Mel Chappell during lockdown

I thought lockdown was going to give me the chance to slow down and reflect, boy was I wrong. Me being me I did my usual 'slowing' down and simply transferred it into a whole load of different activities. Completing Joe Wickes or Cosmos Kids Yoga with my daughter tapped me back into my group exercise sessions, only online. I was indeed spoilt for choice.

The first place I started was my favourite yoga classes that were now being held via Zoom, this kept me sane in the initial lockdown. My one activity a day became the family dog walk, something we never did before, mainly because my dog is so supersonic bonkers she is difficult to control!

I started completing circuit fitness rides around my local town instead of the long distances I was doing before to include hills and loops and the completed against myself. I also set up my own make shift gym in my house so I could strength train.

I encouraged others to be active by convincing my husband painting a rainbow on the side of our house was a good idea. And so the rainbow campaign began. My neighbours loved it, as did a whole load of other people too. People of all ages, friends, strangers, dogs, they walked, ran and cycled to see it, lots of families visited which was lovely for my daughter to see. They all took photos and shared them on social media. It was cited on our local newspapers pages as one of the 'top things to do during lockdown' and also appeared in The Guardian newspaper.

Our weekly Dancing in the Street was a huge hit with all the neighbours, we provided the tunes from our camper van every Saturday morning at 11am, and one-by-one our neighbours would appear in the road jigging along to YMCA, Queen or ABBA. It was great fun and really lifted our spirits. It attracted alot of attention from passers-by, and again was published on our online local newspaper.

Lastly, the Colour of the Rainbow Activity challenge, that was shared with my running group; post a photo each day wearing the colours of the rainbow. Good fun to take part in, surprisingly easy to find the different colour tops. Red cycling, orange walking, yellow workout, green cycling, blue garden gymnastics, indigo/violet beach walking.

Get Your Active on is something that I have found quite easily and unintentionally during lockdown. However I am looking forward to lockdown lifting so that I can start to use my SUP board and running with other people again.

I would really love to be the Neilson Active Ambassador, so please vote for me. Thank you x