Exercise & the cat who 'walks alone'

I started at a gym recently - knowing that exercise is especially good for combating depression. Trouble is, having been size 8 to 10 most of my life, I have never really bothered with exercise, but change of life, medication and doing very little when depressed has left me overweight and flabby. Anyway, I joined a local gym and have so far been to 3 classes called LBT (legs, bums and tums) - yes I thought T stood for that as well! There were two different teachers and one of them was a sadist! At one point he let us all punch into a punchbag that he held up in front of us - I was obviously looking very fierce as he said 'not my face!' As if ... By the end of each class I was absolutely exhausted, but so were many of the group, most of whom looked younger than I. Of course I look red-faced and sweaty within minutes - why is it some women still look good after strenuous exercise - are they real? Some of them don't appear to sweat at all and wear attractive outfits which don't look marked in any way. My costume is a pair of shorts and t-shirt (gone are the days when I could get away with bike shorts).

The gym bit of exercise is far less interesting. I find all those toned bodies and tans intimidating and make sure I use the machines furthest away from them, preferably ones where there are no mirrors - seeing myself sweat is not one of my favourite pastimes. There are far more men than women there and they often look to me as if they are showing off with weights etc. I find the treadmill the most boring of all the machines and looking at all those clones running/walking/earphones on/bored expression on face is enough to put me off. However, I have paid for the month and am determined to stick it out. Strange that I, who always thought myself the least competitive of people, should find myself competing when on the rowing machine and anyone comes and uses the one next to me. (There are only two, so there is no choice but to go on if someone else sits down next to you). Of course, even if I can keep up with anyone, I am surely on a lesser strength pull, but who's to know that?

The biggest challenge in using the gym is mastering the machinery. This is difficult since I have never been much good at technical stuff. I had a session with an instructor, told him what I hoped to achieve (inch loss rather than weight loss) and a moderate level of fitness - I don't intend to run any marathons! He showed me a series of stretching and exercising machines that felt like torture. I couldn't manage one called the Fly at all and he has suggested I lie on one of those big balls and lift two .75 kg weights. Now that is what I call elegant! One of the machines for abductions is even sexier - sitting with legs akimbo and stretching out and back. However, I think I probably look funniest doing the pulling exercise - I can barely reach the pulley and must then struggle into a very uncomfortable sitting position and pull the thing up and down.

The exercise machines I use in my programme otherwise are: the treadmill (boring), the bicycle (at least I can see I have cycled a certain distance, even if my pace is so slow that sometimes it thinks I have paused!) The rowing machine feels like it is doing me good, if only because I can feel my tummy muscles working. I use that to warm down.

Now I am boring myself about exercise, so will turn to my cat's behaviour. He is a lovely black male with a mind of his own (certainly the best-looking male in the house). He barely acknowledges us, occasionally honouring us with his presence in the middle of the bed and permitting us to stroke him for a while. He enjoys walking over everything, including keyboards, mobile phones, remote controls and any work surfaces, even those cluttered with debris (which is most of them - we are not the tidiest people on the block). He likes peering out of the window and has managed to get out on a very narrow window-sill on 2 occasions so far. A pitiful crying alerted us to his plight at about 3 in the morning! He is an elegant and beautiful creature and gives us endless pleasure - we don't get out much! We hope to get some kind of ladder erected for him to get into the communal back garden as we are on the second floor with no access to it.