FITNESS | Urban Fit

By J.D. VELEZ

Published in Sun.Star Live, June 24, 2005

I used to walk a lot. My feet took me to rivers, hills, shores, rice paddies and marshlands. Then, life’s twists and turns made me stop those nature treks.

Recently, I took up walking again. But this time, I traveled two kilometers and never really got anywhere. I did sweat profusely though, something I’ve not done for quite sometime.

I walked for 30 minutes on a treadmill, and lost some 167 calories. I missed the green trees, the blue skies, the ever-changing pattern of clouds I associated with walking. But such is the paradox of modern urban lifestyle. There’s always a virtual equivalent to what we leisurely or meaningfully do in the suburbs or boondocks. It has the same effect though of reinvigorating your body but minus the being-one-with-nature part.

I’ve done mostly cardio exercises lately, some light weights to tone my arms, and crunches to rid myself of an unhealthy, not to mention unpleasant-looking belly.

The first time I worked out, I stared at my reflection in the mirror and with all honesty, saw myself for all my obese glory. I sort of denied I was getting fat, always compensating the unsightly bulge with the clothes that I wear.

I’m a newbie to all this getting fit business. Although I’ve always admired those with the discipline to keep their body fit.

I never really saw myself as health conscious. But when one gets older, you try to fight the inevitable aging process by exercising.

I was naturally fit before. The American writer Henry David Thoreau had such a profound effect on me that I did try on a Walden-like existence. That was some 14 years ago.

There was nothing much to mark that point in my life, except for some eastern influenced poetry, a journal and watercolor paintings of frogs, shores, sunsets, (most of which have long disappeared or have been given to friends) and unintentionally, a better though lanky physique and a nice tan from all those walking under the sun.

Fast forward into the present, at thirty-something, I’m walking inside a gym covering more than two kilometers and never getting anywhere. That seems to be a good metaphor for the lives most of us live.

Divorced from nature, catching my breath, shedding off excess fats I find myself the typical urbanite living a sedentary life and keeping fit by working out in a gym. There’s something quite unnatural to it. I wish I developed muscles from say, lifting nets or plowing the fields, a natural consequence of living and not an end all by itself.

But such is the reality of contemporary life. It’s exhilarating being one with nature but society’s warm caves offer comfort from the night’s biting cold.