Witness The Fitness! I’m In Newsweek
If someone had told me 5 years ago that at 45 I’d be a non-smoking teetotal fitness fanatic who had recently run a half-marathon with 10,000 other people (finishing in 1hr 36, the top 4% of all female runners) and just signed up to become a personal trainer, I’d probably have guffawed in disbelief as I chomped on a giant bag of salt and vinegar Kettle Chips, then lit another cigarette, poured myself a large Pinot and dismissed them with a flick of the wrist as I sat back to watch another episode of my favourite show on the telly. Exercise was not a word in my vocabulary (unless you counted flinging myself around a nightclub until silly o’clock on a Saturday night).
Yet here I am, writing this, 14 months sober and wearing slinky Sweaty Betty in a size small (I’m an almost 6ft giant - I’d never been a small in anything until a few years ago) having done a BodyPump class at the gym and been for a run; drinking coffee and getting excited to learn about muscle groups. (When a person buys new stationary you know they mean business.)
Having saved £2k as a direct result of quitting alcohol (and a lot more in related expenditure), I decided to invest the money in my future by enrolling in various courses to educate myself in the very topic which has been instrumental in my success at stopping boozing: Fitness.
The mental strength required to gain and maintain physical fitness has been the key to my dogged determination to change my lifestyle - for good. If only I’d realised sooner that the endorphin release from getting a good sweat on at the gym or running a few miles near my house is every bit as effective at stress-busting as pouring wine down my neck I could’ve been been an Olympic athlete by now, instead of a middle-aged ex-caner 😂.
You know, I barely recognise myself these days.
And I like it.
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