An early riser? Me? The joys -and advantages - of a fitness buddy

by Edwina Ings-Chambers

Ok, firstly, let me not exaggerate (as if I ever could…..). When I say fitness, I’m not out there weightlifting. Or, at least, not yet. I’d like to be but after a year of injury (a bad knee after a fall) it’s only now that I’m finally able to get moving without wincing in pain or having my knee throb in delayed response during the night. So, I knew the time was nigh to get back on to the regular exercise grid but, as if often the case with life, once you fall behind the way back feels so much farther to travel than the simple distance taken. But as I get back on track I’m trying to think longer term and build good habits, habits that will become truly instilled into my daily life.

Sadly, I’ve always been a bit of a fitness yo-yo-er. I’ll go all out, get into (reasonably) good shape and then for some reason just step back from it and …it all ….unravels. This has been the case for all of my adult life. I can’t explain it, but I am tired of it and have realised I need to set myself up now for the long term by gradually making changes and carving out good habits slowly rather than suddenly going at full kilter, demanding full and complete commitment from myself and then running out of steam – and self-esteem.

This strategy commenced this week with an early start and a meet-up with a friend in the park.  Now, I’ve spent my whole life being a night owl. I can stay up long after I’m tired and not necessarily even for a good reason but just because I’m pottering about or pondering. My mornings are generally an ‘oh no, five more minutes, please’ duvet rollover event. But still, if you don’t change anything then nothing changes. So, when a friend suggested recently that we start to meet up in the park in the morning, mid-way on her journey to work, and then walk the rest of the way together I said yes. Even though that meant joining her at 7am and an alarm set for well before that. But I knew that my desire to not let her down would override my own inherent non-morningness. Plus, it stopped any negative self-chat – ‘get up you lazy idiot’ type talk – and turned it into a positive desire to see and turn up for my friend.

We started our commitment slowly. We promised 2-4 times a week – her sister had sent her research showing that you’re more likely to stick to your goals by not overburdening yourself on the promises upfront (when I find the actual details I’ll share them here or on the chat forum) but the strategy must have worked as we ended up meeting four times, despite the rain (on Thursday we were lucky that the storms subsided just in time to prevent them from stopping play). And, although I’d have looked at my phone briefly – largely for alarms and to check the time – my friend also said it’s important to do ‘sky before screens’ so we’ve avoided looking at our phones for the duration. Then once we’ve navigated her to work I walk on and do my own extra loop so that by the time I get home I’ve done at least 10,000 steps – and all before I’d normally just about be getting up.

Apart from a very good way to start the day - moving, outdoors, daylight, exercise credits banked early, and a head start on the rest of day – I’m also reminded of the joy of being in the park, and out and about before the city gets really busy.  We have the park almost to ourselves at that time except for the occasional dog walker and a few runners – runners, in my experience, always know the advantage of an early start to the day. I’ve known it myself in the occasional periods when I too have been a bit of a runner – even those that love me the most would never say I was a natural runner – but one elements I liked most about it was been being out and about when most of the city still snoozed (though in truth one my key motivations was that that meant that as few people as possible would observe me plodding one foot in front of the other).

Somewhat unfortunately, this week of early risings coincided with a rare run of late evenings, so the truth is that some nights I only got 4 hours of sleep so by the time Friday rolled around I was tired after our walk and did not have the most productive day. But I was there as scheduled at our spot in the park (with a brolly). And I’ll be back there again on Tuesday.  Because the truth is that once you can manage to get yourself started with good habits you’re always glad that you did. I’ve also known this before, of course, and still managed to let it crumble. So, for the next month, and with the help of my friend, I’m not going to overpromise or over-pressurise myself but concentrate on gradually and consistently building some basic positive habits. It’s the only way forward.