It is officially the second quarter, which means that the fresh buzz of starting highschool has completely withered away. There are no new faces to greet, nor is there any new classes that we excitedly await to be apart of, because it is now real. Fall break has come and gone, which means the monotonous teaching that comes with school has unfortunately commenced once again.
There was once a time when I enjoyed learning, a time when learning didn’t necessarily mean to stress out on end for letter grades, or to put your entire future into standardized testing. Learning to me used to mean riding a bike for the first time, or using the stove to make grilled cheese sandwiches without burning a house down. It meant reciting the lyrics to songs until it was trapped within my memories, or picking up sign language because of watching “Switched at Birth.” That to me has always been the type of learning that I was intrigued in since I was a child, it is also the type of learning that has died over the course of my highschool career. So I now embark upon and have committed to learning something new every two weeks, either it be a skill, recipe, habit, fact or anything of relevance that broadens my world just a tad and that hopefully broadens your world too.
It was over fall break, that I realized that people actually work out. They don’t just go into a gym, take a selfie and leave, or spend hours on a treadmill, instead they truly do work out. Due to the constant beach days that took over the majority of my break, I was able to hang out with other people who were clearly a lot more fit than I was. Although, I didn’t look at these people in jealousy I instead was filled with curiosity. I have always had goals to live a healthier lifestyle and build a stronger body for myself. Yet, I have never had people to guide me through the right work outs or diets, occasionally I have worked out in the past yet never to the extent where I was able to stick with it and see results. I was determined to change that.
For the past two weeks, my friends, Isaac and Memphis have been guiding me through a healthier work out filled schedule. Once they took me to work out for the first time I completely died and had no clue how to lift weights properly. Since they tend to work out their biceps and triceps, they would use free lifting in order to gain muscle. Ofcourse, I was completely unaware of where my hands went on the bars, to the right amount of weight I was supposed to carry or the posture that I had to be in. They helped me at every obstacle and my arms felt like they had been completely broken and pulled off afterwards, but that was the point. I had never worked those muscles before in my life especially since I never had anyone that could take the time to teach me and knew what they were doing.
My friends had also made it clear that working out is not just a task but a lifestyle, which I once again had been so oblivious to knowing. A Times grocery raid was completely in dire need, which is when I practically got a life supply of fruits, protein bars and sandwiches. Over the course of these past two weeks, I have also gotten my other friend on board with me in eating 3 square meals a day, of course they are healthier smaller portioned options, yet it was a decision that have already made an impact on my once unhealthy eating schedule.
Every single day I have been watching work out videos as a way to grasp ideas on different workout techniques, different areas of the body and the amount of time one needs to put in to efficiently reach certain body goals. Isaac and Memphis had created a plan to work out 4 times a week, a schedule that we have stuck to ever since the beginning of our mini workout journey. They included arms, back, core, legs, glutes and cardio throughout the duration of the week with rest days in between. Each day I had learned a new exercise and worked on a new machine, all of which were explained by Isaac who has been working out the longest out of us three. It’s been empowering to have control over myself and work towards such a productive activity. Not only by running through the motions of working out but through bonding with Memphis and Isaac over exercises and possible foods that could be best paired with our daily activities.
The task of working out had initially been an idea for my blog itself, I have always wanted to properly learn how to work out different areas of my body and nourish it correctly, yet it was in this short time frame that I have now grown attatched to the idea of working out and actually sticking with the schedule we made. Working towards a better, healthier body will always be such an important goal, and through learning as much as I have in these two weeks I hope to carry through and make this habit a permanent one.
