One thing that I learned when I was a student abroad in college was that, in general, American women oversees seem to gain weight while their male counterparts maintain or lose it. I also found this trend does not occur for lack of trying on the women’s side. On Global Semester, some of my female friends packed resistance bands, podcasts, running shoes and even a scale. I myself tried to run and do yoga whenever possible to counterbalance the immense amount of local food I seemed to be devouring. When I was preparing for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I noticed that one of the big topics online between my fellow AZ 7s was the fear of weight gain.
When I got to Azerbaijan, I found my original aspirations to run or do exercise of any sort in public thwarted due to a combination of local social norms and my increasing fear of rabid dogs / potholes. Opportunities for exercise amongst Peace Corps Volunteers seem to depend heavily on a combination of one’s region, gender and personality. In Salyan, running—particularly for women—was simply not comprehensible for most people. Further, the dog population and street conditions made public exercise something of an adventure. In Ganja, there are more opportunities and the perception is slightly different. Still, if one goes running in Azerbaijan’s second largest city, she or he can bet on a lot of attention. It should be mentioned that this trend is not always limited to women—it is said that a group of locals once asked a male volunteer to stop running in their neighborhood because their wives looked at his legs each time he ran by. If you are the sort of person who can block out staring, catcalls and the occasional gaggle of jealous husbands, this should not be a problem. However, I am not one of these people. I have therefore turned to the stockpile of exercise videos provided by my fellow volunteers. The result: An inundation of ways to lose weight, guided by women (and men) who unlike myself, are clearly not being force-fed liquid fat and bread everyday.
When I got to Azerbaijan, I found my original aspirations to run or do exercise of any sort in public thwarted due to a combination of local social norms and my increasing fear of rabid dogs / potholes. Opportunities for exercise amongst Peace Corps Volunteers seem to depend heavily on a combination of one’s region, gender and personality. In Salyan, running—particularly for women—was simply not comprehensible for most people. Further, the dog population and street conditions made public exercise something of an adventure. In Ganja, there are more opportunities and the perception is slightly different. Still, if one goes running in Azerbaijan’s second largest city, she or he can bet on a lot of attention. It should be mentioned that this trend is not always limited to women—it is said that a group of locals once asked a male volunteer to stop running in their neighborhood because their wives looked at his legs each time he ran by. If you are the sort of person who can block out staring, catcalls and the occasional gaggle of jealous husbands, this should not be a problem. However, I am not one of these people. I have therefore turned to the stockpile of exercise videos provided by my fellow volunteers. The result: An inundation of ways to lose weight, guided by women (and men) who unlike myself, are clearly not being force-fed liquid fat and bread everyday.
Over the past two years, I have become something of an expert on the home workout video from Zumba (Latin dance workout) to “Beachbody Insanity” to “Power 90 X.” Perhaps it was two years of living outside my comfort zone but it was only today while attempting to master the surprisingly complicated moves of “Brazil Butt Lift,” that I came to a shocking but inevitable realization: I look ridiculous. The only one who saw me doing these moves was George the guinea pig. In the middle of my effort to "do the Brazilian drums" to shape what the instructor called "my bum bum," I noticed George staring at me. His eyes said, "I can’t believe I know you.” Hence, with one month before I become a lifetime member of the YMCA, I gave up on the videos and did half-hearted push-ups.
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