The first thing I started to keep my promise was signing up for the fitness center and hiring a personal trainer. Receiving basic trainings on using the fitness equipments and having effective workouts, my first day at the gym seemed easy, filled with enthusiasm. But when I woke up the next morning, my arms, legs and back were in severe muscle pain, and felt like I had been beaten up. The pain broke my will to keep up the exercise, just on the second day. However, I thought I should stop procrastinating about the inevitable, as I must do it anyway. From that day on, I tried to move my steps to the gym at least one hour a day, no matter what happened. Thinking “Let’s make this schedule a habit, first, for a week,” I made exercising as a fixed daily plan. And initially the weekly plan was altered to 10 days, two weeks, 20 days and finally a month went by.
When February came, I found myself working out two hours at the gym every day. My strength, which allowed me only 20 minutes to run on the treadmill at the beginning, was improved to 1 hour straight.
Though a novice, I was enjoying crunches, lifting dumbbells, pedaling on a bicycle, and stepping the stepper. It was a novel experience to see myself change, as I thought I was the type of person who lacks tenacity and hates exercising. The more surprising experiences were the changes in my body. It was hard for me to catch the differences in the figure - a month was too short to expect a big change. Though I lost about five kilograms, I only felt my body was getting healthier, and did not realize any changes in my appearance. Nevertheless, when I met my friends in several months, the first thing I heard was “Are you on a diet? I can notice your weight loss.”
Slowly and steadily, my body was changing both internally and externally.
For approximately three months, I reduced my body fat about eight kilograms, and developed three kilograms of muscle. The results are beyond my preliminary goals, making me set a new goal to further shape my body.
Having an energetic and stronger figure is a great pleasure. But the most important and meaningful thing that I have earned through exercises is a healthier mentality. Although exercising is still sometimes annoying and exhausting, there is nothing compared to the freshness and a sense of achievement that comes after finishing daily workouts. Those positive energies are always honest, giving me motivation to work hard on other tasks as well.
Moreover, to a person who had no particular leisure activies, exercise enabled me to respite from every stressful events. I have acquired a method to manage my emotional relaxation.
It might be arrogant for a beginner like me to comment about the advantages of exercise and encourage the others to get physical.
However, I can definitely say one thing: there is no harm in working out. Confidence, patience, diligence and happiness are the values that I earned along with a good body shape.
Above all, I discovered the confidence that I can do it as well, which will positively affect my life in many ways. And I know you can also experience these special and dramatic changes too. So, why don’t you give it a try?.
Ewha Voice
evoice@ewha.ac.kr