Exercise as Damage Limitation #Mumentum

Whoops, this is where I have been this week! Not the ideal place but a better one than just doing nothing. It has been a mixed bag of a week with a poor start on the food front, good on the exercise and then I was really good with food Friday and Saturday and then a trip to London and ‘that’ time of the month meant Sunday was not so good. My weigh in this morning was disappointing but to be expected I suppose, no loss this week but I refuse to be down as my weight always fluctuates around this time of the month anyway.

So I will focus on the positive and that has definitely been finding some exercise that I am enjoying. Here is what I have been up to –

Pilates

I have now been for an initial assessment and two different Pilates classes. One to try out the basic mat work, then one to be assessed and try some of the ‘torture’ looking machines. I am pleased to report that the machines are nothing like torture, I actually had fun. My sessions have been at the Perfect Balance Clinic in Hatfield and I’ll write a full review about the service I have received there later this week.



I have been advised by my Pilates instructor that I need to spend the next 4 – 6 weeks focusing on some basic mat work to really learn the moves and to develop an awareness of my posture and engaging my core muscles each time I move. I have to say that I was pleased with myself during these sessions, as someone who has very split stomach muscles and is grossly overweight I was delighted to see that I could isolate my core muscles and that I did manage to awaken them and make them ache! Ohh yes, I know I have been using them!

Writing this has reminded me that I need to book myself in for another session later this week. If you want to find out more before I write my review you can check out the Perfect Balance Clinic on Twitter and Facebook.

Leslie Sansone Walk at Home DVD

I started following the 4 mile workout DVD at the beginning of January, so I am into my third week now and I am loving it. I really am. I had the idea originally to do it every morning at 6am Monday through to Friday and to have the weekend off. I had sort of forgotten that I am not very fit and that might be too much. So I have been being kind to myself and having the odd day off. The strange thing is that I really do feel motivated to get up at 6am and to workout before my kids wake.

When I mention that the DVD I am working out to is a walking one people give me a strange look. It is hard to explain that actually it is not just walking. I suppose the easy way to describe what I am doing at the moment is low impact aerobics but mostly on the spot. I love that my footsteps are basically counted and that I get an indicator when I reach 1 mile, 2 miles etc.

One of the other things I really like about the DVD that I have (and it appears that Leslie Sansone has made tons, she has been doing this for 25 years and has the world’s number 1 walking program with 70 million walk fans) is that she is very warm and friendly. She has a laugh with the people exercising with her and they are both male and female, as well as from all walks of life and age groups. The DVD I am watching has people from about 20 – 65 years and not all of them are particularly slim. Hooray for real people!

If you want to find out more you can find Leslie on Twitter and Facebook, take a look at this little taster to see what I am on about.

Now go and visit the lovely Liska to see what she has been upto.