Can you just sit on the floor for a second? Thank you. Now, please stand up.

How did you do? If you have no idea what I'm on about, you're blessed. Or just young. If your rise from the floor involved either of grunting, moaning, groaning or cursing, I feel you. If your ascent from such position involved actual pain in your joints, I feel you. If your return to the standing position resembled that of the living-dead rather than a human being, I feel you. If your entire movement to a vertical position was as ungraceful as mine, which is worse than a newborn foal, I feel you.

I've gained a lot of weight since I moved away from Japan, especially in the midst of the pandemic. I have never stepped on the scale because I'm a certified master of denial. But, really, I didn't need the scale to tell me how overweight I was. I could feel it on my love handles; I could see it in clothes that no longer fit; and I could hear it in occasional comments from my family. However, nothing was as alarming as the realization I had one day: I was beginning to have slight difficulties in getting up from the floor. I realized that I was grunting while crouching down, and I was cursing getting up. My knees were acting up, and I've never had issues with my knees before (only with my back). My movement of getting up from a crouched/seated position was no longer fluid nor fast. I realized with utmost horror that my mother, who's quite able and spry for her advanced age, was more graceful in getting up from a crouched position than me.

Lariza, this is serious. This is utterly unacceptable. This is where you draw the line and finally get back into exercising. Leave the sedentary lifestyle behind!

I knew I had to take better care of myself. I've been meaning to do so for quite some time. I was well aware that, at my age🦕, taking care of myself was indeed a matter of life and death. Being careless about my well-being is no longer a luxury I can afford like before. Everything is starting to malfunction, and I can already feel it big time. Conversations with my friends have become some kind of performance evaluation meeting in which we analyze our health reports. We now compete against each other with our health issues. I really had to whip myself back into shape, but it gets harder to start these things as you get older.

Reading some health books definitely helped. I have had big diet experiences in the past, but I see the errors I made back then. This time I wanted to do it better, something that I could do for the rest of my life. So, no hurry. I started slow with baby steps. I lost a few pounds in two months, just by controlling what and how I eat prior to starting exercise. The purpose was to alleviate some weight strain from my joints before even starting to work out. Losing weight in the initial stage isn't that hard, and it certainly boosts your motivation, too. From December, I started to do a regular workout, roughly 40% resistance training and 60% cardio, posture exercise thrown here and there.

The first day that I lay myself on the yoga mat (which I had bought two years ago and which hadn't seen the light of day ever since) and did some light exercise, every single movement of my body was awkward. It was more than the heaviness of my weight itself. It was as if my body had forgotten how to move properly. Everything was stiff and unyielding. My body felt like it was made of concrete, all bones of iron, and the joints have gotten rusty because of neglect. That was quite a dreadful revelation. It was way worse than I imagined. The angel in my head whispered sardonically, "I told you so😇," while the devil whispered, "This is too hard for you, just quit!😈"

I didn't quit! I deserve a standing ovation here because, beside being the master of denial, I'm the grandmaster of procrastination, the sensei of indolence, and the potato-est of the couch potatoes in the galaxy. Knowing myself, I've made my workout schedule somewhat lazy, but appropriately so. I wanted my workout routine to suit my lifestyle and personality, something not that demanding so that I can keep doing it without pressure. It's far from intense, and it might take more time than average to see the result, but I'm ok with that. It's only been two months, but you never know how much one's body can change in two months. My joints are complaining less, I can move around on the yoga mat like an actual human being and not like a sack of concrete. My pants went down one size and I get congratulatory comments from people around that I'm looking better. My sleep quality has been increasing, too.

Happy exercising!

✔Corrected