Well, since last time, I've been picking a lot more of this.....
and getting to grips with a vast amount of these......
and I'm kind of both looking forward to & dreading the apple crop coming in, as it looks huge this year, so I'm gathering my recipes for jellies, chutneys, cakes, brown sauce, muffins, stuffings......anything I can make & store away in our pantry & freezer. Never mind winter & emergencies, I'll soon have enough to see us through a Martian attack! I've also thought more about trying to increase my fitness levels, which are better than they've ever been since losing lots of weight, but quickly start to decline if I stop!
Now, I've mentioned before that if I don't get my exercise session done early in the morning, I tend to talk myself out of it. This exercise dodging would typically take the form of excuses i.e "I've already walked to & from the shed twice" or "I sweated through an exhausting 10 minutes of 'wiggly string' with Albert Whiskers AND I've got the ironing to do" or even "Oh, hang on, I've just walked to the post box" as though the calorie burn from these activities will equal a proper energetic 30 -50 min exercise session. We do have quite a long garden, but it's 130'......not the brisk 2 miles minimum walk I need to do 3-5 times a week. At No. 16 on my '50 things I want to do before my next birthday' list is 'Walk 5 miles without moaning'. Hmmm. It doesn't sound like much, & I'm sure some of you are wondering why I don't just sign up to one of the shorter charity walks. Therein lies the problem. I have the Exercise Dodging Gene. I would honestly rather just donate to the charity than do the walk, & neither am I a lover of 'organised fun'....unless I'm doing the organising!
So, instead of prancing around to cod Latino sounds on my exercise DVD this morning, I decided to start getting into training for my 5 miles by doing circuits of the local park. I can walk around 3.5 miles tops, then the tedium sets in & I want coffee, preferably with cake. I think I did walk over 4 miles once, years ago, but only by accident because the map reader forgot to bring the map.....it certainly wasn't 5, & I moaned.....a lot (though in my defence, endless just-ploughed Wiltshire fields after a week of incessant rain isn't my idea of pleasure) I set off for Circuit 1 of the park, pedometer clicking away nicely. Reach the point where I can choose either the longer or shorter route. Hmmm. I feel the Exercise Dodging gene start to wriggle a bit. There are not many folk about, & being a life-long magnet for the '3Ws' (weirdos, waifs & winos), I select the shorter route. I wonder about climbing the civil war earthwork for extra thigh-work, but decide on the more decorous option of walking across the (wimp's) bridge instead. Then I get distracted by the wild flowers growing up there. Look! Harebells! One of my favourites & not a common sight these days. I lose my walking pace completely by stopping to admire them......
.........& then by waiting for a rather peculiar dog to go past. By now, a group of post-natal Mums has arrived with a fitness trainer. They are doing circuits too, but they're RUNNING! By the wailing coming from the buggies, some of these women have probably only given birth a few weeks ago, yet they are are actually running & doing core muscle work......in public! I pick up my pace, down towards the river, back up past the coffee shop.......Oooooh, coffee shop, don't mind if I do, no cake, just some caffiene. Most pleasant. Suddenly, cup in hand, I don't feel much like doing another circuit. I check my pedometer. HOW MANY? I give it a solid bang on the table. This adds on precisely ONE step......not the 2,000 I hoped were missing. 0.75 miles. PATHETIC!! The E D Gene kicks in with 'But you're planting out 5 gazanias later, you'll be lifting the tomato basket & you're bound to need a few trips to the shed'. I almost head for the car, but then I notice that the post-natal Mums are doing squats. Actual SQUATS, for goodness sake!! They have pushed out babies, some may have had to undergo some rather personal needlework...... but here they are, doing squats while I'm trying to worm out of some extremely undemanding walking. I do another circuit. Shamed into it by the Mums & buggies! My attempt to walk 5 miles without moaning will take place at Clumber Park, date to be decided. The Big Hairy One has announced that he is coming with me to make sure I don't cheat.......or moan!
OK, so I know I only walked 1.5 miles today & that was poor even by my standards, but I now present to you Albert Whiskers' incredible contribution to world fitness today. I got home to find he hadn't moved off the sofa. He managed the 4 metres to the kitchen, fortified himself with whatever fishy gunk was on the menu this morning, then heaved his exhausted body to the cat flap. A long sit down to regain his strength, then he made it another 4 metres onto the bark chips before settling down for his Really Long Snooze. If cats wore pedometers, I swear there would be days that struggled to come in at 25 steps!
So I've been a bit moany this time, haven't I? But will commit RIGHT NOW to doing my exercise DVD first thing tomorrow.......before I find myself wondering if collecting a bucket of windfall apples is likely to be anywhere near an equivalent calorie burn!
Have a good few days everyone.....perhaps the sunshine will return at the weekend, once the last bits of this hurricane have passed over :-)
Till next time,
C x
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