Often the person you think you are and the person you
actually are are worlds apart.
What I think- I’m well read. I read good books, books by Man
Booker Prize winners, strong female authors who write insightful pros about the
contemporary world.
What actually happens- I’ve got into watching Suits. I sit
in bed watching episode after episode on the Ipad long after I should be asleep
and have developed an unhealthy crush on a capitalist lawyer. I managed to
watch an entire series in a week. If I had the same commitment to exercise I
could run a marathon.
What I think- I can be sophisticated, I can do ‘posh.’
What actually happens- we went away for the weekend to a
posh hotel and out for an even posher meal booked by my fantastic sister and
brother-in-law as a wedding present. Before we’d even left the room I managed
to twat my head on the wall turning around too quickly to see the results of
Come Dine with Me and a bump the size of an egg developed immediately. We
didn’t have any painkillers so I numbed the throb with multiple brandies and
today I can’t work out whether the pain is hangover or concussion.
What I think- I can fit into my aspirational jeans, the pair
that will make me look like Lily Allen.
What actually happens- Nancy asked me whilst I was lying on
the sofa watching Madagascar 3 after we’d eaten a Sunday roast, and pudding of
chocolate brownie and custard if I had a baby in my tummy. Like my sister. Who
is seven months pregnant.
I’m going to be 40 next year. The mantra since turning 39
has been ‘fit for 40.’
That was the plan. Is the plan.
It quickly became something I just said whilst inhaling a
share bag of Twirl pieces. Or driving to work which is a five-minute walk and
probably takes longer in the car once I’ve spent forever trying to find a
parking space.
Something had to change. I can’t afford a new larger
wardrobe, the hangovers seem to last for days instead of hours now and I would
like to get some Zen in my life.
So I signed up to a yoga class round the corner. It’s a 30 second
walk so there was no excuse.
Turns out I’m the youngest person there by thirty years
which is great because that should also mean I’m the bendiest and most agile.
Wrong.
Everyone else can seamlessly do a downward dog. I can’t even
touch my calves let alone my toes. But never mind, this is step one of fit for
40.
It’s not going to happen overnight but this was progress.
The class was an hour and a half, which is a lifetime when
you’re legs are shaking like a new born deer.
The best bit, as always, is the end ten minutes when you lie
down under a blanket.
I’m lying there relaxing. And then I’m like, what the fuck
is that noise?
What is that noise?
This isn’t relaxing, it’s distracting. It’s loud.
I’m lying there getting more and more annoyed. Then it dawns
on me.
It’s snoring.
It’s me.
I’m snoring in a room of six other women.
Snoring loudly.
The Tibetan bowl rings and we start to stretch and get up.
They all know it’s me cos it was very obviously me.
So I don’t know whether I can go back.
What I think- I’m the kind of person that eats clean raw
food and enjoys yoga.
What actually happens- I’d prefer to eat a king size Mars
bar and drink a full fat latte in front of series three of Suits than ever go back
to that yoga class.
