Looking good in a swimming costume has been an uphill struggle since returning from France where I kept the local boulangerie afloat financially through my croissant consumption.

I did, however, manage to do a stoke or two of work whilst on hols and wrote an article for Silver Kris (Singapore Airlines’ inflight mag) in between mouthfuls. All the more amusingly, the piece – which is out now in their September issue – was about the global trend towards fitness hotels; places you can stay in that offer in-room running machines, healthy salads and muay thai boxing. A far cry from salted butter and baguettes in Brittany, then.

Either way, my return to Sing has been somewhat softened by the really rather lovely people at Pure Yoga and Pure Fitness who are not remotely deterred by my excessive hand to mouth exercise. Quite the opposite. They have, in fact, empowered me with a three month pass to each and every exercise class that they offer. The bad bit? I actually find myself compelled to go (did I mention that I am Scottish?).

It is at this point that I find myself sounding like my mother when she recently discovered netflix: “Gosh, this is good, isn’t it? Does everybody know about this?”  I feel this exact same way about exercise classes. They are, well, awesome. You can turn up like a zombie, there’s no need to talk to anyone (I love that bit – I am really quite antisocial), copy (or try to) what the teacher is doing … and hey presto, you’re done.

As much as I’d like to say that the hours have whizzed by in all my classes, I’d be lying. Bodypump was my first and I’m not sure it was the ideal choice for a fitness absentee: I thought the class had finished after the second track when the nice lady said, “Well done, everyone”. I was, of course, sadly mistaken. We had only done the warm up. Time flies when you’re having fun.

Yoga has also been an experience. I am about as flexible as a very dry twig. I opted for Pure’s Hatha 1 class which is a sort of loser, beginner class. I didn’t have the heart to say that I knew most of the poses but just couldn’t do them. Hatha 1 is absolutely my level. In fact, to be wholly accurate, slightly beyond it. I let myself down by panicking when they turned the air con off during my first ever class, screaming: “Christ, is this hot yoga?” (by English standards a no-air-con class in Singapore probably more than qualifies as hot yoga … I dread to think what real hot yoga feels like here … watch this space, I’m trying it on Tuesday).

The good news is that I am able to offer you guys a free seven day pass to any and all Pure Yoga classes. If you have had a holiday from your exercise routine, like I have, sign up and join me in not being able to touch my toes. More details to follow!

Say it with me……Oooommmmmmmmm.

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You can download the latest issue of Singapore airlines’ award-winning travel mag Silver Kris – for free –here, via the app store.

Image of croissants courtesy of The Telegraph