All work and no play, made a very fat Jo!
Nine months ago today, I finally gave myself “permission” to get back to the gym.
Prior to NoBooksWereHarmed.co.uk I was very fit and very active. Rarely walked less than ten miles a day, was at the gym a few times a week, hill walked and Munroed at weekends. Fit. Since 2014 I’d focused 101% of my time and energy on building #NoBooksWereHarmed. And in that time, I gained roughly 8 stone - and I wasn’t slim to begin with (super fit, never skinny).
Prior to NoBooksWereHarmed.co.uk I was very fit and very active. Rarely walked less than ten miles a day, was at the gym a few times a week, hill walked and Munroed at weekends. Fit. Since 2014 I’d focused 101% of my time and energy on building #NoBooksWereHarmed. And in that time, I gained roughly 8 stone - and I wasn’t slim to begin with (super fit, never skinny).
Lockdown was a revelation for me. Far from being the terror inducing situation it seemed at the start, it actually showed me that my business wasn’t going to die overnight, if I didn’t work 16 hours a day and do 100 #nobooksontour a year. That blew my mind. So as we finally came out of lockdowns, I promised myself I would really, really try to give myself more me-time and not go straight back in to that cycle.
1st September last year, I joined the Moray Council #fitlife scheme, giving me unlimited use of all the council gyms/pools/classes for just £23 a month, and returned to Slimming World, which has always been my natural way of eating, but I knew I wanted the touch point of a weekly group to keep me focused.
9 months later, I’m five stone one pound lighter, and whilst I’m not as fit as I was at my peak, I’m probably not far off it. I feel very proud of giving myself this “gift” of being back at the gym. I fucking love cardio classes. They’re never a chore for me! Yes, some weeks, work has been crazy busy and I’ve been sooo close to just working from 6am to midnight, but, other than a handful of exceptions, I’ve not allowed myself to do that.
Feeling great and feeling {can’t think of the right word here} indebted? to my customers, old, new, online, real life, shops and individuals, for reassuring me, just by your presence, that this business that I’ve worked so, so hard for, actually has put down roots, and isn’t going to crumble because I’ve taken a couple of hours out each day 🙄 Sounds daft, seeing it written down, but that was always my fear. So yeah. Happy wee day today! Onwards and downwards 💪
