This has been an unexpected achievement for me this year. Ever since I started working in Malaysia 9 years ago, exercise had not been a part of my life. Life as a doctor in training is physically and mentally demanding, and often in my mind, there was no room for anything else other than work. But something changed last year. I passed my postgraduate exams and my job scope changed into one of a clinical specialist in a smaller general hospital. That allowed for much more time to venture into a life outside medicine. I tried to get back into violin but the interest did not sustain. I was watching some videos on gymnastics and cheerleading, and I wished I was able to do some of those tumble passes. I also watched Paskal the Movie, and I wished I had the strength and endurance of those navy men and women, until I checked out their recruitment info and found out that I would not even have passed the physical test for recruit training. My younger sister, Annie, in the mean time, was looking super fit being a Zumba instructor, and I must admit that I really admired her toned body. Although I was not fat, my weight was edging towards the unhealthy BMI already, and I thought this was a good time to try loose some weight. Another wise sister, Cheng, gave me words of wisdom too: we often do not prioritise our body as we do not see it imminently important, but in fact it should be (in the category of not urgent, but important). I tried a few workout: Yoga, Barre, Pilate, short workout for ladies (arms/abs/core/gluts/full body). Then I tried running, first around the housing area, but the stray dogs scared me, so I switched to treadmill. Once on the treadmill, I started to pay attention to the stats - time, speed, distance, and before I knew it, the competitive self in me brought me back to the gym day after day, so I can outrun myself (how silly, now I put it out like this!). I started to keep a log of my workout.
I also bought myself a fitness tracker to push my workout to the peak zone to enhance my performance. I was becoming serious, reading up on various articles and watching feature videos on metabolism and weight loss, building strength and muscle, nutrition and really what it means to be fit and strong.
After a few months of running, I finally gained enough confidence to sign up for my first ever 10k run. I ran with two friends. We arrived early. Seeing a few other runners doing their professional warm up moves made me nervous. But, after the flag off, I zoned into my comfortable pace and started to enjoy the experience. There were a few short uncomfortable moments of uphill slopes and painful muscle stitch. I would give myself an intensity score of 7/10 for this race. The run felt easy, and before long, I was approaching the finishing line. After the race, I was so happy, first and forth most, for completing a run of this distance, the longest distance yet for me, for the first time in my life. I set myself a modest goal of 1h 30 min, but in fact, I did much better! The the aftermath of the 'runner's high' is real: I could not fall sleep that night due to the overwhelming euphoria!
This accomplishment has given the insecure me the much needed confidence boost to take on more physical challenges. I hope I have not started this journey too late. I look forward to playing around with the various modalities of workouts out there and setting myself more fitness goals next year.
