FitBit - Rebounder Exercise or Fitness Centre

How to keep fit and lose weight

What to do? Fitbit Activity Tracker, Tabata Rebounder Exercise or join a Fitness Centre?

I've been wanting to join a gym/fitness centre for the past 2 years but have never got around to doing it for a few reasons which I'll share with you in a bit.

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Anyway, at age 57 I've now been retired from work for two years and so I'm moving about far less than I was when I was working.

So, a couple of weeks ago I went and did it and joined a fitness centre called DW Fitness First. But I'm not too interested in the gym equipment but the classes are just the best. I am booked for another Zumba class tomorrow.

They have more classes than you can shake a stick at. Spin, Body Pump, Aqua Fitness, Body Tone, Legs Bums and Tums (I love that one).

Pilates, Boxercise, something called Shred (sounds far too intense for me)!

Yoga and Yogalates, Core, H20 HIIT and Bodycombat; there are a few more but I'll be typing all day. Plus they have a lovely swimming pool, a steam room and a nice hot jacuzzi.

Okay joining a gym isn't vital, but physical activity is important and so you should make a bit of time in your daily routine to do some form of physical activity.

But the big question is, will you actually do that if you're left to do this at home or will you chicken out (as I did) because it all seems too much like hard work?

A couple of years ago when we were going on holiday to Cayo Coco (islands off of Cuba) and I really needed to lose 9 lb so I bought one of those mini trampolines and got all into Tabata exercises.

Tabata is High-intensity interval training (HIIT) which to me sounded scary and doesn't actually necessarily require a trampoline.

But the reason I bought the mini-trampoline (rebounder) is that I started following Arnita Champion on YouTube; she really inspired me to do something and I really love her Bellicon 4 Minute Tabata Workout.

In the past, I suffered from sciatica (touch wood I haven't had it for a while) so I found using the rebounder to be way better and far comfier. Rebound exercise is to me, a much more fun way to exercise.

Now our house is quite small and I had nowhere to store my trampoline and it got on my nerves looking at it in the living room stood up by the wall.

Anyway, I'd do two of Arnita's workouts and then feel like I'd done enough for the day so, in the end, I gave up.

I DID, however, manage to lose 8 lb in 9 weeks and my stomach was noticeably flatter. So the following year (last year) we booked to go back to Cayo Coco but yep you guessed it, I put the weight back on and so I started all over again 😔

But this time I didn't try as hard and so I only lost 5 lb I think it was. I just couldn't motivate myself indoors to keep up all this exercise lark.

Obviously, you're never going to lose weight if you go to the gym but have McDonald's on the way home!

Did you know that 3,500 calories equals about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat? 

So it's estimated that you need to burn about 3,500 calories to lose 1 lb in weight. Therefore if you cut 500 calories a day from your typical diet, you'd lose about 1 lb in a week.

How am I full of this knowledge? Because my FitBit told me. 😉

By the way, I love my FitBit Charge 3 Fitness Tracker; it's the one thing that made me walk more and take note of just how many calories I'm eating. You might want to surprise your kid with a good activity tracker.

If I'm not sure about how many calories are in some ingredients I'm cooking with I use my kitchen and diet scales but I do find the FitBit app better and more accurate for recording calories I've consumed.

Anyway, it's clear that exercise or going to the gym is good for your health and fitness.

Studies show that regular exercise and an increase in strength and cardio fitness levels can help reduce the risk of health concerns and diseases, including heart disease and high blood pressure; neither of which any of us wants.

Reasons I worried about joining a gym

Because I actually was really concerned that at 57 everyone there would be all 'pretty people' forever taking selfies; each to their own and all that but it's not for me.

I also thought everyone at the gym would be far younger than me and that has turned out to be far from true. There are all ages there which is brilliant and it's never too late to start getting fitter.

Another thing is I didn't have any decent trainers so I invested in these seriously comfy trainers which I got for an absolute bargain since I was given £100 of money off vouchers in the DW Sports shop that is upstairs to the gym.

Happy me; I got these Nike Air Max Motion 2 Trainers in Ivory and Grey and I love them 💗

If you've read that Nike trainers come up small, I can't say as they do; I'm a UK size 5 and they fit perfectly and the Air max Motion 2 is also quite wide.

Anyway, all I'm saying is if you think you can't join a gym/fitness centre for whatever reason.

Pop down to one local to you and ask them to show you around. You can't be joining somewhere where you don't feel comfy and at ease.