Being Healthy: A Promise

This is the part where I hate the most: when you're too engrossed in your work that everything else goes out of the window, with everything else being your healthy habits, be it body or food.

I get too tired to workout after work. But being me, there's just so much of complaining that I could handle before I take matters into my own hand.

So my work tires me out. BIG DEAL. I'm not the only one dealing with a taxing 8-5 job. I'm not the only one stuck in traffic feeling like a droopy flower in the car. Life is a choice and I can complain about how I do not have the time or how wiped out I am or I can just suck up, get myself some exercise for the benefit of my health.

"It's not the number of times you fall that matters but the number of times you
get up."--Confucius

This requires some re-arranging. I get tired after work... maybe PM exercising isn't working out for me. I remember back then when I look forward to AM cardio. I love it like no other but when I started working all that changed. But maybe, maybe I could squeeze in some earlier cardio... if I'm really so inclined.

The problem with that is: running is the only thing that works. No karate gym opens at 6 am, and I'm not bloody well going to swim in the chilly pool or skate/bike in that ungodly hour alone!

And did I forget... I can't run?

I could join classes again, make it fun, just a social thing after work, not really a workout. But I am BROKE like a broken tape player. I can't afford to spend money more than I can't afford to spend my time.

This looks bleak.

The ONLY choice is - SUCK IT UP. I guess that's what I have to settle with right now. I can't listen to myself complaining about how I miss my workouts anymore without driving me crazy. You miss your workouts? Then what are you doing laying down on the sofa with a book on your snoring face?! At 9pm!

I realize I'm talking to myself here.

So I'm putting this down right here:

• I promise I will try to stick to weekend workouts. I can bail on weekday workouts if I absolutely have to, but weekend workouts are a must. I need this because your body is a temple and you have to take good care of it.
• Take one workout at a time. No pressure, just go ahead and dive (or roll or punch, depending on what you have) right into it.
• EATING RIGHT STARTS HERE. EATING RIGHT STARTS TODAY. No more salty, extra processed food and too many sugar intake cause Nadia are you ignorant - you're one step behind being a diabetic. Let me bold that for you.

Forgive everyone while you could. Be grateful for the smallest, least wonderful thing in your life everyday.

GET ENOUGH SLEEP.

Call your parents. Smile at strangers. Not old, aging men with too much money to spent. And no, you can't tell them apart sometimes.

Today, I will try to workout. But if I fail (because you're yet again too mentally exhausted), there's always the weekends.

Finish Strong

"We told our guys to hold on for 30 minutes of agony for 12 months of glory." -
Coach John McDonnell, after Arkansas won the 1993 Ncaa Cross Country title

I like the quote the first time I read it. I think it's an awesome motivation for holding out and in for a little short while before the sweet release. I always have a bad finish for my race - I tend to struggle a little bit at the last 1km when I run with a higher pace. I think it was KOTR 2009 when I was huffing and puffing sprinting to the end and I went, "Alright now I know why you need speedwork!" I incorporated GP (gentle pickup) everytime I run after that, and they really did come handy. But well, unlike everyone else, I never really enjoyed the last few moments before a race ends. It was so high pressure - you either have to run really fast or not at all.

Maybe if I could run still for the next year I would try to Finish Strong like this one lady I remembered running behind for Mizuno Wave run. I was following her steadily when she suddenly bucked up like a horse and sped off the last 1km. Where did she get the second wind? It was awesome and I bet felt great to give it your all until the end.

Anyway I repeated the quote a couple of times in my yoga class yesterday just to make me hold on in a few particularly challenging poses. Yesterday was TOUGH. The session kicked my ass. I went, "Just a minute, just a minute, just a minute more for my moment of glory!" What glory? I asked myself. Oh well, the glory of not giving up. Balancing poses are hardcore than your mother!

Just a random question but for guys out there - can you squat? Most men in the yoga classes can't squat which left my yoga instructor baffled. It's common for foreigners to not be able to squat but yesterday 3 Malaysian males couldn't. She asked, "Wow you can't squat? I thought it's an Asian thing?"

Anyway turned out that squatting is one of the most efficient and easiest workouts to strengthen your ankle and keep your reproductive system healthy. The pose gently massages your internal organs and also provides just enough resistance workout to your ankle. Maybe we need to spend more time in the loo. Maybe that's why in the olden days people had so many kids. Heheh.

I want to run. Right this second. Miss running in the early morning.