Life's Personal Trainers, part 2

Second part of a two-part blog entry
(yes two parts, because I poured my heart and soul into this and had a little too much to say
and because it was a journey most people would've wanted to take but usually aren't able to, so I wanted to share my on-going journey.)


I started with walking an hour every day – since I really had no physical activity to begin with, translating to the absence of endurance. It was my exercise and contemplation time. A lot of the world’s problems we’re somehow ‘thought about’ during those one-hour me-times. Slowly, I started to jog, then run. It was exhilarating but a little depressing because the increase in physical activity did not translate to a skinnier me. I had to remind myself constantly of my main goal. I'd text my family whenever I ran “hi mum/dad/jan, just got home from a jog. Gonna study now. Love you!” “Good morning, about to go for a walk. Have a great day!” and whatever I could think of, to show them that I was committing to it, that it wasn’t just a phase.

More than that, I realized I was surrounded with people who inspired me. My then housemate who was superwoman – athlete, party-girl plus batch top 10 - and she slowly trained me to run, forcing me to push myself and catch up with her pace; my then barkada who were fit to the tee in mind and body, disciplined (one wakes up at 5 in the morning to have his daily dose of chlorinated pool water then goes to school, the other able to steal a few hours of gym time even after an intense 10-hour school day), crazy water-drinkers, and simply made me want to strive better – in my academic, emotional and physical life; my mentor who in her own way knew the right words to say during our fleeting mentoring sessions.

Later on, I joined a contest in school “Biggest Loser ASMPH”, where contestants were made to compete with each other for the most weight loss (by percentage). Being a very competitive person, I was further motivated to continue my routine.

So I continued.

It’s been five months, I’ve lost about 18lbs, stopped eating junk food, stopped drinking coke (gasp!!!), know how to cook vegetables in the most appetizing way (atleast to me), joined a fitness club, play sports, continue to run and I am relatively pleased with how I look.

More importantly, its been five months, and my sister has started to force me to exercise with her, my father went back to the gym (he used to be very active, playing basketball, soccer, bowling, from what I remember when I was younger he was great at all sports) and he called me last monday to assure me “I’ll take care of your mother, I’ll make sure she’ll exercise and eat better.” My mother has joined a gym as well, more than that, she’s hired a personal trainer, increased her fluid (water) intake, stopped eating meat and has decided to buy a weighing scale.

Health is seen as a scientific issue that focuses on the details – insulin, blood glucose levels, genetics, etc.
But health is more importantly a social issue, how healthy you are and your health seeking behavior, will affect the people around you, people who care about you, people who love you. In my on-going journey, these people are the ones that inspire me to be better, to strive for health.

As future health professionals, health being a social concept can be two-fold. It is both our greatest limitation because the social environment - that we often do not have control over - is usually the cause of the disease (directly and indirectly) and thus promoting a cycle of disease, hindering our general health development; but it is also our secret weapon to identifying the right who's to partner with in creating sustainable positive health changes in our individual patients and for the public's health.

Ultimately, my journey isn't over just yet. I'm not simply running after numbers and calories-lost, im striving for health
- my health and those of the people i care about,
and maybe just maybe, in the not-so-distant future, my patients and the general public.