How Writing CAN Make You Fit!

Writing can be a sedentary sport - we sit still in front of a computer for long hours at a time, tapping away, only exercising our brains and our fingers. Oh and also our elbow every time we reach out to pick up that favourite snack or lift the Diet Coke can (actually I ALWAYS have mine in a glass) - but basically it's a sit-on-your-butt-and-watch-it-spread occupation!!!

So how lucky was I to make friends with the fabulous Becca J Heath during an online writing course a few years back?

Why you ask? Well, not only has Bec become one of the best writing friends a girl can ask for - we email daily about everything from what our kids are doing to drive us insane to how our work-in-progresses are going. We critique for each other and cheer and commiserate together when the need arises, but what I NEVER expected was that Bec would challenge me in my non-writing life as well.

Just over a year ago, Bec mentioned she was starting the Couch to 5k running program. This course basically takes you from being an unfit sloth like I was to running for HALF AN HOUR non-stop - that is right, you read that correct!!! Bec inspired me to start this program too - it's available to download FREE on iTunes - and while it's taken me nearly a year to get to week 5, this morning I walked briskly for 5mins, RAN for 8mins, walked for another 5, RAN for another 8 and then finished with 5 mins walking to cool down. This feels like magic to me. When I ran week 1 (Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.) I thought I was going to DIE! Seriously. But I didn't and slowly (I did each week twice), I have built up my fitness so that on Thursday I'm going to attempt week 5 run 3 which is running for TWENTY minutes. If I never blog again, you'll know I didn't make it, but I have confidence that I will, because this program rocks.

I'm feeling good about myself and I've shed a couple of kilos (would be more if I could resist chocolate but yanno, that's not gonna happen)! And I don't think I would have heard of this program if it wasn't for my writing CP Bec - so indirectly, writing HAD led me to improve my fitness and lose weight.

And Bec, well, she's excelled beyond belief, recently participated in a 7k+ fun run and is now anticipating marathons. I take my hat off to her. SHE ROCKS!

(N.B - the reason it's taken me almost a year to get to this stage is that I had a long period off with a bad back last year but once I started again, I've probably taken about 8 or 9 weeks to get to this stage)

I'm curious... have you been challenged by a friend to do something you never imagined yourself doing?