Nothing will push you to head to the gym more than booking a beach holiday. The thought of having your other half snap away as you direct him/her to take the perfect ‘candid’ photo as you frolic joyfully ( Not too joyfully though: real belly laughs aren’t always pretty right?) in the sea, will have you squatting, dead lifting, spinning and lunging your way right up until you check yourselves into the airport Wetherspoons on Facebook as you sip your fave ice cold drink.

As a big fat pat on the back for finding a job (which I’m in love with btw) my boyfriend and I have booked a week away to Crete for the end of September. It’s the first holiday I’ll have had in a long time that will provide the opportunity to relax as much as is humanly possible. Trips before have included hostel hopping, extremely heavy back packs and cross country journeys. This time, I’ll be in one place for the duration of my trip and I cannot wait.

In a previous post I discussed how I had gained a little weight… well another item on my to do list once I found a job was to join a gym, so I did. Turns out, I had put on more weight than I thought. I didn’t step on the scales but enough looking at myself in the mirror as I bounced around in my first body attack class told me to ease up on the tatties, bacon rolls and heavy helpings of anything cheese based. I’ve just turned 28 and with that comes the realisation that my metabolism isn’t what it used to be. *pauses to weep as thoughts of being 19 linger…

However, by starting to work out again I have remembered how much I enjoy it and also how competitive I can be, I’ll see a person in a class who is working harder or faster and I’ll push myself to keep up at the very least. Of course this does not include spin classes. While I put myself through the torture of attending at least one a week, I simply do not have the capabilities to go at the speed some people in these classes go – SERIOUSLY. My mind boggles when I peer over to see what resistance these people have on their bikes, to discover it’s normally at least two levels above mine and they are just whizzing away, threatening to bloody to take off. Meanwhile, muggins here has created a pool of sweat suitable for ducklings to paddle in, with legs struggling to reach even 75% of the output of her obviously superhuman peers.

I’d also like to highlight a very real danger of spin classes beyond slipping in your own sweat pool. They are popular workouts, which means a lot of bikes, which means they are quite close together, therefore not a lot of room around them when you are trying to stretch off or just move away from the evil things. I recently knocked into one and when I say knocked, I mean a right royal thump in a place that if I were the opposite sex, would have caused me to collapse in a heap on the ground and curl up in agony. As the class was still busy and the instructor, who I’m assuming also works for Abercrombie and Fitch, was still milling about, I stifled my whimpers and walked out, bruised noonie and all.

I am beginning to see some progress after a month or so of working out at least 3 times a week; while my metabolism has slowed, it seems my muscle memory is still clinging on pretty well. I’ve always had a pretty athletic build so my arms have started to look less wobbly and more toned, really toned actually. So much so that they don’t actually match up with the minimal strength inside them. If you’re looking for a gun show with no ammo, it’s here. So I look a bit like a miniature lady body builder, I’ll take it. I’m feeling much better mentally as well as physically and I only wish I had continued working out when I was on the soul destroying hunt for a job, it could have meant a few less teary breakdowns and share size Cadbury fruit and nut bars – C’est la vie!

As the holiday countdown continues and I try to avoid being impaled by a piece of gym equipment, I’ll try not to worry too much about capturing the perfect profile pic and more about sun cream applications, freckle counting, cocktails by the pool and enjoying real belly laughs.