Sue's Sports Starter by Sue_Thearle

Hello and happy opening World Cup day to you. I hope you, like me, are poised like a coiled spring to leap onto the sofa and spend the next month watching footie. I was pondering the health implications of this when I spotted an article in one of the papers which suggests that World Cup couch potatoes will put on 5lbs during the tournament. 5lbs blimey! Apparently that is a whole heap of Pringles, beer, pizza and ice-cream…….and I must confess on one level it sounds marvellous.

However I guess your bum or belly wouldn’t look marvellous after that lot. So I have devised a cunning plan. During Euro 2008 I used my mini step machine, so that I could do a 30-40 minute step workout while watching the evening games. It worked an absolute treat, because the football was a brilliant distraction from the exercise. So my friends that is my plan again this tournament. I will weigh myself before the start of the football today and weigh in again at the end, to see if it has helped keep the pounds off.

This is particularly brave, when you consider that I shall be spending two weeks of the next month sat on my derriere at Wimbledon watching and commentating on the tennis . However, I shall be working out early in the morning (heaven help me) before I go to work, so hopefully my bottom will not get any bigger than its current impersonation of the Isle of Man. And no, before you ask, I shall maintain a discreet silence on the subject of my actual weight, because rather like a lady’s age, that should always remain a mystery. But I will fess up if I have indeed turned into a couch potato….. and beg, in a shame-faced manner, for your forgiveness. Blimey it’s all beginning to sound a bit like Opray…..

But in all seriousness, keeping healthy at this time of year is always a challenge. I was perusing my diary yesterday, whilst grappling with trying to set up my new laptop and the Wifi router (what is that anyway?) that accompanied it (why does technology have to be so complicated – what is wrong with a pencil and a piece of paper?) And I realised that after this weekend, I only have one day off in the next three weeks. A combination of TV sport and news and then Wimbledon….. oh dear. Actually thinking about it, I’m not sure I’ll have time to become a couch potato, I’ll be too busy. And even if I do manage to make it onto the couch, I’ll be nodding off before you know it….. Have a good weekend and come on England!