The Road to 40 Day 290/365: Back at the Trails

Walking has always been my go-to physical activity, and I finally got back to it for the first time this year.

I walked about twice or thrice a week before some travels and eventually found excuse after excuse to put it off. I initially told myself to alternate between walking and finding a food spot, but since the start of the year, it’s mostly been food spots.

With this new commitment to fitness, I’ve been doing some physical activities again this past week. Today was Vino’s first day back at school, so I had the chance to go through my old walking route.

I’ve always said that I prefer walking more than running, but recent circumstances suggest that I should try running as well. It might get my heart rate up better and help me burn calories faster.

I went through the shortest iteration of the route that I’ve walked before, but I decided to take a different turn somewhere. My map showed that I should go forward, but I saw this small path that wasn’t in the map.

It felt like a path that no one really walks along, but it felt like it was going in the direction of where I was going. I thought it was a good idea until I reached a dead end. I turned back to get back to my usual route.

I love getting lost. It doesn’t matter if I’m driving or walking – as long as I have time, I will probably always choose to get lost to discover new places or routes. It’s been my me-time when I was working and visiting clients in nearby provinces.

In Vietnam, I followed maps to go to the eating places I wanted to go to, but normally, I would just walk aimlessly until I found something interesting.

Today, it led me to a dead end, but hey, at least I found it.

I’m still not used to running. Some years back, my dad brought me to a 5k fun run in Manila. There, his friend, who was running regularly, suggested that I go for 2 minutes run and 2 minutes walk, then improve on that by tacking in more minutes at the running part.

I tried doing that, but I couldn’t go for long stretches without losing a bit of air in my head. I tend to get anxious about light-headedness and fast heartbeats, and I don’t want to fall into that hole of overthinking while doing my exercises. So when I’ve set up my heart rate monitor or my watch, I’ll maybe start pushing a bit more.

For now, I think my body’s getting used to the physical activities – the runs and the calisthenics don’t hurt my body the next day as much as they did before.
I surprisingly have more energy these days, and my friend said it’s probably the lower sodium content in my body. I’m hoping that these changes become part of my habits. While it’s been relatively easy nearing my half-month mark on this new lifestyle, I feel like it could become difficult at some point, and I could fall into my old ways.

I know my goals and what I need to do to reach them, so I’ll just continue pushing through with these changes.