Fitness Wanders | Walk! And Get Younger Everyday

one of the joys of going to the park for a walk - 
you get the chance to see God’s beautiful creations;
and you get to photograph them, too. 😊

There are two topics that interest me the most these past few years - savings and investments and health and fitness. I guess these topics are the most common concern of people as they get  older. And I’m no exception. We all want to be healthy and financially secured as we grow older.

But actually, these interests came to light when I realized that my parents are old and I’m getting older, too. Old age comes with health scares and income depletion, especially if you’re just relying on employment like me. And if there’s one aspect in life that makes me worried, paranoid at times, it’s my health and the health of my loved ones. My parents are on maintenance medication (my father suffered stroke in 2018) and in the past 2 years, my doctor put me on maintenance medication, too, for my elevated blood pressure. So yes, I need to aggressively work on my savings and improve my overall health condition.

It was 2021 that I started my BP medication, one year after the height of Covid-19. That year and the past two years, I’m working from home, in a small apartment where kitchen and dining table and bed are a step or two from each other. No open space to move around, hence, no exercise. I’m too lazy to go up the gym and work out, add to it the fact that I’m too stressed out with my work. In my previous job, I normally work for extended hours. The job is is so taxing that at one point in time, during a meeting, my blood pressure shoot up to 180/120. Quite scary, right? Thankfully, with rest, I was able to manage it.

That incident made me realize that I need to slow down. I  need to once again focus on my health and find a work that not only gives me better salary but a work confined to 8-5 working hours, as much as possible. That if I have to work extended hours, it’s not because I have to but because I want to. So when I got a chance at a new job, I took the opportunity. Unfortunately, the said job didn’t last long. Thankfully however, I got a new one immediately anfter. And I’m more thankful because this new one (my current job) doesn’t require extended work hours.

Now, I have the time to again focus on improving my health. Last December, I started working out again, initially 3 times a week and then 5 times a week since last February, and currently, everyday since April. My fitness goal is actually to improve my cardiovascular health. I know part of it is to be in the right weight range but I’m not looking for immediate results. What Im after for now is a sustainable workout routine, something that I can do regularly everyday. And for me, it’s walking and making sure my daily step count is at least 8k.

When I started exercising again last December, a moderate walking pace of 3 miles per hour makes my heartbeat rise to around 140-150 beats per minute, at the end of an hour’s walk. Also during that time, although I can still do some house chores, I’m pretty beat up by the end of the day. Nowadays though, I can walk an hour on the treadmill or at the park, go to the mall after walking to maximize my steps, do house chores in between and still not feel beaten up at the end of the day. I feel my energy level and endurance improved tremendously. Also, I can now walk (indoors and outdoors) on a moderate pace, on steady state in my zone 2, around 120 to less than 130 heart beats per minute.

I’m also happy to share that my VO2max (from my smart watch) and cardiovascular fitness improved a lot. When I got my smart watch last 2020 (not saying it is accurate but at least I have an idea), it says my fitness age was 60. Last January, my fitness age was 57, now my fitness age is 46, eleven years younger just after 5 months of walking everyday. I lost a few pounds too, not significant enough since I’m still working on my diet, but at least I lose some. All these just because of walking and reaching my daily step goal. So yeah, don’t be couch potatoes, let’s move more instead. Let’s walk! And let’s get younger everyday, as days go by. 😉

~ oo00oo ~

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.

Blessed Sunday everyone. And happy father’s day to all fathers out there. 🙏