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Sunday, October 6, 2013

Fitness Block

I'm a bit frustrated with my fitness level at the moment, except I'm not really sure what to do about it.

When January of this year rolled around, my work at the time started a self-ran CrossFit group.  It wasn't intense in the way I hear about most CrossFit workouts are, which was just fine by me and the rest of the attendees.  It was a group effort performed at each individual's own pace, and if you chose to push, you knew your own limit.

Then sometime mid-February, I picked up running.  At first it was the most disheartening run ever, because a half-marathon-running friend asked me to go explore the nearby urban forest with her.  I agreed thinking it would be good for me to try running.  I felt bad the entire time because I was just so slow, so I ended up telling her to go ahead without me and we caught each other before heading back to work from our tiresome lunch break.  It was the beginning of something good though.  From that day on, I tried to go for runs every lunch hour that we didn't have CrossFit, and pretty soon I had a good routine of both going, with at least three days a week of lunch breaks spent working out.

                              The urban forest that started all my running                                               Source: http://vancouverisawesome.com/2011/10/31/nicholson-road-week-65-green-timbers-urban-forest-park-surrey/

As an aside, I never really liked gyms.  I'm not sure why -- the people looking at you if you're doing an exercise that required you to splay your legs apart, the smell of rubber mats and sweaty bodies, or the way it makes me think of mice or hamsters in a cage running on a wheel instead of running freely... uhh, I'll stop.

The summer passed by beautifully, with so many opportunities for outdoor activities, it was probably the most fit I have ever been.  CrossFit died down, but running picked up, and so did other random activities.  I tried a beginner's lesson on Tae Kwon Do, climbed the Grouse Grind after an eight-hour work day with keen colleagues, and attended a couple of (fairly competitive) badminton sessions.  Then September rolled around, work ended, school started, and all of those good habits seemed to roll down the drain.

I still try to keep running at least once a week, if not more.  The cold weather makes my respiratory system feel like it is threatening me to fail, but I've been fortunate with a few nice days a week here and there to keep a relatively decent running routine. 
Why does it always look like this in this city?
               Why does it always look like this in this city?                        Source: http://www.cbc.ca/vancouverweather/mt/2013/09/fall-weather-here-to-staysept-16th.html
My problem, then, is that although running helps keep my heart healthy, my body seems really reluctant to let go of blubber.  My midsection, to be exact.  I'm trying (days on, days off) to eat healthy, but it just gets so difficult when your brain is on hyper-drive every day for lectures, labs, tutorials, exams...  The studying makes me so hungry!  I keep granola and fruit at my desk at work, which I go to every day between classes, in effort to save myself from caving to the call of fries and cookies and delicious but terrible foods.  Something just doesn't seem right.

Now, for those who know me personally and think I'm being ridiculous, I have to say: I don't dress to show off blubber, and I know what I see in the mirror each day before I jump in the shower.  I'm not complaining in a delusion that I am fat, but I do think that I would like to give my fitness level a jump start.  Or my eating habits a kick in the rear.  I don't know.  Keeping healthy brings up my mood, and perhaps that is ultimately what I am looking for by writing this.  What do you do to keep fit and feel good?

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