*Note: This post is not sponsored. I just really bloody love these and think you will too.
I love the gym.
I know that sounds self-indulgent in 2018. I wish my hobby was something cool like poetry or photography, but really my hobby is picking heavy things off the floor and putting them back down.
I mean, I actually like the stair machine.
The other day I bought $10 ‘healthy’ ice cream from Coles and don’t regret it.
My social media feeds are brimming with strangers’ muscles.
I… watch Youtube workout videos in my spare time.
This is all much to the disdain of my boyfriend, who is happy that I’m happy but also convinced that I will start bringing dumbbells into bed.
Too late, buddy.
Mostly I love exercise because it quietens my anxiety and improves my lung function (I’m a chronic asthmatic. Again, I wish I was cooler). It makes me stronger and fitter, which means I’m generally happier, and that’s precisely why I keep going back.
An active me is a sunnier me.
At the moment I go to the gym about four times a week, taking YouTuber Whitney Simmons and her workout videos in my pocket whenever I do. Mostly, it’s pretty easy because I have the luxury of being a millennial with a grand total of zero children. Sometimes, though, things get in the way, and a trip to the gym is impossible.
LISTEN: Robin Bailey and Bec Sparrow discuss the mentality we bring to exercise, on The Well. Post continues after.
Like a 10-day holiday to Bali, for example (poor me, I know, I sound like an entitled dick) which is how I spent my New Years with friends.
The prospect of a relaxing break from work was delightful, but the ‘how am I going to stay active?’ question did cross my mind more than once. I didn’t want my anxiety to flare up because I was being sedentary by a pool, but how would I take across any equipment? With the exception of a yoga mat, which takes up a lot of space, everything is far too heavy to pack in a suitcase.
Luckily, my dad knows me back to front, and gifted me with the perfect solution on Christmas Day before I left: A PTP PowerTube+ Resistance Band.