Running Is the New Badminton (and My New Addiction Too)

So I started jogging about a week ago. As a self-proclaimed bohemian, I am not fond of jumping on bandwagons, whether it be related to music, fashion or whatever. It’s just a coincidence that I started jogging and that fun runs and marathons are sprouting everywhere. You see, last week my best friend officially announced to the barkada that she is engaged and that she and her fiancé are planning to get married next year. I am going to be her maid of honor! I figured I needed to start losing weight and maintaining my desired figure as early as now so that I’d look smashing (of course, not as smashing as her) come her big day.

It would also be good for me, I thought. I needed to improve my stamina anyway because some days I really feel tired before my day barely even started and lethargic especially right before and during my period. I also get terrible cramps during my period, and the only effective way to reduce those is if I exercised regularly. Heart disease runs in my mother’s side of the family, and if there’s one organ I should be taking care of as early as now, that’d be my heart. I badly need some cardio training.

Soliciting help from a friend, my first day of jogging was grueling. We spent more than an hour, walking and jogging uphill, downhill, until my legs felt like Jell-O, me panting like a dog. She gave me some tips to better improve my jogging. She told me I should go at my own pace and jog as long as I felt my body can. But the most important tip she gave me was this: mind over matter. Don’t think that you’re tired. It works, I tell you. What I do is I bring my MP3 player and just lose myself in the songs I listen to so that I won’t be thinking about feeling tired too much.

I’m actually surprised by what I’ve achieved in a week’s time. I didn’t set unrealistic goals for myself because I know I was so out of shape, and that I should take baby steps in building up my overall physical strength. This may be chicken feed for some, but for somebody like me who just did brisk walking for exercise all my life, I can now jog for 20 minutes nonstop. I could actually jog longer because my lungs and heart still can, but my legs after about 20 minutes just couldn’t take any more. In time I know I will do better, but at least it’s a start.

Today I jogged with a friend who needed to lose weight more than anyone else in our barkada. Our goal is for her to be slimmer by next year, in time for my best friend’s wedding. We noticed that there are more people jogging/running nowadays. Everywhere we looked, there were sweaty bodies and bobbing heads, old people, young people. Everybody seemed to be hooked on jogging/running these days. My friend said running is the new badminton. Remember there was a time when badminton was the thing and there were tournaments every now and then. It’s a good craze though, I must say. Promoting a healthier lifestyle, yes, I’m all for it.

As I write this, I cannot wait for tomorrow to jog again. I can’t believe I’m actually excited to exercise. Though I have tons of work to do, I always make time to jog. My former boss joked that I had to be maid of honor just so I’d get my butt off the couch and exercise hehe. Well, that might be true, but at least it catapulted me to making my lifestyle a bit healthier. I hope this “addiction” won’t go away anytime soon, and I hope that even after my best friend’s big day, I’d still be as motivated to jog the day I started.