It Starts

We all have to start somewhere, right?

Well I decided that it was time to start NOW.  

What am I starting?

Well for one thing, I have decided to start RUNNING.

NOW would actually be Thursday, 03 February 2011, 4:50 PM; and RUNNING is meant to be at least 20 minutes non-stop.

Why RUNNING and why NOW?

Well, the RUNNING bit can mainly be attributed to a very good friend Nikki who has been running for a bit over a year now.  She is running 10k marathons now and is much better shape than when she started.  She is a great inspiration for the sport, I must say.  Her husband apparently decided (this was in December 2009) that he wanted to get back into shape and start running again.  Nikki eventually joined him on the tracks although she herself  was never the varsity team type.  

As the months passed, Nikki's weight loss was noticeable.  I was duly impressed.  I was very happy for her.  She would post photos of her latest run in FaceBook.  I would cheer her on.

Going back to FaceBook, I found Rina, one of my best friends from Grade School.  She and her family are in New Zealand.  One day, she mentioned that she was corresponding with Sylvia, another of our Grade School gang and giving her tips on running.  

"What?"  I typed as we chatted, "Sylvia is running?  Wow!"

Rina replied, "Yes, running is the new black in Manila.  There are events almost every week."

I didn't think anything of this.  My de Santos hips were happy to be parked on the couch.  Although when I first discovered Coolong Park near our place, I thought to myself that this would be a good place to run.  

I left all this running business at that until Nikki sent me a link to her husband's blog the other week.  As I went through it, I thought to myself, running sounds like something I could do.

However, it was not the link that brought about the NOW.

The NOW was brought about by Zeline's arrival and departure.  

Zeline was scheduled for a visit from 16 January to 03 February 2011.  I thought that while she was here, maybe we could be exercise buddies.  I wrote as much in my messages to her as soon as I found out that she had confirmed her flights.  She wasn't very enthusiastic about the idea.  When she arrived on the 16th of January, she relayed how she had to dash from one airport terminal to another in order to make her flight.  "Did you have anything to do with that?"  she asked me.  (Sure, Z.  I wish I had that kind of special powers.)

While Zeline was here, we did manage to get some sightseeing and matching walking around done.   Unfortunately, that was as far as our exercise buddy activities went.

This morning, I brought out the weighing scale so we could check the weight of her baggage before she left for the airport.

Ten kilos.  Baggage all good.

Of course the natural course of things dictates that after you weigh the baggage, since the weighing scale is right there in front of you, you check your own weight.

Zeline got on the scale ... 50 kilos.

Oh, I was 50 kilos once upon a time.  That was a long time ago.   A very, very long time ago.  

The kids got on the scale.

Ardi was about fifty kilos as well, Mai, thirty-nine.

They looked at me in anticipation.

A l l     r i g h t . . .   h e r e    g o e s   n o t h i n g . . .

I step on the scale ... the scale that reads kilos and stones, instead of pounds.

Up, up, up it went ... all the way up to 54 ... fifty-four!

How many pounds is that?

Poppop did some calculations then said, "One hundred and thirty pounds."

WHAT?  I am 130 pounds?  Am I really?   I think I was only in that weight range when I was pregnant.

OMG!  OMG!  OMG!

I need to exercise.  I need to run.  I need to run NOW.

So that is how the NOW came to be.

By the way, I did my own calculations and came up with 54 kilos = 120 lbs.  Whew!  That's not TOO bad but I would feel more comfortable if I weighed a bit less and fit in my jeans a bit less snuggly.