Thank you Sports for extending the Blog deadline to today, it may be the end of CtGF but its definitely great to report on a new dawn.  Invigorated by all the activities of the past month most DARO members have made notable efforts today to carry on in the new direction.  

Sally cycled from Ringmer to campus, mostly uphill she reports so she's looking forward to the ride home, no doubt with her feet out at the side and shouting 'wee' at the top of her voice.  Declan shared his Boundary Run results, surprising himself and impressing the rest of us with his middle placing.  So delighted is he that he'll be running to work tomorrow.  Clare went to Karen's yoga class.  Jemma and Luci started boot camp and Sephie will start tomorrow.  Alex cycled into work and Tom is continuing his work out in the gym every working day.  Michael, Mark, Sarah and Jane went for their own walkies in the natural light at lunch instead of basking in the blue light of a PC monitor.

Three of our six remaining team members are on holiday and all are either hiking or walking.  The other three have serious work constraints and keen not to miss out on the CtGF buzz they're delighted that DARO has committed to keep getting fitter.

There is a new poster on the wall and no biscuits in the tin.  As DARO will carry on with team sports, badders will be our next activity and of course the Uni rounders too.  Every single one of the 18 member DARO team has taken part in a CtGF activity and unanimously agreed to keep on with the cause as a team.  Individually too everyone feels invigorated by the past month and most are investigating what level of Sussex Sports membership to take out.  But, its not just that what happens in CtGF stays on campus, it has pervaded all aspects of life, we think that it was the educational aspect running in parallel to the activity programme that is the key.  Cheers to you all, fare thee well till we meet again.  X

So, the official challenge has come to an end; this is where the real one starts...

Because this was always meant to be a kick-start to being more active on an ongoing basis - and that takes rather more commitment. Besides, I know from taking part last year that Karen will email me in 6 months to 'see how we're all getting on' and I really can't bear to have to give her another pathetic report of my renewed sloth! So, with this in mind I've signed up for a silver membership, as have Vicki and Girl Nik. Marie already has gold membership and there may be more rumblings at M&M HQ so there should be plenty of people around to spur me on, or for me to drag along to something unsuitable, in the coming months. Oh, and the fact that I've really enjoyed being more active again should help too.

This month has been great in lots of ways and I'm really glad I took part, and that the rest of the team got so into it too. It's been a lot of fun and has given us all a lot of laughs during a very busy, pressured time. It's got me trying lots of new things, including many that I plan to do again. It's helped me change from someone who felt like she was dragging her carcass around to starting to feel that there's a spring returning to my step. And it's shown me that there are lots of other people around who are up for a bit of exercise, which should really help me keep going now the month has come to an end.

I also discovered that going for a walk after work is a lovely way to start the evening and even discovered some hidden treasures in my neighbourhood that I hadn't spotted before, such as these beautiful flowers blooming on the edge of Saltdean cliffs:

Did I do all that I hoped for this month? No, not completely. I had hoped that I would have managed to find a clever way of fitting exercise into a lunch hour without any extra effort, but until I manage to create a Velcro work suit and buy shares in wet wipes there doesn't seem to be a quick way of getting changed/showered in no time at all! Having managers who allow a bit of flexitime has been a great help with this, and has helped us all to take part and still get our work done, even if it hasn't got me home as early as normal.

I had also planned to try out lots of things so that I could pick a few things that I'd do regularly but this hasn't quite panned out that way. Firstly because Kung Fu is one of the few things that is not included in my membership, which is a real shame as I would have loved to have tried a few more classes. Unfortunately if I’d chosen to do Kung Fu I wouldn't have been able to do everything else (without paying extra) and so I had to make a choice. I don't really understand why the martial arts classes are treated so differently to all the others; the only thing I can think of is that the study of martial arts requires more commitment/focus than a lot of things so maybe they don't want someone 'playing the field' and flirting with other exercise forms at the same time? I don't know but if this changes in the future I'll be going back for more fancy footwork and high kicks!

In the end I made my decision based on the fact that I've really enjoyed doing lots of different activities and think that this 'pick and mix' approach could really work for me: It should ensure that I won't get bored, I won't feel I'm missing out on other things and also I can pick an activity that suits my energy levels/frame of mind on a particular day. And I can probably find someone to come along with me too, if I feel like being sociable!

Things I’ve done this month that I plan to do again: gym, yoga, Zumba, dynamic bodywork, walking, cycling, and badminton

Maybe: hooping, table tennis, circuits

Things I didn't do this month but plan to: tennis, boxercise

Thing I will never do again: Spin. Obviously.

Things I would change about Sussexsport: Communal showers. NO! Much as I love my fellow team members I have never felt the urge to see any of them naked, and I strongly suspect the feeling is mutual. Surely we could have some individual ones built? I know for a fact that this puts many people off doing exercise at work. Oh, and a swimming pool would be grand too.

Things I wouldn't change about Sussexsport: the great team who have put this challenge on, encouraged us all and made it so much fun. I often have to tell visitors about the sports facilities and services here and always big you all up 'cos I know from our students (and the awards you win) how great you are. But it's been good to get some insider knowledge so I can actually know what I'm talking about. (Yes, I know that sounds creepy crawly but I believe in giving credit where it's due!)

So, that's all folks. "Goodnight, and Good Luck" - and see you in the gym!

Well another successful Commit to Get Fit draws to an end. It has been great reading the blogs and reading how everyone has been challenging themselves through personal goals throughout the month – from trying new classes to giving up treats.  So now the month is up what is the next step?

Well I would like to sit here and tell you to take out a membership…good promotion…but that is not what the month has been about. It has been about YOU making those small changes and…hopefully…feeling better for those changes. Which comes back to the Sussexsport Philosophy of Fitness / Sport / Wellbeing.

So what is the next step? Where do you go from here?

-  Set goals. The month of May should not be the only month you set goals. Look to set yourself a target of 1, maximum 2 goals for the next month - more goals means more changes and it is less likely we will achieve them. Make the goals achievable but challenging. Achieve these goals for 3-4 weeks (making a habit) then set another goal or two.

- Follow up the activities YOU liked and enjoyed. Look for local clubs/classes near where you live for trampolining, fencing, Zumba etc

-  Read around the subjects and areas of interest to you. Maybe sign up to a basic nutrition course on-line to increase your knowledge. What cardiovascular activities are the best to help achieve your goals. What reps and sets should I do for my goal of….?

-  If performing cardiovascular training look to push yourself to your own limit. Work at an intensity and pace that is suitable for you. See my previous blog for Heart Rate training zones http://is.gd/D0G9Gu

-       Look to progress through the Sussexsport Philosophy exercises progression list (http://is.gd/cZQHBR ) so you end up performing the best exercises for both fat loss and muscle gain – squats, deadlifts, bench press, pull ups. As I read the other day – looking to lose fat: squat and eat less or looking to increase muscle size: squat and eat more - healthy choices. Some technique points can be found on a blog from last year http://is.gd/1vPkuL

- Find a ‘support buddy’ that shares similar or the same goals to you. They will help keep you on track and motivated as you will have a responsibility to someone else as opposed to just yourself.  

- Not sure what to do at lunch time? use the power of the ‘Di’. List the things available to you, roll the Di and whatever the number decides is what you do.

1. Badminton
2. Spin
3. Walk around the boundary run
4. Run around the boundary run
5. Grab a healthy lunch and eat away from my desk
6. Keep sitting at my desk and working through (for those that cannot get away from the desk this gives you a little choice to stay where you are)

http://is.gd/b8b426

I do hope that you continue to make those small changes that can have a big impact on the way we feel during the day and how we relate with our colleagues, friends and family. See you all on the 20^th June.

The biscuit issue in DARO warrants its own blog.  There was a yelping distress call in the office yesterday from Luci.  She just wanted a biscuit but wasn't going to go out and buy one so just whimpered instead, for quite a while.  She couldn't be distracted by alternative foods and was quite stubborn to be honest.  Eventually she settled down when all the pyschology had been explored.

This exploration was extended to everyone else in the office at the time and whilst most people had missed 'The Biscuit Tin', no one actually wanted it's contents re-instated.  Its interesting that not one person intended to keep their own biscuit supply at their own desk either.  All focus was on the office communal biscuit supply as it seems to be a thing of solace. Just as the nibblers find comfort in its contents it appears that the feeders draw a certain security from knowing they've replenished supplies.

Sharing food is a social and bonding behaviour so did DARO, whilst the biscuit supply was stopped in the spirit of CtGF, have its bonding and communication enabled through sports and activities instead?  There has certainly been a much greater bonding and lifting of spirits throughout May so maybe 'The Biscuit Tin' won't need dusting off in June.  But, why biscuits?  Why not something else?  Quinoa didn't cut it as an alternative social food.  Is it because biscuits are naughty and being naughty is only really fun with other people?  Time will tell.  DARO will continue by popular concensus to carry on being active as a team and Part Two of The Biscuit Blog remains to be written...der der der...

One of the other reasons I've got a bit behind on my blogging is that I went back to The Midlands to see family over the long bank holiday weekend. This gave me very little time to write anything, but also very many excuses to be lazy. So I've basically been too ashamed to blog as I failed to do any exercise, eat my five a day or drink enough water for several days, losing many SRS competition points in the process.

I did, however, manage to abstain from my 'abstaining  throughout May' foods, despite quite extreme provocation:

1) having to endure the sight and sound of my boyfriend Paul and his daughter each scoffing large packets of very fragrant (salt and vinegar) crisps while we crawled along the M25 and M40 with all the other bank holiday traffic 

2) my step-dad presenting me with 2 big bars of chocolate to scoff as I settled down to watch the champions league final 

3) the unbelievably delicious-looking 'Bakewell Tart Cake' that Paul's daughter and niece made on Sunday (see pic below) - the remainder of which was left directly in front of me for hours after everyone else had stuffed huge wedges of it into their mouths after dinner.

So it should perhaps come as no great surprise that by Tuesday the crisp, chocolate and cake cravings were at an all-time high.  

Girl Nik was also struggling with the crisp-love. So much so that when Kelly asked if anyone wanted her to bring them something back from the Co-op, it was all too much and she fell onto her desk in a piteous attack of the vapours:

Nik: “I soooo want crisps!  HOW MUCH LONGER??”

Boy Nick responded by immediately scrabbling about in his wallet for some money so he could ask Kelly to get him some crisps to taunt us both with, but Kelly already had a secret supply in her office and started waving them around at poor Girl Nik:

Which all goes to show the power of junk food, and why it is so easy to become addicted to it. Which I guess is why we've tried to break the habit by abstaining from various things during this challenge. And some days it's been surprisingly easy, but I have to say the crisps have been calling me the loudest throughout the month. 

So much so that I've challenged Girl Nik to a 'crisp-off' this coming Monday, although I may have to delay this for a week as I've remembered that I've got a short holiday planned next weekend and a monster crisp binge doesn't seem like the best idea just before I try to squeeze myself back into my bikini!

But after that, the gloves will be off and the packets will be ripped open. Can't wait!

Who'd have thought that four years ago my first gentle five minute jog downhill (which ended in much wheezing, sweating and moaning of "never again!") could be a precursor to my current revived, invigorated and superfit self?

To say I used to be a little overweight is perhaps an understatement. I was a lazy 30-something, not realising that time was ticking and that pretty soon shifting my lumpy butt would be nigh on impossible. I convinced myself that my three minute cycle to work and back each day was going to be my saving grace, so I did nothing else. I also love food and hate diets, so I was my own worst enemy in that respect too.

However, in 2010 an ex-colleague completed the first Brighton Marathon. Not in a super quick time, but she finished it. I was awestruck by her achievement and convinced I would never be the sort of person to run like that. Ever. Full stop. 

She inspired my boyfriend, Dan, who signed up for the 2011 Brighton Marathon as soon as he could and went on to complete that and then the 2012 race with very respectable times of 3:57 and 3:29 respectively. 

I had started working at Sussex in Summer 2010 and extended my daily commute to a total of nine miles. My fitness and stamina improved gradually over the first six months.

Spurred on by Dan's new found commitment to running and inspired by his achievements, I began my own marathon journey somewhere around the beginning of 2011. Just very short distances at first - sometimes running, sometimes jogging and frequently walking. I had good days and bad days, as everyone does with running, but I pushed through and in late 2011 did my first Parkrun in Hove Park. 

Parkrun is a 5km timed run/race for all ages and abilities. My boyfriend had prepped me beforehand saying I definitely wouldn't be the last to finish and, though I walked a substantial part of the second lap, I was not the last person to cross the finish line. At 31 minutes, I was a long way from being the first across the line, too. But that isn't the point of this type of race - it's you against yourself each week - aiming for a new personal best. So it became a regular thing and soon I was running the full distance and shaving minutes off my PB.

By early 2012 I was running (sporadically and very much depending on the weather) more than once per week - even occasionally swapping Sunday lie-ins for a jog on the seafront. I was regularly running for five to eight miles by the time April 2012 came around. Inspired by the second great marathon performance by my partner, I signed up for the 2013 Brighton Marathon, just ahead of 2012 Commit to Get Fit.

I carried on cycling and running throughout May 2012 and myself and my amazing team-mates in Admissions proudly won the CTGF 2012 trophy. I would add here that it was not just about the number of miles we put in, but also the group effort of the team, who tried virtually every sport on offer that month, whilst also bonding over lunchtime games of Molkki.

After the CTGF dust settled, however, I was faced with the reality of the task ahead. Running in May is very different to running in the depths of winter - I really had to dig deep to get up at 6am on Sunday mornings in January and brave the freezing drizzle and bitter winds up on the Downs - all in the name of marathon training.

