Monday 15 December 2008

Z wants to be alone

The rather miserable ending to the post I wrote the other day brought constructive advice from Badgerdaddy:- There's no point making yourself unhappy. Even going for a nice walk can be impossible in this kind of weather. Maybe on those days you could go up to the gym and either spend a bit of time on the treadmill (walking and playing about with the incline) or on the cross trainer, which is non-impact and great on the hips. Just a thought - there's alternatives out there for when the weather sucks or you just want to take the car!

It's good advice, and it can help to think about a different way of getting the same or a better result, and indeed I've spent several days trying to gee myself up to thinking I might try it. But I know in my heart it ain't going to happen. I think the only way I manage to get on the bike is to get somewhere. Once I'm halfway to Yagnub, I've got to keep going. I can see the possibility of my going to the gym if I felt all energetic and positive, but not if I'm fed-up in the first place. I really and honestly don't like 'exercise'. I find it boring.

I can enjoy playing a game - I used to love playing tennis. I could enjoy running, in a frolicsome, playing with the dog sort of way, for the exuberance of it - but just as the mood took me. I said some time ago that I used to really enjoy rowing, but that was proper rowing on a lake or river. I just don't see using a machine as the same thing.

I can see, at a pinch, using some sort of a machine if I had one right here. I can even see myself in a gym, once in a while. I might quite like it as a novelty. But i am the very antithesis of a joiner-in. I would not, under any circumstances, join a slimming club. If I did go along to try it out, I would disengage. This is not an attractive trait and I'm making no boast. If I'm not 'one of you' it's not because I see myself as better, worse, even different from you. Just private.

A blogger who writes really quite personal blogs says she's private. Ah, but *ahem, ahem* one can talk the talk without walking the walk (sorry. Really, really sorry. Put it down to verbal shorthand).

The first step is to want to want to. I'm almost there, possibly. But it may never happen that I will join a gym.

On the other hand, a whim may strike.

Possibly, not twice.

Oh, and does anyone know what a cross trainer is? I've sort of heard of it, but I haven't the faintest idea. I could google, sure, but where's the fun in that?

3 comments:

badgerdaddy said...

A cross trainer is designed to simulate cross country skiing. It has footplates that you stand on and they move elliptically, and you hold on to/push and pull hand grips like they're ski poles.

I was kind of thinking of you going to the gym with your iPod and a book and going on a recumbent cycle, so you can sit, chill, have some downtime and still get some exercise! And of course there's a pool up there - you could try pool running, which is used for rehabilitating those who've had bad injuries. You wear special floats so you can stay upright and you basically run/walk in the water. It's VERY cool.

J.J said...

I-pods are THE best invention for the gym. You can plug yourself in, listen to your choice of great music, and the time on the machines seems to pass quickly. And you don't need to take any notice of what anyone else is doing. I would imagine that your locla gyms would be happy to give you a month's trial - or at least a free visit. Have a go and you might be surprised.

You have done brilliantly as it is though!

Z said...

You dear people, I'm endeavouring not to be negative. I want to switch off my brain at the mere mention of the word 'gym' but I've found the best thing I've ever learned to do is to follow advice. I'll try to steel myself, but I make no promises. I really do loathe the idea.

And I'm afraid I won't have time until February. Honestly, if I have a spare hour, which is unlikely, I catch up on a bit of housework. I am really pushed at the moment, to the extent that, although the weather was fine, I didn't have time to cycle to the school yesterday or today. The extra twenty minutes involved (including tidying up my windblown hair) was time I didn't have.