It’s all mental

The forecast for this morning, our first group workout of 2014, was dismal. Heavy rain and gale force winds.

Anxiety levels were high, what after 2 weeks of festive overindulgence and limited (if any?) exercise. This was not an easy workout (wicked? moi?!) and yet the combination of glorious sunshine, fabulously satisfying boxing and much better than anticipated numbers on the scales, resulted in some very happy ladies (myself included!).

So what? I hear you ask. Well this is what. We spend more time than we should worrying about losing our hard-fought-for fitness levels, putting on weight, not feeling great and changing shape. When we feel guilty about overeating, we see ourselves as unfit, fat (or at least not the shape we’d like to be) and somehow ‘naughty’. But all it took this morning was an injection of endorphins, a bit of effort to get out of bed and into the park and an (albeit arbitary) number on the scale. The dance and hugs all round from Lara said it all when she leapt off the scales. She beat herself up over Christmas for eating more than she ‘should’ have. And yet today she discovered she’d lost a pound. The effect it had on her mood/self respect/confidence and above walk (she walked SO much taller on the way out than on the way in) was clear for all to see. And yes, I was the same. In fact Matthew has just commented that I look taller. And do you know what? I feel taller. And I feel fit and I don’t feel overweight. All down to one, great, hard workout.

The moral of the story? It’s ok to have time out from regular fitness. It’s ok to overeat now and then. And it’s ok to lose a bit of fitness. It all comes back just as quickly as it went and the resulting endorphins are worth the hour of sweat and effort.

As for the forecast, pah! Wrong again. My forecast? A sunny outlook with burpees and smiles.