I began to ready myself for "The Race" in early spring, with two half marathons: Brighton in February (boiling hot) and Hastings in March (sub-zero). I followed all of the advice on offer for first time marathon runners and by race day felt there wasn't much more I could do to get around the course in one piece.

I am proud to say that I did complete the marathon. My time of 4:27 was about what we'd predicted, given my lack of experience. I'm not going to say it was a breeze - at times it was serious hell - but it was a truly emotional and inspiring day. So many people have stories to tell you about why they are running and it is very hard not to feel a lump in your throat when you are standing at the start line.

You might think that the end of the marathon would be the end for my running journey - one of the most challenging races over and no need to put myself through that any more...surely? Not one bit.

Before the marathon training was over, I'd already been roped into a six person team to run the South Downs Way Relay, which is this Saturday the 1st June. I've been out practising my legs in the relay over the last six weeks in some of the loveliest countryside in the South of England.

I've also already signed up to run the 2014 Brighton Marathon and Half Marathon. I will definitely do Hastings again next year and am planning on a few 10k races between now and then, too. I still do the Parkrun and am hoping to go below 24 minutes in that before too long - I have mixed in some speed training with my regular weekly running schedule, which will help. The training is paying off, as I took the women's third place in the Boundary run yesterday - behind one extremely talented and accomplished runner with lots of experience and another who was super quick and about 15 years my junior!

The next step? My boyfriend and I are on the verge of committing to Brighton & Hove AC membership. Believe me, if I could go back and tell myself as I was four years ago that I would one day be joining an athletics club and running marathons for fun, I would never have believed it. I love running now - I'm fitter than I've ever been and I pretty much eat whatever I want but I don't gain weight anymore. I'm also two stone lighter than I was when I started working at Sussex.

I'm writing this blog post under the banner of Commit to Get Fit, which is an excellent and motivating initiative by Sussex Sport, but I do hope that after reading this you might also feel inspired by my story and see that it is not so hard to change your life for the better.

I have tried many new things this month - not least of which has been writing a blog for the first time. I have learnt 3 things from this: 

1) blogging can be fun
2) blogging can be very time-consuming
3) if you spend your lunch hours getting fit, there's not much time to blog.

Which is why I've got a bit of catching up to do, and so here's a couple more individual team members' stories, starting with the lovely 'Marie from Estates' - postmistress par excellence and fluffy team mascot.

Marie's original goals:
"to keep my heart-rate in the late 150's -early 160's whilst on the cross-trainer [and when playing football] to keep chasing the ball until the sides of my head are sweat drenched. I'm going to try to cut down my pastry intake to 3 a week and remember to bring Redbush teabags into work to cut down my caffeine intake."

Recent update: 
"I played drunken doubles ping pong for hours in France over the weekend - in fact I formed an unbeatable/unbearable partnership with an equally unlikely champion. And then we made the mistake of taking on a wily pair whilst we were sober. Also, played shambolic but gripping tournement of 5-a-side volleyball, where we changed all the rules to improve the flow of the game. Once again, I found myself on the winning team with only minimal cheating. Not a drop of bierre or vin or cidre passed my lips - so I can achieve sporting success whilst pure in body and mind."

She will now join other M&Ms for our CTGF swansong - a no holds barred group game of rubbish table tennnis tomorrow afternoon, though it has yet to be decided whether this will take place with us all drunk or sober.

In other news, Big Boss and keen fencer Jakki appeared in the office the other day looking very pleased with herself and brandishing something small and shiny. It turned out that she had done rather well in the recent Sussex County team Épée competition and happily agreed to pose for a triumphant photo (though sadly not dressed in the traditional 'beekeeper in a babygrow' fencing outfit):

"Took part on Sunday 19th May – part of a team of three women from Lewes Fencing Club, came second and have a trophy to prove it!"

Nice one!

The month is coming to an end and I personally haven't blogged since week 2.  I know my other team members have been flying our flag in the meantime, though.  My excuse for not blogging is that I was on holiday in week 4 and frantically busy trying to finish everything on my desk before my holiday in week 3.  This stuff stopped me blogging, but it did not stop my personal commitment to CTGF and to my lovely colleagues who have been so encouraging and supportive.

So on the day of my last blog I did get to the gym with Jayne.  I didn't overdo it and my 15 mins or so on the cross-trainer went far quicker than I had expected.  I spent some time on a bike too and stretching and bending on the mats.  Will definitely not wait 14 years or so until the next time I go - hopefully very soon indeed.  I planned to go again the following week, but paperwork for a meeting prevented me - perhaps tomorrow ...

On the Friday of week 2 I managed to get out of a meeting with about 3 mins to spare before the team embarked on our second Friday lunchtime walk.  We did the reverse circuit that we had walked the previous week with steeper upward hills and were speedier too - felt like progress!

Week 3 was a bit of a washout due to the amount of work I needed to do before my leave coupled with lunchtime meetings, but I managed to keep up with my commitment to drink lots of water and stayed caffeine free (apart from a cup of coffee I accepted after church without thinking).

Last week I was on holiday - in centre parcs in Longleat, Wiltshire, which is known for being hilly.  Every day I covered quite a few miles, either pushing a buggy or jogging along to keep up with my toddler on her scooter (I've decided to buy a scooter soon so that we can scoot together).  We also swam a lot, which was quite hard work at times, especially when the wave machine was on and I was swimming against the tide in order to keep my daughter upright on her woggle.  I'm afraid I failed seriously on the no caffeine front, allowing myself coffee and one or two diet cokes, but I did also drink a lot of water (and wine, but I never said I was giving that up).

From the beginning of CTGF I had wanted to try a Zumba class.  Yesterday was my only opportunity, due to clashing meetings etc on all the other possible occasions.  I LOVED IT - and will definitely continue going whenever possible after CTGF has finished.  I didn't feel quite as much of an old croc as I did in dynamic yoga and, since I have a dance background somewhere in my childhood, I managed to keep up with most of the moves.  I also definitely felt bendier / stretchier than I did at the begining of the month, which is a very pleasing result!  The teacher, Gemma, was really encouraging - and very smiley  and fun to watch.  Zumba music makes you feel very young and "with it" - perhaps I should seek an opportunity to try out those trendy moves in a club, though that is bound to embarrass my husband and / or daughter ....  hmmm, perhaps I'd better just keep them for the classes ...

So, tomorrow is the last day of CTGF.  I will definitely miss it.  It has been a great impetus to try new things and get out and about more.   Thank you so much for allowing us to use the facilities / attend classes for free (that made a world of difference).  The encouragement of my team mates has been brilliant - we have shared what we have individually been doing and urged each other to do a bit more / go for it.  I hope we manage to celebrate with a final Friday walk - or if not, perhaps I will venture back to the gym.

DARO badminton was a great success today.  Sally booked two courts and seven colleagues had a good knock-about.  When they got back to the office and were asked who won, the reply was 'we're all winners'.  It might be that this is the activity that continues to unite as we will most probably take this forward as our team sport.  Our Survey Monkey poll had this as a popular activity at the outset so its interesting that it meets expectations in the end.  Sally plays badders regularly and she was able to pass on some tips that were clearly effective within 20mins.  Mary seems to be able to turn everything into an art form as shown in her balletic poses in the warm up captured in the third mini photo.  No injuries or mishaps to report, just positivity.

The Boundary Run was also a great success.  Declan reports himself being the only person who had people cheering him on during the course and is extremely happy not to be last.  We'll report on his placing later but its so exciting what he has achieved that we had to write about it whilst he's still glowing.  All his previous running has been to sustain endurance for the Brighton Marathon and he only warms up to a faster speed after six miles or so.  Running 2.5 miles on the Boundary for a speed placing was a challenge, as was the terrain.  Two weeks ago Declan had to walk part of the course but today, with appropriate training, he ran the whole way.  He thinks that walking the Boundary at the start of CtGF helped him and achieving a good run today has spurred him on to committing to a daily commute run of 15 miles from his new pad (don't forget the house warming party).  Again no injury to report, the knee support is always worn when its not loitering on his desk.

Volleyball is still evil for some.  This is from the class last week and apparently the bruise has gone through every colour before peaking today.

Addendum:  Quinoa served in Dine Central these days!

The Wall.  Has been hit.  Nearly with tears.  CtGF nadir.  The DARO office still hasn't had biccies, choccies or cake brought in despite meetings, birthdays and sugar cravings.  This has been a major commitment by all the team, some of whom are still committed outside of the office.  Mr Kipling has been shut out and replaced with yoghurt and fruit or weekday denial has been balanced with just a weekend indulgence.

Many miles have been covered through walking, cycling, footie, cross trainer, exercise bikes, pooch walking and running by most of the team.  Also, different classes continue to be enjoyed, including zumba, spinning, circuits, yoga, metabolic, core strength and volleyball.  

Yikes.  Volleyball has proven to create the most mixed of experiences.  Michael found it fun even though he didn't get to try much in the way of 'digs 'n spikes', Aga loved doing something she'd really enjoyed at school and Sephie enjoyed it enough to think about trying basketball.  However, Jemma considered it evil and top of her list of things never to do again, she hated having lobster red skin and throbbing running up her arms and across her shoulders.  Luci was out after the first couple of minutes and left with a huge purple bruise.  They think that anyone who enjoyed it was more hardcore than them, so they've only both gone off and signed up to morning bootcamp in June!

Team DARO chilled and looking forward to volleyball, grrr: 

Team DARO warming up nicely:

Calm before the storm:

Uh oh, time for action:

Volleyball EVIL:

For our CtGF swansong week DARO have booked a few courts to play badminton next week.  Its great to do things as a team and to meet members of staff from elsewhere on campus, particularly including the sports staff.  We're looking forward to next week, have a great long weekend everyone.

We have a new member the team.

He lives in the cupboard and has made himself very unpopular already.

He is being studiously ignored by everyone...most creatively by John, with his chocolate-biscuit-and-white-chocolate-button combo, of which he was justly proud:

(for those of you who don't know John, he can be easily recognised due to his freakishly tiny feet and huge hands)

This week in HR we have been doing pilates, cycling to work, dynamic bodywork, life circuits, aerobics, Zumba, fitness training, yoga and Morris dancing.

Helen went for a long walk in the country on Saturday (11 miles) and if that wasn’t enough, another one on Sunday (again 11 miles) over the down from Seaford to Alfriston and back which is quite a hilly route.   She said it was great to be out in the fresh air but thinks her legs are a bit shorter now!  Then yesterday she did her usual 1.5 hour yoga class which fortunately was concentrating on relaxing.

Simone was also manhandled by an overzealous ‘Goal Keeper’ at a netball match on Thursday night who managed to bend her right arm back further than it should – hence the one-armed life circuits she managed to scrape through today!

Today was the first time I have ever tried yoga and I'm so pleased I did; it was an excellent class given by Karen.  I felt really relaxed afterwards and realise that I do not stretch out my body enough - and I should - because I feel a lot better from doing so.  This is one of my favourite Commit to Get Fit activities so far, and I will definitely be going back.

I am pleased to say that my back trouble (too much mountain biking pleasure) which had slowed me down last week is on the mend, so it should be onwards and upwards from now on!

On Friday I did my first - and last - spin class. Now this is one type of exercise I never thought I'd even try but in the spirit of ctgf, and 'cos Kev (SRS Action Man, who was running the class) assured me it would be ok, I decided to give it a go.

When will I ever learn?

Needless to say it  was even worse than I had expected it to be, and I desperately wanted to get off the bike after the first few minutes. But I forced myself to stay on and keep peddling until the bitter end - even though I was going downhill (in every sense) with a following wind, while everyone else was climbing the Pyrenees! 

"Why the long face, Louise?"

Somewhat belated, maybe, but I think it's time we heard from the Ni(c)ks...

Girl Nik:

Original reason for taking part/Goals:

I avoided it like the plague last year, but was roped into going to a volleyball game which was actually quite fun. I’m mostly taking part this year because there was no avoiding it – the whole team are doing it. Plus I took up swimming this year and it’d be good to be able to improve my speed in the pool and my breathing. (I can currently do a mile – 64 lengths - in 70 minutes, so hopefully that’ll be improved by the end of the month!)

I’d like to do the volleyball again, and have agreed to doing trampolining tonight (bit concerned I might not survive), and badminton next week. Oh and I’d like to do pingpong, but not with Nick or John because they’ve said that they would “destroy me”.

Abstaining from: Crisps

Adventures so far include: Falling over on the Boundary walk “I failed at walking!”, and being left dangling like a piñata from the trampoline after defiantly trying to get off on the wrong side. After a promising start, Nik has disappointed us all since then, by staying upright.

Boy Nick:

Original reason for taking part/Goals: I hope to ease the strain on my spluttering gallbladder by eating no cheese (mozzarella isn’t cheese right?) and try as many things as possible that my bandaged feet allow (this will probably involve some kind of tv remote controller weight lifting). I hope to increase my fruit and vegetables consumption to 10 a day, spend a lot more time walking around the supermarket to find said fruit and vegetables, and to drown myself in water.

Abstaining from: "Cheese – Not crisps"

Adventures so far include: Despite having unfortunately-timed ‘foot issues’, Nick took Kelly up on her rash offer to push him around the Boundary Walk in his office chair; sadly they only managed a few yards before they both encountered ‘step issues’ . Since then, Nick has kept his distance from Kelly's many 'brilliant' ideas but has not given up the challenge and can be  seen gallantly partaking of many a ‘fruit chaser’ between each packet of crisps.

Ha hah, what a week, CtGF continues apace in DARO, halfway through and people are looking beyond May to carry on the benefits of more exercise, good food and well-being.  

