February: Indoors Never Felt So Good

Today's weather: High = 7 Low = 2
Cloudy

We got hit with a triple-punch of unseasonably bad weather for the entire month, most of which we did not have the luxury of being away in Thailand for. Below average temperatures, below average sunshine, and above average rainfall. In a word, indoors. Even then, the buildings are not designed for prolonged cold spells and the usual things apply like cranking out the air conditioning, taking extended hot showers, and so forth. You never really warm up, but you approach it.

As for exercising, I was at the gym nearly every day this month. The weight has been kept down from the previous Thai cycling trip and still dropping. Some major health benefits have happened since 2012, including an energy boost, muscle development, and continued weight loss. A workout is better than coffee for giving the body energy. At first the body hates it, and needs to be tricked into going. But by mid-workout everything changes.

Also, a regular exercise program has made for a much improved heart condition. While I didn't exactly have heart troubles last year, I could easily sense my heart working harder last year due to the excess fat and the tendency I have to gorge myself on meals. My family also has a history of heart troubles, and for this reason I'm very careful to keep the weight down now and exercise more. The principle is rather simple. The heart is a muscle and the more efficient it can work, the better. This can be achieved by cardio training, and also burning off the fat.

A sedentary lifestyle is a terrible thing, and when combined with a penchant for eating and a high-pressure job, one is just asking for a heart attack. Regretably this is the norm for Shanghai culture in modern days. The newspapers did a survey to show a mere 8% of the sample of people actually exercised more than 3 times a week. The same percentage lost weight during the recent Spring Festival holiday.

Getting set up with internet and landline now at my place has made it so I often don't want to leave. The heat is working fine if I close doors and keep it confined to a small area. The same applies in my classroom and I often don't want to leave there either. But between these places of comfort I have to venture outside which is the the part that sucks. In this kind of weather, you simply don't want to.