Next week, I WILL be buying my treadmill!!! I’m so excited to get back moving, that price is no longer a factor… In this immobile country, it’s quite easy for the first 10lb weight gain to come unnoticed. So far, I’m going up a 1lb per week. There are 52 weeks in a year…O_o
So… I’ve decided that along w/ 3 months of P90X, I’ll tack on 3 miles per day. As silly as it may look, I am strongly considering going for a run outside in my abaya, before it gets too hot.. and before I lose the guts to be a total oddball. But I’m sure the Saudis think foreigners are a weird bunch, anyway. I have 2 others who are up for this challenge. The most the police can do is ask us to walk.
Hopefully, all of this will combat this Saudi diet of shawarma in white, floured pita bread, stuffed with French fries. Or the university food that can be compared to elementary cafeteria lunches, in the US.. I’ll do my once a week cheat meal, since that’s worked for me in the past. And I finished my last juice and soda, yesterday. I’m slowly getting back into the habit of cooking my own food, even though I’m having a harder time finding all of the variations of turkey meat, as I like it. But, NO Excuses.. If I can manage to stay in shape here, I can anywhere.
Can't Stand The Heat 
WOOF! Sounds lie a TON of starches but yet so tasty! You should post pictures of the food 🙂
Hey Crystalyn 🙂 Yes, I’m working on it.. It is quite tasty! Especially the falafel burgers (deep fried chick pea patties)
Hey I am with you. I am in Abu Dhabi in the Western Region known as Al Gharbia. So we literally are neighbors as Al Gharbia is next to Saudi. Yes the stress of being here, along with this culture’s love of bread, especially white bread can easily pack on the pounds. But I have not only lost weight here, but I am keeping it off. In fact I ran in a 10k race on March 9. I started my journey of running and cooking for myself around November and it’s proven effective. You can do it! I just sold my treadmill because I prefer running outside and plus I am moving at the end of this school year.
Good luck to you. Happy running!
Thanx Andrea! Can you actually run without the abaya? I wonder how easy is it for me to cross the border (w/ this visa) so I could race!? I prefer outdoors as well, but I guess I have to take what I can get. The only place we can freely run outdoors, is within a compound (that I don’t have easy access to). Anywhere else, we’d probably get stopped. The end of the race season here is actually this Friday.
I feel your pain. I feel off the health wagon when I moved to the U.A.E., a little over a year ago. It’s extremely easy to be sedentary, eat A LOT of unhealthy food, and not cook. I’ve seen women walking in the abayah, no one running, yet. Also, here we have women only parks which would afford you the opportunity to run in regular running clothes. Now, why I haven’t I made use of them? So many excuses and not one real reason…SMH at myself!
Same here.. there’s a long strip of sidewalk where the women walk. But no running parks that I heard of. I know ppl who go running in the desert. But I’m not about to go twist my ankle on those rocks and fall off a cliff.. Treadmill, it is! Thanx for the encouragement and I hope you find a routine as well!
I didn’t realize that there were no all-female gyms in Riyadh!! What a different culture than Jeddah. That said, gym memberships here are so outrageously priced compared to Canada and the US that I also opted for a treadmill. Gaining weight was a huge concern when I moved here, too…and being the crazy person that I am, the FIRST thing I bought upon moving here was a treadmill. Definitely not as nice as outdoors…but it keeps me as active as I can be.
I read your most recent entry–congrats on finding a fun (funny! :p) solution: mall walking!!
There are some here.. just in very small numbers and tucked away, in comparison to male gyms. But yes, crazy prices here too!! I think the cheapest I found was around $150 per month, or $13/day.. tack on the 20 minute taxi ride. So I pretty much erased that as an option, and went for buying a treadmill as well. Great investment! Plus should be an easy sell, when I leave. They need to create closed-off women’s only parks (unless I just haven’t found it yet).. Are you a runner?