Luci plays netball a lot and has broken most of her fingers at various times but she has refocussed and made efforts to include gym work to balance her regime.  She's been to the gym three times already this week and is thinking about joining Boot Camp.  She's found that CtGF has provided her with a constant awareness of how to 'feel better' and thinks its great that the whole of DARO is doing it too.  Please do not start her on the juggling challenge, she changes before your eyes and eye contact should be avoided, scary.

Sarah, our poetry reader, has definitely achieved her Omega 3 goal and is eating more fish and nuts.  She has hurt her back a bit but is booked into the Power Hoop class and the Core Training seminar.  Feel better soon Sarah and let us know how you get on in your blog.

Declan, our Brighton Marathon runner - see his blog for a non recommended training regime - is booked onto the Boundary Run and has run the route one and a half times.  He's only been a road runner (beep beep) so off road is a real shock to him.  As a result he will be training, properly, for the run at the end of the month.  He is struggling not to eat sweet things so has gone back home for the weekend to upload carbs before training in earnest, apparently one 'does not say no to Mammie's tatties'.

Clare has bought quinoa and has made no cakes even though it is a daily struggle not to eat sweet things.  Well, she's not eaten sweet things in the office but has admitted to going home and spooning out Nutella straight from the jar.  However, she's thinking that by having more protein at lunch this might help combat the cravings.  Clare has done two runs and highly recommends Karen's yoga class on a Monday.

Mark is the hungry one not eating biccies in the office, who has left a duty free bottle of Jameson unopened over the weekend and has booked onto volleyball.  These are major commitments by Mark to CtGF as they are a large move away from usual habits.  We are very impressed.

Alex has blogged and is very proud of his 5 a'side football team.  They started at the bottom of six leagues and their last game saw them winning 9-1 to leave them at the top of the top.  He has cycled into the office every day and has been to the gym twice.  He's upped his Omega 3 intake by eating oily fish and has made sure his saturated and unsaturated fat consumption is more balanced.  He's also booked onto the volleyball and reckons that the whole of DARO has perked up through CtGF.  Luci has her rabid eyes set on Alex as he's currently the best at juggling.

Sally has, despite having a horrible cold, been cycling more and has done a couple of hours badmintoning.  She has stuck to her own goal of less caffiene, eating more healthily and avoiding snacks.  She helped her son make some chocolate cookies and enjoyed the reward of one cookie after baking.  But, when she had a late night search for another one she'd discovered they'd been too well hidden to find.  Her poor son was only too well aware of her wicked ways and hid them so that there'd be some left to take into school.  

Michael, our juggling guru and volleyball arranger, has refocussed his omega balance with some ground flaxseed and walnuts.  As a vegetarian with an allotment he does eat healthily but has analysed whether he could improve his diet.  He has a very sweet tooth so has eaten more fruit but has been shocked to measure his salt consumption is quite high.  Michael went for a walk on New Timber Hills but ended up running along instead.  He has also walked the 4.5 miles home and the long handled shears for the allotment have left him with a great lat workout, and ache.  He's been waiting for friends to go Bouldering with but has decided to book it anyway.

Aga has done the Power Hoop and Body Pump but didn't bring her kit for kayaking so she's been kicking herself.  She's made her own granola and plans to go swimming this weekend.  She's been keeping one of her goals secret but after the Goal Setting seminar has decided to share her weight loss goal and is already half way to achieving it.  Well done.

Jane, thats me, has enjoyed the community spirit in DARO and of all the CtGF teams, especially via the blogs.  I've also enjoyed the intellectual stimulation of the seminars and am getting clearer in the noggin just as the lungs get clearer from working out.

The non named DARO members missing from above have remotely kept me informed of their activities or we have spied them - Tom playing handball with Admissions.  Have a great weekend everyone.

Today is Nathan Catt's birthday, so happy birthday Nathan and thanks for the cake! Cake and CTGF don't mix but with a team spinning class led by Kevin this afternoon I think we can afford this one small chocolatey lapse.

This afternoon the big debate in the office is if we should have I want to know what love is by Foreigner or No limits by 2 Unlimited on the spinning playlist. Apparently there's music invloved. I guess it's a motivational thing. If we don't work hard enough Kev puts Foreigner on.

But anyway, I know what you're thinking... "this is all very nice Ben, but what has Adam Willsmore been up to this week?" Well Adam fans, here he is with an update....

"So this week saw my first ever back-to-back session, an hour in the gym with Kev and Isobel and then straight into circuit training – hardcore! I think I’m getting a bit bigger (in the good sense) too… well my shirts are definitely feeling tighter across my chest; I’m waiting for an incredible hulk moment. I’ve also borrowed Jonathan’s road bike and I’m enjoying zipping along the road past all the cyclists who would normally be going faster than me (I’ve decided I’m not giving the bike back, don’t tell JB). As for the cheese, well I’ve definitely discovered how difficult it is to avoid eating cheese – it just pops up everywhere! But in good news I haven’t yet been found sneaking into the fridge late at night to snack on slices of brie, a previous favourite hobby of mine."

Jonathon's taking a few days off from CTGF for Great Escape but he does have news of his wonderful #42bridges charity run. At the beginning of June Jonathon has decided to run over 42BRIDGES in and around London - covering a total distance of over 35 miles!

Here's Jonathon on the run... "I’m raising money for Safehaven (a weekly Saturday soup kitchen supporting the homeless in Brighton) and Crossover (a homeless charity also based in Brighton who wish to buy a burger van so they can deliver food to the street community). I volunteer at Safehaven nearly every week and have found that what I would consider to be nothing can mean so much to someone. If you wish to read more you can view my blog at: http://42bridges.tumblr.com/

You can view the route at: http://is.gd/fU3Etn

(I'll be starting at Richmond Bridge and (hopefully) ending up at Tower Bridge). If you wish to sponsor me, I would greatly appreciate it and the thought of what that money could do will keep me going. Please visit: http://www.justgiving.com/42bridges Or text: BRID84 £3 (or any amount) to 70070. Or in person."

 This photo is weird. If you have any idea what's going on please let me know in the comments section....

Today is Nathan Catt's birthday, so happy birthday Nathan and thanks for the cake! Cake and CTGF don't mix but with a team spinning class led by Kevin this afternoon I think we can afford this one small chocolatey lapse.

This afternoon the big debate in the office is if we should have I want to know what love is by Foreigner or No limits by 2 Unlimited on the spinning playlist. Apparently there's music invloved. I guess it's a motivational thing. If we don't work hard enough Kev puts Foreigner on.

But anyway, I know what you're thinking... "this is all very nice Ben, but what has Adam Willsmore been up to this week?" Well Adam fans, here he is with an update....

"So this week saw my first ever back-to-back session, an hour in the gym with Kev and Isobel and then straight into circuit training – hardcore! I think I’m getting a bit bigger (in the good sense) too… well my shirts are definitely feeling tighter across my chest; I’m waiting for an incredible hulk moment. I’ve also borrowed Jonathan’s road bike and I’m enjoying zipping along the road past all the cyclists who would normally be going faster than me (I’ve decided I’m not giving the bike back, don’t tell JB). As for the cheese, well I’ve definitely discovered how difficult it is to avoid eating cheese – it just pops up everywhere! But in good news I haven’t yet been found sneaking into the fridge late at night to snack on slices of brie, a previous favourite hobby of mine."

Jonathon's taking a few days off from CTGF for Great Escape but he does have news of his wonderful #42bridges charity run. At the beginning of June Jonathon has decided to run over 42BRIDGES in and around London - covering a total distance of over 35 miles!

Here's Jonathon on the run... "I’m raising money for Safehaven (a weekly Saturday soup kitchen supporting the homeless in Brighton) and Crossover (a homeless charity also based in Brighton who wish to buy a burger van so they can deliver food to the street community). I volunteer at Safehaven nearly every week and have found that what I would consider to be nothing can mean so much to someone. If you wish to read more you can view my blog at: http://42bridges.tumblr.com/

You can view the route at: http://is.gd/fU3Etn

(I'll be starting at Richmond Bridge and (hopefully) ending up at Tower Bridge). If you wish to sponsor me, I would greatly appreciate it and the thought of what that money could do will keep me going. Please visit: http://www.justgiving.com/42bridges Or text: BRID84 £3 (or any amount) to 70070. Or in person."

This photo is weird. If you have any idea what's going on please let me know if the comments section....

Everyone suffers from a certain amount of stress and I have been conscious in the last year or so of finding ways to help me reduce my stress levels and lower my cortisol level.  Our bodies produce cortisol in response to all types of stress and if we have too much of it, it can produce negative side effects, such as raising our blood sugar level. High cortisol levels have been linked to the storage of body fat particularly the belly, which is one of my problem areas. Obviously, too much food and not enough exercise is the main cause of weight gain but stress may lead to increased appetite and cause the body to store fat around the waist.

After reading a bit about the subject, I have learned the following about how to decrease cortisol levels if your body is producing too much.

1. Reduce caffeine.  I have stopped drinking coffee at work after previously consuming 8+ cups daily.  I still buy the odd cup here and there but I have noticed I sleep much better as a result.
2. Sleep.  I often suffer from insomnia or waking up too early and it really effects my day. I try to have a hot bath and listen to relaxing music before I drop of to sleep.
3. Avoid sugar It has been about a month now since I have given up sugar and I can honestly say I am no longer addicted.  Biscuits, chocolate and cake no longer have the same impact on me!
4. Drink  water to avoid dehydration.
5. Take vitamin supplements. Stress-reducing supplements include B and C vitamins and Omega 3 
6. Talk to friends and family  who can give advice on problems and lighten your mood.
7. Stop worrying.  This is possibly the hardest one for me as I am an utter worry bunny.  
8. Take time to enjoy life Walking, yoga, massage, listening to relaxing music and having the occasional lie ins are not self indulgant, they are beneficial to a healthy lifestyle. 

So hopefully, learning to chill out will help me reduce that belly fat!

One thing that has cropped up during this challenge is the thorny issue of what to wear for all these activities. Not in a vain way, but there is something rather depressing about realising that either you haven't got anything resembling a sports kit at all (Girl Nik: “…my PE kit consists of a DRESS and some pumps I found at the back of the cupboard!”) or that you do have something resembling a sports kit, but it's apparently shrunk at least 8 sizes in the wash since you last had it on (me). Neither helps with the confidence, as it helps if you feel comfortable in your clothes and can at least look the part.

Mind you, Vicki kindly ordered us all some team t shirts before we started, to get us in the mood:

- but sadly in a weak moment I ate them all. 

But I digress. The purpose of today's blog is to start to share some of the motivations of individual team members and it seems appropriate to start with the sartorially-superior Mr Haywood...

"A summary of my abstinences, aims, goals and hinderances, by John Haywood:

Giving up:   Cinnamon Danishes (they’ve become wonderfully addictive part of my daily routine!)

Giving up amendment:  All Danish pastries (in case, as it’s just been pointed out,  I just replace one addiction with another, like those pastry, custardy, chocolately twisty things…. Mmmm……)

Aims:  After almost two years of relative inactivity during the run up to, birth and first 18 months of my daughter’s life, I’m hoping to use the commit to get fit initiative as the spur to rekindle my passion for swimming, preferably in the sea, or lakes, or rivers… most places in fact except swimming pools…

Goals:  There’s a 1500m swim and a 3km swim in the Thames near Windsor Castle on the 2^nd June and, depending on how the first week or two of commit to get fit goes, and particularly how the swimming goes, I’m considering signing up for one or the other of these, with hopefully some other organised swims to follow during the summer.

Hinderances:  Fear. More specifically, fear of the cold!  The current sea temperature in Brighton is 8.1 degrees. (to put this into perspective, the average sea temperature for Brighton in December is 10 degrees)."

 Next time: Girl Nik, and the unfortunate incident with the trampoline.

Do you know, I'm really starting to enjoy this fitness lark! Having had a few days of losing momentum I've now caught up again having done yoga, gym, Kung fu and hula in the last 48 hours and it's definitely started to put a spring in my step.

I hadn't done a gym session for a long time but when the weather ruined our plans to rekindle our (rubbish) tennis relationship, Marie and I headed up to Falmer Sports Complex to pump some iron instead. It didn't start off well as I nearly came to blows with the cross trainers when they repeatedly refused to acknowledge anything I tried to programme in to their touch pads and instead kept trying to make me watch Top Gear (and therefore spend my lunch hour with my bubble-headed nemesis Jeremy Clarkson).

But once I'd finally managed to get them working I was surprised at how much I almost enjoyed skiing or jogging along on the moving footrest things, and also how gentle it was on my knees. I managed 15 minutes without too much bother before trying some of the other things on offer. My favourite machine was definitely the assisted pull ups one, which enabled me to pull myself high up in the air by my arms, with the aid of something akin to a stanna stairlift - and it made the back of my neck tingle each time, which was an added bonus!

However, the activity I was most looking forward to was the Kung Fu Taster with Girl Nik and it didn't disappoint. Sadly we didn't get to wave the big swords around on our first session but did lots of kicks and jumping around and had a good laugh too.

Nik decided to use the opportunity to try and maim the (SRS) opposition:

I liked lots of things about this class, not least of which was the fact that kung fu feels like exercise with a point to it. By which I mean it's not just stretching for the sake of stretching, or building muscle by just lifting weights,  you get a thorough workout (physically and mentally) while you're concentrating on something else.  And the mixture of raw power, balance, speed and agility was very seductive. Is this something I might want to pursue? Not sure, but maybe...

