Starting an exercise regime in my 40s

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Guess what?! Starting an exercise regime in your 40s is not only possible but one can actually not feel like death – for long anyway. But the aches and pains….meh! 😛

Exercise and Me

I was never what you would call a sporty person, which means I only exercised because I went to school and school had weekly PE (Physical Education) classes.

But I actually liked PE classes because I got to try so many different activities during classes. I hear it is not the same now.

Besides getting to run (which included learning how to pass the baton and all) and swimming; I also got to try throwing the javelin and shot put; hurdle and high jumping; tennis, table tennis, and other fun stuff. My homeschooled children are envious. And this is one aspect that homeschoolers get short-changed.

Swimming

It was through PE classes that I found that I actually swam faster than most of my schoolmates. Notice I didn’t say I was a good or fast swimmer but that I was merely faster than most of my schoolmates 😀 I was no female Joseph Schooling (back in my days, Junie Sng was the golden girl of swimming) nor did I ever harbour any thoughts of becoming a competitive swimmer.

I just swam as part of the school swim team because it could get me ECA points. (Back in my days, such activities were called Extra-Curricular Activities not CCAs (Co-Curricular-Activities). So I would just practice (notice I did not use the word train) once or maybe twice a week with the rest of the girls.

I actually liked swimming though I really hated showering in the dark and dirty Farrer Park Swimming Pool shower stalls after. Swimming pool showering facilities were nothing like what we have now. I am so thankful for the progress!

Jogging

Being in Cedar Girls Secondary School in the 80s also meant that running played a large part in my school life. It was known for its runners. And so, the entire school had to participate in the mandatory jogging round the 400-metre track daily, unless it rained. If one were in the morning session (Secondary 3s and 4s), one would be required to jog round the 400-metre track twice after morning assembly, and before the first class commenced. If one were in the afternoon session, one would only be dismissed after jogging the dreaded 800 metres. Yes, do pity the bus commuters because we would then proceed to board the public buses all sweaty, sticky, and smelly!

And then there was the other mandatory thing – the yearly run at Macritchie Reservoir. Or at least I think it is yearly. Memory fails me now. Maybe some Cedarians reading this can comment?

I actually came in 8th or 9th in one of these races. But :::shudders:::. Running and I are not friends. Everything jiggles and hurts when I run. And then you get really sweaty and sticky in our humid climate. So hair will stick on your neck and face! Ewww!!! Obviously swimming and jogging use different muscles so though I never felt like death while swimming, I did while jogging. And somehow the stamina I acquired from swimming didn’t translate into stamina for jogging either!

Ballet

The only other physical activity I did as a child was ballet, which I started learning when I was 7. I loved and still love ballet above all the physical activities I did. Plus classes were held in air-conditioned comfort after I switched to Sylvia McCully School of Dancing. Before that, I had taken classes at the fan-only Community Centre.

And that sums up all my physical activities from birth until early this year. Well, on-and-off I would attempt to start brisk walking in order to get some circulation going and lose the baby weight. But these efforts almost always pan out by the third month – either I would fall sick, strain some muscle or have to contend with the dreaded haze. And ballet was not possible since each class was 2 hours long and I had to factor in travelling to and fro.

Starting an Exercise Regime in My 40s

But at the grand old age of 46.5, on 4th January 2016 to be exact, I started my exercise regime. I actually started jogging regularly. And by regular I mean at least 5 days a week.

As my 7 year old would say, “Amazing, right???”

To me, at least, it was. This would have been the longest stretch ever that I have consistently exercised. Even if I were to stop today, I would still have set a record for me.

So I am proud of myself for that 🙂 Even more amazing to me is the fact that jogging is part of my exercise regime, and in my 40s! Remember what I said about everything hurting and jiggling when I jog? That was when I was in my early teens. Imagine it now! Exercising regularly in my 40s, jogging 5 days per week. Yep, go me! And ouch!

But Why???

Why did I do it? And why jogging?

