Exercise as a Habit

Since 2014, when I saw myself in a mirror and I don’t like what I saw (like 75 Kilos in a person not taller than 165cms), the decision was made: a change is necessary. During that time I was living in Caracas, near to my beloved Avila Mountain, so the decision was to hike the mountain, like 3 to 4 mornings per week and some biking on Sundays. That decision helps me to see some physical changes in my body but, at certain point we moved to another apartment in Caracas, not so near to the Avila, and some weight returned back. New decision was to enter to a gym. I am not a “gym guy” so I decided to work with a coach and by chance a very talented one. He pushed me to do more and more, and changes again started to appear, not only in my body but also in my mind. At that moment, doing exercises becomes an important activity to be done almost daily.

Avila mountain from my office

Sunrise seen from the Avila while trekking

2018 arrives and another change with it: we moved to The Philippines. During the adaptation period my exercises were on pause, and again, some weight came back (71Kg). At certain period of 2019, I started my exercise routine, and something changed: the mindset I felt before returned, but stronger I would say. That mindset of trying to exercise everyday regardless of the quantity of work, meetings, responsibilities and pendings at home. Exercise ceased to be an activity to be done when there is time, to be an activity that have to be done in the same way I eat, brush my teeth, or kiss and hug my family: an habit that I should do almost daily (Sundays for me are rest days).

It was not an easy task but something I found in my experience is that every time I skip exercising because a lot of work, the next day I have the same amount of work (or more), and my mood was not good. At that moment a new intention was defined: not to skip exercising regardless of the amount of work and the result was interesting: Exercising bring me not only the moment to stop thinking about work, but also the time to make a pause on what I was doing and then maybe to reconsider another ways to do it. Since then I decided to do my best in order to do exercise daily, specially when a lot of work is in the agenda.  

My curiosity begun to ask to myself why exercise helps me and I found that at least I have read the answers, but I didn’t learned it. For instance, there is a very well-known book that you have read, or at least you know and is in the list of books you want to read: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In this book, a business bestseller, the author mentions how important is exercising. He consider it as part of the 7^th habit, Sharpen the saw: we cannot work to death, we need time to recuperate and recharge physically, mentally and spiritually, and exercising is just one of the 3 dimensions he mentioned.

Exercising could help in several ways, and here I share only some more, but you can do your own research:

• Have better sleep: let's be honest, exercise tires us, and we need to recover for it. Doing exercise will help us to go to bed earlier and sleep better.
• Illness risk reduction: It is known that sedentarism is dangerous and it is related to certain types of illness and diseases like diabetes obesity heart disease and hypertension. Regular exercise can help to reduce the risk of having this illnesses, because your blood system is “doing exercise”
• Helps mind and body to handle stressful situations: During high intense exercise you have to tolerate certain “symptoms” like sweating, rapid heart rate and rapid breathing. It seems those are also symptoms related to anxiety and stress and researches believe that the body and the mind progressively learn these symptoms are not dangerous. In a way, you increase your tolerance to them. In addition to this, your blood flows faster and bring more oxygen and glucose to your brain which are just the perfect ingredients for your mind to work better and generate more endorphins, so you also feel better. It seems that exercise also helps to remove the cholesterol excess caused by stress situations

Since the enhance community quarantine started due to the Covid19, people is working from home, and we are struggling against that balance between, work hard, be good parents and “teachers”, take care of the responsibilities related to our home, buying groceries and of course having some “me time”. I cannot tell you is easy, each one of us is different and the challenges we are facing might be different if you compare yours with mine (maybe you have 3 kids, or you also have a pet, or maybe you are in a country where the quarantine is more strict, so the scenario is different making your challenge more difficult compared with mines). But in general terms we could agree we have some new challenges due to the new situation, some of them easier to handle, some of them harder. 