Talk started today of the 1st June and what will happen in the DARO kitchen, exactly half way through CtGF and the biscuit tin is pining for contents and it seems so too are CtGF'er tummies.  A previous biscuit eater was asked 'what are you doing for snacks now' and the reply was 'being hungry, very hungry'.

CtGF is an integral part of being on campus for some of us now.  You have to be fast to get first dibs on the Stationery Cupboard to change into your work-out gear these days.  Pity the person already doing some photocopying when a keener bounces in and strips off.

DARO members continue to try new activities and to set new challenges for themselves.  Our Brighton Marathon runner has signed up for the Boundary Run and there are a couple on the Boundary Fence humming and hahing about whether to join in too.  Many classes have been booked and fingers crossed to get off the waiting list and into the Fencing class.

Our poetry and juggling lunch experience lives on.

Obviously the photo is blurry due to the speed of expert juggling.

I woke up this morning aching all over.  After being attacked by Amy in Admissions in the Kung Fu taster session, I joined the Yinyoga class.  We had to hold each posture for five minutes and I hadn't realised how much I had stretched myself until today.  I have Pilates tonight (more stretching) and Dynamic Bodywork tomorrow, which is a combination of dance, yoga and pilates.  I am also going to try to fit in a couple more classes before Friday.  The question is, can you overextend yourself?  Is it better to work through the discomfort or give your body a rest?

As I mentionned in our first blog for CTGF 2013, most of our team are already gold members of Sussexsport and do a variety of activities outside of campus.  So this year's challenge is of most benefit to our newer staff members. Emma is new to Sussexport so her goal is to go to a class every week and try some new sports. She has tried Zumba this week and we are waiting to hear how she got on when she's next in the office. Rachael has not exercised since the last CTGF challenge last summer and wants to get back into an exercise routine.  She has been doing Zumba every week and also tried Aerobics which she said nearly killed her! Martin's long term goals are to lose a little weight, give up smoking, or cut down, and generally get fitter.  Nadia is looking at ways to reduce stress, which is something we could all benefit from.

Illness and injury has put a couple of the team out of action this week.  Cheryl continues to maintain her standard of excellence but has to drop back on the amount of sport she can do due to injury.  Leila wanted to try as many new classes as possible but due to a back injury her new goal is to strengthen her back and core with a combination of physiotherapy, chiropractor visits and exercise and to recover and be pain free.  She has also had to nightly climb around six flights of stairs visiting her mother in hospital.  Get well soon x

Helen continues to cycle to work and back everyday as well as for fun at the weekend. She also grows her own vegetables so is a picture of perfect health.  I tried Kung Fu today and met quite a few other CTGF participants from other departments, which is another bonus of taking part.  A couple of us stayed on to do the Yin yoga class afterwards.

Simone has been told that "summer bodies are made in winter", so she is hoping to make herself a whole new slimmer and fitter body in May! Both Simone and Sally are regulars on the circuit training sessions and push themselves to the limit in their quest for perfection!  On a lighter note, Dan’s goal is to eat as many burgers as he can whilst not gaining any weight so that he can build up his strength and Graham wants to try to stay sober(ish), do some ironing, go to bed early and climb Everest. 

All could benefit from the inspiring talk today about goal setting presented by Terry and Kevin Betts who has completed 52 marathons in a year.  http://www.52marathons.co.uk/ 

For the past year I have been doing yoga at least once a week.  I’ve felt less stressed now that yoga’s part of my regular routine and it does make a big difference to how I feel. I’m more relaxed when I’ve done yoga that day. The deep breathing helps you to relax, improves your mood and ability to concentrate. If you’re just beginning to get fit, no matter what your size, shape or fitness level, yoga can be a bit daunting. However, everyone  can work at their own pace. It is meant to make you feel good. After a year of going easy on myself and just going as far as felt comfortable for me, I am surprised at how quickly I have improved.  I never thought I would say this as I am not that flexible and of a heavy build.  When I first tried yoga it was to relax me whilst I was quitting nicotine.  I found it frustrating as everyone else in the room seemed to know what they were doing.   It was intimidating to stand in a class  in front of those enormous mirrors and try to feel relaxed at first. I had no balance and often fell over.  As time progressed, I got a little better, and have noticed changes in different areas of my body, mainly my flexibility. You do improve and see results and now I’d recommend it to anyone.

My shopping basket had a very different feel on Saturday as I went about my weekly shop. Like many of my colleagues, I had made a conscious effort to incorporate oily fish, nuts, and of course, quinoa, which has become the fashionable, must-have food amongst those in the know...I also bought more fruit and now have a fruit bowl which is both healthy and a work of art all at the same time.

I had the opportunity to take a boxercise class last week, quite unexpectedly, after the power-hoop class I had intended to do was cancelled.  It was very energetic, and gave me the opportunity to try something I probably wouldn't have thought of doing otherwise.  Indeed, I had never thrown a punch until this class, yet by the end I was giving as good as an angry John Prescott.   All in all, it was high energy, and definitely a good work-out.

So I had big plans for lot's of activity at the weekend, which unfortuantely i had to dramatically scale back after Thursday's trampolining escapades! It seems that the worrying crunch I experienced early on in the session may have been me aggrevating an old problem (didn't stop me gritting my teeth and carrying on with the fun of bouncing!)...so I decided to take it easy over the weekend and just do some stretching and some walking. I went to another lovely Yoga class today and tomorrow I was due to do circuits, but I decided to cancel my place and instead pay a visit to the Leah the chiropractor. She always manages to put me back together....well as back together as I will probably ever be!

I do have Kung fu to look forward to tomorrow evening, so that will be fun 

We've just had a great Well Being lunch in DARO, eleven of us enjoyed a poetry reading whilst we were eating (good food), followed by a juggling session.  Other members of the team enjoyed a yoga class and some went walking.

The poem read to us was truly in the spirit of the CtGF campaign - The Love-Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot, a lamentation of physical and intellectual inertia of someone who had the ability to change but lacked the courage to do so.  First, we must commend the courage of our reader, Sarah, to face her colleagues and present the poem, and so beautifully read too.  And second, for choosing such a fitting poem for our current situation or predicament.

The juggling was great fun, thanks Michael, and led to some very competitive characters immediately logging onto Amazon in search of flammable juggling balls.  By the end of the month we hope to have honed our individual juggling and we'll compete amongst ourselves to find a winner.  In the meantime there is a challenge to Declan to 'release his third ball', a metaphor we'll all be chanting I think.  Your euphemisms can be added to the comments box below.  Is there a site moderator?  I got 'bum' into one of my own blogs so perhaps I can get away with saying that all I ended up juggling were my own breasts.

Let DARO leave you with some words of T.S. Eliot to capture the CtGF challenge:

'And indeed there will be time

To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"

I did get some exercise this weekend but I am afraid to say it was in the form of some very drunken dancing.   I went out with the best intentions but a friend came to visit and I soon slipped back to my old ways of drinking too much beer.  I also had some chips on the way home.  I used to party a lot and could go for days on very little sleep, drinking my way through it all, and feeling great.  That's when I was a lot younger. Nowadays, I feel like  I've poisoned myself after too much booze.  My body has become used to feeling good and healthy and completely punishes me when I abuse it.  When I do have a few, I really hurt the next day. I feel so dehydrated and generally sorry for myself.   So as much as I would love to say am completely teetotal  I realise that this is not always the case.  If I'm going to have a night on the town I choose nights or events that are worth going to. It's better not to put myself into this state in the first place but most of us are a little bit weak, especially when it comes to alcohol and having a good time, so when it does happen, we need to minimise the damage and get back on the staight and narrow.  I intend to  stay in and hide from anyone who may have witnessed my drunken moves. 

wow, what a second week of the challenge we have had! seems like a whirl of activity in our office....everyone running around in their busy day to day work lives whilst totally embracing the challenge, it's hard to keep up with whose heading off where to do what activity!

Some headed off for a power hoop class, only to come back filled with excitement about the impromptu boxercise class they'd just taken part in! There are rosy cheeks glowing everywhere around me with the subtle groans of sore muscles being asked to stand up from their desks!

So far so good with the challenge, everyone seems to still be going strong and (quick touch some wood) we've had no injuries....well unless you count Fatema showing off her amazing flexibility from yoga by managing to connect her knee to her jaw with a loud crack whilst landing on the trampoline...but don't worry she jumped up like the true tough girl that she is with the positive 'I don't think it's broken!'...it wasn't thankfully and she carried on to bounce around for the next hour 

We have also as a department had hardly any sweet things in the kitchen this week which is a change from there normally being cakes and biscuits everyday of the week, we have had a few odd treats though in the form of jaffa cakes (they have orange in them, and have proved a good fuel snack for people heading off to classes), malted milk - they have milk so that's diary covered, and a lovely baked cake from Viiva - it was her birthday and birthdays should be celebrated! We also had some jam doughnuts....jam.....let's face it, jam is just squashed fruit so that's one of our five-a-day right there....ok maybe not....but there are other people not taking part in commit to get fit who need to be catered for...and at the end of the day it's an individuals choice whether they eat it or not!! Next week I will be bringing in a fruit bowl and some fruit and I will encourage the team to buy fruit for the basket instead of cakes and biscuits. 

So a round up of this weeks activities people have done is: walking, trampolining, boxercise, spin, zumba, cycling, handball, jogging, yoga

Next week we have more people signed up for various circuit classes, the walk to Lewes was postponed from this week to next, and we have quite a few people signed up to the kung-fu taster session (cue many hilarious attempts to describe kung fu by demonstrating moves by the what's happening wall!)

We also have a departmental badminton game happening on Wednesday, which a lot of the commit to get fit team have signed up for, along with other people from the department, so that should be a lot of fun! 

With the fitness class list at the sports centre reverting back to the term time classes, i've had to create extra space on my activity planning print out for all the classes that the sports centre have to offer....I have to say the amount and variety looks very impressive when it's altogether in one place, I really don't know how the staff manage to juggle the amount of activities on offer and constantly come up with new ways to challenge people in the different classes. Their enthusiasm in getting people moving more is certainly catching! 

I hope the other teams in the challenge have had a great 2nd week too, our team looks forward to meeting more people from the other teams next week in the activities. 

Due to technical difficulties with log ins I am posting this on behalf of Karine. 

The past 10 days have been fantastic, and participating in Commit to Get Fit – alongside the sunny weather- has been a definite highlight of the month so far! My main goals for CtGF are especially about trying out new activities, and doing more of them with my lovely work mates.

I think the photos are a good representation of some of the fun times had so far! Beginners tennis last Wednesday (first photo) was perhaps my favourite activity. While I had had a few classes as a child, I hadn’t ‘played’ tennis in over 20 years. It was really fun to rediscover tennis again and have a good laugh with friends in the process. Other activities, which the sports centre organises, which I’ve taken part in during the last 10 days include: Circuits, Boxercise (power hoop was cancelled at the last minute) and Zumba (later today!).

Lunchtime walks with colleagues to see the bluebells (2nd photos) have also been a great way to get a break and some fresh air in the middle of a day’s work. I’ve also been walking at the weekends.  I joined IDS’s walk from Arundel to Amberley on bank holiday Monday (3rd photo).

I’m looking forward to our team’s badminton session next week and will blog all about it next time! I have to admit that I haven’t necessarily changed my food and drink habits yet, but one challenge at a time!

Brain: oh my god how much fun was bouncing around on that springy thing last night. I had such a gret time laughing with my colleagues as we bounced, learnt tuck jumps, pike jumps, straddle jumps and seat drops! I can't wait to do that again!!

Body: Get lost brain...we hate you and the operator! Revenge will be ours *mwhahahahahah* (evil laugh)

Brain: uh oh.......... (retreats quietly back into itself)

DARO is a large group and since every member of the department has committed to CtGF the programme has really been taken to heart.  There is an awful lot going on and even though there are work trips abroad and some holidays during May, everyone is partaking and contributing.  

In the last week alone this is what has been enjoyed by DARO:  netball, gym, boxercise, walking, swimming, yoga, badminton, paragliding, jogging, running, allotment, British Military Fitness, football, kayaking, handball, cycling.  

The impact of CtGF has been not only to facilitate us doing new things but also to prompt actually doing what we've long been thinking about.  People have moved more, taken on new challenges and bonded with their team.  Bad old habits have been challenged and new better ones are being tested.  New bikes have been bought, kayaking courses signed up to and good yomps undertaken with colleagues.

In particular, using CtGF and Sussex research, we have been taking a break from our desks in our own time for lunch.  Sussex research found that leaving the office to eat lunch increases general wellbeing and makes employees look more favourably upon their job.  Those that eat at their desk are more likely to feel miserable and this may impact upon their productivity.  The first best place to eat lunch is on the beach so we have to settle for the second best which is sitting on a bench in a green space.  We're incredibly lucky to work on the unique Sussex campus surrounded by the Downs and CtGF has shown some of us how truly beautiful our locality is.

The office biscuits and cakes have gone from the kitchen and were even replaced with quinoa at the team meeting - yes QUINOA!  I made two versions, one with pumpkin, poppy and lin seeds, the other with sprouted beans.  Those returning from trips have refrained from buying the local delicacies or have kept them back for after CtGF.  People have adapted the lunches that they've brought in, so much so that our fridge would make Gwyneth Paltrow proud...Goop indeed...see photo below - the jar is a home made nettle pesto made with walnuts, pecorino cheese, olive oil and garlic.

The range of change is naturally across the spectrum with some changes bigger than others.  One notable win is a favourite snack of a Mars Ice Cream being substituted with Total 0% with mixed berries.  In the middle there are a lot of people cutting down on caffeine and lowering sugar intake.  At the far end is the non fruit eater buying fruit, the next few weeks might even progress to consumption of it.  

