Running is a good thing for me

People I meet these days generally fall into one of these two camps: those who like running and those who don't. For the record, I would not call myself as someone who likes running, despite doing it consistently over the past few weeks. Just because I do it does not mean I like it. I would say though, that I kind of like it. I like it mostly because it makes me feel better about myself. Maybe this is what feeling healthy is all about.  Ever since I've been running, my shoulders feel better - they are a lot softer now. My skin is more radiant (although I have absolutely no idea how this can be attributed to running, but since I have not changed anything else other than running, it is hard not to associate it with radiant skin). I sleep better; on most nights, I just collapse from exhaustion, and woke up five minutes before my alarm rings.

A side effect of running is that I eat better. This is because I can feel it when I run. I know this sounds so fucking annoying, but it is true. Alcoholic consumption automatically means my running is harder than usual. I am not someone who puts a hawk eye on my time and distance, I am just someone who wants to feel good when I run. Feeling good when running, I've come to realise, is very much associated with what I put in my mouth. My body agrees with protein consumption, in particular, lean protein, but I love my fried chicken a tad too much to replace it with poached chicken.

I don't know how to say this any other way: this is my experience with my running. This is a very personal thing and different things work for different people. Seriously, this is not intended to be "this is how you should do it", this is just me, sharing my story. You're welcome to try out what I've done, but you gotta do so at your own risk.

The comment that I've received most frequently about running is that I should not be doing too much of it. Fine, I get that too much running is not good for you - no, this is not because I have been reading medical research or whatever, this is because I know that too much of anything is never good for you. I personally do not think I am doing too much - heck, I have lazy days in which I do no running, and those days are pretty often. I do try to keep to a routine, but despite the best of intentions, sometimes that just doesn't happen. What I do feel, is like I said above: I feel better when I run. Or maybe I should say, I feel better when I exercise. Yes, I can do other forms of exercise, but my shoulders are pretty fucked at the moment and I am not supposed to be exercising them for a while. So I don't really have much choice here. Besides, I think, it is better that I do running rather than not exercising at all.

I can't believe that I am writing a post about exercising, specifically, explaining why I choose to run regularly. This is coming from someone who hate running, and would come up with every excuse in the book for my lack of participation in anything and everything. Running is a good thing for me, peeps! I am not a crazy runner. I am just someone who is trying to run regularly.

ps. this is a pretty good article.