I cannot tell you that it will be easy to add to your new challenge list, the new one to “exercise regularly” (or to maintain your exercise routine but now from home) but what I can tell you is that it will bring you benefits as the ones mentioned before, so if you want to try, here you have also some recommendations:

• You don’t need to exercise a lot in terms of time: You can start with 15 minutes training and then increase that time a little and then a little bit more. It is recommended to do at least 30 minutes exercise daily, so try to begin with certain amount of time you consider good to invest. If you starting point is less than 30 minutes, try to increase it up to the 30 minutes mark, at least.
• Some days is better than nothing: As mentioned before is good to exercise in a daily basis, however you don’t need to start doing exercise every day. You can choose something like 3 days per week and then, when you create the habit, you can increase to 4, 5 and even 6. 7 days a week? You can but remember that is also recommended to have a resting time, so again, be aware about the balance and the goals you want to achieve.
• Yes, there are those days: Too much work, too tired, long day, long queue to buy groceries, there are certain days that you will feel too tired to exercise, and it’s ok. Evaluate your own energy level and decide, but in general, try to make sure this is an exception and not your daily excuse.
• Every day is a good day to start: How many times do you say to yourself “I will start on Monday” and then Monday ends and you didn’t start (not only applicable to exercise). Make the decision to start and start, even if today is Sunday.
• Is not always an extra cost: For sure, there are 1000 ways to train from home, online trainers, online coaches, routines using regular elements to be found at home, some of them are free and for sure some of them are not. Look for the ones that are free and try them. if you are just starting, free options will be enough.You can google routines to be done at home, or IG accounts that will share some interesting daily routines, especially now in this situation. For sure there are paid options but I would recommend to start with the free options and then, depending on your progress and goals, to evaluate other options.  
• Exercise is not less important: How important is your life? How long do you want to live? Do you think you will live longer if you don’t care about yourself? There are people that smoke and live longer than people that exercise, yes there are but statistics shows the opposite, healthier ways to live, are related to longer life. So if you want to live longer, you have to manage how to do it, you cannot avoid a car accident of a flight accident that are not under your control but you can do things under your influence to try to reach your target and exercise is one (as well as some others like a healthy diet or meditation)

Results after the 8 week challenge with F45 BGC (October to December 2019)

I won’t lie to you, starting doing exercise regularly, is not as my elder daughter say: easy peasy lemon squeezy. At the beginning, as in every beginning this is hard. After your first workout, it will be painful, and the second day, every part of your body will hurt, but if you don’t do exercise again it will be worst the next day. During the first week and maybe during the second, it will be the same painful thing, I know it, it happens to me. But it won’t be worst than that. At certain point you won’t feel so painful, and at certain point you will see your progress, either at the mirror, either in the time invested, either in the frequency or in all mentioned. And at that moment you will figure out that your daily exercise is now a new habit you created.

I am not an expert in exercise, I am not a coach, I am not a trainer, I am not a sport public figure nor an influencer, and my body is not in perfect shape,  but I believe I learned something since my journey started, and what I learned might help you in your own journey, if so here you have it.

Working from home

If you go to google and try to find recommendations to work from home, you are going to find a lot of articles that will help you. In this one I will share with you, the ones that I implemented, especially now due to the corona virus situation.

Something that I consider important to have in mind while you read, is my family “configuration” because recommendations are somehow related to it. I am married and I have 2 beautiful daughters (almost 6 years old, and 3 years old). We live in an apartment that has 3 rooms and one of them is an studio/deposit. Internet is not good in every corner of the apartment and the service has been affected due to the current situation (corona virus March 2020). So this is my experience so far:

Office space: All articles related to work from home recommendations, usually explain how important is to set up your space for work in order to have the “work mindset” once you are in that space, however in my case this is not as simple as “setup the office at home”. In our family both my wife and I work, and the studio is either for her or for me to work because is not big enough. Our normal situation is that both need to work at the same time, so, what we implemented is to prioritize the studio for the person that need to have a meeting so the “family noise” will less affect it. The plan B for the one not using the studio is to use the table we have in our living room. At the moment I am writing these recommendations, my wife is in a meeting and I am at the living room.

My second monitor: For me is a must to work with a second monitor and I have one, but in my office, so in order to have a second monitor at home, I have 2 different configurations:

• At the studio: We have a small TV with HDMI port, so when I am there, I use that TV as my second monitor.

• At the living room: For those that have a tablet, what I did was to download an app that allow me to connect my tablet as a second monitor. For sure there are several apps to do this, but I can only share with you the one I choose. The name of the app is duet, is not free, I am using it in my iPad and you can connect to a laptop running either Microsoft Windows or IOS (499 PHP or around 10US$)

My internet: I believe several people are having problems now with the internet. Due to the situation we all are working from home and the service is on “high demand”, so the speed/quality is not the best. In order to try to minimize problems with the service, we define a rule at home: If mommy and/or daddy have a meeting, kids cannot watch Netflix or YouTube Kids. Instead they can watch cable (not related to internet), where they can watch kids channels. Is not as simple as setup the rule, but so far, is working. When possible, we also try to avoid having meetings both at the same time. In the meetings we prioritize audio and “share screens” over the video of ourselves, and if we are not talking, we are on mute.

