Thoughts on sport

One of the things I love most about the Race For Life is that my kids come to watch me. Both years they have been so excited – it’s a lovely day out as Mr N, my brother and his family and my parents also come to watch. My boys love the fact that I get a real medal at the end, and it’s such a boost for me as I see them cheering me on as I reach the finish line. 

I’m trying to get not too hung up on the scales – I realise that my body shape has changed significantly since I started to exercise again. And my ever-patient husband keeps reminding me not to worry about the numbers – he just cares that I’ve massively improved my fitness during these last couple of years.  And it’s the same for my kids – they don’t care that I’m technically overweight, I’m always their hero when I do the race!

It’s nice to see things from their perspective sometimes – recently I realised that my commitment to exercise is something that they’ve picked up on. I spoke to my youngest boys’ pre-school teacher the other day and she told me that he tells them proudly when they do PE that ‘mummy does exercise too’. Wow – I’m actually leading by example! Not bad for the girl who was always last to be picked for teams at school. I really hated sport at school – it was always so competitive, and felt more like an exercise in survival of the fittest than anything you’d do for fun. I don’t know how sport is taught in secondary schools these days, but when I was a teenager I wish they’d taken the emphasis away from the whole ‘winning team’ idea. I like running, swimming, cycling, walking and resistance exercises. Not the sort of thing that was on offer at school. I wonder how many kids these days get turned off sport because of the type of activities that are promoted as ‘sporty’ things to do. At the end of the day you’ve got to find what you enjoy or you’ll never keep it up. So hopefully my boys will continue to realise that fitness doesn’t have to mean football, cricket, rugby or whatever – fitness simply comes by doing regular exercise – any kind of exercise.

A tale of two tubs

 

Designed to boldly go where no cheese has gone before

Have you seen the new Philadelphia advert on the web? The whole thing is devoted to their new tubs! You are even invited to ‘experience the new tub’, which includes a 3D, fully interactive virtual ‘tour’ of the tub – featuring its new, easier to open lid. I kid you not. It’s like they’re talking about the specs of the Starship Enterprise or something! Overall this ad left me rather bewildered. In previous ads, when they’ve described ‘ cool, creamy Philly’ with various serving suggestions, I totally got it – and yes, I started drooling at the thought of a bagel with cream cheese topping. But I can’t get too excited about the actual tubs the stuff comes in. No… definitely not.

 

As for myself, I’m feeling a little less tubby – thanks to quite a successful run yesterday. To clarify, I count any run that doesn’t end up with me feeling like I’m about to have a cardiac arrest a good result. And as a bonus, I managed to dodge the cowshit that was scattered all over the track I often run on. Not covered in shit and body still in one piece – yep, overall that was a good one…