'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger...'
-Kelly Clarkson
The first song in my playlist as I clicked play in the maximum insanity workout video. I wanted to start strong. 'Burn burn burn!' being my mantra for my weight loss journey.
It took me almost half a day to create the perfect carefully crafted playlist for my exercise routine, kinda like creating a playlist to motivate one in doing the dreaded house chores. For house chores I often like to start strong with hip hop especially with the likes of Tupac, Notorious BIG, Kendrick Lamar...then mellow down to Beyoncé , Gloria Gaynor, Rihanna..etc. That is when sing along starts especially with my all all time favorite ' I will Survive by Gloria Gaynor.'
My exercise playlist for that day had a lot of motivational upbeat songs from the 90s to the 2000s. I was ready! I did the exercise alongside the instructor in the video for 10 minutes then l collapsed to the ground...ps the exercise routine was 30 minutes long. It was intense l must say but i was initially motivated at first. Who wouldn't be in their day one of achieving a goal- be it a bikini body, them abs, Jonny bravo muscles...you name it!
This reminds me of how when you start going to the gym, at the end of every exercise, sweat drenched and feeling light, one can't wait to rush to the mirror at home and check every corner of their body for immediate signs of a change. I just remember some day watching my sister talking to herself in the mirror after the leaving the gym saying:
'Eish…we are sorry madam beautiful. We see changes have happened! Yees Bitches! '
Then she will do a little dance to mark the complement before dashing to prepare for work.
That used to crack me up every time. Mores so, l loved how she did it - the appreciating of every process no matter how little 'na si raha unajipa mwenyewe!' (plus why not make life fun interesting for yourself!)
Having failed at my first attempt of completing an exercise routine, I decided maybe it was time l take it easy on myself. Ease into exercise as Rome wasn't built in day or two. I started with simple exercises like walking for 30 minutes on daily basis uphill and downhill. Walking helped and mum joined me in most of them. It was actually interesting how walking worked on my mind too-the fear of living with a condition lessened, I was more hopeful of the future to come.
Take a look at these beautiful landscape I saw just by walking:
Click this to part 3: Part 3
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