Last month sometime (obviously in a moment of weakness) I committed to an Energise Easter challenge issued by UK blogger, Weight Wars. Rebecca is raising money for Leukaemia and issued a challenge to work off our Easter treats for a worthwhile cause. At the time we didn’t have to specify what we were going to do, just that we were going to do it.

I decided that my challenge would be to exercise EVERY day over the Easter break. As I’m currently trying to exercise five days a week you wouldn’t think that would be much of a challenge would you? However… I’ve now written a number of posts about how I’ve become an evolved and enlightened exerciser: I no longer do exercise I dislike (or rather, that I dislike TOO much, as I do a few things I don’t LOVE love).

As a result, I do group classes at a gym ridiculously handy to my workplace. I’m basically going each weekday, rendering the need to exercise on a weekend negligible. (That’s about to change with my new 4-day working week, but more on that another time!)

So, this new and enlightened me has discovered that I struggle to exercise by myself. I’m fine if I know I have to be at the gym at a certain time during my working day (at lunch or straight after work) to get to a class; but if I have to rouse myself out of my comfy chair (or dusty pink bedsheets) at home, I’m less than enthused. In fact, because I missed a session last week at the gym I had to take myself off on a Sunday morning walk (just a short one, internally negotiated before I was allowed to buy diet coke). Exercising solo and at my own initiative is a rarity.

However… my gym is closed over Easter and I won’t be at work, so I’ve needed to make other plans. As a result – rain, hail or shine… I am committing to daily exercise – mostly likely walks – each day between Good Friday and Easter Monday.

And, I’ve started the long weekend off on a good note by getting an early walk in today. It’s Good Friday here in Oz and I was awake at 6am (which I never am on a workday!) so headed out bright and early. Better still was that the first song which came on my iPhone was Nicki Minaj and David Guetta’s ‘Turn Me On’ which we do in faux-Zumba… so as the chorus blared in my ears I imagined our routine – we strut forward (sashaying our hips) then gyrate seductively, before doing the same backwards. Of course our fabulous instructor (another) Nikki makes it so much fun and she nearly dry humps the mirror at the front as she yells at us to ‘Shake it baby, shake it!’ 

As a result I must confess to having listened to the song 3-4 times during this morning’s walk… but it certainly did the trick. There was no gyrating but there was some energising taking place… and I guess that’s what matters!