My Journey With Health And Fitness – Dealing With Bad Air Conditions

Ok, my apologies that I haven’t been keeping you up to date on how things have been going at the condo but a good friend arrived last week meaning I’ve been having too much fun to keep up my blog. Having said that, I have been keeping up my workouts doing an hour workout at least 5 days a week. I haven’t done such a great job with my strength training but am hoping to get back to that when my friend leaves on Sunday.

Monday I got up at my usual condo time (6am) and was out the door by 7am for a walk. As soon as I opened the door I knew there was going to be a problem. First of all, it was going to be hot but since I had walked most days in the heat I wasn’t too concerned with that. What hit me through the the smell of smoke and I knew exactly what had happened. Down here the farmers at certain times of the year burn their fields at night and it was pretty obvious that is what was going on. It’s not that you can see smoke as it has dissipated by time the sun is up but you can sure smell it.

I went through this before so this time I knew what to expect, by time the walk was over I was fully congested. There was not a lot I could do at that point but try and stay inside and wait for the congestion to go away. However, we were going out for a bit of shopping and our favourite taxi driver was scheduled to pick us up. This is where it gets even worse. Unfortunately down here there is no fragrance free zones and men wear a lot of cologne (I suspect because of the heat and the fact you sweat all the time). Our taxi driver is not the exception to this practice so by time we arrived back at the condo I was completely stuffed up. By the end of the day I was worried I might be coming down with a cold but when I woke up yesterday morning I was fine.

Both yesterday and today that smell of smoke was still in the air but it wasn’t nearly as bad as Monday. Because I committed to at least 5 days of workouts each week the entire trip I have told myself I cannot give in to excuses so I hit the road at 7am again both days. I am confident I am going to meet that goal despite the challenges that are thrown at me (did I mention it is really hot?) so that I am ready for the next stage of my fitness journey which is starting when I am back home. Not to worry, I will tell you what I will be doing once I am back home.