Pic of dramatic sky taken on station platform tonight...
The gym is a bit like Marmite, you either like it or loathe it. And I have to admit that I like it….. It is a place where I escape with my iPod earphones firmly stuck in my ears while I jog merrily away in my own world on the treadmill. Actually, it is a great place to think about ideas, deconstruct arguments and such like. I have always gravitated towards gyms for the past 20 odd years, and I have been kinda disciplined in my attendance. I hadn’t been to a gym for nearly 3 years when I decided to go back. Feels like years ago when I tentatively arranged my appointment with the personal trainer at 7:30am on a bleak January day ’09, and oh my…she put me through my paces. But with sheer grit, determination and an expensive pair of trainers I persevered….going 3 – 4 times a week. Even personal trainer marvelled (I had that warm glow of approval), she said that people usually gave up after a couple of months …yet I had been dogged in my attendance. And for me, the gym became the strapline of an episode of Cheers…where everyone knows your name…
Initially I chose the gym mainly due to proximity and because I was used to the places. When I was asked why I was doing this by the personal trainer, I said it was to get fit (I like running especially sprinting and I was good at it when I was at school eons ago) but mainly because I wanted to something to stabilise moods, where the endorphin rush kicks me into a positive mindset. And it has kinda improved, I still get anxious and depressed but the fog of depression doesn’t suck me into that abyss as much. I am not suggesting exercise magically erases your woes away….but it seems to a tad with me. Personal trainer keeps me on my toes by pushing me to my limits (she is evil but in a very nice way!) and getting me onto the next scary level….
Anyway, not sure why I am telling the cyberworld this probably because I am knackered, nice knackered with brain unable to function. Indeed there are times I want to lounge on the sofa, eating fancy schmancy cupcakes (damn you Waitrose and Patisserie Valerie…your clever marketing ploy has suckered me!)
I will at some point give my tuppence h’alfpenny thoughts on the Tories plans to streamline benefits (mainly proposals put forward by Iain Duncan Smith).
Want to big up this meeting about Unison and the witch hunt (and will try to attend myself).
Solidarity to the postal workers regarding the national ballot (including hardship fund details).
Oh, thanks to Kevin for telling me about this depressing, grim, dystopian article about what life will be like under the Tories….. very real, truthful and a scary prospect. Fasten your seatbelt ‘cos the welfare state is goin’ bye-bye….
God I had you down a some overweight nerd. Now I’m a lot more interested! Chuck a few weights on the bar bells for me babes.
One of my friends up in the West Midlands has sessions with a personal trainer, a birthday present from his missus (which counts as a really big hint about the common occurance of ‘the Punjabi paunch’!). And, after sticking it out, he too is now mainlining endorphins.
I don’t have that level of commitment, in fact I find local council gyms rather depressing, but there is no doubt that, say, cycling 20 miles makes problems seem less problematic, with fewer side effects than pharmacuetical mood stabilisers. Recommending the mental health benefits of exercise was certainly a high priority when I worked for the charity Mind in Tower Hamlets. And it has the added bonus of mitigating, say, the effects of readily available Jammie Dodgers at work…
Mmm, Jammie Dodgers… must get going…
Ahh, the endorphins…….
I know what you mean about council gyms though but they are becoming more and more scarce.
Wow…. cycling 20 miles is very impressive Kevin. Oh, and don’t talk to me about the pharma mood stabilisers…. been there and deffo have a draw full of t-shirts! Oh, and you worked for Mind in Tower Hamlets, interesting. I knew people based in Hackney Mind.
Jammie Dodgers. Sugar rush indeed. Though more of a Jaffa Cakes and cupcakes person myself. But Jammie Dodgers are great reminds me of being a kid again….
Mood stabilisers can be beaten by exercise! Is that what you two are saying?
Well when I was manic I was fitter and stronger than bloody anybody. You are are ripped as anything. Why do you think it needs loads of coppers to hold you down? Depression is the other end, and yea exercise can lift you. But when you’ve been on both those poles you need the drugs, at least for a while. There are voices inside your head that can’t be blown away by a little bicycle trip or a little stroll on a treadmill. Yea they are little when you’re manic. You try 20/22 hours awake powering through the night and day, energy full pelt. Like to see your personal trainer keep up Harpymarx!
Don’t knock the drugs, some of us really know their value.