This 2018 my husband and I wanted to make a change. A health routine change, to be exact.

After our first year of marriage living in the very center of Barcelona, we started noticing the type of family are and the things we enjoy doing on a daily basis. It wasn’t until a wine and music kind of afternoon in our living room that we started talking about how funny it was that although we live in the middle of so many fun activities and Barcelona nightlife, we weren’t really enjoying the hectic life or the “touristy” area we lived in.

Ever since we moved to this city we’d fallen in love with a relatively “unpopular” area for locals called Diagonal Mar.

As you can tell from the name, Diagonal Mar is close to the beach, modern, and since it’s a new neighborhood, it hasn’t gotten a reputation yet (so it’s pretty much full of expats).  In simple words, if you stood there, you wouldn’t think you are in Europe. This area is full of huge parks, high buildings, long beach skate parks, and (surprisingly!) not that many people!

Of course, when we were looking for a new place to move (more about that here) this was the first place that came to mind and after a few months of investigating possible apartments (and a million house view meetings later) – we found the perfect one. Beachfront, huge park crossing the street and extremely quiet neighborhood.

So now that you have the background of our decision…

A few days after moving in, we were getting settled and it hit me. Now that we are about 10 minutes (by car) away from our old house……. am I going to run to my old gym from now on? Drive there? Take a bike?? I had not thought this through. I wasn’t looking forward to spending so much time on transportation after being used to having it next door.

One afternoon, when i was dying for a run and decided there wasn’t enough time to get to the gym, I just crossed the street and ran along the beach sidewalk….. It was only a few kilometers later that I felt like a complete moron. Why would I pay a gym membership, only to spend time in a car to get there, to enter a gym studio where I run indoors, looking at a screen that shows a view just like the one i have in front of my house?? Was i crazy?

After giving it some thought (literally 30 minutes later because i’m intense like that) I was calling to cancel my gym membership, bought a roll-out mat and a few weights and got to planning my outdoor workouts. Turns out, it totally IS possible to work out without a gym, and since i’m not looking for a huge muscular body, this could actually work out well for me!? Will i regret this in a few months? I don’t know, but at least I’ll try!

A few weeks have passed and I have never felt happier with my routine!! Not only am I in love and taking full advantage of our new neighborhood (and living in the beach), but since transportation time is saved,  I haven’t missed a run in days!

Also, I started practicing Pilates at the park, and they are totally motivating me since I can feel my core getting stronger and – isn’t that what a health routine should be about?? Enjoying it? I think that as long as it keeps working out this way, the change was a total upgrade but my mom already warned me to be careful with the “no gym” idea because I may get off track with my health……. 😂 i think she worries i’ll just “run” once a month…..

Gonna start tracking my runs and sending her pictures 😂  So what do you think? Health upgrade or downgrade?