I have a lot of things to blog about, not least an update on our garden and the tons of wood that we have moved, and still have to move, and a story of a wonderful conversation that I had with my husband this week.  But I am letting life show me the way and I thought I would share with you a little bit about our history, or my history, and the sudden burst to make change that I have had.

Over ten years ago Rich and I had a life changing thing happen to us and as a result, to keep myself sane, I got on a stepper and worked out like a maniac. Due to circumstances I was also losing weight without any effort, but the stepper gave me back some control over my life.

I am a qualified aerobics instructor and many moons (19 years to be precise) ago, I stopped teaching aerobics and keep fit because I had met this man, Rich, and wanted to spend more time with him. I got fat, we got fat, fat and happy; and then our life changing event happened and we got thin again!! Only this time I got fit again. This thing was one of my life savers….

The beauty of these things is that it is not so much the calories you use but the fact that if you use your arms when on the stepper, and have them above your shoulders when stepping, then your stomach muscles have to hold you on the stepper and you work your core, really hard. I have a problem with my stomach and this was the perfect form of  exercise.

But after stepping for over three years I slowly stopped getting on my stepper, and I got fat again – fat but happy, again.

We do love our food, we do love our wine, who wouldn’t, we live in France! But all of a sudden I have had the urge to get back on the stepper ( I knew I would one day because I brought it all the way over to France with me!)

So last week I bit the bullet  I got the old girl back out……

knowing that the only way to do it was first thing in the morning, before I did anything else in the day. I thought I would start with five minutes. But, do you know what? I loved it and in fact did seven minutes on it.

My knee has been really bad over the past year, and I know that the dreaded form of arthritis that haunts our family has finally hit me, and my hands are now eaten up with osteoarthritis or worse, so I did not want to aggravate the symptoms, even with my knee brace on.

But I also know from years of teaching fitness that exercise can in fact aide the problems with arthritis, so determined I was. I got on the stepper and was amazed at how much fitness I still had, I did not even break a sweat! So the next day I did nine minutes, and the day after ten minutes. Then after a two day break I was back on it today, and this time I increased my workout to fifteen minutes. I loved it! I loved the way it made me feel, I loved being out of breath, I loved the way my body felt afterwards, and more than anything my knee is not hurting me anymore!!

I do my stepping in front of a mirror because there is nothing like seeing the fat jiggling about to make you work harder; or nothing better than seeing the old muscles start to reappear!!

But most importantly I have loud music that inspires me: “I love you baby”, “two can play that game” “Hideway” “Free”…..

Watch this space, the girl is back in love with her exercise!!!

Moisy