Archives for January 2012

I have two simple New Year’s resolutions, one is to save up and the second is to shape up. The former is being addressed. The latter is the subject of today’s post.

For someone who loves her couch as much as her rice, I was somewhat surprised at how much I enjoyed jogging, especially with the company of my beau (I doubt if I’d ever go through with it without him by my side). Granted, I’ve only started jogging last week, the dreary weather just makes it impossible to jog. For lazy first-timers like moi, lemme just tell you right now, it’s not as tedious as you think this activity is. For dummies like me,  keep these things in mind:

Most people will say, you need a good pair of running shoes but let me add by saying you need an equally good pair of socks, man. Being a cheapskate, I bought the cheapest socks I could find, you know, those 3 for 100 socks you see at your friendly neighborhood tiangge. Alas, I wore my cute socks for the first time and in just an hour, holes were already showing. Damn my misplaced sensibilities. I need those industrial strength socks.

Also, don’t drink coffee and eat an apple an hour before jogging. Weird advice, I know. I came up with the apple diet a few months ago. Basically, you eat an apple to satisfy cravings  and hunger pangs. Simple right? Well, it seems my diet and jogging do not mix well together. Unfortunately, I suffer from gastritis and this one time, I ate an apple and drank coffee a few hours before jogging. So. We haven’t even begun jogging when my stomach started acting up. To cut the story short, jogging with a  tummy ache sucks ass, man. All I did was trot around like a pony. I actually had to eat a somewhat heavy meal a couple of hours prior to jogging lest I do serious damage to the tummeh.

For my fellow wheezers, take your inhaler when you jog. Forget your phone, forget your iPod. Hell, forget about the damn keys but never forget your Ventolin unless you are prepared to go crawling back to your seedy apartment 15 minutes after trotting around the metro.

I’m hikain. I’ve had asthma for as long as I can remember. I’m one of those people who carry an inhaler anywhere. So my weak lungs have always been a cause of concern for me. Yes, jogging does trigger asthma (in my case, at least) but I think this is just temporary. I’m pretty sure this will no longer be a problem once I start jogging everyday.

I also tend to stuff myself after exercising but now that I’m older and wiser, I realize how stupid this is. Most friends tell me, if you start exercising, you can eat virtually anything. Not true if you got a fucked up metabolism like mine. So I shunned carbohydrates, grazed on fiber-rich things that usually aren’t very yummy, and grit my teeth in despair. Oh, the things I do for vanity.

I also learned from the boyfriend, that you shouldn’t drink too much water while jogging because you’ll just sweat all your water weight up instead of burning more calories or something to that effect.

So, there you go, things you need to keep in mind when you start jogging.