At bloody last!

Today, (cue drum roll) I was at the gym exercising.

That's right.

Regular readers, and for some obscure reason there are some, will know that there has been a saga leading up to this point, largely involving the incompetence of the staff at my local council run gym. But this afternoon I made it at last and spent a relatively happy, and surprisingly pain free hour and a bit there.

And I'm already over thirty pounds lighter, as I had to pay the first month and a bit up front until the Direct Debit kicks in.

So, for the record, and this may be the only time this statistic appears here, in shorts and trainers I weigh 92 kilos, or 14 stone 6 pounds in old money. My aims are to lose some of that and ditch as much of the beer gut as possible in the process, get a bit fitter, get my blood pressure to a lower level without aided by Lisinopril, and generally feel better about myself.

This morning's efforts consisted of 20 minutes on an exercise bike, 10 minutes walking quite quickly on a treadmill, 5 minutes on a rowing machine, 5 minutes on a cross trainer (which was the most work, the least fun and the highest heart rate!) and finally another 15 minutes on an exercise bike. Plus the warm down bits at the end of those times too. I did break sweat, but deliberately didn't try to push myself too far on the first visit, as that's a surefire way of getting pissed off at both it and myself, and never going back! The objective is to gradually increase things, so we'll see how it goes.

Oh, and to put all this in perspective for those who don't know me, it's been a long time since I exercised (and I was exactly 11 stone when I left school and for many years afterwards), and the last time I did any I managed to rupture my achilles tendon! I am well aware that the length of time I spent on each machine today is nothing to write home about for the average person, but I'm proud of it, given my current state of health and fitness. It will improve.