Nothing to lose

I’m okay.

I look okay.

I think I’m just fine.

My body looks good.

There's nothing to lose.

I won't lose anything if I don't exercise.

Have you heard anyone say any of the above? Or have you ever said any yourself?

Maybe or maybe not.

But that has been me all these years. I have my own kind of laziness. And exercising is one of them. So the only consolation I give myself is that I don’t have any weight to lose.

I didn’t think I had anything to lose as well. I mean, not exercising wasn’t going to take anything from me. And I was just okay the way I was. I really didn’t understand why I needed to exercise. To me, I had nothing to lose.

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However, I wasn't doing well in the fitness department. And I'm still not.

I do a lot of things, but I get tired easily. Like easily. Sometimes I think I’m walking pretty fast, but I'm not. I’ll get tired if I try to walk very fast.

And then when I take the stairs, I just get tired so easily, among other things. My siblings said I do not have stamina, which is true (and I didn't even know). A former work colleague also said the same thing when we got back from a program and had to use the stairs because the elevator was in use.

Stamina:

The ability to sustain prolonged physical or mental effort. - Oxford Languages

I also lack endurance, mainly cardiovascular (aerobic) endurance:

A measure of how well you can do exercises that involve your whole body at moderate to high intensity for an extended time. - WebMD

They seem similar but are quite different, though a bit related. Consider this:

• Stamina - do I get tired easily?

• Cardiovascular endurance - how long can I perform this activity well?

Read more on endurance and stamina.

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I knew these things and I somehow had to deal with them but I didn’t want to exercise. I did not want to care.

I only did a few cobra poses (on my bed) when my back really hurt from sitting. I think that was during the Covid-19 lockdown. And it ended there.

On the outside, I was okay. But inside, I wasn’t. So I decided to exercise. I needed it.

My first thought was to start jogging or even brisk walking. But I gave it a second thought and changed my mind. I do not like stepping out of my house so that was going to be hard, especially if I had to do it early in the morning. Evenings won’t be ideal for me either.

So I thought again. And I chose to skip. Yeah, skipping. It was close to home. I only needed a skipping rope. And I could do it in my house.

I wasn’t even thinking about the benefits of skipping when I chose it. I chose convenience first. I always will, I think.

I later decided to read about skipping to see if it was going to help me in any way. And to my surprise, it will indeed. It will even give me more than I want.

I would have loved to share that article with you because it was the first one I found and it enlightened me on skipping, its benefits, and how to select a skipping rope.

Unfortunately, I double-checked the link when I was editing this piece, and they gave me a 404 (page not found). I'll keep checking and when I find it, I'll drop it in the comments section (I'll alert you when I do).

While you wait for that article, below are 5 benefits of skipping.

• Strengthens bones

• Decreases belly fat

• Improves heart health

• Enhances lung capacity

• Increases stamina and gets rid of fatigue

The last 3 are what I need. And maybe strong bones.

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I began this fitness journey on 2nd January '23. The plan was to do it every morning but after 3 days, I realized I couldn’t so I reduced it to 3 times a week.

On the first day, I could do only 6 skips on the first round. So I had to rest and get back up and start again. In the second round, I managed to get to 15 and in the next one I did 20. That was it for day 1.

I had set a standard now but I had to exceed it to make progress. So day 2, I did 20 for round 1, and for the subsequent ones, I tried to get to 30.

I can’t really remember when I started doing 50 skips per round. But that’s all I can handle for now, on average. I’ve done 60 a couple of times but it was difficult.

I’ll try to get to 100 one of these days. And then I can start timing myself. How many skips do I want to do in a minute? Can I skip for 5 minutes non-stop?

I'm trying to work on not getting tired easily (stamina) first and then I can begin to think of how long I can spend skipping continuously in a round (endurance).

For now, all I want to do is to be able to show up 3 times a week (usually mornings), no matter how many skips I do in a round or at the end of the day.

I try to do 100 skips a day in 2 different rounds. I’ve done 150 a couple of times (3 rounds).

The good thing is that skipping is also helping me drink water. Because I need to take in water before I can continue whenever I pause. I hardly drink water so this is now one of my cues to drink water. I've stacked the habit of drinking water on every skipping round (learned habit stacking in James Clear's Atomic Habits).

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There's more?

You're almost through, I promise. Less than 10 paragraphs and you'll be out.

I think we all need to exercise to be fit regardless of how we look. You probably know this already.

Maybe on the outside, you look perfect but your organs and muscles and systems need "something" to make you fit. And that something can be exercising.

You may not want to go to the gym or engage in any exercise that'll take you away from your house (like me), but you can find something you can do at home. Something you'll find convenient and enjoy doing. Yoga? Skipping? Walking around? Jumping? Running? Jogging? Dancing? I'm sure you'll figure it out.

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You made it this far! Cheers🥂

I didn't think I'll ever need to exercise. And if you told me I'll be writing about fitness, I'd never have believed it. But look at me...taking my health seriously and even writing about it. Times change indeed.

I'd like to hear from you (in the comments section)

Do you exercise? Or you look just fine so there’s nothing to lose.

PS: When I talked about setting goals in my new year post, "Health" was one of my goal categories for 2023. And I had exercising as a subcategory.