I don’t usually post on weekends, but thought I’d make an exception in case my gazillion readers are wondering if I projectile-vomitted or cried at boxing.

You will be pleased to know I did neither.  Of course, I was hardly the star performer, but I did go. What was the Woody Allen quote Michelle used in the Week 2 message: ‘80% of success is just turning up…’ Well, I certainly did that.

Ummm, again this is not me.

I did, however, dream that I didn’t. I had a very vivid dream last night that I went to a gym (huh?) for a little while before the boxing class. Michelle Bridges (doyen of this weight loss program) happened to be there. I recall telling her that I was on her program and had lost 5.2kg in 10 days. Very chuffed with myself I was. I can’t recall her response but do remember realising that it was, in fact, mid morning and I’d missed boxing.  Someone tracked me down and I tried to explain to someone that I’d fully intended going to boxing and I had just been waylaid. Or something. It felt very real and I felt very guilty.

Then – of course – I woke up and realised I hadn’t missed the class after all. It was 6.15am and almost light. Perfect time for the birds and those insane enough to be doing early Saturday morning exercise.

I had known that 28 of us had RSVPed for the lesson and there seemed to be a mix of newbies and regulars. Mark the trainer was excellent and quite sympathetic to the plight of we fitness-challenged (well, I was probably the only one in that category). Even though I was promised no running, the first thing Mark had us do to warm up was jog a couple of laps up and down. I almost left then, but decided to stay. And I had (after all) spent 15 minutes digging through my drawers to find a sturdy sports spa (which last saw the light of day a year or two ago). It almost fit and that was good enough.

I jogged when I could. And I kicked and punched. My lovely partner was encouraging and I tried not to hold her back in any way. Mark let me short cut some of the running and I skipped the jump squats but I did everything else. I used to do boxing circuits and a boxing class years ago so still recall my upper cuts, jabs, hooks and the like. My upper body is fairly coordinated, it’s just my fitness that’s stuffed.

After a bit of the running I thought I may need to sit down, but fortunately we switched to partner work again and I survived the session without having to sit anything out. And, all in all I quite enjoyed it (as far as one can enjoy an hour of torture at 7.30am on a Saturday). I suspect I floated a bit more like an elephant than a butterfly and there wasn’t a lot of sting in my punches, but like Woody Allen said, I turned up, so hopefully I’m well on my way.