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put the fun back into fitness
I've said it before and I'll say it again - living positive isn't about putting yourself through punishing fitness regimes and harsh, restrictive diets. If you want to make 2008 the best year yet, do something different and don't sign up for another diet class or hardcore workout. Buck the trend, and take not of the latest poll of 1000 women by iVillage.co.uk, which has thankfully found that in 2008, 64% of women are ditching the gym in favour of more fun ways to lose weight and keep fit.
61% of women admitted they stress about losing weight after the Christmas food-fest but when asked what activities they plan to pursue instead of the gym in 2008, iVillage.co.uk found the Top 10 fitness crazes will be:
- Dance classes (63%)
- Cheerleading (58%)
- Pole Dancing (54%)
- Jogging (53%)
- Kick Boxing (51%)
- Swimming (44%)
- Cycling (42%)
- Yoga/Pilates (35%)
- Power Walking (24%)
- Other (6%)
iVillage’s Health and Fitness expert Tracey Williams says:
“After Christmas there is such pressure to reinvent yourself. Be it a new career, new love or new body. The poll we ran shows times have changed and there are more ways to lose weight than sweating it out at the gym or crashing into the latest fad diet. Women are realising that exercise doesn’t have to be a chore and are putting the ‘Fun’ back into fitness. Dancing in particular has become a healthy new phenomenon where programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing have given people confidence to take to the dance floor. There’s also a great social arm to it where people find specific classes a place to interact and meet new people as opposed to secluding yourself on a running machine for example.”
iVillage is running workout challenges from 14 January - sign up for free...
Of course, if you really enjoy treadmill pounding and pushing weights with the guys, go for it and who am I to tell you otherwise....
PS: I know this is naughty but this is my website. If you want to join a gym, and it's one of the big chain gyms, be very careful. I joined LA Fitness in Jauary 2006, and after I moved in April 2007. I cancelled the membership according to the contract. In December they started harassing me, claiming they hadn't had the cancellation...and they've instructed a particularly obnoxious debt recovery company to try and scare me into paying up for the months I didn't go after I cancelled. Which I'm not going to, of course...
