On my mind...exercise!

The exercise bike with the iPod draped over the handlebars.



On my mind today is the issue of exercising. When people have asked me what I plan to do now that I've started pre-retirement leave, as well as the obvious hobbies, I've also mentioned that I wanted to work on my fitness. Years ago I used to walk for about 40 minutes each day to keep fit. In recent years I haven't been doing that due to a few things...laziness, tiredness caused by severe anaemia as well as hip and knee pain the legacy of a fall in 2002. (I decided to relive my childhood and started to scramble over rocks on the beach at Caloundra...they were slimey weren't they? and I fell heavily didn't I?)

We replaced my old exercise bike a few years ago when the tension went. The bike is a good alternative to walking for me as it does not aggravate the hip and knee. A few times things got so painful when I tried to walk on the paths near the creek etc, that I would have to ring DH on my mobile to come and rescue me. I have iron infusions for my anaemia but there is always that amount of time between infusions where I get very fatigued but I have to wait until all the new tests are done and a hospital booking made to get some iron. Over the last 2 years, I was extremely tired after work each day so after making dinner, I had no energy for anything else so very little exercise was done...well actually , none!

So since Christmas, I have been building up my time on the exercise bike and can now do 25 minutes straight, with the tension turned up for at least 15 minutes . You see I HAVE to do something as a blood test in November showed my glucose levels had gone from 5 to 7.5! Actually I was quite indignant, because for 3 months before the test, I had stopped drinking wine with my meals. So even though, my waist measurement trimmed down, my sugar levels went up...the lack of exercise...and maybe too many choccies????

I do plan to try walking on the bike paths as well though to see how I go. I have a Bowen therapy treatment once a month and it's amazing how the pain levels have gone right down. You might say...why don't you get on a 'real bike' and ride on the bike paths??? I have a confession...I can't ride a bike...didn't have a bike as a kid, tried to learn to ride a friend's bike when I was about 11 but crashed into fences etc and gave up!