One Good Thing About My Day

Surely there must be one good thing that I can write about at the end of my day....well here’s my effort at it.

Gym and me – we have a love-hate relationship. It has always been on for a year and then off for another, more like out of sight out of mind. If you get me to the gym, I will sweat it out like crazy. But getting me to the gym is the toughest part. I say the toughest part because I am one of those few people who have the luxury of working from home and fortunately or unfortunately my fantastic subsidised-fee gym is located in the office building. The one hour drive to the office is not something that I enjoy.

Anyway back to my story. DH and I have been having really healthy meals these days – lots of green (mind you not heavily cooked like the Indian dishes), a bit of meat and soup. Even DH is surprised at the way I gobble up all the vegetables in my plate. Why did this happen? I love everything Korean and Koreans eat a lot of greens, get the drift?

OK – so that’s a tick mark on food and the next tick has to come on exercise part (because Koreans are lean too). Now this is where I have to take a reality check. A hypothyroid apple shaped person like me will put on weight, no matter what, even if I just breathe. But the least I can do is try. So well I will try.

This morning I woke up at 5:30, quickly put on my gym gear (a torn t-shirt and track bottoms – who really looks at you at 6:30 in the morning!!!) and headed to the office. Do you know just how calm and serene it is to drive at that time of the day – a clear road ahead and listening to your favourite songs? Not to mention – you get your favourite parking spot and can actually take eon ages at getting your car bang equidistant from the two white lines. I am OCD that way too. (How do you use the word equidistant – is it equidistant to, equidistant from or is that equidistant between?)

As I walked into the gym it all came back to me...just how much I missed the place, how I was one of those 1500 odd employee who actually worked out every day of the week and had complete attendance, even the gym instructor knew me by name. Well, those were the good old days.

With DH’s words ringing in my ears – start slowly, don’t try to do too much in a day - I sat on the exercise bike. All I wanted to do was just work up a glow, forget a sweat. With the timer on 30mins I started the slow ride. You see, the office gym has blaring music and then it gets too difficult to listen to one’s own MP3 player (no, I don’t have an ipod, don’t intend to, ever. I am one of those anti-Mac people). So at some point you stop looking intensely at the readings on the machines and gaze at your image in the mirror and then on the television playing aimlessly. Because there is nothing else to do, your mind wanders, then asks questions, gives answers, talks to you, coaxes you and tells you to hang on in there. Exercise is all about mind over matter – just how many times you can repeat the same act in 30 mins without boring yourself. All of a sudden I had an aim – to reach that 30th minute no matter what and to reach that 30th minute drenched in sweat. And so it went.

Not only did I complete 30 mins on the exercise bike, I also spent a good 15 mins with weights and when I walked into the office at 9:00 after a hot shower, I was on top of the world. It didn't matter how the rest of the day went...just for one moment I believed I could achieve anything....