In 2015, I made just one New Year’s Resolution: Do more. I dispensed with the usually promises to myself that would be forgotten by the end of January and decided to keep it simple this year. Just to do more. Of everything. Travel more, spend more time with my family, do more to help others, achieve more. Starting with exercise.

Winter can be a tough time to motivate yourself to get out there and do something. Anything active. It’s cold, wet and dark and you just feel like hibernating. But with the start of spring things change. Lighter mornings and evenings, warmer weather, and the first signs of new life appear. A reawakening.

Time to reawaken my body too!

With the lighter mornings come an opportunity to get out on the tennis court before work. I’m a terrible tennis player but I’m getting better with every game and it’s just nice to be out in the fresh air (and some mornings it is very fresh!) and get some exercise. My Jawbone UP band tells me how far I’ve moved. Last week it was over 3 miles! An hour out on court and I’m ready for whatever the day throws at me.

Spring also means getting out in my lunch break or after work for half and hour or so to tidy up my work ‘allotment’. Really it’s a raised bed but it produced plenty of nutritious veggies as our ‘SportsLab Nutrition Garden’ last year. Runner beans and courgettes were particularly abundant so it’s time to get it ready for this season’s growing. It’s been fun getting involved in the odd Allotment Blitz, run by the Edible Campus team and the Student Green Office. Not to mention a good work out! Last week, we were breaking up old wooden pallets to make wooden compost bins, and this week we were shovelling earth out of one raised bed to move it to make space for another raised bed and refilling. Many hands make light work but there were still many raised heart rates too! It’s a great chance to get out in the sunshine with students and colleagues and come together as a community, so I recommend getting involved an signing up for an allotment.

Alongside trying to get to the gym at the Sports Centre more often this year, I’ve been getting back into cycling. With my mountain bike languishing in the shed at home, I’ve been trying out the Watt bikes, courtesy of SportsLab. The Watt bike Pros are really hard work, and sometimes it’s a real struggle to keep going for the full 45 minutes I’ve set out to complete. But I keep remembering my resolution and thinking “just 10 minutes more” and somehow I make it through.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to try out some of the Move More tips and let you know how I get on. Specifically, I’m going to try out some office exercises with the exercise band I got from the Staff Wellbeing Fair, and see if I can stand up for some of my meetings rather than sitting for several hours at a time.  I’m expecting a few curious glances!

So spring has sprung and I’m trying to ‘do more’. What are you doing to Move More?

Caroline Digby-Bowl
Senior Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Biomechanics
Section of Sport & Exercise Sciences
School of Human & Life Sciences
Canterbury Christ Church University