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Mar 24, 2014

My Sedentary Life

Drawing, teaching and driving don’t really require me to do much physical work. I don’t get much exercise except for housework, and it’s nowhere near intensive enough for me to lose any weight. Not that I'm complaining or anything, but I would like to live a healthier lifestyle since I've lost both parents to (avoidable) diseases. Since I can’t really afford all those ‘miracle’ pills and snake oils that seems to be so ubiquitous around Facebook nowadays, diets and exercise it is!

Trouble is, me and self-discipline, we aren't the best of friends. -_-''

I often fall off the cart when it comes to diet and exercise. Instead of dusting myself off and running after the cart (so to speak), I’d wait… and wait …and eventually do nothing. Basically I'm a lazy-buttlah when it comes to taking care of myself. I need to do something about it.

Since the New Year, I have:
fallen on my knees twice, 
got flu twice, 
fever once, 
food poisoning eight times, 
constipation numerous times, 
gained 5kg (I’m now a whopping 95kg!), and
migraine four times.

I think this gives you a pretty clear idea of my health.

I decided: enough is enough. There was no point in postponing any longer.  So, I got myself registered in the Borneo International Marathon. (Good news! They extended the registration!)

Partly because I promised my first running buddy in the whole wide world (Hi Nurul!), and partly because I really want to know if I could do it, I am joining the 21k. Yeap, the half-marathon. Why not the 10k? Because I done it several times. I want to know how far I could go in a higher gear. (Car metaphor hey hey!)

Because I don’t want to die in the middle of the run and I'm deathly afraid of failure (morbid metaphor!), I asked my friend Haziq if he had any tips (since he’ll be doing the 21k for the third time).

He gave me a lot of tips.


A LOT OF TIPS.


Until I had a mini-breakdown. -_-''


I registered quite late, since the run is on May 4th. I'm just starting to train for it and by anyone’s standard, this is crazy work. I started walking/jogging/trotting two days ago and my body is punishing me for it. Haziq's advice to this problem is: “Don’t stop. Condition your body. Just walk if it’s painful.” 



My aim is to complete the 21k within the time limit. I would be so happy just being a finisher. My biggest worry would be boredom and that self-mocking habit of mine, as mentioned in my previous post.  I once read somewhere that Neil Gaiman, one of my favourite authors, would listen to audio books when he goes out running or walking long distances. I'm planning to give that a go since I've only covered one book, and that was way back on New Year’s Day. It’s quite pitiful. What I'm thinking is, I could catch up with my reading while training for the run.  Two birds with one stone, or in this case, two hobbies at one go!


Since Saturday, I have covered an exciting… 9.7km in total. Also, I am doing this with one of my best friends. She still doesn't know I'm doing the half-marathon (she’s doing 10k). This’ll be a surprise for her. XD (Hi, Cha!)

Currently… it hurts when I laugh… or cough. XO

 

So, here’s to a way healthier lifestyle! I’ll keep updating my progress as I go along.


As of today, its 40 days before the run. Wish me luck!

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