" I remember the day my friend the sea decided to come to my aid and rescue me from limbo. The beach was deserted and a cold wind blew towards the land. My head lay in the lap which tied me to these shores. The whole universe floated rhythmically by, obeying impulses from my voice within, lulled by everything around. Suddenly a stronger gust of wind brought a different voice from the sea; I lifted my head in surprise, it was nothing, a false alarm. I settled my head back, returned my dreams to the caressing lap again, when I heard the sea's warning once more. Its vast discordant rythm hammered at the fortress in me and threatened its imposing serenity. We felt cold and left the beach, fleeing the perturbing presence with refused to leave me. On that small stretch of beach the sea pranced about indifferent to its eternal law and spawned the note of caution, the warning."
"The bike snorted with boredom along the long accident-free road and we snorted with fatigue."
from 'The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America' by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara.
Thouroughly enjoying this book which is Che's diaries from about 1951. At this point, he has not evolved into the revolutionary he eventually becomes, but apparently the book reveals his early personal growth as he experiences the culture and lands of South America.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Home training: It is now month end, and as mentioned last week, it is time to crunch some numbers, and see where I am with regard to my personal black belt requirements. The figures below reflect what I have done December 1st-Feb 28, and what I have to achieve by Sept 1.
Pushups: Done 7027; should be at 13,500; thank goodness for today's 1000 pushup challenge.
Situps: Done 2010; should be at 9000; thank goodness for today's 1000 situp challenge.
Round house kicks: done 1950; should be at 7050; this is a problem
Squat Thrusts: Done 2335 which is 995 more than I need to be at to achieve my goal. Thankyou sihings Lilienskold and Kichko for the recent challenge.
Lao gar: Done the learning part and 23 repetitions of the full form. Need to 6 per day to achieve the 1000 repetitions by Sept 1.
It's amazing how much 2 months of struggle can put one significantly behind. I'm not too worried about the pushups and situps because the recent challenges have shown me that it is quite easy to do more than 150 per day. All that is required to fix these two items is focus and hard work. The Round house kicks are a real problem though. I'm not sure what is an acceptable solution to this. I think trying to catch up will result in injury from overdoing it, and it could have a negative affect on how I anticipate my daily training. Certainly I can continue with the 100/day and I'm thinking I should add in different kicks to make up for the shortfall. If master brinker happens to read this, perhaps he can comment. I am pleased with where I am with the Lao Gar.
Other Black Belt Requirements.
Last week I summarized the first 5 of my 9 personal requirements.
The sixth personal requirement is to journal 1000 acts of kindness performed by myself and my 2 daughters. So far, I have journalled 4 acts since Dec 1. Obviously I have some work to do in this area - journalling has simply fallen off the wayside. However, I have to say that committing to do this has resulted in a shift in my outlook. This requirement, and the the community project, and recent home reading has caused me to take a more serious attitude towards giving back to the community personally and through my daughters. The puzzling thing is how everything we are giving back is resulting in us getting back from the recievers more than we gave them. I was discussing this with Jill's coach, Mrs. F. She and I listed dozens of examples where we have found this to be true. Jill's teachers and coaches are redoubling their support of Jill whilst she is committing herself to training fellow students at school and helping with recreational classes at the club. The new coach at badminton, in return for Jill volunteering to help at the recreational classes for 1 hour per week, gives Jill a one hour private lesson. Her time is worth about $15 per hour, his time costs $50 per hour. I could mention more examples, but I'm getting off track. What I've got to do is journal our acts of kindness - I had not been doing it up till now and its important to do so.
I think I'll stop here and talk about the last three personal requirements next week. There are those 1000 pushups and situps to complete, laundry, housework, and a volleyball practice for Janet tonight.
Pushups: Done 7027; should be at 13,500; thank goodness for today's 1000 pushup challenge.
Situps: Done 2010; should be at 9000; thank goodness for today's 1000 situp challenge.
