This Is Your Brain On Music

Another week, another fairly ordinary day. Did the walk across Hyde Park for the first time in days, and in the interim, somebody seems to have announced Spring. The railings have been freshly painted, and some of the trees have burst into bright white bloom. Which is all very well and fabulous, but leaves you with a slightly weird impression as you walk towards them. You get the smell of fresh paint, and look up, and for a moment, can't escape the idea that some creative wag has daubed the trees in a quick coat of Dulux matt white. Still, good for a smile.

A word about music.
Always.

It's not ground-breaking in any way to say if you want to exercise, exercise to music, but it's quite remarkable to me how much pleasure music can give me, and, perhaps more importantly, how it can transform what would otherwise be experiences of pure whinging evil or rank boredom into something fun. It can even, I feel, act like an anaesthetic. Case in point - there are two types of walking for me. There's walking on my own, and walking in company. If I'm walking in company, I kind of want it to be more of a meander, to talk, to listen, to point things out and have a laugh with the person I'm with. If I'm walking on my own, I'm walking with purpose, I want to get somewhere. And while, as a teenager, I used to walk through the night just listening to the (admittedly fairly bonkers) soundtrack in my own head, these days, walking on my own without music is just a chore. Because while I'm trying to get somewhere, without the anaesthetic and the energy of the music pouring straight into my brain, all I'm focusing on is the pain in my back and the wobble in my knees, and the sight of the happy couples in the park makes me growl and bitch, simply because they're not in pain and bored with their own brains and a long, long way from home.

With the right music though, I can power on, with a bounce in my step as well as in my flab, the walk has purpose and the couples are an affirmation of love and human hope, and they feed in to the music and the walk and the point behind it all.

Any aerobiciser will of course tell you that high-energy music equals a high energy workout. So under no circumstances try and walk to Leonard Cohen or Coldplay, you'l just end up weeping at the side of the road or pondering the meaning of existence. All very fine and existential of course, but just not what you need. I seem to do best to the music of my youth - hard rock, hair rock, even rage rock or energetic metal. Yep...My name is Tony, and I'm a Bon Jovi Fan...

Tomorrow, there's no walking, as I'm working from home and doing a mammoth session with my doctor. Before I started all this, I sent him a long letter with a whole bunch of questions about the endeavour - I'm hoping tomorrow to get some idea of extra help, maybe from a dietician, to help push this thing forward. I'm also of course hoping that tomorrow's weigh-in isn't too disastrous.

Talk about Livin' On A Prayer...