Maarit on YouTube and at maarithanninen.com
For the last few weeks the city has been fluttering with the red flags of Tonga. Last night they met Australia on the field of Mt Smart Stadium to play a game of rugby league.
The crowd was amazing - just look at the video and the number of people who turned out to support their team and country.
Yeh yeh I know you’re probably not into League, but just watch the sipi tau (Tongan haka) at the beginning of the video: it’s amazing. Make sure you stick around to about 7 minutes 40 seconds when the voices of the crowd rise in song. Iconic sounds of beautiful Pacific voices.
Stirring stuff indeed - when Tongans are supporting their team, it feels like we could all bleed for Tonga.
I’ve been moving more lately.
When I first started it hurt. Like “use-wheel-chair-access-rather-than-the-stairs-for-three-days” kinda hurt. Now i can do squats without losing the use of my legs. Oh they wobble, but they don’t stop working.
I’m not fit. Not by a very long stretch; but I am fitter.
I can talk while I walk; further, faster, more often. I can take the stairs (to Level 4 so far). If I hadn’t been doing weights there is no way I could’ve scuba-dived in Bali.
One of the things that has worked for me, where it hasn’t worked in the past, is:
making exercise an appointment
setting an end point
Using my superpower for being too embarrassed to be late to a meeting and knowing it’s only for <insert time here> has made exercising manageable. Since I proved my point over the last six months, I’ve decided to do more.
I’ll be moving it every business day for eight weeks. Starting next week with a combination of HIIT, boxing and weights group classes. That’s 40 classes.
I thought I’d let you know what I was doing as part of being accountable to myself. Yeh I know I said that I’d be too embarrassed to break an appointment but come on: it’s me - I bail on myself all the time!
So stay tuned. You might want to gamble and see who wins which week I drop out.