My way to avoid distractions at the living room: Not an easy task because my daughters will be around, however there are several things I do. 

• One is to talk with the kids for them to know that I will be working, that believe it or not, it helps. They are now more conscious about what is working so they will be more focus on the TV or the worksheets we bring them. they also play to work.
• Other one is to put my headphones and to listen some music that will isolate (somehow) the “family noise”. I don’t have any special headphones and the ones that I have are working well.

Rules during the meetings: additional to the one mentioned about no Netflix/Youtube for the kids, I am also following certain rules like:

• If I am in a meeting:
• Headphones is a must.
• Explaining the team at the meeting about the “family noise” is helping a lot. A certain level of empathy is generated when you say it, and in fact other people also share their challenges for the call (pets, bad connection, no headphones, etc)
• Try to be effective during the call so I can go back to my family and bring them attention

• If mi wife is in a meeting (and I am not):
• Try to avoid the kids going inside the studio: At the beginning we started closing the door but as soon as we did it the kids started knocking the door because the want to see me/her. Now, understanding they don’t like the door closed we have the door partially open so they can enter, however is the mission of the other parent to either try to avoid they enter or to try to convince them to go to the living room and leave the studio. In order to do this, we have some special tools to use, like games (snake and ladders) or special activities like camping at the leaving room

I cannot tell you that is easy for me to work from home, and that everything is smooth, in fact there are several factors that are affecting my effectiveness, however, I am still learning how to improve. Only for you to have an idea of the challenges that are still to be improved:

• Working hours: Certain days, family wants more attention and I try to bring the attention they need but “overtime” is also happening. Balance is the key, the idea is to find it.
• Exercising: My first week was a complete disaster in terms of exercise, I only exercise twice. Knowing I decide to improve my exercise frequency, now I am more conscious about the options so depending on the quantity of work and the meetings, I try to select the best schedule to exercise, either before lunch or before dinner.
• Focus: Especially when I need to read important documents. Music usually distract me from reading, but without music the “noise cancellation” is also unavailable, so is quite a challenge.
• Meetings conflict: when we are both in meetings, kids are under “no rules” and this is usually a problem for us to have full attention to the call.

So far this is my experience in working from home. I hope some of the recommendations here can help you, and if you have any additional recommendations, please share it, we are in the same boat so we can learn from each other.

Samanta y Tatiana Presentando a Venezuela

En este video podrán apreciar a Samanta y Tatiana hablando acerca de Venezuela. Esta presentación se realizó en Agosto del año 2019 en Filipinas

Que lo disfruten...

El juego de los colores, el juego de los números

Desde hace un tiempo, es común que, en el camino de la casa al colegio de la pichurra, juguemos a algo. Uno de los juegos más comunes había sido el de atrapar colores. No sabemos cómo pero a la pichurra se le escaparon todos los colores y entonces ella empieza a buscarlos, no sólo nombrando el color, sino que también dice dónde lo consigue: Papá el azul lo conseguí en el cielo, papá el blanco en las nubes y así va agarrando uno a uno los colores, para luego guardarlos de nuevo en su bolsillo. El juego fue evolucionando un poco, en una etapa la pichurra buscaba un color pero luego papá también tiene que buscar un color, y luego cambió otro poco, ella nombraba un color y yo debía conseguirlo y viceversa. 

Sólo algunas veces, el juego de los colores cambia sutilmente una regla: el idioma, tanto el color como el lugar en donde lo conseguimos debe ser dicho en inglés. Por supuesto que conseguimos menos colores en el trayecto, pero era igual de interesante y divertido.

El tema es que en esta semana a la pichurra se le ocurrió una nueva evolución del juego y esto ha sido un cambio significativo. Yo supongo que ella se dio cuenta que en el trayecto diario, los colores que conseguimos no cambian mucho, sean en español o en inglés, así que me dijo:

- Papá se me escaparon los números tenemos que encontrarlos!  

- Qué? los números? no serán los colores?

- No papá, lo nuuuumeros, no me oiste? 

