Exercise Your Way Through A Breakup

I urge the broken hearted to get off the sofa, put down your Ben & Jerry's and take up a form of sport - it doesn't matter what it is but just get moving. Not only will this heal the heart and mind, but remember you are now single so you want to get in shape!

No one would know it but for the last month I have been walking around with a broken heart, having split up with my girlfriend of nearly nine years. Instead of dwelling or whining to anyone who comes my way, I take it to yoga, swimming, tennis, rollerblading, running... and at the end of each workout it feels a little bit more mended.

MONDAYS: No time to wake up feeling the sadness, I have a small but incredibly energetic Highland Maltie, and Roxy needs to be walked vigorously before I head to work. I pull on my faithful Speedway sweats, I am out the door at the crack of dawn and occasionally we are blessed by the rising of the sun. We walk side by side and then I do my best to keep up with her in the open field by my house; entertaining her, throwing a ball back and forth until she tires, keeps my mind firmly rooted in the present.

TUESDAYS: In my lunch break I head to the Langham's Chuan Spa which is a few minutes from my office, and if I arrive around 2pm I have the stunning pool to myself. I swim fast - breaststroke, front crawl, backstroke, underwater - until my mind is refreshed. After around fifty lengths, I reward myself with a Jacuzzi.

WEDNESDAYS: I play tennis through wind or rain. Ordinarily my tennis partner and I are overly polite during our games resulting in many tedious deuces, but now I am ruthless, I take more risks with my shots, figuring what the hell have I got to lose?! And the aces come and my backhands are undefeatable. It's a 6-2 victory!

THURSDAYS: I have night yoga sessions with London's only Yoga for Better Sleep teacher, Lisa Sanfilippo. I suffer from insomnia at the best of times, but now I can lay awake for hours ruminating on love lost. After an hour of Lisa's variations of yoga poses, like lying over a bolster in child's pose, I have stretched out the sadness, tears have come and gone and I sleep peacefully.

FRIDAYS: I recently rediscovered my old rollerblades gathering dust in a storage cupboard, and so I blade to work and back. I feel part of film, as my iPhone plays out the soundtrack to my life, with London speeding past me... and I experience an incredible endorphin high.

SATURDAYS:The Day of Rest

SUNDAYS: I am at one with nature as I horse ride in Trent Park. Animals can be very healing for the heart. It is as if this horse understands what I am going through - he is silent but kind and gentle as he gallops me through woodland.

I urge the broken hearted to get off the sofa, put down your Ben & Jerry's and take up a form of sport - it doesn't matter what it is but just get moving. Not only will this heal the heart and mind, but remember you are now single so you want to get in shape!

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