It’s the holiday season and you know what that means – shopping, listening to Jose Feliciano’s Feliz Navidad a few too many times, and for those of us lucky enough to have loved ones, eating like a slob. That’s right, with most of us celebrating with friends, coworkers, or family members from Thanksgiving to Three King’s Day, we’ll have plenty opportunities to engorge ourselves like 2005 Don Omar at an all you can eat buffet. But there is a solution that bloated feeling friends, and that is by running. Running is an inexpensive and easy way to lose weight.
I was once like you – fat, especially after the holiday season. But then I started running and I stopped being fat. But you don’t have to take my word for it, just read these authoritative-sounding bullet points about why running is awesome.
You can run alone: This is what I personally like most about running. See, I am a solitary person and plenty of exercises require you to be in some sort of group. Tennis? You need another person. Baseball? 18 people. Weight training? You need a gym. Instead of searching for people to be your exercise buddy, just go outside and run. If you want to run and love groups, that’s great because there are tons of running clubs across the country.
You don’t need fancy equipment: With soccer, you need a ball. Baseball needs a bat, balls, and a glove. Running requires only two feet and a pair of sneakers.
It’s inexpensive: Instead of buying a health club membership, the outdoors is your gym. Go outside and get moving.
Running is easy: If you play basketball with your friends for the first time, chances are, you’re going to make a whole bunch of mistakes and then get kicked out of the game. When you run, the only person that matters is yourself. Nobody who sees you on the street cares how well you’re doing. Want some sort of benchmark of success? Run three times a week and increase your time and distance by ten percent each week, or train for a long race.
It’s good for you: First of all, take a look at your local newspaper next time there is a marathon in your area, and examine the winner. That’s right! She’s extremely skinny. The amount of calories burned per minute while running is second only to cross-country skiing. It’s also been proven to relieve stress, relieve depression, boost your immune system and help prevent disease.
I am preaching about running because it changed my life. I used to be overweight and sluggish, periodically going to the gym and then missing it for a few weeks, see-sawing being fat and “kind of chunky.” And I love eating at the holiday season. I’m Italian and Puerto Rican, the two ethnic groups that practically invented enjoyable food. But watch what you eat, and instead of making another new years resolution you won’t keep, just get outside and run.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.
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About Eric J Cortes
I completely respect the fact that you are promoting self-improvement. Anything besides just sitting around and consuming mass amounts of calories is better than nothing. I’m also glad that you made the decision to get active and not be a victim to your environment. However, I would like to express my opinion on the issue. I am making the assumption that you are speaking about long distance running, so that is what I will base my discussion on.
I believe that running long distances is a very inefficient way of getting in shape. Yes, it does burn calories, but there are better ways of doing it. I am of the HIIT (high intensity interval training) camp. There are many benefits to this style of exercise. This style of exercise is essentially doing a high intensity work for a short period of time (~20-30 seconds) followed by a break (~10 seconds) and then repeated eight to 10 times. This can be done in many different ways, my favorite being kettlebells, but to keep with the theme of a workout with no equipment, we can limit it to activities you can do on your own. This can be done with sprints, body weight squats, box jumps, push-ups, burpees and many other exercises.
One of the main benefits is that you can do one of these workouts in less than 20 minutes. Another benefit is that because of this style workout, it has been shown that one’s metabolism is elevated during the following 24 hours. It has been shown that one’s metabolism following long distance running drops to normal levels shortly after completing the run.
Either way, I am just trying to show another way of doing things because I see many people fall in to the routine of going for a jog because that’s what we have been told to do to get in shape. More power to anyone who is doing ANY kind of physical activity and trying to improve themselves. I hope you have continued success in your fitness journey.
I also appreciate this but I must point out that running especially for obese-overweight people is VERY difficult and detrimental to your joints in your ankles and knees.
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