SOAPBOX: Making time for fitness is the bane of my life

When my boss sent an email urging everyone to sign up to the fitness app Strava and start shedding kilos for a new campaign, I shrank internally.

Sunshine Coast Daily staff journalists.Nicky MoffatPhoto: Warren Lynam / Sunshine Coast Daily. Picture: Warren Lynam

WHEN my boss sent an email urging everyone to sign up to the fitness app Strava and start shedding kilos for a new campaign, I shrank internally.

I'm a private person. I was about to delete the email when she sent another, more demanding one.

Urgh. Okay, I thought.

I'm going to have to confront this.

Three quarters of adults living in regional Queensland are overweight or obese. I'm not going to bother labelling myself ... but I know there's definitely room for improvement.

Since moving to Queensland from Victoria, where I didn't own a car and cycled everywhere, my physique has ... well let's say I used to be a slender little thing and now I'm robust.

The Sunshine Coast is a beautiful place to live and there are heaps of things to do if you enjoy outdoor fun, like I do.

Yet I find myself driving everywhere and stacking on the kilos.

I know I'm not winning in the fitness department but everything else in my life is awesome. I'm stupidly happy and content - and for some reason this has meant I do less for my body.

Gyms seem to be the answer in this warm climate but I can't make myself spend more time indoors.

I love beach walks and jogs but they have to be long to have any effect. So I end up with a hotchpotch fitness regime that revolves around more our dog's needs than my body's.

I've ended up grateful for my pushy boss, because the app I've now downloaded makes a game out of fitness. And I like games.

Originally published as SOAPBOX: Making time for fitness is the bane of my life