By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine
IT sounds so ridiculously easy, getting into shape. Everyone can do it anytime they want, us especially. I considered myself to be in good shape as a teenager, thin as a reed, yes, but also someone who took up swimming and then judo. College was the time when I kept in shape simply by doing what college students do: run around, attempt to get to class on time (note: not always successfully), stay up late and eat on a madly erratic schedule.
Yet the moment I began working, I began gaining weight and soon, I really was a man of broadened horizons. I kept telling myself, I can just start and that will be that, I’ll be buff and cut and chiseled and so on. But the day never seems to come. I compensate, of course, by buying exercise equipment that remains woefully underused. I have rows of clothing deep in my wardrobe that I promise to wear once I get back into shape. And I dream of this diet and that exercise regimen.
Every year, I think that this is the year I’ll do it, the year when people will say, “Wow, you’re in good shape,” rather than “Wow, you really have gained weight.” Of course, it occurs to me now that nothing short of an illness will zap my fatty tissue away. But one never knows.
I believe that the day will come when I finally get tired of huffing and puffing up the stairs and when I can wear shirts that aren’t size L or something similar. Just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it won’t. One can hope.
Now, where did I put that can of Pringles…
Read the Sunday Inquirer Magazine’s Getting Physical issue on May 11.