- Ok hija, entonces busquemos los números.

El juego empezó su evolución... Primero sólo los nombraba y los guardaba, los imaginaba en la calle y los iba consiguiendo y colocando en su bolsillo, pero parece que ahora los busca de verdad, y me hace buscarlos a mí, y con ello ha logrado que cambie mi paradigma de color al paradigma numérico. 

En principio, y tal vez hasta por facilidad, yo buscaba los números en las placas de los carros que nos conseguíamos en la vía, pero la pichurra empezó a preguntarme: papá y que es placa? no veo los números no veo las placas. Tuve que cambiar la estrategia, y empezar a utilizar las señales de tránsito y publicidad que nos conseguimos en el camino para empezar a conseguirle los números que se escaparon. Ahora el problema es que ella quiere conseguir los números en orden, primero el uno, luego buscamos el dos, ahora le toca al tres, y así. Definitivamente los colores eran más fáciles, ahora estoy empezando a aprender de este nuevo juego que aún no domino (inténtenlo, de camino a su trabajo busquen los números del 1 al 20 en ese orden)

Y es que así como mi pichurra me cambió el esquema de los colores a los números, también mi cerebro tuvo que hacer el cambio. Ya todos los "atajos" que mi mente había generado para los colores (azul en el cielo, verde en los árboles, marrón el los troncos, blanco en las nubes), no servían de nada en este nueva etapa. Ahora los ojos debían aprender a buscar otra cosa, y mi mente empezar a guardar los lugares en donde se encuentran ubicados estos nuevos números para ir mejorando mi audacia en el juego. 

Pero también me di cuenta que, al empezar la búsqueda, no sólo encontré números, encontré carteles que siempre han estado allí y que yo no había notado, publicidades de tiendas que ni siquiera sabía que estaban por esa zona, e incluso señales de límite de velocidad (aquí ahora encuentro el 4) que jamás había visto. Y es que el juego de los números, al cambiar las reglas del juego (mindsets, paradigmas) ha logrado que yo vea cosas que no había podido ver antes, porque mi mente estaba totalmente enfocada en colores pero evidentemente ciega de números. 

Y es justo esa la lección que me deja mi hija con su cambio de reglas del juego: Lo que estoy viendo en la vida, puede ser por enfoque, por ley de atracción, porque es lo único que me importa o porque sólo tengo tiempo para eso, sin embargo debo estar consciente que justo por decidir ver los colores, jamás estuve preparado para jugar a los números y tuve que aprender desde cero este nuevo juego. 

No puedo culpar a mi hija por el cambio de reglas y pretender seguir jugando a los colores, al contrario, debo ser consciente que lo único constante en la vida son los cambios y que debo estar preparado para ellos, sean estos cambios simples o complejos. Y más aún, con cada cambio debo validar si mis paradigmas siguen siendo válidos o debo cambiarlos por unos que se adapten mejor a la nueva situación, al nuevo juego.

Creo que es importante que revisemos nuestra programación y nos preguntemos con cierta frecuencia si nuestros paradigmas aún son válidos de tiempo en tiempo. En una sociedad en la que todo cambia con tanta frecuencia (o está buscando que esos cambios se generen), en donde la tecnología cada vez más genera cambios importantes en la forma de vivir la vida, en donde todo los días lo que es tendencia hoy, puede no serlo mañana, en un mundo así de volátil, tener paradigmas fijos e inmutables, puede ser tan difícil como buscar números sólo sabiendo de colores. 

Se dice que Mahatma Gandhi una vez dijo: Tus creencias se convierten en tus pensamientos, tus pensamientos se convierten en tus palabras, tus palabras se convierten en tus acciones, tus acciones se convierten en tus hábitos, tu hábitos se convierten en tus valores, tus valores se convierten en tu destino. Lo que invito es a que revisemos si a donde nos lleva nuestra manera de pensar, es a donde de verdad queremos ir...

Que lección tan importante me dejó mi hija esta semana, ya veremos que pasará con el próximo cambio de las reglas del juego.

El Camino de Carrizal parte 3: Del Carrizal a San José

El día amanece sólo un poco nublado, el frío pega pero no tanto como en el páramo. Ya sólo con un sweater y un par de cafés, lo espantas y te animas a lo que será la jornada. Los tecitos de la noche, combinados con acetaminofén y los chistes malos, ayudaron a reducir el dolor en las rodillas así que caminamos por los alrededores para darnos cuenta que Alí había empezado temprano la jornada y andaba ordeñando las vacas. Su esposa ya estaba terminando el almuerzo (para el camino) y empezaba con el desayuno. Ya pronto estaríamos listos para empezar con la caminata de este día.

