Everything has to start somewhere

Ah yes, I always have to give a historical count , don't I? Well, as a blogger I always deem it fit to give context. I'm sure any reader understands that. :)

My Past Life

Oh boy. Where do I even begin?

I'm currently 32 years old. I'm not the healthiest person in the world.

 For the benefit of young readers (translation: those in their 20's to date), during my 20's, exercise wasn't as mainstream as it is at present. The most exercise we did was jogging around parks. Men would play basketball for leisure. Women , at least most of us, jogged or occasionally swam. But fitness was not as heavily promoted then as has been for the past 2-3 years.

I lived my 20's life the way any person from my generation did : I drank like a fish, smoked like a chimney, worked my ass off until ungodly hours and lived on coffee and cigarettes the entire day. That was my life for a good decade of my life. I attempted to jog and swim as regularly as I could but I always lost interest in it. My focus then was work, work , work. Stress was relieved by a lot of drinking and smoking. Work was so stressful that I didn't even feel hunger during the day. I ate whatever I wanted. I'm blessed with a naturally thin body , so much that I can eat a quarter pounder everyday and I didn't gain weight. In fact , I maintained my weight of 90 lbs for as long as I can remember. 

Suffice to say, that was a whole decade of my life living such an unhealthy lifestyle. I have to be honest: it was a liability for me that I was perennially thin even if I ate like a prisoner on death row. I didn't find the need to exercise. I was young, I can do whatever I want. Exercising was such a chore. And mind you, I hate going to gyms. I didn't believe in it. I didn't find anything about it that was enjoyable. It really did not help that I was thinner than everyone else who were busting their butts off with all those equipments and weights. The few times I actually jogged, I only did it because it was my alone time to think. That's just about it. Nothing about being fit. I believe it's what normal 20-something folks during my time felt. Unlike the people in their 20's nowadays, thanks to the incessant promotion of fitness, when I was their age, I thought nothing of fitness. I believed it was unnecessary for me because to me, exercising was only for one goal: getting thin and staying thin, which I already was. So my thinking then was "what's the point?" The Turning point 2008 happened and my life dipped tremendously -- I was 70 lbs, gaunt, and I started getting sick.  I failed my heart stress tests, I couldn't even stand running on treadmill for more than 3 minutes without turning pale. I was a regular in hospitals just to recover. All my recklessness took its toll, mentally, physically, even psychologically. I was always tired and depressed.

It didn't help that a lot of personal problems surfaced one after the other during that time. It was severely aggravated by my health. EVERYTHING I did in my 20's literally whiplashed and bogged me down.
I had not concern for my health until I had to. The stubborn, arrogant old me, I was forced to health. It wasn't by choice. My health was failing so fast and drastic measures were taken to address it. Bouncing back 

 It took almost a year to pick up the pieces again, start regaining my life back. I stopped relying on alcohol to relieve stress. I took time off to travel and travel endlessly. God bless my exile to America that from 80lbs in 2009, I gained a good 30 lbs and went back to Manila looking chubbier at 110 lbs. It was a pretty tough time, especially since you're rid of your comfort zone. But that time I knew I had to do something to repair the body that I've severely damaged. 

Part of my recovery was to do yoga meditation. And I thought to myself, I'll die of boredom in that. Luckily , my girlfriends literally dragged me to bikram yoga class. My doctor gave me the go signal to do bikram yoga over yoga meditation instead. 

And that jump started everything for me. My road to fitness started there. 

I went to bikram yoga class at least 4 times a week. It was hell for me the first few weeks. I'm very sensitive to heat. I literally get dizzy when you put me under the sun for more than 10 minutes. But bikram yoga became my training ground -- I wanted to get over that weakness of mine. True enough, after a month, I was craving for the hot room already. 

Yoga actually changed my life. It jumpstarted a lot of good things that I have in my life right now. Now I can go on and on talking about yoga, but I'll get to that in separate entries. But like I said in my previous post, I am primarily a yogini. I love it. You can tell me to stop doing any other exercise regimen but you can never tell me to stop practicing yoga. EVER. I love it too much. :) 

The 

My Present So there you go. That's where it all started for me. Right now, I'm still doing yoga , particularly bikram and vinyasa (both heated). I occasionally do jivamukti yoga that instantly became my favorite form of yoga practice. Now as I said, I'm not the healthiest person in the world. I'm not the strongest either. I'm flexible (thank you God) but as far as sheer muscle strength is concerned, I don't have much of it. My flexibility can only take me so far, but I've always felt frustrated that I couldn't do certain poses because my upper and lower body were so weak. Hence I started cross training. I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous that I cross train for yoga. People usually cross train for more obviously intense sports like basketball. But hey, I understand anyone who finds it ridiculous, yoga is just as intense if you do the poses correctly. In 2010 I started doing Plana Forma, which is essentially barre, made famous by New York based company Physique 57. I did this for 2 years and I was pleasantly happy with the results I got. In 2011, I started doing Zumba as well to put in cardio into my regimen. I've been so scared to do cardio work despite my love for dancing because I know how faulty my heart is. But again, it's a weakness I need to address. So I did it anyway. At present I compliment my yoga practice with my newest discovery: plyometric training. It's mostly popular among professional basketball players (well, go to my gym if you want to see the hot shots of the Philippine Basketball Association). I still do zumba as well. The most latest addition to my regimen being healthy eating. I'll get into the specifics of each and every exercise in later posts. Something to look forward to . Hey, that's why I'm blogging all these anyway. :) So there you have it. From a grim past life to where I am at present. It's been 4 years since I started all these and I've never been happier. There's absolutely no lie in all the things youve read about the benefits of exercising. They're all true. From the endorphin high that makes you happy to clear skin to strength, they're all true. So I'm telling you already, coming from a person who was once a complete opposite of who I am now, exercising and living a healthy lifestyle really makes a huge difference and it's for the best. The best part about it is it's never too late. One thing I learned from Bikram Yoga class: it's never too late to start. But you have to start somewhere. Be patient with yourself. Respect your body. And during class, give it your best shot. I can give you all the cliches in the world on fitness but only YOU can start things for yourself. I can blab and blab and attest to the benefits of healthy living but like a lot of things in life, you need to experience it for yourself. START somewhere. Everything has to start somewhere. :)