A Fitter New Year

What is it about the New Year and joining the gym? Do we all really feel so guilty for enjoying ourselves over a two maybe three day period that we force ourselves to believe we must now spend a small fortune and burn off the few extra calories we have consumed celebrating the festive season? OK so maybe we overindulged a little, had one too many roast potatoes, the odd extra serving of pudding or maybe a glass of sherry over the limit. But should we really punish ourselves for it?



The problem is, is that it is all too easy to overindulge during the season. No matter where you go you will find tempting goodies to lead you away from the strict healthy diet I’m sure we all live by the rest of the year. Suddenly as if by magic small containers of nibbles adorn every mantelpiece and table, filled with nuts and sweeties, Twigglets and other savoury delights. It’s almost an automatic reaction when walking past any such receptacle that your hand will reach out and pick up a handful of the mouth watering delights. You cannot even escape at work, bosses all across the country suddenly racked with guilt over their overworked employees feel that they need to do something to show their appreciation at Christmas.

But what?

What will show them that I am thinking of them but will not cost me too much? And so, all of a sudden office desks find tins of various brightly coloured chocolates and toffees laid across them. And, for the even further guilt burdened boss you may even be treated to some home made mince pies which have been laboured over by Mrs Boss or maybe a cheap bottle of plonk from the local supermarket.



So here we are in January, maybe we have had to loosen the belt by a notch or two but no more so than a good night out at the local curry house and yet we all feel the need to run, ok drive to the nearest gym and hand over our hard earned savings so that we can not go and use their expensive torture equipment. We all know that only a small handful, the tiniest of percentages of people that sign up to gym membership in January will actually still be going a month or two later. If you were of the inclination to keep fit and active you would already be a member. This is why every gym makes you sign up to twelve months. They know this fact too. They know its money for old rope and that within a couple of months they will be dipping into numerous bank accounts for people they have never seen.



I have to admit that knowing all of this I have still fallen head first into the alluring hold of my local gymnasium. I have, along with the vast majority signed up for membership, fooling myself that I am actually one of the few people that want to keep fit and active but have just so happened to choose January to join under the pretence that gym’s will be offering good deals on membership to snare the unsuspecting bloated, guilt ridden post Christmas public. Somewhere in my mind a voice tells me that I will go on a regular basis, I will enjoy my time there and my new found levels of fitness, that by this time next year I’ll be entering the London Marathon. However, hidden even deeper is a quieter voice, one that tells me to stop being so foolish, to save my money and stay at home, trying in desperation to convince me that I will be one of the ill fated masses that will continue to pay on a monthly basis for a gym I do not use. However this voice is soon overpowered and gagged by the much larger, more powerful voice that believes in the dream and fantasy of winning Olympic gold.



But what are we to do? Once snared by the all powerful gym we are theirs for a minimum of twelve months. The answer, I’m afraid eludes me. So for now until a solution can be found I will see you all at the gym,




or maybe not...