I am fat. Yes, my dear readers, I do not look at ALL like that girl on the right side of the screen, but it IS my dream to have a body like that. I have known this my entire life, and I just keeping getting bigger and bigger no matter what I do. I love to eat, and I STILL love to eat. Best body function ever.
I have always made my busy schedule as an excuse not to work out in a gym. 2 years ago, when I was in 3rd year of medical school, I started to go to Fitness First Alabang twice or thrice a week. My best and regular reason for going there is because of the Les Mills Body Jam sessions. But Alabang being 2 hours away from where I live also kept me from going everyday. Excuses excuses… And when clerkship started, I quit going to the gym altogether.
But this time, because of my controlled personal schedule, I get to go to the gym everyday! I love the fact that I have already psyched myself to think that going to the gym, working out, and eating properly is already my WAY of living and not a chore that has to be done. I think that by thinking that way, it makes it less painful than it seems. Most of the group exercises that I attend are scheduled in the afternoon, which gives me the time to wake up late, and study before and after my sessions.
Right now, I am active in 2 classes. Les Mills Body Jam and Body Balance. Les Mills is a program from New Zealand, and it is being taught in all Fitness First branches. You can read about the Les Mills programs at Totally Les Mills website. They release a new set of songs every 3 months, and so If you work out in FF alabang and then go to Manila, you would probably end up dancing the same thing. But it is NEVER boring. They mix it up with different tracks after 2 weeks of introducing a new track. Unlike other group exercises, they use new and hip songs all the time. I particularly LOVE dancing the hip-hop tracks. I also ADORE the body jam instructors, especially the ones here in FF Manila. They are to funny and energetic, like they should be. I love it when they let us dance the tracks that I learned 2 years ago, it brings back good memories!
The new thing that I tried is Body Balance and Pilates. It is like a combination of yoga, taichi, and some other body bending exercises that really really challenged me! I realized how much my joints have tightened over time. I could hear them clicking as I changed positions.
I was challenged with the fact that I could no longer balance with one foot, and I told myself, that ONE DAY I will be able to look graceful as I participated in the class. Right now, I look kinda stupid, but I gotta start somewhere. I hardly look like this:
Isn’t that beautiful? I could hardly straighten my legs and waist to do that. But i really really REALLY want to. You can’t expect me to be looking like a graceful swan anytime soon. Another thing I love about Body Balance is the 10 minute meditation session at the end. It was so calm and relaxing. It’s a great thing for a board reviewer like me.
I am still not seeing the fruits of my labor physically, but I DID notice a change in me in other ways:
- I feel more energized. It’s 12:30 midnight right now, and I am not sleepy at all. even after 2 hours of gym time, I don’t feel tired. I feel like I can absorb more of my notes and books now than before I went to the gym!
- I eat healthier. Forget the 3 big big meals a day. I know that exercise is just half of the solution. Eating healthier means not starving, but making the right choices. More salads for me!
I still feel discouraged sometimes, especially when I go try on some of my old pants and realize that they don’t fit anymore. I feel awful when I go to a clothes shop and I love a certain dress, but I couldn’t wear it because I didn’t look good on me or it didn’t fit at all. But I turn myself around and tell myself that one day those clothes will be mine, and I would look good and feel good wearing them. I remember my other good traits (I have a good voice they say, and I rarely get pimples, and I look younger than my age) and feel accomplished already.
So yeah, I LOVE Fitness First. I’d be a member for LIFE if I could. The membership fee is through the roof though. I’m so grateful that my parents are willing to pay for this. They are the ones who badly want me to get thin after all. So good luck to me, and good luck to all of the people wanting to have a healthier better looking body! ^_^ We can get through this, and MORE!
Despite the non-stop action from all the tasks we had to do, the most fun part of the duty was our ice cream time. One of the patients who gave birth treated all of us to a bucket of mango graham ice cream… Dee-lish!