Después de desayunar, nos montamos los morrales y empezamos a cruzar la senda, que nos llevaba por varios puentes colgantes para cruzar el fabuloso río unas cuantas veces. Mientras avanzábamos conocíamos cada uno de los nombres de los pozos que se formaban en su orilla y las historias de cada nombre. El camino a veces se acercaba al río, otras veces se alejaba pero siempre se escuchaba su avance en forma de caudal.

El clima cambió respecto al día anterior, en poco tiempo entramos en calor debido a la humedad del bosque, al sol de la mañana que todo calentaba y el esfuerzo de nuestro caminar, hacía que las gotas de sudor aparecieran en muy poco tiempo. A pesar del buen clima, la caminata se hacía algo pesada debido a que las lluvias de días anteriores dejaron lodo por todo el camino y éste se pegaba a nuestros zapatos, haciendo la pisada cada vez más pesada. Mientras el suelo se complicaba, entre los árboles había un sonido muy familiar para Félix (nuestro guía) y que poco a poco nos fue ayudando, no sólo a reconocer, sino a observarlo. y allí estaba el sonido, al fin pudimos verlo, entre las ramas de los árboles, nuevos acompañantes del camino, unos gallitos de las rocas aparecieron para llenarnos de ánimo. Se dejaron ver e incluso se dejaron fotografiar, pero no de manera sencilla, pues algunas pericias de los fotógrafos del grupo fueron necesarias para capturar la belleza de estas hermosas aves.

Poco a poco, mientras avanzábamos, el bosque se iba quedando atrás y empezamos a observar como el camino empieza a mostrar más espacios amplios, menos árboles y más llanura, era como si de repente fuese casi observable que dejábamos atrás el estado Mérida y llegáramos al estado Barinas.

Justo en uno de esos espacios amplios hicimos una corta parada y aproveché para revisar lo que me incomodaba en el zapato, y lo que vi no era agradable. Por primera vez en este tipo de viajes, mi zapato me estaba dejando “varado”. La suela se estaba despegando y era obvio que no duraría el resto de la travesía, de hecho ponía en duda que me permitiera llegar a San José en una sola pieza. Así seguí unos kilómetros hasta que sucedió lo inevitable, la suela del zapato se desprendió por completo. Una nueva parada fue necesaria para “parapetearlo” y poder continuar.

Pocos metros después de la reparación, llegábamos al paso de otro puente colgante, tan similar a cualquiera de los que ya habíamos pasado, sin embargo con un mayor significado, pues este era el puente que literalmente unía las tierras de Mérida con las de Barinas. Al cruzarlo, sentí una emoción especial, sentía que atravesaba una de esas rayas que tiene dibujado nuestro mapa de Venezuela en los libros y que en esta oportunidad lo hacía a pie. Una sensación difícil de explicar y que me llevo como uno de los grandes recuerdos de este hermoso camino.

Una vez que cruzamos el puente, nos tocó otra tremenda subida de una hora de trayecto y de muchísimo calor, pues el sol, cerca del zenit, nos pegaba directo. Al terminar la subida y después de unos minutos de descanso, seguimos el camino, ya mucho más plano, y así como dibujada en el horizonte, se divisaba la mucuposada, el lugar de descanso de este trayecto, al que llegábamos aún con suficiente sol como para disfrutar la tarde. Creo que esa fue la razón de que me subiera muchísimo el ánimo, pues sabía, no sólo que habría más tiempo de descansar y recobrar fuerzas, sino también más tiempo de deleitar este hermoso paisaje.

Una vez en la posada, me reí de estado en que llegó mi zapato, pero agradecí que aguantara el trayecto. Ya al siguiente día me preocuparía de cómo terminaría la caminata pero por lo pronto, había llegado al destino, lo que significaba muchísimo, pues, a pesar del dolor (que había disminuido) y del problema de calzado, seguí adelante hasta completar el reto del día.

Con qué calzado terminaré el trayecto? cómo afrontaré el trayecto más largo de todo el camino? Preguntas que no serían respondidas ni en este día ni en este capítulo de la historia...