The best bit is people sharing their experiences so that the whole team benefits.  A few of us made Terry Cooper's Eat Better, Feel Better seminar and we've shared the knowledge with everyone.  Well, the sharing was prompted on our return by 'did he mention quinoa?' and 'Terry!  Did he mention quinoa?' which then led us to share the rest.  The Omega 3 and 6 balance seemed to resonate the most strongly.

Well we're on day 9 now and most of the personal challenges have been exploritory and insightful. As someone that has a high cholesterol count I've been avoiding saturates for the past couple of years. A visit to the quack last week and an interesting talk from Terry "Eat Better, Feel Better" has made me re-start the process of what goes in and what doesn't. For now I'll stick with the weekly salmon/trout, the wholewheat breakfast cereal and some sort of greenery with all meals that contain meat/processed food.

TOP TIP: Tinned Tuna - the canning process breaks down the long Omega 3 chain - eat fresh tuna and beware of the mercury!

I'm also trying to drink 4 glasses of water a day (plus anything drunk during exercise) and failing miserably. Back in a mo. Ok I've now had one glass of water today. Walkers have also taken a hit, I'm down from 2 bags of crisps a day to 3 so far this month.

The headstand is heading in the right direction. I had a practice at home (much to my 3 year old daughter's amusement) and found that I could get off my toes without bursting a blood vessel. "Do it again Daddy" - "No". "Do it again Daddy" - "No". "DO IT AGAIN DADDY" - "Do you want a bit of melon?". I've learnt how to distract her when losing an arguement.

I met Karen again on Tuesday, keen to show my slight improvement. Slight improvement shown, what do I do now? Oh the scarey bit. Stick my feet up in the air. I tried, much to Karen's suprise, luckily she just managed to break my fall as I went up and then over.

We moved to the wall. I got my feet up but I've no idea what is vertical. My heel hit the wall. Only one heel, that was promising. As I removed one heel I'd sway and replace that heel with one from the other foot. So there were moments where I was upside down without contact with anything but the floor. I think I stayed upside down for about a minute and I enjoyed it. With my confidence a little higher than it was last week I had a quick go today on my own. I can get up pretty well but I just can't find that balance point, but I remember learning to drive and having to find biting point.

So the operator decided to hold a meeting between the brain and the body to find out how they were all coping with the commit to get fit challenge...here's how it went:

Brain: Hi body, the operator is glad you could all come to the meeting

Heart (on behalf of the body): thanks it's great the operator called it

Brain: So I am really enjoying the challenge, I feel fresh and happy, how about you guys?

Heart: Well we are, for the most part, enjoying the challenge but some of us have a few concerns

Brain: oh what are they? I will have a chat with the operator and see what we can do

Heart: fabulous here is a list of demands.....erm sorry I mean polite requests!

• From the muscles: we are loving being used a bit more than we were, but we'd like to remind the operator that we need to be stretched out following a heavy workout, this helps us to relax and chill after the operator has done what she has done. We are being a bit irritated by the omega 6...seriously there are 1000's of them running about...also would it be ok if the operator soaked in that water thing with those nice scented oils, it's really warm and we like that.
• From the lungs: keep up the good work of making us work a bit harder,  we are getting so much better at inflating and deflating
• From the joints: yeah we are a bit sore, so maybe the operator could be a bit more sensible with the deadlifiting, but otherwise the more she moves, the less stiff we become
• From the endorphins: we are LOVE, LOVE, LOVING it....keep going we are having a party in here
• From the Omega 6: We are a little bit lonely and apparently irritating the muscles a bit causing them to be a bit inflamed and grumpy.....please can the opertator send me some omega 3's  so that we can be friends and help each other out and then we can leave the muscles alone
• From the cells: we are drying up...please send water and lot's of it
• From the stomach: I am a little happier, still a ways to go before I can rest peacefully but I'm in better shape than I was
• From me, the Heart: I feel like i'm being given a new lease of life.....granted I still have to work really hard on occasions but I am getting so much better at settling down again after those occasions, that I don't mind a good workout

Brain: wow that's quite a list but it seems that everybody is also enjoying the challenge and if the operator makes a few more tweaks this will help you all...is that right?

Heart: yes

Brain: ok I have spokent to her and she says of course she can make a few more changes, so cells expect water, omega 6, there is some omega 3 heading your way, muscles a bath to soak you all has been booked for the weekend along with a lovely stretching session......she also said she knows she has asked a lot from you and wants to thank you all for co-operating so well, but she needs to ask a little more from you today as she is doing something called circuits and trampolining, she assures me all of you will enjoy the trampolining

Heart: eeeeek that sounds like a lot, but I suppose we could do that if she promises to be gentle with us the next day?

Brain: She promises

Heart: OK then we will do our best, it was good chatting to you, let's meet again soon

Over the bank holiday weekend I got out and about quite a bit - and made sure I walked everywhere, which meant either carrying my 2.5 stone 2-year-old or pushing her in her buggy, so I did some incidental weight training.  On Monday I went to a fete where they encouraged onlookers to join in with a Zumba demonstration - I'm afraid my husband forbade me from joining in - he thought I'd be an embarrasment - I did climb up / slide down the big slides at Monkey Bizness quite a few times though.  

Over the weekend I didn't manage to keep up the water drinking to the levels I manage to while at my desk (and my wine intake was pretty impressive in the wrong way), but I did manage to avoid diet coke and, in fact, I am still caffeine free 9 days into the challenge!

On Tuesday I tried Dynamic Yoga.  Oh dear!  I felt such an old croc!  I very nearly gave up about 5 minutes into the session, but with the honour of my team-mates in mind I kept going.  The teacher, Karen, was very kind - and by the end I felt I'd achieved something - and at the very least it had helped me catch up with my daily stretching target, which had gone out of the window somewhat over the weekend.

I had wanted to do a lunchtime class on Wednesday, but a 2pm meeting at the hospital prevented this.  Team-mates left the office excitedly to try Zumba and Power Hoop, both of which I want to try before the end of the month.

Today, encouraged by Jayne, I am going to enter a gym for the first time in at least 14 years.  Hahaha!  Let's see what happens to the old croc today.  Last time I went to a gym I was fit, relatively young and strong enough to do an hour's circuit in the gym followed by a mile in the swimming pool.  I wonder if I'll last 15 mins?  This challenge is making me feel very old ....

And tomorrow, we're off for another team walk at lunchtime.  I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone else has been doing.  Hopefully that will cheer me up if I'm despairing regarding my own efforts.

Days 4-6 (Saturday, Sunday, Monday)

I’ve gone and done it. I’ve committed myself to a 5km run this summer all in the name of charidee! So on Sunday, 14 July 2013 I will be running the Worthing Race for Life in aid of Cancer Research UK. If anyone feels like sponsoring me they can do so on my JustGiving fundraising page (shameless plug over....)

I tried to keep up the no caffeine after 1pm over the weekend and only had one slip up on Sunday. I had a cup of coffee at around 10:30pm, but I think this was justified as I was volunteering at an event at the Royal Albert Hall and wasn’t expected to get to my bed until approx 2.30am.

I’ve started training for the 5k run and have downloaded a useful (and fun!) Couch to 5k app (Zombies, run 5k) that I highly recommend.  On Monday I got out and enjoyed the sunshine and embarked on a lovely 4k jog along the beach.

Day 7 (Tuesday)

Day 7 was going well to start with and I had high hopes for the day, but just didn’t get a chance (or more likely I got side-tracked and forgot) to go for the lunch time walk that I had planned. Not to worry though, I have arranged "double fitness" tomorrow with a Power Hoop session at lunch time and a jog after work.

Day 8 (Wednesday)

Unfortunately my Power Hoop buddy was not well enough to take part today so my colleague (who was Zumba-ing today) and I set off to the Sports Centre with a bit of trepidation, but with a bounce in our step.

I was soon disappointed to find that the Power Hoop session wasn’t running today after all, but we were offered an impromptu Boxercise class instead. I’ve done boxercise before and had forgotten how much fun it is and what a great stress reliever it can be. I’m definitely tempted to look up a regular class if it runs at a convenient time.

I’m now back at my desk (the bounce in my step had gone due to exhaustion by the time I got back), but I’m feeling very virtuous! I’m even looking forward to my run tonight!

I first started dieting when I was 14 and bought The Hip & Thigh diet.  I was a size 12/14 and thought I was fat.  I was still on a diet when I was a student and responsible for my own food shopping.  I felt virtuous at the checkout buying a basket full of products labelled ‘low fat’ or ‘diet’; yoghurt, skimmed milk, margarine, diet coke and everything that was marketed to me as low fat and therefore healthy.   However, what I didn't realise was that diet food can actually make you put on weight.  If you choose something that is 'low fat' that can be just as bad for you than the chocolate or cake that you’re actually craving. 

By checking the labels and making sure that there isn’t too much fat in food you may find yourself eating sugar by another name: barley malt syrup, dextrose and sugar, dried glucose syrup, fructose, golden syrup, glucose-fructose syrup, glucose syrup, grape juice concentrate, honey, inverted sugar syrup, lactose, molasses, oligofructose syrup, partially inverted sugar syrup, prebiotic oligofructose syrup, raw cane syrup.

Artificial sweeteners are just as bad as they act upon your sugar receptors and can make you shun healthy, filling, and highly nutritious foods while consuming more foods with less nutritional value. Getting a sweet ‘hit’ from one of these additives will make you more inclined to crave sweetness than sugar itself.  Your brain receives a chemical trigger that it’s consumed something sweet.  When your blood sugar doesn’t rise it sends signals to the brain telling you that you’re hungry so you will eat more, as well as contributing to all sorts of health issues including diabetes Type 2.

In my experience of healthy eating I am discovering that avoiding processed foods is essential in losing weight and keeping it off.  Once I got used to the cleaner and all-round better feeling that comes from eating real, nutritious foods, I realised that I don't need sugar, sweets, or cake to be happy.

So, things continue to go well here at M&M headquarters. There is still much fruit being munched, along with regular conversations about the many and varied joys to be found in a bag of crisps. (Ah....Walkers Deep Ridged... ambrosia of the gods! )

It was really good to see the many resources offered by the Sports Centre last Friday.  I particularly liked the rowing machines and exercise bikes and would definitely use these as they lend themselves to bursts of activity which are short but physically effective and so are not too difficult to work in to your day. To that end, I will try to make going to the gym a regular part of my week, and so far, so good - I will be power-hooping tomorrow!

The ‘Eat Well, Feel Better’ nutrition talk was also good.   It reminded me of nutrients I was missing out on but could so easily be added to my diet e.g. omega 3 fats, which are not only found in oily fish but can be taken in supplements or by eating eggs or yoghurts to which these fats have been added.  Also, just a handful of almonds provides fibre and numerous minerals.

I just hope I can keep to my good intentions.   If I do, I will be healthier and sportier, although I am already starting to feel sportier as I now say things like, “I’m just going to get my gym kit on” rather than "I’m just going down to Eat Central for a coffee and a sticky bun".  So much better.

Week 2 saw Sally taking part in her usual Circuit Training classes as well a trip to check out her new local park where she ended up walking for miles.  She landed at Wilde Park having to slide down as massively steep hill covered in rabbit poo.  She went walking in her flip flops and ended up with blisters between her toes!

Simone took part in 2 x 1 hour netball matches.  She can’t believe how rough netball is now and thinks she could do with some rugby training instead to get her ready ‘for a 'not so non-contact’ sport!  Dan did about 400 reps of bouncing his son up and down every day – his arms ache, but he reckons it’ll stop any bingo-wingage.

There was a lot of dancing taking place this week as well.  Graham danced on campus on Thursday and Emma danced for three hours on Saturday night in wedges, so she's hoping that burnt a few calories!

Helen and Graham have continued to cycle into work eveyday and everyone has kept up their usual fitness classes in the week.I went on the Bluebell walk at the week end in Arlington and attended a talk by Terry entitled Eat Better, Feel Better. 

As week two kicks off here's some of the SRS Team on how their weekends went and what they're looking forward to this week, plus some photographic evidence that trampolining and circuit training actually happened.

Isobel... "Bank Holiday weekend was mixed. A bingey day out at the cricket with a picnic full of what would usually be forbidden foods, followed by a few pints of cider (do the apples count as 1 of 5 a day?). Saturday and Monday were more restrained however so I'm pleased with that at least. This week we're trying some new activities such as handball and mountain biking which should make a nice change - assuming we make it back in one piece."

Nathan... "Haven’t managed to score any points for new activities or activities that last an hour or more yet but on the plus side I’ve done at least 30 minutes cycling every day, I’ve eaten plenty of fruit and veg I’ve been drinking like a fish and I’ve only had one sugary snack lapse. The downside to the lapse was that it was some rather unsatisfying ginger snaps biscuits. I resisted the urge to buy a tub of chocolate crispy snacks from Marks & Spencer to make the most of my lapse though. I’ve actually exercised less as I was on a training course last week. Going to get back to normal this week with a view to doing some more activities next week."

Margaret... "Weekend was good did lots of walking and did not eat anything I should not have. I was very good even refused hubby’s birthday cake (sticky toffee from thorntons)…Ymmm but not for me. Handball this week plus the walking and hopefully another session of circuits with Kev."

