Journalled on Saturday, 17 June 2023: Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro: 22 °C, cool and overcast.
It’s Saturday, and although it’s a bit chilly by Carioca standards, I’ve decided to give myself a challenging workout.
I woke up at six in the morning and hit the streets by 6:30. I went straight to the park to begin.
To avoid losing count, I chose to do a long, extended set instead of the usual 3 reps per exercise. I combined TRX exercises with aerobic exercises, and I repeated some exercises throughout the workout because I liked them or found them more effective for my goal.
I also began with skipping instead of leaving it to the end. When I began doing morning exercises almost two years ago, I used to start with skipping, then changed to putting it at the end.
It is good to begin warming the body by skipping for about fifteen minutes before using the TRX.
I also continued to use the stopwatch after skipping, keeping it running so that at the end of the session I would know exactly how long I had worked out, including the time and the number of reps. The total for Saturday morning was exactly one hour of exercise, including 15 minutes of skipping and 20 reps of various TRX and aerobic exercises. Nice!!!
I recommend chopping and changing to make the routine more interesting and less monotonous. After a certain age, and I am fifty-seven, any physical exercise we do to a certain degree of quality is profitable for us. The more exercise we do, the more we gain for ourselves in terms of body and mind.
Saturday afternoon was the Festa Junina, the June party at Yasmin’s school.
Every June, Brazil celebrates with traditional parties and folkloric festivals throughout the country, honouring the famous rural farm workers’ culture of the past. There is a celebration with dancing, music, and a play that portrays a forced shotgun wedding.
Everyone is dressed in fancy dress that reflects the common style in rural towns of Brazil’s interior, where boys and girls used to interact. It’s a lot of fun!!!
Besides the typical music, singing, and dancing, the festival is also known for its food and snacks, such as barbecue on a spit, traditional Brazilian sweets and cakes, soups, and much more. There are also fairground-style stalls with games for children to play, such as fishing for fish with a magnet, putting your hand in a large calderon of goo to find a prize, throwing hoops and balls to win a prize, and the list goes on.
When my daughters were children, I think I enjoyed Festa Juninas more because they had a good time.
Imagine we have a Festa Junina with friends and family where everybody is eating and drinking, laughing and joking, and playing together in fancy dress. In that case, I think it is more exciting or enjoyable than one organised by some institution or company. It is still good, but not as good as one with family and friends.
I noticed at Yasmin’s school’s Festa Junina that everybody I already knew was getting old and fat. I am talking about the people I have known over the years, such as teachers, parents, and people who work at her school. We have just left the Covid war for two or three years, so I haven’t seen some of these people for quite some time, but in general, people are fat, getting fatter, or can’t stop putting on weight.
I don’t want to be cruel, but it shocked me to see how many people who were once slim or thinner are not anymore.
Obviously, we have a tendency to put on weight the older we get, but the number of people who are really overweight is a lot, and I get the impression that people do not really care anymore. It is natural, and fighting it is too hard work.
Physical exercise has changed my life, not just physically but mentally, too. I have written before that I have told Yasmin that being slim is a form of power. When you are slim, anything you wear hangs well on you and looks good; the opposite happens when you are overweight.
We should push ourselves to be better, even if it is just slightly better. If it is better, then better will bring better, and then better things will come naturally.
In bed by 10 p.m.
Thank you.
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Richard
