weights and purple cows

Some of the things which I started doing this week month was sorta like new year resolutions.

I got inspired by this article which I read in The Star, the copy that MAS gave away to its passengers. So happened I flew back to Tokyo on New Year's day itself, and there were naturally many articles which talked about starting the year anew, making resolutions (and breaking them) and doing things differently.

This immediately struck me as something I needed. I used to do lots of sports back in uni. My summer time here was filled with memories of tennis, basketball and badminton. But after starting work, with less time on my hands and a tired body at the end of the day, I have begun to be more unfit as the days go by. This article showed that I could still do a proper workout at home with very basic equipment.

Due to my commuting, I have to walk up and down many flights of stairs, so that covers Step 1. I also have another flight of stairs in the house, steep ones too, to save space in typical Japanese homes. I've already got a carpet in the room, so I don't need a mat so that kinda covers Steps 2, 6 & 7. And my housemate was not using his water-weights (ya, the kind where you just fill with water, but it ain't that heavy!) so I have that for the other steps. Maybe I'll invest in better weights later.

I personally prefer team sports to going to the gym as it's boring to do weights and machines alone. I really miss sports when I'm here, but I've found a really good site which organises events such as these for foreigners and I was thinking of joining them one day. Weekdays are out of the question, so will have to find a free weekday for this.

And also, the boss was recommending this book. He actually recommended another book for me. But the Swedish designer was reading the Purple Cow earlier and kept using the word "remarkable" that I decided to check it out while waiting for my order to be confirmed for Free Prize Inside. It's been quite an easy but insightful read so far, and this is certainly something which I can make full use of my commuting time with. Plus, it's been ages since I've done some proper reading!

Yes, perhaps, unconsciously, I have been going through new year's resolution without actually making them!