Ever eager to aid my faithful readership in leading a
fulfilled and healthy life, I present my tip of the day: Exercise by drinking tea!
The crucial part of this approach to exercise is that tea
needs to steep for about five minutes, so it does not work with instant or
powdered stuff. You must use proper leaf
tea!
This is how it works.
Whenever you feel the need for a nice cup of tea – and what would be the
point of a nasty one? – you propel yourself to the kitchen and put the kettle
on.
While you wait for the water to boil, you hoist yourself on
to your exercise bicycle and work away – about five minutes. When you hear the kettle whistle (or the
click an electric one makes when the water has boiled) you fall off the
exercycle in a state of utter exhaustion and stagger back to the kitchen. You rinse the pot with hot water, add the
leaves of tea, put on the lid, and – I am afraid I can’t spare you here – climb
back onto the exercycle for another five minutes of energetic pedalling. Then you decant your brew into a porcelain
cup – no, a mug will not do! – add a few biscuits to reward yourself for
your work-out, and go back to your couch-potato existence.
If you do this twice during the evening, and five times a
day during the weekend, you will clock up 200 minutes (that’s three and a third
hours in metric money) of aerobic exercise a week at very little trouble. You simply utilise the time you would
normally waste by watching the kettle.
And the best part? No
more forgetting when you have poured the water onto your tea leaves and having
to discard super-strong cold tea – believe me, you will keep an eye on the
clock while pedalling away!
