Jog On
Jog On by Bella Mackie
Reviewed by Mimi
📘📘📘📘📘
Exercise has never been high up on my list of priorities. I always held the view of you only live once so eat the cake. During this lockdown, I have done a full 180 and this book was so crucial in getting me there. I think the market of "exercise makes you feel better so go for a run" is over-saturated and quite frankly, over-preachy at times.
This book is so different from that and I would put that down to 2 things - it's called "Jog" on not "run "on and Bella is honest beyond words. This is the book the world needs right now!
Bella writes in a painstakingly frank way about her personal struggles with mental health and goes into detail about the science as well as the way anxiety actually works and what it looks like on a day-to-day basis. She then talks about how she started running and how it made such an incredible difference to her mental health.
The thing I loved about this (and the journal she published as a follow-up) is how wonderfully practical and factual it all is. It's so accessible and encouraging but not in a patronising way. It goes a long way to remove the white, middle-class, Sweaty Betty sheen from the simple act of going for a run and for that I am so grateful.
I did a 5K after a run for heroes nomination and I wasn't the fastest by any stretch but I did it at my pace and didn't stop. That is an achievement for me and in these lockdown times which no doubt will continue, I can't imagine anything better I could do for the mind than that!
Thank you Bella! 💙
