And then patted my own back for saying such golden words!

But whatever you say in anger never sticks! all she would have heard is loud noise and not my words! wisdom down the drain!

I find myself full of doubt every time I am running these days hoping to complete the Parramatta Half Marathon. The body says one thing, and the mind is saying the other, and I know the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Out of curiosity, I asked him if the locals are able to speak his name. And I wasn’t really surprised by the response… They are not. They end up calling him Shi, or ShiShi and some other names. And it’s ok. There are names which are hard to pronounce and this is also not the reason why I am writing this post.

I asked him for the meaning of his name, and he told me something very interesting. His name means Autumn, and he was named Shishir as his father’s name is Vasant (Spring). Shishir follows Basant (after summer but still) and that is one of the reasons why his name is Shishir!

So, the two rules:

1. Don’t leave anything behind but footprints
2. Don’t take anything along but memories

Now while this is golden for bush walking and taking care of our environment, this is so true for life in general as well. Think about it?

What I have realised over these years is that step count does not make any sense if at least 40% of this is not coming from a dedicated walk. 10000 steps roughly comes to about 8kms, and 40% of that is about 3.2 kms. So what you gotta do is do about 3.5kms of a walk to make it really count… anything more than that is a bonus on top of your 10000 steps!

And now the blessings part… Please be thankful that you are able to walk and run!

Get walking….

The only way was to do it everyday and improve over time! Also decided that I would do this over a period of 20 days, and then increased that to 50… did that and managed to do push-ups every day over 50 days with one cheat day!

At the same time, I also started riding more! got a new indoor trainer and put an old bike on the trainer! started riding regularly on the stationary bike and got out on the roads when I got sometime! Target was to complete 1000 kms within 2021 and earn myself a new bike (I did, and more on that later)

Between July and December of 2021, I got more disciplined about the whole process… and tried to take out time for riding or push-ups (and at times weights). There have been a few days when I didn’t but realised that it was ok to leave it a day or two as long as I was able to get back to the routine.

I want to take this further in 2022 and do more rides and push-ups! (Maybe lift more weights, do more jumping jacks, and skip too) I was able to get a start and continue with it I 2021 because I had friends who were sharing progress regularly, and helping me get better. With this thought, I put up a message on WhatsApp asking friends to join me if they had a similar goal for 2022.

The target is simple

250 Active Days in 2022!

Definition of active day – The day you did something out of your regular day to day work to get fitter – you did a brisk walk, you went out for a jog, you did some jumping jacks, you did some push-ups, you rode your bike, you went to the gym! or whatever it is that you did to burn some calories or increase your strength.

You would burn calories some days, you won’t the other days! its ok! First step is to get started! and we would figure out as we go along!

For now, here is my 2021 and I am committed to make it better in 2022

What we feel vs. what we say or how we express are two different things! what makes it worse is an expectation that the other person would understand what we are thinking inside based on what we are saying!

I might be concerned or worried, but I would snap at someone who I am worried about

I might be tired, but I would just be quiet

I might be angry, but I would show disinterest

and so on and so forth!

Its OK to fall, its OK to fail! you are a champion because you get up and get going again!