Wax on, wax off

(From 3rd September)

I've taken a lot on recently. I'm in the 5th year of a degree with the Open University, I'm redoing my Maths GCSE, I'm learning French, I'm starting a teaching course in September, I'm writing this column, and attending the gym 3 times a week (sometimes). This is on top of a full-time job, a wife and 2 toddlers under the age of 2. The idea is that I won't have time to eat; ergo I lose weight. I call it the 'heading for a nervous-breakdown' method. I've found that I still have 2 hours on a Wednesday evening free, so I've started Karate.

My size and fitness has put me off doing it before; I'm a little trimmer and have improved my fitness this year so I gave it a go.

The instructor was very accommodating, he told me to do what I could and not worry about keeping up. I kept up for 95% of the warm-up, just being let down by my inability to do sit-ups, no issue was made of it. I was then taken aside to learn how to punch and shown a basic kick before joining the rest of the class.

It was the best workout I've ever had, I burnt 1700 calories in 2 hours; more than I had eaten all day, and enjoyed it much more than the irksome gym. I thoroughly recommend it, especially to men who find aerobics classes a bit feminine. It's aerobics with added violence, perfect!.

Benjamin, my 19 month-old, has been copying my moves and laughing when I practice at home. One of the reasons I wanted to lose weight was I didn't want my boys to be embarrassed of me. If I can do well at Karate perhaps I can give them something to brag to their friends about, "My Dad's a black-belt!". I think I'm getting a little ahead of myself though, after all, I've only been to the one lesson so-far.