Jonathon (AKA Bread Lover)... "A very fantastic exercise filled four day weekend. Started on Friday – Walking to Hove and back (6 miles), in addition I managed to consume a WHOLE carton of Mango Innocent fruit juice (expensive but YUM) 5-a-day done and dusted by lunch time. That afternoon I came into work ON MY DAY OFF to take part in Kevin’s SRS circuits (SRS team kicked ass in this). Saturday saw a sleep deprived long haired ginger, scurry around 5K for Park Run – recording a new P.B. but still getting beaten by that dog who has such short legs but MAN they can go around quickly! Sunday and Monday both saw hour bike rides: Sundays ride note to self: Make sure when you replace your brake pads you tighten them fully, as Elm Grove is a very scary hill without back brakes. Mondays ride note to self: Make sure that you always have a very big HGV while going up large hills – it makes you peddle fast because of fear of DEATH – but it makes you come 4/189 on Strava (bike mapping app). http://is.gd/clu1IL#949422820 Each of these activities was followed by PUB and/or BEACH – therefore I’m full of vitamin D/C and Grapes. Bread Lover."

Me... "I went to the gym on Friday. Saturday was pretty much a write-off though. Sunday and Monday weren't so bad, but still not great. I'm going to get back on with exercising this week but I don't feel too bad about having a lazy weekend. If I just went and got fit in the first week I'd having nothing to do for the rest of the month so it's good to draw it out a bit."

As promised in last week's blog below are some photos of the team undergoing various forms of excerise for CTGF and a photo of Jonathon with some bread.

 Isobel loving the Levitation for beginners class.

Katie levitating al fresco style.

 Siobhan having a little sit down during Kev's circuit training.

 Isobel sunbathing.

Andy breakdancing.

Jonathon with some bread.

Overheard in the marketing office:

"Frazzles...Mmmmmm....you can DROWN in them!"

I will give a fuller update of the last week later (hopefully) but just wanted to mention that we've got a team night out tomorrow, to a local hostelry which is still to be identified.

I have every faith in the team sticking to their ctgf commitments during what I am sure will be a calm and restrained affair, but by my calculations…Guinness has iron in, cider (apples) counts towards your 5 a day and if you have some salad on your kebab on the way home, well it’s virtually a night at a health farm!

Hope everyone had a lovely bank holiday weekend?

I managed to get out on my bike over the weekend which was great, I was out for 1.5hrs off road. 60% of that was actually walking though! I can't ride through a field of sheep becasue I don't want to scare them and there was a lot of sheep about. I did discover a few things on my ride:

• Checking the brakes work properly BEFORE riding is a good thing
• Make sure you know roughly where you are going (I got lost and ended up at a farm!)
• Having a water bottle holder on the bike is a necessaity not a luxury (trying to ride with a bottle of water in your hand over rough terrain is very difficult)
• Have the saddle at the correct height (cycling with your knees up round your ears makes cycling extra hard, forgetting the tool to correct this is also a bad thing!)

Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed being out and about in the sunshine. I had no idead how many tracks there were from the back of my house, so i look forward to exploring these, most likely on foot as hybrid bike is not really up to rough tracks)

This week I have some exciting things to look forward to:

Metabolic training this evening (never done this so should be very interesting....and nice to find my metabolism as I fear it went on holiday a while ago and has yet to come back)

Trampolining on Thursday (yay exciting - I just need to try and NOT break anything). There will a circuit session, walking, jogging and swimming in between.

I also started a food diary via an app on my phone....over the weekend I learnt:

• I hardly drink any water
• I ate no fruit  and nowhere near enough veg
• Bread features heaviliy as does cheese
• Carbs to protein ratio is approx 90:10 in favour of carbs

I also jumped on the scales, they screamed like a banshee until I got off again. They have been sent to clinic to recover from the trauma! Think I will stick to my waistband getting looser to monitor progress.

After successfully giving up smoking at the beginning of last year, I thought that giving up sugar would be relatively easy.  However, I didn't realise how addicted I am and how sugar is present in more foods than I had anticipated.  There are the obvious foodstuffs; chocolate, cake, biscuits and ice cream that are staples rather than treats  in my diet.  I have a sweet tooth so I knew if would be difficult to give them up. 

I quit smoking by reading everything I could about the effects of nicotine on the body.  This scared me into action and kept me motivated.  I used the same tactic to quit sugar.  It helped me to know what sugar does to the body and the information is readily available on the internet. 

So, for the last two weeks I have not consumed any sugar.  I gave up biscuits, fizzy drinks (including diet because of the aspartame), fruit juice, ketchup etc. It hasn't been easy but after a week I stopped craving sugar things.  I have realised how much I eat for emotional comfort rather than hunger, so it has helped me to write down how I feel when I eat and to avoid certain 'trigger foods'.  When I eat ice cream for instance, it feels like  treat but after the sugar rush I feel lethargic, guilt ridden and bloated.

I am happy to say that so far I have lost 5lbs and managed to resist the amazing homemade cakes and biscuits in the office!

Some of us went to the Sussex Sports Centre today for a tour and guidance on how to use the equipment.  The Admissions Team were in there pedalling and rowing to Mordor on various machines, boy are they keen?!  The Zumba going on downstairs looked full on too, we couldn't hear yelps of pain as the music was too loud, is that by design?  

We were shown the machines and a variety of free weights and resistance exercises by Mark Beresford. We'd already been royally greeted by Karen Creffield and Sam Fuller in Reception so we felt most welcome.  Mark gave great explanations of the best exercises and regimes for us and he obviously keeps up to date with the latest science.  The advice and tips given were extremely balanced and completely practical to fit into a working life on campus.  It was a bit embarrassing to find out that these resources and experts were a surprise to us all.  We all know where the cafes and bars are, why didn't we know there was something so good for us too?!  

wahoo it's a bank holiday 

So I thought seeing as i've enjoyed my foray back into the world of exercise this week, I would try to make sure I continued over the weekend (I ended up declaring today a rest day....I blame the late night at the pub....although I did only drink lime & soda!)

So my weekend plans are:

To see if i can find the trail on my bike that leads from the back of Saltdean to the top of Woodingdean (I can't read an ordanance survey map, and I am a bit rubbish when it comes to directions and i'm going solo on the trip so it should be fun....or reckless depending on how you look at it!)

I will also be starting a food diary as this seems to be working for lot's of other people, and I hope it might help me find out where I am making wrong choices with food (like many other people it's all about the cheese, bread & potatos!)...thought this might be a good start ready for Tuesday's eat better, feel better.

I will also be attempting my first few faltering steps into the world of jogging. I downloaded a couch to 5K app on my phone which i'm hoping will magically transform me into a runner, apparently following discussions in the pub last night, just downloading the app doesn't count towards activity at all...I do actually have to follow it and jog! (I thought exercise was 50% mental effort?!)

So I hope my fellow CtGFitters can get outside, get active and have the best time over the long weekend.....we have everything to gain from the challenge and nothing to lose.

There are ten of us in the SRS Commit to Get Fit Team and we vary in fitness levels and previous sporting experience but everyone is motivated to get fit this month.

Already this week members of the team have been trampolining, running, walking, riding, playing football, badminton and undergoing some intense lunch-time circuit training (photos to follow).

In this first team blog each member of the SRS CTGF Team explains a little about themselves and what CTGF means to them…

Our keenest team member Jonathon (he came in on his day off to do circuit training!) kicks us off with what would make an amazing online dating profile… “I’m six foot and have huge thighs. I enjoy cycling (on my bike called Whitney), running and I have recently started to go to the gym. I’m in love with bread – this is my biggest downfall. I was even given a bread-cake for my birthday. I wish to keep doing exercise and give up bread.”

Next up is Katie who makes great use of the word ‘squidge’…. “I am not unfit, but I know I am less fit than I was this time last year and I’d like to get back on track.  I am also squidgier than I was this time last year so I’d like to shed some squidge.  Most of my exercise consists of long lonesome runs and solo gym workouts so I’d like to try something more sociable.  I will be abstaining from cereal bars – I eat way too many! Looking forward to it and up for playing WP at rounders!”

Nathan managed to put down a croissant long enough to give us this… “I’ll be giving up sugary snacks for May, I made the most of my last almond croissant on Tuesday. I’m hoping to lose a few pounds of my belly and gain more core and upper body strength. I’ll continue to cycle into work each day and maintain my three squash games and circuits class each week. I’ll also try to do mountain biking and table tennis and maybe an extra circuits class here and there. I’m hoping Kev will give me some diet tips and exercises to try out. Looking forward to being slightly less flabby and a little bit hench by June.”

Margaret’s focusing on a healthy diet and giving up some of her many vices… “I am giving up cuppa soups for lunch and having salads and cutting down on my coffee intake at the moment – watch this space for any further things I have given up.  I want to lose at least a stone so hoping this commit to get fit will help me on my way to achieving this.”

Andy, like a sponge, is ready to soak up new experiences… “I’ve set myself a  couple of exercise goals and a couple of food goals for the month. Exercise wise I want to try a few more new sports, starting with the trampoline this week!  On top of that my food goals for the next month will be to try to drink more water and to stop eating the very tasty flapjacks on sale at the Student Union shop.”

Isobel may be the newest member of the SRS team but she’s already making her mark in CTGF… “I’m really looking forward to taking part in CTGF because it’s a great motivation to get fit for summer, to try new things I wouldn’t usually have considered, and to socialise with colleagues. I love the fact there is a team element to it as it’s fair to say I’m driven by two things in life….1). competition 2). The excuse to eat carbs. I’m not setting any strict goals in terms of measurements and weights, I’d just like to take it as it comes and enjoy the opportunity to try out some new activities and to get back in to a routine of doing regular exercise.”

Adam’s thinking about hitting the beach and publicly embarrassing himself (hopefully not at the same time)…. "I'm looking forward to taking part in the challenge again this year - it'll certainly give me a boost in training for that summer beach body! As a regular member of the gym and fitness  classes, I'm hoping to try some new activities throughout the month... as a team we've already got our sights set on trampolining and handball so I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to publicly embarrass myself again (but there'll be no hula hooping this time!). Oh and I'm giving up cheese, although I think I'm regretting this decision already."

Kevin’s bascially declaring war …. “I’m renaming this month’s activity ‘commit to STAY fit’. I like to think I’m already in reasonable shape. In May, my biggest hope is to try new activities and work with everyone else in our team to beat the proverbial daylights out of our biggest rivals – WP and Marketing! I’ll be embarrassed as sin if I fail this month – I’m a Personal Trainer and it won’t look good on me if my team don’t win!”

Bev was too busy exercising to comment...

And me… Instead of a life of over-indulgence interspersed with sporadic, guilt-induced attempts to get fit… I’m making a change and opting for a healthy balanced diet and a long-term commitment to exercise regularly. I’m not overweight but I’m not as healthy as I could be. I’m not interested in giving up everything I enjoy but I know I need to balance it with regular exercise. My goal for Commit to Get Fit is to use it as a starting point for a healthier and more active life. For the month I’m going to attempt to abstain from sugary snacks, volovants and port.

Next week we’ll be updating on a week that will include mountain biking, handball and who knows what else…

The team got off to a blazing start this week with people taking part in various activities. 

Tennis was played, circuits were conquered, trampolines were boinged on, bikes were ridden, yoga was stretched into, and a huge amount of walking seems to have taken place......seriously considering tying pedometers onto the walkers....maybe even some sort of electric powering device to keep the lights running in our office!

We've arranged a departmental game of badminton for 2 weeks time. A healthy receipe swap is being sorted out by Leah, so everyone will be submitting tasty receipes to her (I wonder if maybe I could talk her into the cooking them for us to sample?!!). Jess will be leading an evening walk from campus to Lewes next week, she has also kindly produced a diagram of the Eat Well Plate that we have added to our commit to get fit wall 

We've been working on our Team Goals and also activities for the CtGF team that can include out entire department.

Some of the goals that have been suggested are:

• Less office biscuits & cakes (to groans probably from those not in the CtGF team!)
• Eat more fuit & veg (think I might have to dig out a fruit bowl for the office)
• Healthy Treats (Jaffa cakes have orange in them so I think they count as healthy...don't they?!! Please?!!)
• For the whole department not just the team to get moving & have some fun

Some of the departmental activities on the wall are:

• Team Trampolining
• Badminton - Sorted!
• Swimming
• Lunchtime Cricket
• Frisbee
• Rounders

I'm sure there will also be plenty more walks arranged at lunchtimes too!

Three days into the challenge and we welcome another team member, Ellen.  I don't think we need to change the team name as Ellen actually job-shares with Lisa, who is already part of the team.

Seven of us, inspired by the Boundary Walk, have just enjoyed a second lunchtime walk in the sun in a week.  Today we went over the footbridge across the A27 to Falmer village, admired the pond and the tithe barn (and the farm shop), then headed off into UoB territory and then wended our way back to HQ via the underpass.  Half an hour.  Two miles.  Some 4500 steps (according to Jayne's pedometer).  Lovely!

Day 1 (Wednesday)

Today the team went on the organised boundry walk around the campus. The sun was shining and it was the first time in a long while that I’ve purposely left the office at lunch time for a reason other than grabbing a bite to eat for lunch. The walk was lovely and a gentle introduction to a month of CTGF and it was great to see and learn more about the area that I’ve been working at for the last year.

I returned to the office feeling invigorated and ready for my lunch and have now been booked onto a Power Hoop session next week. Apparently it’s in the Dance Studio which has a wall of mirrors. Eeep! Anyone know if you can Power Hoop with your eyes closed?

Day one of no tea or coffee after lunch was difficult, but I was able to refuse the offer of a cup of tea from colleagues on the University of Brighton campus and I somehow survived the afternoon with no caffeine-withdrawal grumpiness! Roll on Day 2!    

Day 2 (Thursday)

Day 2 has started slowly. I was very much in the need for caffeine all day, but stuck to coffee and tea only in the morning and then switched to water in the afternoon. This was a big achievement for me as I don’t normally do water. I went out for a lunch time walk in the sunshine – it may only have been to the pharmacy and back but it is better than sitting at my desk all day.

