maintain an active and healthy lifestyle

I recently joined a gym. Biking here is not as easy as it was in Japan. First of all it’s not as safe. Lately there have been a lot of accidents between cyclists and vehicles, which makes me a bit weary.
So I joined the gym, and hopefully I’ll make it there fairly regularly.

Again, I need to exercise more regularly. Biking around town is not enough, I need to get my heart rate up and exercise to the point of fatigue. I haven’t been on a long bike ride in three weeks now and I definitely notice a difference in the quality of my life. Tomorrow I will try to hit temples 6, 7, 8 and maybe 9. I’m guessing that’s about 50 km. I can’t wait!

I’ve been doing okay on the ‘active’ part of this goal, but lately I’ve been eating very badly. I always seem to have cravings for chocolate or greasy foods. It just clicked last night that I haven’t been drinking as much water lately (I usually drink a LOT). I’ll make an effort to drink more and hopefully that will cut down on the cravings.

I love biking so much! I had been doing day trips fairly often, but came down with a bad cold a month ago and lost my momentum. Today I went out again, it was a bit more challenging than it was previously, but I just have to build up my stamina once more. Today I biked roughly 35km. If I want to make it out to some of the other temples in this prefecture I’ll have to be able to do a lot more.

I need to get into a better routine. I do bike everyday, but that’s more general physical activity. It’s not the kind of exercise that I need on a daily basis. I do go on at least one long bike ride a week, but I feel SO much better when I get decent exercise regularly. Today I went out in the morning for a 1 hr bikeride and it changed into 2. I could easily try to exercise for an hour in the mornings. My mini-goal will be to do that at least 4x a week, hopefully more.

I’ve tried to lose weight time and time again, but never with great results. Now that my lifestyle has completely changed I’ve been slowly losing weight and I feel great about it. I haven’t even really been trying, but with biking every day and eating healthier (for the most part) I’ve slowly and steadily lost at least 20 pounds :)

Went on a nice hike today. It felt so good to reach the top and lay in the sun for a bit. I say this all the time but I need to start doing this more often. It’s hard in the heat and humidity, but early mornings or evenings are always good for exercise.

Today I went on another long bike ride. It took two and a half hours to get there, but much less to get back as it was mostly downhill. I really enjoy taking these trips and I’m going to try to do it at least a couple times a month.
On a daily basis I could be doing better. I still bike to work everyday, which is more than I was doing at home, but I’m going to try to get some actual cardio work in a little more often. It will have to be early in the mornings or at night to avoid the heat. Time to invest in better bike lights and reflectors!

I’ve been getting more exercise through biking to work lately. And yesturday I managed to bike out to a neighboring town 3 hours away! That wasn’t so bad, it was the bike back that hurt :P
I’m going to try to do things like that more often. It’s a nice way to travel.

I no longer care about losing 20 pounds, it’s just a number. I just want to focus on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Lately I’ve been exercising more and it feels great! I love how my body feels so strong and alive. I still want to lose a bit of weight but that will come.