.

I had no idea where it was all going to lead, on the day that I first wandered through their front door with a vague notion in my mind that getting a bit fitter would probably help me with the weight loss! This was 'light years' outside of my 'comfort zone', and the entire place would probably be teeming with body-builders and fitness freaks who would take one look at me and burst out laughing.

Gym

After a 'guided tour', and a chat with a couple of the fitness advisers, I ended up taking out a year's subscription and have never looked back!!

DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THESE PLACES. 

I have always been made to feel welcome at all stages of my project, and have never felt 'out of place'. There are always people just like you around the gym, and help and advice is invariably available at all times.

Over these few pages, I will try to give you a rough picture of the various stages I have gone through since that first day. The first stage is the only one I would recommend everyone does. In many ways it was the most beneficial, and all the other stages then become a matter of pure personal preference and meeting your own particular fitness goals.