Those of you that know me well know that it has been my aim for some time to be California Thin™. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have slightly more wardrobe options than just marquees but it bothers me somewhat that thus far California Thin™ has eluded me.  But not to worry.  The thing is, in the past I’ve had nothing better to do than knock out a 3 mile run, maybe do a bit of cross training, a 10 minute row and a full body pump or spin class. Oh, and a load of resistance training. Genuinely nothing else, I was locked in the gym so I made the most of it and because of it I became incredibly slim and could still eat anything I wanted.  Too slim, if I’m honest.  Good job I ate all those mars bars so I didn’t totally waste away.

Nowadays I have far less time and need to squeeze my daily exercise into an hour, or maybe an hour and a half at weekends or if I get up VERY early (I can’t get up VERY early).  And that’s OK, I do a bit of running here, a bit of stepping there, the odd bit of rowing and if I’ve got a spare 10 minutes I can shoehorn in some slightly rushed resistance.  But it’s too bitty and while I can feel and see that my body shape is changing it’s too flipping slow and I WANT RESULTS DAMN IT!  To be fair I’ve had a few problems with injury and illness.  My marathon training (which seems like a dim and distant memory at the moment but will need to start again sooner or later) started with aplomb. Right up until I was 3 miles into my first run and my left calf went *TWANG*.  Two weeks’ rest required.  I managed a bit of rowing and cross training but it’s not the same.  It started again and I made good progress. I felt strong on the 10 mile training run, and on the 12 mile, but I got to the 15 mile run, reached 11.5 miles and stopped dead, I just couldn’t face another step.  By this time I was having a few issues with my left knee I’d not experienced before. It could have been my new trainers, it could be that I was overcompensating for my calf, even though that was fixed.  Who knows, but my knee was becoming very stiff and taking a while to loosen up regardless of how much warming up and stretching I did, and it would then seize up the second I stopped. Stupid knee.

So I had to stop running for a while and find something else.  I upped the stepping I do having discovered that it’s a very effective calorie burner. So effective apparently that it tells me in 10 minutes I have burned the same amount of calories as I would have in a 3 mile run. Bladdy rah!  But it does get a bit boring doing it every day with only an iPod for company because the music played in the gym is beyond dire, though it is always great fun to laugh at the mememe steppers who aren’t doing it properly.  And while I was going great guns doing the stepping Poppy started pre-school and we all got ill over and over again. Stupid pre-school.  So, now I’m back, I’m nearly well and I’m trying to exercise properly.  I’ve tentatively started running again, but only on the treadmill and I’m stepping a bit too hoping the two will complement each other without taking up too much time. Tomorrow I may add a bit of zumba-in-the-living-room-where-no-one-can-see-me and 12 mins light resistance from me Scary Woman Book (I believe I may have blogged about her before). My aim is to lose the wobbles and lumps, (though I suspect the bum lump from falling down the stairs will only disappear after surgery) and get back into my Chinese dress, even though I’ve nowhere to wear it.

Who knows, maybe I’ll get there in time for Christmas (I won’t).