Well done YP1, that's amazing!!!!

I did my upper body weights and swum this morning. I am being murdered, oh I mean shown some exercises, by the scary lady instructor at the works gym tomorrow. She is very good, but I am a bit in awe of her. I hope I can walk afterwards! She is teaching me some core strength for my poor old tummy and back.

I need to start a more formal exercise I suppose but for now I get in a few miles a day of walking, while pushing the stroller back and forth to my daughter's school, coming up a steep incline on the way back *pant* this hot weather just about does me in by the time I've reached the top. I can't wait for the day I can come up the hill, pushing the pram and think ..." that wasn't so bad."

I have started doing abs and back on a fitball at the gym. I can't tell you what I must look like, lying on a fitball with my bum in the air (if NASAA reports a new mountain range in the UK visible from space - you heard it first - I might share Minogues first name but not her best asset)
My tummy feels better for it, and my back feels a lot stronger. I have been doing weight training at my other gym, and my back felt very vulnerable, so hopefully this will help.
I have swum over 2 miles this week, and been to the gym every morning, and been to the gym three lunch times this week!!!!

I can now walk 25 minutes on the hardest hill programme (level 20!). I don't do it too fast, but it's still one **** of a workout. I'm trying to switch between running one day and walking the next, which seems to be working. I've also been trying to do more exercise ball stuff in an attempt to tone my stomach up. My legs look fab at the moment because of all the running, but there's lots of work to do further up unfortunately!

Kylie, you're one Duracell gym-bunny! Keep up the good work - you're doing so well!

I'm so envious of you and YP's gym access...no good gyms in grotty old Gt Yarmouth where I work .

Janey

I go to our council one, it's not fancy, it's inexpensive, and the staff are really good. My one at work is quite basic, but again the staff are brilliant. I went to a posh one on a free day pass, and I didn't like it nearly as much as my two. I'm not sure where my energy is coming from, I am only exercising so much because I enjoy it!!! Scary!!!

I'm lucky that I can afford to go to a decent gym. It's not so posh, but I'm paying for the city centre location. I need that though to make it easy for me to go before work. The way I see it, if you use it it's worth every penny. It's only if you sign up and then don't go that the expense is a problem. But then, I just about have the money, if I needed that money for food or rent I'm sure I'd see it differently.

This morning I did 5km on the treadmill (possibly my last before Race for Life - I'm off to Spain later today and only get back the day before the race, although I might use the hotel gym if I'm feeling motivated), weights, and then some stuff on the exercise ball.

I managed to don the swimsuit yesterday. No small children fainted or scream as I came out the the changing room, so it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. ;-)

I had a bit of a brainwave while I was in the pool. It's a lot harder walking through water than swimming, especially it you use your arms as well, so I swam 6 lengths and walked 6 lengths. It was great. Does anybody else do this?

I used to walk in water a lot when I broke my ankle. I had problems weightbearing at the time, but it helped to be able to do the movements to get flexibility. Wearing fins when swimming also helped with this - because of the water pressing against them they seem to bend your ankle far more than swimming normally does.

I tend to just swim now though.

Our pool is small and busy, so no room for walking, I just swim, sometimes I do a bit of walking in the deep end, if there is no one around.

I would love to try one of the city centre gyms in Manchester, but I wouldn't use them enough, it's too much of a hassle to lug stuff in on public transport, so I will just stick to the council one. The main bugbear is the pool, because they don't ahve a seperate one for kids, it can get very crowded, and difficult to swim lengths, as you need to watch out for unpredictable little uns.

I have had a good day, plenty of walking, then weights in the gym with a bit of cardio thrown in.

It's true about the small child shaped obstacles being a problem. Our local pool isn't very deep and has lots of 'special' features like fountains and rapids. They only rope one lane off for the serious swimmers and that tends to be populated by the super-fast sprinters... too fast for me to keep in sync with.

I'll try the walking a bit longer, at least I can see what I might bump into.

LOL We only have lanes set up for one hour on a Sunday morning, there are three lanes, chocca bloc with ex-Olympians!!! Well not quite, but they may as well be, I go in the un roped half with the oldies, plodders, and kiddies. On a weekday morning there is adults only for an hour, so I swim then, everyone swims quite seriously, not much room for walking. I miss the social bits but never mind!

I do the gym as well, before swimming. I have found doing weights has made a huge difference to my swimming ability. In February 12 laps was a struggle, now I hop in and do 30 - 40 without stopping, which is quite weird!!

Seems to be working. 39lbs loss is brilliant.

I'm going to go back to Aquafit next week, which is always a laugh. Troubling laughing too much when you are leaping about like a salmon tends to lead to much guggling and coughing. Still, it's got to be fun to be worth doing, hasn't it?

I miss aqua classes, I work unsociable hours so can't get to classes. Soon, my hours will change and I want to aqua, yoga and belly dancing!!! I have an enormous belly so lets make the most of it!!!! I just want to wear shiny and sparkly clothes instead of tracksuits and strap em in and hold em down swimsuits. One Sunday I swum out of my tankini, that frightened the little kiddies!!!!!

Belly dancing is very popular with some of the women at work. The costumes seem to be a big part of it, and having a tum is a definite advantage. It just doesn't look nice when your ribs are showing.

One friend's husband is on cloud-nine, he gets to chauffeur semi-naked women to the classes each week. All his Christmases have arrived at once. Everyone says it very good.

But your right about work getting in the way of getting fit. I spend a lot of time travelling around, so routines are difficult to set up. I just have to grab it when I can.