Without thinking I drank a cup of tea at my Slimming World group. Blast! I was doing so well. But all was soon forgotten when I weighed in and had lost 2.5lbs that week. The CTGF challenge has come at the right time for my weight loss goals as Slimming World has helped me lose over 4 stone in a year and I am now only 3.5lbs from my target weight. Once there I will need to be more active to help me stay at my target weight so hopefully I will build up some new habits during this challenge and keep them up as a part of my day-to-day life!

Day 3 (Friday)

Today the team are going on a walk at lunchtime but unfortunately I was half asleep this morning getting ready for work and have not brought any appropriate footwear (if I was at school this is when I would be handed a pair of lost property plimsolls and be told to get on with it). I will instead man the office and go for a wander around campus after my colleagues return and enjoy the sunshine.

Plans for the Bank Holiday weekend

I will be heading up to London for the weekend and will hopefully be continuing with lots of walking, avoiding caffeine after midday and eating healthily. On Monday, on my return from the Big Smoke I will go for a jog helped along by the Zombies, Run! App on my phone (if you don’t know about this app look it up – it makes running a bit more fun.) I also plan to look into some 5k runs happening this summer and register to take part on one.

Ta-ta for now!

Feeling a bit sore but physically well (except for a few bruises) after a very vigorous bike ride yesterday.  I think that those who saw me trying not to fall off my bike and not lag too far behind my colleagues would say I am not the nation's next great Olympian.  I'm sure though, that with experience, this is a really good way to exercise.

I definitely felt a sense of achievement at the end and really want to thank Jenny, whose encouragement spurred me on to the finish line.  I am only sad that I let Julie Andrews down - the effort of straining to drag myself up hills left me in no mood for singing.

Wow.  Mountain biking up over the Downs above campus today was amazing.  Eight of us went with Jenny from Sports as our cheerleader.  Six formed the scouting party that went on ahead and graciously waited at certain points for the two laggers whom Jenny was cheering on.  It was almost complete relief when Jenny got a puncture and had to change the inner tube as the laggers got to stand around looking helpful whilst gulping in fresh air.  

One of the advance party has only ever cycled on roads and he found the fast downhill pace over loose flint more scary than the Lewes Road.  The bikes provided by Sports are great quality with them being new aluminium, so, easy to push uphill with one hand on the bike and the other massaging the stitch.  The helmets are cool if you like to look like a chipmunk but ESSENTIAL when you consider the terrain.

DARO is looking at Sussex research and will be putting into practice the findings that will help with the Commit to Get Fit programme.  One of the research teams found that an effective way to deal with stress was reading which reduced levels by 68%.  Obviously reading the research helped there then.  The next most effective tool is to listen to music which can reduce stress levels by 61%, followed by having a cup of tea of coffee (54% reduction) and finally, a walk lessened stress by 42%.

Our SurveyMonkey results have shown what the most popular sports for DARO are and we're all booking ahead as soon as we can.

I have to say, the first day of "Commit to get fit" didn't get off to a very auspicious start. It's not that I didn't remember it was Day 1 as soon as I peeled my eyes open, it was more to do with the realisation that the only thing I felt committed to at that point was my lovely soft, warm duvet. In fact, at 7am I felt more than ready to make a very meaningful, long term commitment to it.

But then I remembered how I'd badgered the rest of the Marketing Team - plus the lovely Marie from Estates - to not only join in the main challenge, but also the extra SRS/WP add on competition, so the least I could do was show up.  Besides, since I discovered that "middle-aged spread" is not merely something festering away at the back of the SRS fridge, I know I really have to get my act together again. So I got up.

Arriving at the office, the signs weren't great at first. From behind his door I could hear John wistfully recalling the many happy days he'd spent in the company of a cinnamon danish (the main thing he has vowed to refrain from for the whole of May). This was at about the same time as I was realising that no, I couldn't just pop out to the Dhaba cafe for a chocolate-covered flapjack, but would have to settle instead for the bruised-looking banana which had been sunbathing on my desk for the last few days.

Boy Nick was clearly determined to test the resolve of me, Girl Nik and Kelly by immediately cracking open a packet of crisps, then refusing to go and eat them furtively outside by the bins as requested. After a few seconds of his half-hearted, pathetic attempts to rustle and crunch more quietly, Kelly stormed over to his desk to declare that he was "made of MEAN bones!" And so another jolly day in the office began...

However, despite a bad start I am happy to report that in a very short time the "M&Ms" had grasped the nettle and were poised for glory. Boxes of excessively exuberant salad started appearing, the water cooler got very busy and the day's exercise regimes began.  Katy, Jakki, Fiona, John, Girl Nik, Kelly and me headed off for the Boundary Walk; Claire and Vicki went to Zumba; Marie and Boy Nick went to the gym and Lucy had a yoga lesson booked in after work.

It's early days yet but I think we can safely say: "M&Ms ARE GO!"

I hate most women's magazines. They make us feel inadequate on a daily basis. They are obsessed with how much celebrities weigh and if we do worry about what the scales say, which a lot of us do, how could we ever know what these magazines say is true?

Samantha Brick proudly declared in the Daily Mail recently that  "The first summer I felt thin coincided with a family holiday abroad. While this provided an opportunity to show off my svelte new figure, I had to watch my calorie intake even more carefully.I fainted with hunger on one occasion – a minor hitch, eclipsed by the fact that I was being asked out on lots of dates. At college I invented the Polo diet. Eating a pack of mints for breakfast and another for lunch, I could make each one last hours"

This sort of drivel is unacceptable. It’s misleading, and irresponsible. A healthy, normal, person reads how much a celebrity weighs and starts to think they need to lose twenty pounds to fit in, so promptly starves themselves because they don't measure up. We are intelligent people and so much better than that but we're not always about what we're being fed by the media. 

I am going to stop trying to compare myself to celebrities and others and concentrate on eating healthily and getting down to a healthy weight for myself.  Having said that, I can't help but be impressed by Boy George's recent weight loss and am using him as my inspiration!

The DARO team has three goals to complement its member's individual goals.  A 'naive art' poster on the kitchen wall lists them in highlighter pen:

• NO more cake or biccies in the office
• ADOPT N.E.A.T. - non exercise activity thermogenesis
• ENJOY our team challenge

Amazingly, before the poster was put up, the least likely candidate in the office brought in a box of tangerines.  It looked as though he was walking in with a box of KFC in a carrier bag, so no shock there, but, when the office found out who had contributed the lovely fruit, shock ensued, no-one had ever seen him eat fruit and he wasn't going to partake of his own offering either.  Such a lovely gesture and gratefully devoured.

In a similar vein, it turns out that some plants adopt thermogenesis themselves, namely the Skunk Cabbage, Voodoo Lily and Corpse Flower, hmmm.

Team DARO, bar one member manning the phones, all enjoyed the Boundary Walk yesterday and were inspired to see the Good Ship Bramber, our home, sailing towards the sun and the sea through the Downs.

It became clear yesterday that the Commit to Get Fit challenge was getting serious when the office biscuits were replaced with a tub of tangerines. I have decided not to be down beat about this, and, in the positive spirit of Girl Power, will tell myself that I don't want biscuits...what I want, "what I really, really want", is a piece of fruit!

The Boundary Walk yesterday was also a great way to kick off my health regime - if I didn't feel like Julie Andrews surrounded by all those hills, I definitely should do today when I hope to be blithely cycling through the countryside.  If the DARO team would  join me in singing about our favourite things, it would be perfect! X

Today I opted for an hour long massage. Often, people believe that getting a massage therapist is just a way to pamper or indulge yourself. We treat it as a way to reward ourselves.  The benefits of receiving a therapeutic massage run deeper than just relaxation however.  There are many positive benefits to receiving a massage, including:

It isn't easy motivating a team in this year's Commit to Get Fit as pretty much everyone who participated from HR last year signed up for Gold membership and has been using it all year round.  So even though everyone was eager to participate, we are finding it difficult to think of ways to improve.  Graham is a professional Morris dancer and cycles into work and home everyday as does Helen.  Dan walks faster than the speed of light and regularly plays badminton, as do others in the team.  He is also walking a lot more to the kettle and back as he consumes more coffee, what with getting a lot less sleep than he used to.   

Sally & Simone are regulars at circuits and we are constantly amazed how Sally keeps her fringe so straight after such a strenuous workout.  She has been hard at it as she recently moved house and has been scrubbing her new abode.  Simone is a professional Netball player and appears to have a match every night. 

Lois has been looking at 'running prams' so I guess she will be keeping fit in a few months.  She has continued to do yoga throughout her pregnancy.  Wonderwoman.

I spotted Nadia looking at some sort of harness, so I think she is going rock climbing in the near future. 

Rachael is looking forward to getting fit again after last year's CTGF.  She went to Zumba today and said she wasn't as unfit as she thought she would be.  Leila is a professional Zumba dancer and I have spotted her hovering over the link to Power Hoop ready to book all the classes when she can. 

Martin spends every night sprinting to catch his connecting train.  I believe he has got it down to less than 50 seconds now.

We think Emma may be trying to sabotage the team as she baked a huge coffee cake which I understand tastes delicious.  I have cut out sugar from my diet and have spent the last year doing yoga and am now a lot more flexible but no less stressed.  Today I have a massage at lunchtime and it was wonderful.  Just a shame I had to go back to work in the afternoon.  While I was there I saw Cheryl waiting to do some sort of activity.  She is ALWAYS at the gym.  She is the champion of everything. 

See you next week.

I've given myself a few challenges for May which I'll share with you over the next few blogs (next and blog - this is my first ever). The first though is part of my Yoga practice. I started Yoga in January 2012, whilst suffering an ongoing knee injury and experiencing a growing waistline, and have probably embraced it more than any other activity since I was a kid. What I've noticed since doing yoga is that loads of normal people do it, and some even do it at home, and some haven't even heard of Sting, even Ryan Giggs does it. During class I've noticed that headstand (Shirshasana) looks pretty cool and people that I know that practice at home always seem to mention it.

So I asked my general and dynamic yoga teacher, Karen Creffield, whether she would spend some time with me and try to teach me how to do a headstand, and that practice started today. You can have the abridged version...

Karen started by describing the technique required and which muscle groups needed to do the work so that I firstly didn't break my neck and secondly send myself catapulting head over arse. We decided on a hand grip that I'd tried once before, the ashtanga style. From kneeling I put my hands together and my hands and forearms onto the mat, stuck my head in between them and then got up on my feet and started to walk towards my head. As I approached a point where I was on tiptoes and ready to go up my temperature shot up, as if my head and had been stuck in an oven. I came back down and Karen suggested we give the other method a go, apparently my face had gone bright red. Making a fist rather than interlocked fingers I went down on my knees again. This time I didn't go bright red so we decided to go for this method, for now.

Karen had demonstrated going from tiptoes to bent legs with feet in the air. It looked easy but I suspected otherwise, and I wasn't ready for this. I thought this would be week 3 or something. Anyway after a couple of attempts I gained the bottle to launch from tiptoes, I was very wobbly but I knew either Karen or the wall would stop me going right over, so I straighted my legs. Wow, I'm doing it, engage stomach muscles. Eventually my heels hit the wall and Karen supported me but in essence I was doing my first headstand and that would be more than enough for today, I felt hot and sweaty and tired and I'd only inverted myself.

After Savasana I wandered back to work. I still felt tired, my stomach and shoulders felt like I'd done a hundred crunches and pulls. Although pleased with the progress I'd made I wonder if I've bitten off more than I can chew for a month.

Well, that's one achievement already - I had no idea SPLASH existed, having been employed by the University for over 6 years, but I have now discovered it (thanks to Sam of Sussex Sport), registered and here I am blogging away - also my first ever blog (though I do tend to write quite a bit on facebook).

I thought Commit to get Fit didn't start until tomorrow, but having registered I've already found other teams blogging away, so I thought I ought to get straight in there.

The BSMS-8 are raring to go - not necessarily absolutely all in the same direction - but we're starting off the campaign tomorrow with the Boundary Walk (all together I think).  We've had a meeting and discussed a number of goals / things to try and I'm hoping that over the next week that will settle down into something coherent enough to write about in more detail over the coming weeks.

Our team members are me, Amii, Denise, Lisa, Jayne, Charlotte, Pat and Nichola - we're all female support staff with different levels of fitness and layers of insulation - but we are all committed to making changes this coming month and hopefully long-term to our diet and approach to exercise.

That's all for now.  Quite enough for a debut blog, I think.

So I thought I would post a welcome to my lovely teammates who have taken up this challenge. There are 18 of us all together and it's a total mixed bag of people who do a vast range of different activites...we are all united to get fit, try new activities and have lot's of fun along the way! 

So i'd like to introduce you all to the fabulous team consisting of Simon, Ruth, Rob, Jerry, Jessica, Jospehine, Gabrielle, Duncan, George, Jason, Fatema, Catherine, Alan, Alyson, Louise, Karine, Leah & me (nat)

We all work in the Knowledge Service Department at IDS.

In total there are actually about 40 in our department and already as well as the CTGF team aranging activities for themselves, we are starting to compile a list of things we can get our whole department involved in, so hopefully, even though some of the department aren't taking part in the challenge, they will get involved with us in some activity 

So hi from us at IDS and we hope to get to know some more people from other teams taking part in the challenge along the way!

