I’ve had several attempts to get fit. This week I was influenced by my high school friend Shom to go jogging. I told her “No, just brisk walking.”
Anyhow, for the first day, we succeeded. Shom was jogging and I was brisk walking together with another friend from high school, Dhoddie, who I called last minute to join us and he did. Since he was recovering from what I assume to be gout, he was somewhere in between Shom and Me. Somewhere in between jogging and brisk walking.
And oh how I was sweating… I was sweating due to consistently talking and laughing the entire time while brisk walking and as Dhoddie puts it… my walking route almost lead me to that 7eleven convenience store that offers air conditioning and ice cream…aaah.
Why brisk walk? You may want to ask.
First, and Shom laughed when I told her that I don’t want to jog but brisk walk instead, because, for the love of me, I do not know how to jog.
Shom: Is there a proper way to jog?
Me: I don’t know how to properly jog. I mean, look at them (pointing to the joggers in marathon outfits) they seem to have this… (And I perform a demo).
I do not know proper breathing. I don’t know what is the proper speed and all that so I’m going to do brisk walking instead. (But truthfully, since after years of sitting on my ass, I haven’t really had a proper exercise. We didn’t even have proper stretching before heading to the UPLB freedom park grounds, the last time I had impromptu jog was back in high school when we had exercises in CAT and I went home with a fever.)
It’s not like I never tried to see exercise as a stress buster. Back in 2005 a roommate and I enrolled at Fitness First Plus (Now called the Platinum thingy) and though I enjoyed all the great facilities, trainer and dance classes, I often find myself hanging out in their sauna instead. In fact, I enjoyed their sauna so much that I only come to the gym to spend hours and hours at the sauna and enjoy a refreshing shower afterwards. I remember one time, since I was working on a night shift; I fell asleep inside the sauna and woke up dehydrated! Stupid, I know, I know, but what can I say? I really love saunas and although I also enjoyed their indoor pool and Jacuzzi, nothing beats the relaxation that I get from the sauna.
Next, I tried yoga. In fact that was the last fitness thing that I indulged. I bought yoga outfits, yoga mat and a very fashionable Nike yoga bag that seems to be on a limited edition. I enjoyed and loved yoga so much because it is the combination of the meditation while trying to get fit. I sleep better and my back hurts a lot less. I was sweating like crazy with all the breathing and stretching and it doesn’t look strenuous compared to running on a treadmill. My yogi even told me that I am flexible for a beginner (Naks! Thanks to ballet and gymnastics classes when I was 5 years old and thanks to cheerleading back in High School) but I never really came around to doing a handstand on my own. I don’t want to cause a commotion inside the sacred shala. My favorite yoga pose is the corpse pose, where after all the difficulty in yoga poses, you lie down on the floor to cool down. I remember telling friends at work that when I “cooled down” I think I fell asleep and woke up already alone in the entire shala!
But despite my yoga practice, I lived a very unhealthy lifestyle. I remember going to the Shala with my friend Mai and after feeling great with all the stretching and sweating we’d reward ourselves with Starbucks frappes over cigarettes. Nyeh! Wala din?!
So fast forward to the present. After quitting my vices and overhauling my lifestyle, I am now living in the suburbs. No nearest fancy gym and Shala. Majority of the people are jogging and into marathon these days and I am not really much into conforming. But after several months of prodding from my mother, I have decided to give this whole “fitness’ thing a try once again, under the following conditions: 1) I do not join her jog so early in the morning. 2) She buys me proper shoes. (LOL!)
Shoes. That’s another thing. I ransacked my shoe cabinet only to find that, other than my collection of my high heels and wedges, I do not own a pair of rubber shoes. I have chucks and flat sneakers that are totally not suitable to jog in. But since I am just brisk walking, my sneakers seem to be my temporary fix for the meantime.
So last night, I really attempted to get fit on my own. No Shom or Dhoddie to accompany me, just me and my newly created “Werq It” playlist that houses songs from various artists from Britney Spears, Lady Gaga to California Swag District. I am kind of afraid of getting bored like what my classmate in MS told me, she got bored while jogging even with the company of her iPod. But this time, I found another fitness hobby: Jogger watching. Although I have this rude habit of staring, I was able to keep it on the down low as I watch joggers ahead of me with the way they jog. One jogger actually caught my fancy: A gay jogger. And he doesn’t care and give a shit if his pelvic bones are swinging from side to side in its own rhythm that caused joggers after him to stare, imitate and make fun of his move (Yes! I walked, I saw and I watched!) He’s gay, jogging and so proud of it!
That inspired me to walk my “brisk walk”. Since I am “brisk walking” anyway, I might as well enjoy the walk. So there I was last night, doing a brisk model catwalk in rhythm with Lady Gaga’s “Born this way”, very America’s Next Top Model peg.
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| Ruma-Runway! |
Next thing I knew, I was sweating, finished three non-stop laps and was…enjoying.
So when you see me doing my brisk walk… oh well. I am enjoying.
