Balance

One of the things that I think is vital to life, both overseas like me and in general, is balance. Recently I've been pursuing a healthy balance by getting into a rhythm of exercise here!

I started out slow a few weeks after I arrived, heading out to Cerro de las Campanas (Hill of the Bells) for a run by myself. It's a good little run - short, but with a good sharp hill in the middle. I started with a couple of laps of that. My time for a lap to start with was somewhere over 5 minutes.

Since then, I've started going with some friends to run and generally do some exercise. About four weeks ago, Alma Rosa, Danny, Lila and I headed out to the Seguro where there is a running track... and 8 laps later, puffing but happy we got into it! After running, we did some exercises to "bajar la pancita" (get rid of the gut) and then I pulled out my AFL footy and started to teach the crew how to play. They went well!

So now, I've managed to get into a routine of going for a run three times a week... Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

The last Thursday night, Alma and I ran at the Seguro and then asked some guys if we could join their soccer (futbol) game - one on each team. I was a bit worried that my skills weren't going to be up to scratch, but with some good determination I played okay! The guys were of all ages, from about 15 to about 45! After we had played soccer, I got out my AFL ball again and got some of the guys involved in learning which was funny. Everyone seems to go straight for American football when I get it out, but after some explanation that you can't throw the ball, it always ends up a lot of fun.

This morning I went with Yolanda to spinning (pronounced here espining). I'd actually never been to a spinning class before and it was pretty hard work, but great for the legs! She was pretty suprised by how much I sweated, but I told her that it was all my fat falling off!!!



How do you keep balance in your life?



Just to balance things out, I think we're going to eat KFC for lunch... but never fear, I'm heading out to play football or basketball with some young people afterwards!!