The joys of exercise.

from gardengoatquote.wordpress.com

While we all know its good for us, it's not everyone's favourite thing to do.  In fact, most of us make any excuse to not do it........and where do you go to do it any way.  The gym is what usually springs to mind. Pictures of skinny, little, lyra clothed girls bouncing on the exercise machine, while you can barely keep up, all red faced and plump, does spring to mind, and while I didn't find it to bad when I did go (admittedly I did go in the early hours of the morning) I'm not really prepared to fork out the money I would need to every month.  Of course, there is also the issue of how environmentally friendly gyms actually are.  With all the heating, exercise machines, the number of televisions, and lighting all adds up to quite a large carbon footprint per person going.  Of course, if you could harness the energy people exert while exercising, it would be completely different, but as yet this hasn't happened. 

So, keeping right away from gyms, this is what I'm intending to do to keep fit, but be just that little bit more 'green'.  I do walk everywhere already, but I need something a little bit more active to stay healthy and possibly loose some of the weight I really don't need and might be doing me some damage. I still have a pair of running shoes from when I went to the gym, which means I can start running again without actually spending any money (until they wear out), and while running does usually takes it out of me I enjoy it.  The only problem I'm having at the moment is that when I would normally go running its still dark, and ever so slightly dangerous as I like running through the park.

So I've decided to try skipping, which I can do in my sitting room with a skipping rope that only cost me £2.99.  I found this article from Zest about skipping yourself slim, which seemed like a great idea.......after all I could skip for hours when I was a child.  Not quite so anymore, in fact I just about managed 30 seconds before I was out of breathe and had to stop.  It definitely takes a lot more energy than I remember and no way near as fun as it used to be.  I managed to skip for 15 minutes, though not without a lot of stopping, before I had to stop completely.  May need to work on this

Of course, the other option is to join one of the Green Gyms set up by The Conservation Volunteers around Britain, though unfortunately not in Dundee at the moment. Not only do you get to do cardio and strengthening exercise, but you also get to be outside and do something for the environment.  If there isn't one in your area you can always set one up.