At last, book publication day is here! My book, ‘Sorted: The Active Woman’s Guide to Health’ is on the shelves. I can’t quite believe it. Writing a book is a very long process and it’s actually over two years since I pitched my idea to Bloomsbury and they gave me the green light to go ahead and write this for them. That two years has gone painstakingly slowly at times and whizzed by in a flash at others.
My last #activekids blog was all about the benefits children gain from being active. It proved very popular and set my stats on fire! I admitted that it can be hard to tempt my own children away from their screens sometimes, especially my older boys. There are however tricks I use to help me and I wanted to share some of them with you. They’ll be blissfully unaware that you have a plan! It’s always best to be one step ahead of children, isn’t that always the way with parenthood?! So, when you want to be active as a family, how do you get them to switch off, leave the land they’re building on Minecraft and put on their trainers and join you?
I love this Active Women interview with Sumita Sarma. From growing up with Bollywood in India to discovering exercise through desperation, there’s something we can all learn from it. It really reflects the fact that the benefits of being active go vastly beyond the way our body looks. The sky is the limit for Sumi.
It doesn’t have to be a major health barrier that stops us from being active. Often it’s just everyday life making us feel too tired or a dose of self-conciousness preventing us stepping out the front door. In this, the 4th interview in my Active Women series, I talk to Cheryl Speight who overcomes these types of barriers and reminds us that we can do it too. What have we got to lose?
On 17th April 2017 a special moment in history will be made. Kathrine Switzer will line up on the Boston Marathon start line with a bib number pinned onto her front. The same start line she stood on 50 years before in 1967. In that famous race, the race official tried to manhandle her off the course, simply because she was a woman. She ran on to the finish and began devoting her life to being an advocate for women in sport.
Happy Birthday to my blog, it turns one today (14th of February)! I have to admit I had no idea what a blog really was when I started out. I just knew I wanted to write and create my own little space that others might find useful, entertaining and motivating.
Yesterday my milkman asked me what the 261 number on my running top meant. I didn’t want to make him late for the rest of his deliveries but I really wanted to tell him about it. You see it means lots of different things, is very important to me and its powerful message will help so many women. It’s a number you’re going to see popping up more and more all over the place in years to come. Let me explain.
I’ve blogged previously about my feet not being my best feature and I’m well aware that my hobby is largely to blame for this. You don’t get blackened and missing toenails from being a GP. However, I do LOVE shoes. With the start of the warmer weather I delve into the depths of the under stairs cupboard to retrieve the summer footwear. This is an adrenalin sport in itself as many things disappear into here never to be seen again. Emerging with a summer shoe comes the realisation that what has been tucked away in woolly socks and trail shoes for the winter must now be exposed for all to see. So, what can we do about the common runners’ foot problems and how can we quickly revive our feet for summer? p.s I’m refraining from posting lots of gruesome photos.
Anyone else getting the feeling that more and more people are exercising? I know lots of women who are starting to run, the numbers of cyclists streaming past my house at the weekend has risen dramatically and I’m sure there’s more people wandering round the supermarket in trainers and lycra! Looking on-line, the exercise forums are flourishing, #thisgirlcan is everywhere and more and more decent kit is tempting me. I was hoping that as a nation we’re starting to make a change but I wondered if it was just my own view of the world; a bit like when I was shopping for my first pram, I saw them everywhere! Wouldn’t we rather just go down the pub? Well, fear not, a new survey hasn’t burst my bubble, only blown it a bit bigger!
