Mind and Matter

One of the best things I did for myself the past few months has been to enroll in a morning exercise class. One fine day past your 30s it hits you that you are aging. You look around to see what you could do to reverse this process. You discover pretty fast that there is not really much you could do to reverse or stop the process but there are somethings that could be done that definitely slow the fast hurtling age of a truck down.

One of the first things you discover that aids this trying to break hard on the age accelerator is eating well. This is a great challenge especially where I live. Even to eat a simple thing like an apple or to drink a glass of milk, one has to go through a rigorous process of determining if this is actually good for you. For a long time I used to think that nothing was better. Alas! I did not know about genetic modification or pesticides that get absorbed or cows that are fed growth hormones. Also did not know that eating rice is like taking sugar by the spoonfuls. So started the research, looking for advice and generally making modifications to the way you eat. Though not the easiest things to do (and quite expensive I might add) this was doable.

The difficult part was taking time out to exercise, which is the second on the list of the essential things to do. Not only do you find exercise cumbersome, but once you have let yourself go without exercising for so many years, the creaks and the leaks discourage you big time. Sure, I have started to try to fall into a routine - trying to work on an elliptical, cycling early in the morning, late evening walks and so on. But none stayed more than at the most a couple of months. So my husband wasn't very much thrilled when I decided to join he early morning gym class, coz he did not have the faith that I would stick to it. Neither did I! The class met at 5:15. That meant I had to get up around 4:30. Considering that I would never go to sleep before midnight this was quite a challenge. Already, I was setting myself up to fail.

With nothing to loose, except my extra pounds, I started on it. I was promised the moon if I was disciplined. I was happy and I worked hard. Eating habits were easier to change once you were working so hard to shed those calories you had thoughtlessly gulped down a day earlier. Slowly, but surely I was getting fitter and I loved the feeling. I have always been an athlete in my school and college days. So running and moving come naturally to me. The one thing that held me back was always my stamina. Simply put, I did not have much of it. I would be huffing and puffing in no time at all. Also would get a stitch in the side and that would slow my progress big time. Running, walking or exercising for more than 30 minutes would drain me completely and I would struggle to keep up.

As we worked out through the winter, slowly but surely I was getting trained to not loose steam quick. Come summer and the goal was to go running/walking outside for an hour. I was not very much looking forward to it, because I had not tried to push my body in that way. A couple of walks and I realized I was getting much better. I was actually staying in the foremost group. That felt so good. That I was able to do it. That I was able to walk/run and do 4 miles in an hour without pushing myself too much.

Yesterday I got the pleasantest surprise when I realized that I finished first in our group and what more I could have gone longer without feeling like lying on the ground and dying! My coach called me her poster girl because I am fairly new to this exercise program. When someone asked how I was able to do it so effortlessly she replied for me saying - she has a determined head on her shoulders. I always knew that I had one but to have a body that seems to be complementing it and not giving up in the middle is truly a wonderful feeling.I realize now that the challenge is not putting mind over matter but putting mind and matter together and that seems to be coming along beautifully! 5 miles an hour here I come!