A good kind of stubbornness

I don’t exercise much. I should, but while I’m at school, I always find an excuse—I have work to do, research to do, paper to write, I need to relax, I haven’t eaten yet, I’m sick, the list goes on…

The few times my mother or my roommate had convinced me to get off my ass and do some exercise, it actually felt pretty good, especially taking advantage of renting bikes for free at Duke!
But the one thing I hate most about exercise is running. I just hate it. All I do is run in circles, getting nowhere. And if I go on some path outside, after two minutes I’ve slowed to a pathetic crawl, unable to motivate myself to go faster, although I probably could.

I’ve set goals for myself in the past, trying to exercise regularly, but something always comes up—the most often used excuse is running outside got me sick and I need my rest, so I’m not running anymore.

Since it is winter now in Salta, I assumed running wouldn’t be an option, and once again, I’d come up with excuses…so the newest plan was to do sit-ups and push-ups every morning when I woke up. So far, I have yet to begin…my excuses to myself are the usual…I’m tired, I have a long day, its too cold in my room, etc.

BUT, I have good (and bad) news (depending on how you look at it). My stubbornness with being cheap has overcome my hatred for exercising!

My house is a solid 20 minute walk away from the mall, where there is wireless Internet. The main square with all the banks, shops, and restaurants is a solid 30-minute walk from my house. To make a stop at the mall, then go downtown, then walk home is hands down an hour walk. If I’m conservative in my time walking today, I can honestly say I’ve walked two hours (so I’ve probably walked a little more than that), and it’s only about 4pm.

I could take a taxi, which is pretty cheap, but they aren’t easy to find where I live, and it’s a great way to get my moving! I feel my desire to communicate with the outside world via internet will easily get me to make that 40-minute round trip walk on a regular basis. By the time I post this blog, I will have done it twice in one day! Boo-yah! If I’m not in decent shape just from walking every day for over two hours…then something is wrong with human nature.

Hopefully my shoes won’t hold me back. After only two days of walking, I already have a blister from my pumas. What’s up with that?