Well, our homeschool curriculum, Abeka, has PE as one of its required subjects. To obtain its High School Diploma at the end of Grade 12, one of the required credits is PE. With the older children, I would start out with them and once they knew what is expected, I would just ask them do it on their own. My excuse then, was that I had no one to babysit the babies and toddlers 🙂 But now that I do not have babies or toddlers, I decided that I would join the latest student to hop on the Abeka curriculum and exercise with her.

But why jogging? Simple – it was an activity with the lowest entry-level. No fees to pay, and no special equipment or athletic wear to invest in. The Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park is within walking distance. I can even count walking to it as warm-up if I wished to!

Abeka gives a long list of activities it considers legit to be accepted by them and I would very much prefer to swim BUT we since live near the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, choosing walking and/or jogging is the most logical choice. All we have to do is don a pair of appropriate shoes and off we go! Anytime we want. And we don’t even have to change out of our stay home clothes if we didn’t want to.

V-E-R-Y slow jogging

So, on 4th January 2016, when Esther officially started Grade 8, I started exercising with her. She walked, I jogged. It was A-W-F-U-L. I was sooooo unfit! I could barely make the minimum 1 mile (1.6km) required. But I plodded on. I had to be a good model for my daughter, right?

 Added Swimming

On top of the walking, I also started to swim while waiting for my younger girls who were taking their swimming lessons. I started with 6 laps and again felt like collapsing! To make matters worse, I had developed painful hips (back in December) and so had to swim freestyle instead of breaststroke, which is always more strenuous for me. I had to stop after every lap and gasp for air. Embarrassing. My arms felt like lead and I thought I was going to drown! Lol! But again, I plodded on.

However, once I got into the swing of things, I was unwilling to break the rhythm I had built up. So I pressed on. Even when our church did the 21-Day Prayer and Fast Initiative. I did not want to break my record and worse, start from Ground Zero after 21 days of not exercising.

Today, I run (slowly) on average, 3.5 to 4km 5 days a week and swim 22 freestyle laps once a week without stopping. I know I’ll eventually need to add weights to my regime to build more muscle strength and also to change things up. But I am happy about the stamina gained and how strong I feel. Somehow I feel more coordinated too.

No Weight Loss At All!

I know my fitness level has improved as I no longer feel like dying when jogging or swimming, unless I have had a bad night’s sleep. However, I have to say that I have lost ZERO kilograms. Yes, I am so not exaggerating. ZERO! Thankfully I did not start out with the aim of losing weight but to get fit and improve my circulation and get some sunlight. Of course, I had hoped that I would lose something so that was disappointing. But it also showed me that diet is more crucial than exercising when one wants to lose weight.

Diet Affects Weight Loss More Than Exercising

When I was on a strict GAPS Diet back in 2011-2012, My excess weight melted off me without me doing any physical activity. Seriously. But now that I am no longer on a strict diet, I have piled back on the weight, despite exercising the most I have ever had in my entire life!  🙁 Carbs is of the devil! 😛 Yes, I know I am also 5 years older so my metabolic rate has slowed down…

Still Pressing On

But still, I press on. I still dislike jogging but I like how I feel after it. Surprisingly, I now like sweating it out. And I like feeling the sun on my skin. I still dislike the humidity but that’s just living in the tropics. I try to think of it as helping my skin age less visibly. Aches and pains that come with exercising are par for the course but the niggling pain in my right hip is cause for concern. This developed before I started on any exercise and my chiropractor actually told me to start exercising (concentrating especially on my core muscles) to deal with it. It comes and goes.

Regardless, as I look forward, I plan to continue to incorporate exercise into my routine and definitely cut way down the carb intake. Not just for losing weight but also to keep the sugar dragon at bay. Keeping sugar levels constant is healthier in the long run anyway. Hopefully, I can keep it up as the hip pains can be rather bothersome. Like today 🙁

Start Small, Start Slow

So if you are thinking of getting an exercise regime going, regardless of your age or fitness level, I wholly encourage you to do it. Start small, start slow. If I can start an exercise regime at the age of 46.5, so can you! Or maybe you are already exercising? What do you do to exercise? Share with us and we can all encourage each other to live healthier lives!

Not exercising? It’s ok. Maybe not this season of life. What do you do to keep healthy then? Share it with us! We can all do with some motivation!

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