Round house kicks: done 1950; should be at 7050; this is a problem
Squat Thrusts: Done 2335 which is 995 more than I need to be at to achieve my goal. Thankyou sihings Lilienskold and Kichko for the recent challenge.
Lao gar: Done the learning part and 23 repetitions of the full form. Need to 6 per day to achieve the 1000 repetitions by Sept 1.
It's amazing how much 2 months of struggle can put one significantly behind. I'm not too worried about the pushups and situps because the recent challenges have shown me that it is quite easy to do more than 150 per day. All that is required to fix these two items is focus and hard work. The Round house kicks are a real problem though. I'm not sure what is an acceptable solution to this. I think trying to catch up will result in injury from overdoing it, and it could have a negative affect on how I anticipate my daily training. Certainly I can continue with the 100/day and I'm thinking I should add in different kicks to make up for the shortfall. If master brinker happens to read this, perhaps he can comment. I am pleased with where I am with the Lao Gar.
Other Black Belt Requirements.
Last week I summarized the first 5 of my 9 personal requirements.
The sixth personal requirement is to journal 1000 acts of kindness performed by myself and my 2 daughters. So far, I have journalled 4 acts since Dec 1. Obviously I have some work to do in this area - journalling has simply fallen off the wayside. However, I have to say that committing to do this has resulted in a shift in my outlook. This requirement, and the the community project, and recent home reading has caused me to take a more serious attitude towards giving back to the community personally and through my daughters. The puzzling thing is how everything we are giving back is resulting in us getting back from the recievers more than we gave them. I was discussing this with Jill's coach, Mrs. F. She and I listed dozens of examples where we have found this to be true. Jill's teachers and coaches are redoubling their support of Jill whilst she is committing herself to training fellow students at school and helping with recreational classes at the club. The new coach at badminton, in return for Jill volunteering to help at the recreational classes for 1 hour per week, gives Jill a one hour private lesson. Her time is worth about $15 per hour, his time costs $50 per hour. I could mention more examples, but I'm getting off track. What I've got to do is journal our acts of kindness - I had not been doing it up till now and its important to do so.
I think I'll stop here and talk about the last three personal requirements next week. There are those 1000 pushups and situps to complete, laundry, housework, and a volleyball practice for Janet tonight.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Home Training: The months of January and February have been a huge struggle for home training. Its the time of year. Luckily, the challenges that came up during these months (the 1000 pushups and situps on Jan 1 and 26, and the recent squat thrust challenge) have really helped me stay somewhat within reach of the ultimate goals. This is the time of year when I need these challenges the most. I wonder if its the same with the other sihings. I see that Sihings kichko, lilienskold and regier have started a morning running group going now, and they are incorporating some of their other training into the running intervals. Maybe there's a momentum taking hold and the challenges will just keep building.
As springtime nears, I feel more encouraged. Over the years, I've noticed a pattern about myself, and that is that Jan and Feb are tough on me psychologically and emotionally. Motivation, as a result, takes a nose-dive. I've also noticed, that my state of mind improves steadily over the early spring months, and that things that seemed insurmountable melt away. So I'm looking forward to March, April, etc because I know that my home training will gradually improve to the levels that will result in success. And although February is not yet over, I am digging deep to get that process started early. I have got my home journal numbers in order so that I will have a clear picture of how my actual totals for pushups, situps, round house kicks, and squat thrusts compare with what my goals are. At the end of next week, I will publish those totals and move forward into march from there.
Open training: This has been going extremely well for me. Sihing Langner has taken time each Saturday to teach myself and Sihing Lilienskold the Lao Gar form. As of yesterday, we completed the whole form, and now only have to work on perfecting the details. With sifu's available on Saturdays, we will be able to get someone to correct us on something each week.
