It's been an exciting week. Yesterday I spent the afternoon with a TV film crew and while I cannot wait to tell all, I am not allowed... yet! What I will say is that after an hour blow drying my hair, I spent 2 hours in a windy field and really need not have bothered!

Tonight, I am off up the M1 to a Fitness convention.  I cannot wait for this too! I love the presenters and getting new ideas and creative juices flowing as well as mixing with fellow teachers but if you want some revenge for how hard I work you, please know I will be in back to back classes all day. To be fair, it is my idea of fabulous but it will be full on! Just you wait until I bring it all back home with me!

I do realise that exercise and fitness is my world. It always has been since school and I truly realise that it is not for everyone, at least not to the extent that it is for me. However..

I was teaching last week and, at the end of the class, someone came up and said, “I won’t see you for two weeks as I’m going on holiday. I’ll miss my classes.”

Quick as a flash, I suggested she join us online so that she could continue with her exercise, to which she replied, “Er, hello? It’s a HOLIDAY!”

And there it is. Right there!

Now, I have to jump in here and say that the vast majority of my online clients keep things ticking over no matter what. You join in from holiday or use the library, if you’re not taking advantage of other exercise options available to you. I think being so used to the convenience and easy access online means it has become part of life and like me, you really miss it if you have to miss it!  Most of you would honestly never really consider going more than a few days without exercise, and I LOVE you for that.

OF COURSE we all need a holiday and a break from the normal, but I ask you this: when you go on holiday, do you stop cleaning your teeth? If you take medication, do you leave it at home? Do you lie in the sun with no SPF and spend a fortnight without moisturising your skin? I bet you don’t, because these are all things we do to look after ourselves and keep ourselves well. So why, then, do we stop exercising? Because it takes effort?

When I’m asked about my habits, I explain that I’m teetotal (3 years and counting), try to eat well using an 80/20 approach, lift weights, get my steps in, practise Pilates, cycle and get several early nights every week. Oh, the number of people who have told me how boring I am! It used to bother me, but I honestly don’t mind anymore, because if being healthy, sleeping well, feeling strong and maintaining a sensible weight is boring, then yup, that is me! I don’t want whatever “interesting” might be!

(n.b. I drink coffee by the gallon, LOVE curry and deep filled cheesy pizza and if I even get a hint of anything that combines peanut butter with chocolate, I can't be held responsible for my actions as I will climb over anyone to get to it - the Nigella peanut butter chocolate cheesecake can almost reduce me to tears of joy and I cannot have peanut butter in the house as I will literally eat the whole jar in one sitting until my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth. There have been many times that I have been climbing the stairs to my home gym to a training session I have committed to, using words that are not appropriate to share here but but have been known to turn Bertie's hair curly so no. I am no saint)

The defining moment is when exercise becomes part of life. It is as much a part of our week as cleaning our teeth. I will never forget visiting someone who had spent a FORTUNE on her new kitchen. It was indeed something to behold. However, it had been such a huge project that she had chosen to skip her classes in order to prioritise it. She explained that she was just too busy (aren't we all?)....While her kitchen was indeed shiny and beautiful, she meanwhile had put on a stone, her niggly knee had returned and she felt really awful about herself.

She is not alone by any stretch. How many of us can identify with this? I cannot tell you how many people "explain to me" why they don’t have time to exercise or have to miss classes. And I get it. I really do. When it comes to excuses, I consider myself something of an expert  but…

Being poorly is REALLY time-consuming, and then everything else has to stop. Remember that quote I have used before: “We never think about our health until we don’t have it, and then we think of nothing else.”

If you are someone who tends to go through feast-or-famine phases with exercise, then perhaps it is time to change your thinking. No one needs you to go to the gym six days a week. You don’t need to buy equipment and new clothing. It does not need to be hours and hours and ruin your lovely holiday plans. Just getting out of the door to walk, going up and down the stairs, skipping or dancing — there are SO MANY ways to move, raise your heart rate and get exercise into your life.

Stuck at home with the kids? Put on some music and dance with them, or take them into the garden to kick a ball. Visiting family and restricted on time? Do you have time to boil an egg? Good! While it cooks, five minutes of stepping up and down the bottom step of the staircase will get your ticker beating and your circulation going.

Want a relaxing holiday? Fab. Me too. Want to come home half a stone heavier and have that “starting all over again” feeling when you return to your regular class? No, me neither.

Maybe it is time to change your thinking. Rather than exercising for that special event or to slim into a favourite outfit, consider this: exercise is for life, not just for Christmas. Make it a regular daily feature, and over time it will become part of life, as second nature as cleaning your teeth and sticking on the washing.

If you are someone who takes longer to come up with excuses than it actually takes to do the class, why not set yourself a challenge for October? How many different ways can you exercise and move, stretch, lift, push, pull and more?

Dog walking, gardening, dance classes — these all count. Start now, and by Christmas (dare I? Dare I?!) you could already have a routine that feels like part of your daily schedule. Instead of that “OMG, New Year, back to it” feeling, you could start 2027 already doing something that has become so much a habit that you don't even think about it.

Diarise it just as you would a meeting or a hair appointment. (well obviously more often than a hair appointment but you get my point). Put it in the diary and make an appointment between you and your mat, gym or studio.

I don’t want to preach. Truly, I don’t. But I do want to share with you just how much you can do for yourself by simply prioritising exercise. If you are one of those people — and there are a lot of you — who are always saying, “Oh, I know I must do something,” “I should start,” or “I know it’s good for me,” I ask you: what is stopping you?

Go on! Buy a shiny new diary and start today. Journal your fitness journey and, at the end of each week, look back at how much you have achieved. It really helps to write it down. If you diarise it in advance, you will be more likely to stick to it. Just being accountable to yourself can be an incredibly effective tool, but why not rope in a friend or family member?

For the record, I have a whiteboard in my office that I call "My board of accountability" and despite having Garmin and Strava and Peloton clocking up my data, it is writing it down with a black sharpie on that board that focuses me. I do a month at a time and for me, seeing it written downreally works and if I have skipped a day that I was due to train (because I too can come up with excuses ) that gap on the board is a very powerful nudge.

Find that wonderful lightbulb moment when prioritising exercise becomes a fact of life, rather than just another class you need to book. Lasting changes take time. Quick results can easily lead to a quick slip back into the old ways.

The day you accept that fitness is for life is the day you can settle in and enjoy the ride.