26th March Returning for more

First thing in the morning I was dealing with the ominous quandary of what an overweight person should wear to work that could also be worn for "boxercise" as this was the activity we had been told to expect. I was more than a little apprehensive.  However I remained enthusiastic about the class and managed to get home, change my shoes, grab something to eat and feed the baby, without being too late.

One of the four participants was clearly less excited about "boxercise" than I was, and this week we were reduced to three.  I'm not sure this bodes well for the continued existence of the class.

We had the requisite talk about healthy eating (what is overweight, why do people get overweight, problems with being overweight, benefits to losing weight, what is healthy eating). A particularly amusing moment occurred when, after discussing the problems with being overweight we moved on to a topic beginning "benefits to..." and one of the class thought we were now discussing the benefits to being overweight. Our minds wandered, and many giggles ensued.

Then the moment arrived when "boxercise" started. A few short exercises to warm up and then we were put into pairs. With only three in the class I drew the traditionally short straw of being paired with the "teacher".  The only downside on this occasion was that I was very aware I was considerably heavier than she. After some slightly tentative punches I began to trust that I wasn't going to knock her over and then some extremely therapeutic thumping ensued.  It was fantastic and although I could feel I was using muscles that hadn't had much demand recently, I didn't feel that I was going to be a wreck in the morning.

I had an absolute whale of a time, would totally recommend this to anyone and would have no hesitation in doing it again. Brilliant.

Next week we're going for a walk in the park. Sounds a little tame after all the excitement, but I'm keeping an open mind.

19th March The first class

The class on 12th March was cancelled because of the snow so it was another week down the line before anything happened.

Four of us turned up, were given an introduction, plastic folder, forms to complete and were weighed and measured. I was expecting the scales but was hoping for more people.

Then having completed our forms suddenly it was the end. I suppose that was all we could achieve although it felt a bit of a wasted opportunity to not actually do anything.  Roll on next week.

Background

Ok. So I am not a health freak. I've always been overweight but I used to be quite fit. But since I've had two children this has changed. Having spent six months sitting on the sofa with the baby I'm now more overweight and very unfit. So now my youngest is over six months old, I'm doing something about it.

I have given myself a year to get fit and then another year to get to a sensible weight. Not sure what yet.

And while wandering in Horsham a couple of months ago I came across someone with a clipboard who invited me to a weight management course (I clearly look like I need it!) so I'm giving that a go to see what happens.

It's twelve weeks long and every Tuesday evening we have a talk about something health related then do some kind of activity.  The woman with the clipboard gave examples of table tennis and, oh, something else, and that didn't seem too offputting, so I'm happy to give it a go.  Ideally I'll meet a fellow-minded non-super-fit person to continue doing some exercise with, once it ends.

The course is free which is a bit suspicious as it's run by the council, the same one that's about to start charging for green waste collections, so I reckon there must be some funding for it from somewhere.

After a few weeks on the course I'm also going to seriously consider Weight Watchers. My GP is going to send me a letter as a referral so this won't cost anything either, although I've never been on an official diet and don't particularly want to go down that road.