Click

Over a year ago while I was lying in the bed sick as a dog with a high fever, stumbling around the internet and researching the martial arts best suitable for women (the idea of learning something like that always seemed appealing, however I never really had a chance), I found something that just clicked.

_{“Make time for fitness or make time for getting sick, make time for disease, make time for getting old.” - Firas Zahabi}

Zahabi is a martial artist and coach at Tristar Gym that is one of MMA training camps for many UFC fighters. It was the video “How to Program your Mind for Fitness - The Power of Creating Momentum” in which he explains in great clarity his philosophy about how to stay fit for life.

In my mind I simplified the quote into make time for fitness or make time for sickness. Easy to remember and it rimes. Maybe it was me being sick at the same time I made this discovery, however it deeply resonated with how I felt about my health degrading and the topic of aging in general.

It was only a while later I actually managed to break through the destructive habits and nine hour, stressful, sitting office job excuses and began taking care of my fitness and well-being. I created a habit of running every day and later running regularly with some resting days.

To track my progress I chose to run at the football field. The beginning was really slow and pathetic. Running few laps was challenging. It did not matter how pathetic it seemed. It was about minimal effective dose of moving, getting the blood pumping through the system, about breathing fresh air. It was about creating the habit and the momentum while not exhausting myself to a point I wouldn’t want to go back the next day and the next day after that and so on.

Though there was a lot of progress, it was not ideal. Bodies are not always perfectly balanced. Before starting I had issues with my knees. I thought that some grannies probably have better knees than I do and after a while into my running either I hurt my right hip or it just began hurting after I pushed myself harder. Perhaps it was the hip to begin with which caused the knee issues.

Right now I’ve been on a longer break from running. I find myself being sick again. Despite that  the hip is not hurting and the condition of my left knee seems to have improved which gives me hope that soon I can go back to recreating the habit of running regularly again and hopefully correcting the balance issues that I might have.