Healthy

Too many times I challenge myself to go bigger and better every day or set unrealistic or very high expectations and my workouts seem to taper off within a month.  When I started my new “exercise log”, I wrote down: “at least 30 minutes of exercise” as a requirement for me to be able to put an X on the day for a workout.  Things have been going well so far.  I’m in my third week and I’ve done 3 or more workouts of at least 30 minutes, each week.  I’m feeling much better and I’m not letting myself cheat out of workouts but I’m also doing what my body can handle and working out when I can.  Some days are just a little too packed to get in a good workout and that’s ok.  I’ve been playing a lot with Dyland lately, so that’s been keeping me active, especially now that he can walk by himself and wants to grab everything in sight.  I almost tried to count playing with Dyland as my workout one day since it was probably about an hour and I did sweat, and also one day when I walked home from the instituto (25-30 minutes up & down hills) but I told myself that wasn’t fair and if I counted it that time, I would slack off and just use those as an excuse to avoid focused exercise (using the elliptical, ab machine, jumping jacks, pilates dvd, etc.)

I surprised myself with holding myself accountable and I’m glad I’ve been following through.  Some days I’ve had to wait until the late afternoon to work out, but actually that’s been almost better since it cools down and my evenings are a little less crazy.  I will probably be starting an evening English class for adults soon though so that might have to change.  I would like to get workouts done earlier in the day to get them over with and not procrastinate later, but getting up at 5:45am to get ready for school and catch the 6:30am bus is early enough.  There’s no way I’m getting up any earlier than that!  And, most of my classes go until noon, so I guess I’ll just have to be doing afternoon workouts.  It does make me sweat more which good I guess :)  As long as I’m doing the exercise and I feel better (and healthier), then I’m ok with that.  

I do notice a change in my self-esteem and my overall view on exercise decisions.  For a short time, I was starting to feel pretty lazy and unmotivated.  It's still difficult to wake up super early for school (yes, 5:45am is super early--don't argue with me;) ...), but I'm not feeling lazy.  In fact, I feel like Wonder Woman at times since my host family thinks I'm amazing to be able to do these workouts since I'm sweating haha  Today my host mom walked by while I was on their elliptical machine from the 80's and said "ni quiera Dios", which is a common phrase used by Nicas to say "no way!" but literally means "not even God would want it".  I thought this was funny so I asked her why, and she said because it would make her tired. Ha!  I wanted to say the Nica equivalent to "duh", but I held my tongue and just chuckled.  I told her before that I didn't start out doing 45 minutes, or even 30 minutes, on the elliptical, but I started out with something shorter that I could do at that time and I've been slowly working my way up (and lowering it back down) to fit my feel for the day, yet still be a challenge.  She just doesn't want to do it, but I totally understand--I was right there a month ago!  For me, it just feels nice to sweat from a good workout and feel fit, instead of sweating profusely after my weekly trip to the grocery store :/ 

Well, that's all I gotta say for right now.  I hope I can keep it going and not let the excuses and laziness pull me down.  Here's to being (and staying) healthy!

P.S.  I drink TONS of water--something Nicaraguans do NOT do, which has gotta be bad since it's so hot here.  Many people during the hot part of the day say that they feel lightheaded and blame their blood pressure dropping.  Personally, I think they just need to drink more water and stay hydrated.  It also keeps you from snacking frequently throughout the day (which I LOVE to do hehehe).