Klingons on the starboard bow!

These last ten days have been filled with exercise and excess eating with the result that I am fitter (cheer) and fatter (boo). I have enjoyed getting back into some formal exercise following my holiday excesses but my appetite is out of control! Being able to put lots of green smiley faces in my Move More diary where there were none the week before has been good too. I like the smiley faces.

Last week, my ears had had enough. Is it my age, but why does music have to be so loud?! Either that or my spin teacher is going deaf. I know it is good to have some thumping music to motivate you but when it makes your ears ring, the pleasure diminishes somewhat! So since I last wrote, I have done two spin classes, one with blue paper shoved down my left ear (attractive)and the second wearing musician’s earplugs which look a bit like this:

And I look a bit like this wearing them:

 Well in my dreams anyway...

My new challenge for last week was kettlebells. These look like those old fashioned irons before electricity but round in shape. And you swing them round in what appears to be a dangerous manner up and down, up and down, until you get dizzy and your legs get cramp from all the squatting. Then, after 30 minutes, you lie down (phew) and then pick the damn thing up again to do abdominal exercises. To say that I looked like I’d been riding a shire horse for hours when walking round for several days afterwards would be an understatement. Never again, you ask? NO, I loved it so will be returning for more torture next week. Might buy a crash helmet just in case.

Then Step – whey hey! I love Step so much I could marry it. It isn’t the most popular class because folks find the choreography a bit too challenging but that is half the pleasure, laughing when you get the steps wrong. As long as you don’t do what I did a few years ago when I fell off my step, landed on my back and ended up with bruised ribs, which are most painful I can tell you. Serves me right for being a clumsy oaf. But it is an amazing cardio workout and makes you sweat profusely. I will be visiting Virgin’s sister gym in Leeds very soon to try out their step class but need a chum to come with me. Any offers? Anyone…?

So, my next blog will be my last for Move More. I shall miss it. Until then, just remember, it’s life Jim but not as we know it.

If you need some help getting more physically active during or after cancer treatment, order a Macmillan Move More pack.