So here we are first week of January - panic stations as you view the small food baby that has taken residence on your usually flat tummy... Christmas has come and gone with relative restraint on the food. Fast forward one week, when the compulsion to empty the bursting fridge so as not to be wasteful, takes over. You find yourself eating food you would never normally touch. Oh Yummy, cranberry sauce and brie in a pitta bread, with a side of reheated (lets be honest - cold) parmesan parsnips. What was I thinking?

So January. New year. New start. New habits.

New research suggests the exercise we do in our forties and fifties has a direct correlation to the standard of health we can expect in later life. My own experience of teaching seniors for over 20 years bears this out with top tips being:

- Stay slim - most important for joints & heart.

- Maintain lean toned muscles - to burn more calories as metabolism begins to slow.

- Some cardio for a strong heart - can be achieved with low or high impact exercise (for under 35's lots of cardio while you can)

- Walk, walk and walk some more

- Dance for social, mental & physical wellbeing

- Stay flexible. Dance, Yoga and Pilates all help with this

So what are my new fitness goals for 2017? perhaps you may like to try them out too

I am going to continue my new hobbies of ballroom and jive dance. Keep at the Yoga. Do some HIIT to surprise my metabolism and get it firing (high intensity interval training - The Body Coach, Joe Wicks has so many great tutorials online). Find a fitness challenge - possibly a long bike ride this year. Keep swimming. For my brain brush up on my French and try some basic Italian as prep for a road trip in the summer. Write a blog ;)

Stay friends with my Polar Fitness watch! It's much like having your conscience on your wrist - how many steps, how many calories burned, fat percentages... It will never be allowed to monitor my sleep, for if there were an Olympic sport for sleeping I would indeed have the gold.

So what should you do? Anything and everything that brings you joy - of course I want you to come and get hooked on our classes - so by all means do that too... We are a pretty fit bunch so I reckon we are a good advert for all we offer!

See you soon

Jane xx