Our whole team have commited to the programme and even before it starts the well being levels have increased.  First, we've had the 're-tox before the de-tox' weekend, whole heartedly embraced by all.  Tomorrow our campaign starts in earnest for our very mixed group of individuals.  We have on our team someone who completed the Brighton marathon recently, some who regularly partake of the Sports facilities on campus, others who limp into the office after off-campus sports and a few who need to challenge their comfort zones and get their bodies moving in unfamiliar ways.

28/4  My first personal challenge this year is to give up sugar.  I have already stopped eating cakes, biscuits, fizzy drinks etc in the last ten days and haven't really experienced horrible withdrawal symptoms but this maybe because I have been stuffing my face with cheese instead. However, I have gained weight so this is probably not the healthiest way to do it. 

Unfortunately I have been unwell for the last few days (unrelated to quitting sugar!) so I haven't been able to exercise or concentrate on my diet but hopefully I will be back on track for the Commit to Get Fit challenge in May.

29/4  I went to the cinema tonight, preceded by a drink in the bar.  I would ususally have a beer or a coke but tonight I have a coffee without sugar.  That was easy enough as it was only the one.  Instead of my usual medium sugar popcorn at the cinema, I had a kids mix of small salt popcorn, raisins and a water. 

02/05 CTGF has coincided with HR cake club.  Today I have sat next to a beautifully made coffee cake which I hear tastes awesome.  I did not resist!

I hope anyone reading this had a nice weeked? I spent my Saturday afternoon in an Alexander Technique workshop, it was quite interesting and as we went through the afternoon what I was being told was the same thing that my chiropractor had told me a couple of months ago, the alex teacher just told it in a more roundabout way, rather than the direct way the chiropractor told me (i like the direct route myself!)

So anyway back to the challenge...because I hate starting things in the middle of a week, I decided to start the challenge a little early by booking onto lunchtime yoga today. I used to practice yoga when I was younger and dabbled again a while back and really enjoyed it, but got out of practice, so my first class back in a long time was a shock to the system!

Many years ago after suffering much joint pain and being able to move various joints in a manor that had people squealing eurgh, yuck, gross etc I was referred to a rheumatologist by my doctor. After some blood tests & mobility tests, he informed me I had hypermobile joints and mild Raynaurds and sent me on my way with very little info on what that meant, so I just carried on doing things and kind of put up with the pain in the joints. Now you would think that having hypermobile joints would mean that getting into yoga postures should be quite easy....it isn't....I felt a stiff as a piece of wood with metal rods running through it!

So after trying to force my body into the various yoga postures with guidance from the teacher Karen, I became more and more aware that I have no strength, no stability and no sense of where my arms and legs are in relation to my body if i'm not really looking at them, I was also very aware of the people surrounding me moving very gracefully from one posture to the next. 

I wanted to be like the graceful people not looking like a walrus standing on a ball wobbling about! Now I know people say you have to practice to get good at something, but I can be a touch inpatient and I thought I would just pick up where i left off a long time ago, so it was a little disheartening to me to find I couldn't. The impatience and sticking to something to get good at it is something i really need to work on in myself, too many times I have jacked something in becuase I always felt like I wasn't good enough at it, so this really needs to change and i'm hoping that this challenge will help with that.

I enjoyed the class and would certainly recommend it to someone wanting to try yoga. I really enjoyed the breathing exercise at the beginning and will be trying that before I go to bed as it was very relaxing. Thanks to Karen the end restful posture that I always struggle with, as lying flat out causes considerable pain in my back, was relieved somewhat by the simple addition of a few mats rolled up and placed under the backs of my thighs...who'd have known something so simply could work like that!

So tomorrows exciting fitness antics will come in the form of lunchtime circuits. I fully expect that following this class movement will be diminished for Wednesday & Thursday (that should be fun as I booked on the circuits class on Thursday too!), and I have set myself two goals to work towards during the class:

Goal 1: to stop competing with other people and to work to my CURRENT fitness level, not the fitness level I had when I was 17! 

Goal 2: to finish the class without the need for medical intervention (I have been known to fall over my own feet...quite a lot!)

So hopefully I will see some more CTGF people in the class tomorrow 

Have fun people

2012 was always going to be a monumental year for me as I had decided that this was going to be the year that I gave up smoking.  Up to the age of 16 I had always been active and enjoyed dancing, roller skating, ice skating, swimming and playing hockey for the School team.  I was always a good weight for my height but of course being a teenager I had body issues which made me convinced that I was fat.  After all, I was a size 14 which is enormous, isn't it? (I am 5ft 9 and have been since I was 12).

At the age of 16, I started at sixth form college in Brighton and knew nobody as my family had moved from Portsmouth.  It was a fresh start for me and as I made new friends and started socialising, I turned my back on healthy living and decided that smoking and drinking were far cooler.  I was still quite slim at this point as I spent my lunch money on cigarettes.  I thought I was fat but looking back at photos of myself I looked quite slim.

To cut a very long story short, twenty or so years later I found that my hedonistic lifestyle had left me overweight, addicted to cigarettes and unable to walk far without stopping for a rest.  On top of this, the medication that I have to take has the negative side effects of making me gain weight.  I was in the position that many people find themselves in where they feel that they cannot change their lifestyle as it would take too much effort and they will probably fail anyway.  Now when I looked in the mirror I knew I was overweight and higher than the 'average dress size'.

Poor me eh?  I thought so too.  For the last twenty two years. 

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So in January I quit smoking.  It was as vile as you can imagine but this time I knew I would succeed.  It took 7 weeks of 'agony', hundreds of bags of toffees, mood swings, lots of hot baths and avoidance of other people, especially friends who smoked.  I was encouraged by friend's and colleagues' 'well done's' and determined to succeed.  Now I am a non-smoker.  No doubt about it.

So after 100 days of not smoking I decided to start eating healthily.  I didn't want to 'go on a diet' as I had tried that before and it hadn't worked for me.  So I decided to have a fruit and veg box delivered so that I would be forced to eat healthily.  I spent the whole of April learning how to cook healthily and as a result my skin was brighter, I had more energy and I felt great.  I didn't lose any weight though.

In May, we were issued the challenge 'Commit to Get Fit'.  I took up the challenge as part of Team HR.*    This was the motivation  I needed to start getting fit. 

This was last year's blog that I was too embarrased to share with anyone except for myself.  One year on I have managed to lose two stone and continue to exercise on a regular basis (mainly yoga and Pilates).  This year I will post a regular blog even though I find this part harder than actually exercising...

It's the last week of May and we were all persuaded to end our month of keep fit activities on a positive note: so we all went to the gym for a Spinning Class.

"Spinning" is done on exercise bikes, and involves changing gears to simulate going up and down hill, sprinting, and lots of standing up. It was exhausting, but a great experience, and it left me riding high on endorphins for the rest of the day.

Personally, this was a pretty interesting experience because I've not been in a gym before. I found it very... loud, and a bit painful. But as someone who usually jogs solo it was brilliant to have other a team of people doing the same thing. It certainly made me push myself more than I would normally. Before I had even gotten my breath back, some of our team members were already making plans to come again, so it was evidently a good experience for us all.

Jos did a great job organising this for us, and it was good to find out more about what other team members do to stay fit.

I think the big take-away for our team is likely to be the food bowl, which proved to be quite popular in the office. And by the sound of it, a few of us are planning to go to the gym as a group in future, which is excellent!

Here's a photo of the team after the Spin Class:

Thank you to Sussex Sport for encouraging me to be more healthy this month.

Here's what I did before:

• Cycled into work and home from Hove most days
• Played squash and football once a week
• Ate lots of fruit and veg
• Ate chocolate most days

Here's what I've done in May

• Cycled into work and home from Hove most days
• Played squash and football once a week
• Played volleyball
• Did Circuits - much less scary than I imagined it would be
• Went mountain biking
• Ate even more fruit and veg
• Thought about eating chocolate (only ate it three times this month)

I'm probably only slightly fitter but my teeth are healthier and my wasteline thinner. I've enjoyed keeping a track of how well I'm doing and looking forward to hearing the results of how well our teams did in SRS.

It's been especially nice hanging out with my work colleagues a bit more (quick pint after volleyball to sooth the bruised wrists - not sure I was hitting it right). Oh and I'm looking forward to my Montezumas choc bar tomorrow.

So thanks again.

This week i haven't really managed to do a lot of exercising, but in contrast I have eaten a lot to balance it out. This week started with a boxercise class that included a few familiar faces from other classes. I measured the class intensity by judging how hard these guys worked in comparison to the other classes I see them in and they worked pretty hard.

Marion who is on a commit to get fit campaign has been working her socks off and lost 2/3lb last week on a diet of hard work and sensible choices...WOW...that easy....yes...most of the time it is that easy. She is a pleasure to work with and if I am honest works hard everytime she comes in the gym...not a lot of people can actually say that......:)

On that note if you have a gold membership then use the 2 personal training sessions that you have....or come and see Mark and I at the Falmer Sports Complex and we might have a workout for you to try.

Marion has hit everything at 100% and is noticing the changes as we go along. The step up and split squat are pretty tough exercises, but for shaping the backside and outer glutes...these are your bang for butt exercises....want shapely glutes or just glutes that work then dose yourself up with a prescription of steps and split squats

The Commit to Get Fit has really shown that some things really do work and from a Sussexsport point of view we need to find out what has ticked the boxes, got people interested and bottle it...people are talking of carrying on through June and joining the facilties..which if this is true is a successful outcome. I have seen people I have only heard about, recieved emails from or spoken to on the phone...see guys we really aren't that bad, although watch out for Ria...woooo she is a toughie....I am reading the blogs on most days and people are doing loads..piece of advice on training...you get 80% of your success from 20% of what you do...so if you want my advice, if you have an hour then warm up, lift weights, cool down...lifting weights is the 20%...reduce moderate intensity cardio machine work, unless it is the only thing that you can manage, Marion and current personal training client do no more than 10 minutes of cardio and Marion has lost 2lb!!!!!!!!! INTERVALS INTERVALS INTERVALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday nights class saw some real quality in the application of the exercises..the core class I teach looks at stability and mobility in joints. The joint by joint approach was made up by Mike Boyle. The joints are stacked upon each other like so

Neck (Stability)

Mid Spine/Shoulder (Mobility)

Lumbar Spine (Stability)

Hips (Stability/Mobility)

Knee (Stability)

Ankle (Stability/Mobility)

the brackets give you a general idea of what each area should really posses in terms of their quality. Now if you have re-occurring injuries/issues/niggles then generally look above or below that area e.g. A student by the name of Morgan tells me that he is now able to squat without pain in the knee...the cause of the pain...the shoes he was wearing!!! He knee pain was indirectly cause by the ankle. If we lack in any of the above area quality then the joints above and below wil compensate...e.g. if you lack hip mobility (the ability to squat/sit deep with a neutral spine) then you will compensate with lumbar flexion (rounding of the low back) which isn't a strong position. Also if we lack mid spine mobility then we will again move from the lumbar region (see below)...also note the difference in hamstring length and contribution (first picture - red, second blue)

Hamstring length is also an issue in this exercise and can affect low back pain.

Some my point is makes sure that you address these joint qualities at every session you do...if it is important then do it every day. Go to http://is.gd/WEs12H to find out about mobility exercises that you can do at home.....

Next week...how to train the core.

We've got to the end of week two of the fitness challenge and the action is starting to heat up here in CEC.

-Jocelyn, Andrea and Andy have all been spotted in fitness centre inductions.

-Susanna has upped her weekly activity with Swimming, Yoga and Running - covering all the fitness bases there!

-Sally has taken to cross training with not only running but also fitting in some additional squats whilst brushing her teeth.

-Claire has varied her usual training with an impressive 6km row in 30mins - eat your heart out Redgrave.

-The guys are currently still in the planning stage with Ian, Jo and Darren all planning a late surge before the they falling too far behind. Will this be a tortoise and hare moment?

A plan is currently forming for a departmental spinning event for the very near future.

Let’s hope the weekend sees us all back on Monday with new activities and ready for the challenge of week 3.

We make a stand against cake today!

We are rummaging for a fruit bowl. Once this essential item is in the office we plan to fill it up with fruit.

I have bagsied to bring in apples. We can fill it up on a Tuesday from the fruit stall at Falmer Square.

How good are we? Very.

We do feel collectively guilty as there has been one too many a birthday of late, and I at least feel cake shaped.

We are all getting active in CEC in the Library. A variety of delectable, strenuous activities are being banded about and our more eager team members have already embraced the challenge -

Susanna has been up at the crack of dawn to squeeze in an early morning swim.

Claire and Jos do enough aerobic activity for all of us! Jos plays tennis every lunchtime, and is now embracing the gym with Andrea. Claire is upping her 6 mile run to 7 plus adding a Zumba class. Claire also runs a Pilates class and there are double numbers in her classes. Do we get extra points for that too?

Andrea has a gym induction booked for Monday and is trying Badminton this week

Andy is cycling at top speed into work and has joined the gym

Sally is going to a step class and will do a 3 mile run (run/walk/run)

Darren is thinking about the sports he can do with an injured knee. Any ideas?

The RSTS Commit to get Fit team, aka Charlie's Angels, have arrived on the scene!

Nita, Susan and Caroline hit the mountainous Stanmer Park for a walk on Wednesday, and there are plans in the offing for chi gung and yoga... Heidi has expressed some definite interest in the trampolines and she'll be playing bingo tonight - which is good exercise for your fingers, so totally counts.  

Michelle, Susan and Nita also had their gym induction on Tuesday, and were inspired by the Zumba class that was going on at the time. So if you hear strange noises from the 1st and 2nd floors of Bramber House, rest assured they're just practicing their moves.

We'll keep you updated with our progress as the month goes on!