A date with Sarah-Kate; Kate’s home truths

It’s time to get a jiggle on, say s Sarah-Kate

Over the years, I’ve tried almost every sort of exercise there is. I’ve run, I’ve walked, I’ve stepped, I’ve body jammed, I’ve pumped, I’ve yoga’d, I’ve been trained and I’ve even Bollywood danced (although that was a mistake – but still, one I repeated twice weekly).

And none of the above has worked my core like a Pilates reformer class. (A reformer, by the way, is a machine with stretchy rubber bands that you attach here and there, then pull on.)

To be fair, my core is a slippery beast. When told to “engage” it, I often can’t find it. It’s there, hidden beneath the layers of adipose that are keeping me from fitting my Kate Spade dresses. But apart from sucking it in when I look in the mirror, it doesn’t get out much. Sure, I do sit-ups, but my core has found a way to avoid being responsible for them. Because after that one reformer session, I couldn’t move without my stomach muscles reminding me they had for too long been abandoned.

I’d heard Pilates described as an exercise where you just lie down, which may be why it appealed. But there was very little lying down. There was sitting, sliding, kneeling and a few other positions there aren’t even names for. These are not exercises you’d find yourself doing accidentally during the day. Which is probably why they really wake up the bits of you that have died and think they’re in heaven.

Needless to say, operating on the “no pain, no gain” theory, I will be going back to Pilates as soon as I can breathe without crying.

But another rather fabulous exercise regime has come my way in recent times, courtesy of a reader. Lesley from Mount Maunganui is a woman after my own heart who has tried every diet she can get her hands on without any having the right sort of impact. Her face, fingers (what the?) and waist would always get thinner, but never her problematic derrière.

So Lesley took matters into her own hands. Or should I say feet? After eschewing a vibrating plate because of a knee replacement, she turned to good old Kiwi DIY. “Well, I cannot stand and vibrate all of me,” she thought. “But there is no reason why I should not jiggle the bottom of my legs while sitting down.” And that’s just what she did.

First thing in the morning and last thing at night, she sat on the bed and “ran” on the spot, moving her legs up and down, side to side, back and forth, it didn’t seem to matter. Doing it again throughout the day over a 10-month period, she lost 10kg from around her bum and thighs. It’s an exercise you can do while playing cards or knitting!

“It would seem all this jiggling gees up the digestion, the lymph system and the circulation, and really if I felt any better, I would be dangerous – and next birthday I will be 88!”

Don’t you just love it? The “Lesley Jiggle Diet” could well be the next big thing!