5.5 kms in 55 mins!

After living in Finland for 3-4 years, I have realized the importance of staying fit. Most of the Finns are amazingly fit. I remember the "Dabur-chawanpraash" experience that me and my husband had encountered during our first month in Finland. Those who do not know about "Dabur-chawanpraash", here is a brief background. Dabur chawanpraash is an ayurvedic multi-vitamin medicine, which is supposed to be very good for the health. There used to be an ad on Indian television, which showed an old man and a young man climbing stairs. After climbing a few flights of stairs, the young man is panting and puffing but the old man is moving up effortlessly.

Well, we experienced a similar thing. My husband and I were climbing stairs in our office, and our senior-most manager, a Finnish lady in her late 50s or early 60s, went past us and she reached the top in a matter of a few seconds, and there we were panting as if we had run a marathon! Unlike Indians, Finns make it a point to dedicate some amount of time for their fitness. And they lead a really healthy and fit life! I think every Indian, especially Indian women, should dedicate some time for physical exercise everyday.

Inspired by the Finns, my husband and I started gyming/playing badminton, and we have been doing this regularly since we have come to Finland. Of late we have even started jogging/walking. On Saturday, we decided to cover the walking trail around a lake, called Suolijarvi, close to our place. (Finland has a lot of lakes, it is said that there is a lake for every 2.5 people in Finland :) ) We had been planning to do the entire trail, just dint know how long the trail was. Finally we mustered some courage on Saturday, and started walking around the lake. It was not very strenuous, the lake was approx 5.5kms in circumference and it took us 55 mins to complete the entire trail. Now our target is to do this every weekend and reduce our time ;)

This was an off-track post on my cooking blog, but I found it apt to post this one, because since I have started blogging, the cook inside me has suddenly surfaced, and I have started baking cakes and other dishes, which will easily increase my calorie count. So, the walking and cooking have to be done in parallel :)