Personal Black Belt requirements: I never finished blogging about this. I had summarize one each week. There are nine of them. I first talked about the community project of helping to promote lifelong physical activity at Onoway High school. I will revisit this at the end of march, because by then, the first stage of this project will have been completed. Next, I talked about my home training requirements of pushups, crunches, roundhouse kicks and squat thrusts. I mentioned that already hear - I will post my February results at the end of next week. My third requirement is to do 1000 repetitions of a Lao Gar. I guess I just talked about that under 'open training'. I first needed to learn the form and Sihing Langner has helped me with that. As of this week, I can start doing the repetitions. My rough calculations indicate that I need to do the form 5 or 6 times per day, or 38 times per week until Sept 1, 2009. My fourth requirement is to maintain my goal weight of 146-148lbs with the support of weightwatchers. As with everthing else, this has been a struggle during the months of January and February. Half of the problem is my sweet tooth, and my tendency to indulge more in 'comfort eating' during the winter months. The other half of the problem is my lower motivation with home training - the number of times I visit the gym to do the 2-3k run has fallen off dramatically, and there are also my struggles with the daily home training goals which I have mentioned above. I am currently weighing in at 149 lbs and rising. Again, with spring around the corner, and my diligent attendance at weight watcher meetings, I expect this trend to reverse itself. My fifth requirement is to blog and to kwoon talk. Both of these things help me to maintain my commitments to home training and to many other aspects of preparing for black belt testing. I will talk about the last 4 of my personal black belt requirements next week.
Home reading: Currently reading 'The lost Massey lectures'. There are 5 or six lectures in this volume. The first one, which is what I am reading right now is by John Kenneth Galbraith (distinguished liberal economist and diplomat) and is called 'The Underdeveloped Country'. this lecture was presented in 1965 and in it Galbraith analyzed the causes of poverty and barriers to advancement in the 'underdeveloped' countries of the world at that time. As the editor notes in this 2007 volume, the issues in 1965 are 'depressingly familiar' today. I am finding that Galbraith's comments about our (developed countries, specifically Canada), responsibilities with respect to the poorer countries are depressingly valid today. So far, definitely worth a read.
As springtime nears, I feel more encouraged. Over the years, I've noticed a pattern about myself, and that is that Jan and Feb are tough on me psychologically and emotionally. Motivation, as a result, takes a nose-dive. I've also noticed, that my state of mind improves steadily over the early spring months, and that things that seemed insurmountable melt away. So I'm looking forward to March, April, etc because I know that my home training will gradually improve to the levels that will result in success. And although February is not yet over, I am digging deep to get that process started early. I have got my home journal numbers in order so that I will have a clear picture of how my actual totals for pushups, situps, round house kicks, and squat thrusts compare with what my goals are. At the end of next week, I will publish those totals and move forward into march from there.
Open training: This has been going extremely well for me. Sihing Langner has taken time each Saturday to teach myself and Sihing Lilienskold the Lao Gar form. As of yesterday, we completed the whole form, and now only have to work on perfecting the details. With sifu's available on Saturdays, we will be able to get someone to correct us on something each week.
Personal Black Belt requirements: I never finished blogging about this. I had summarize one each week. There are nine of them. I first talked about the community project of helping to promote lifelong physical activity at Onoway High school. I will revisit this at the end of march, because by then, the first stage of this project will have been completed. Next, I talked about my home training requirements of pushups, crunches, roundhouse kicks and squat thrusts. I mentioned that already hear - I will post my February results at the end of next week. My third requirement is to do 1000 repetitions of a Lao Gar. I guess I just talked about that under 'open training'. I first needed to learn the form and Sihing Langner has helped me with that. As of this week, I can start doing the repetitions. My rough calculations indicate that I need to do the form 5 or 6 times per day, or 38 times per week until Sept 1, 2009. My fourth requirement is to maintain my goal weight of 146-148lbs with the support of weightwatchers. As with everthing else, this has been a struggle during the months of January and February. Half of the problem is my sweet tooth, and my tendency to indulge more in 'comfort eating' during the winter months. The other half of the problem is my lower motivation with home training - the number of times I visit the gym to do the 2-3k run has fallen off dramatically, and there are also my struggles with the daily home training goals which I have mentioned above. I am currently weighing in at 149 lbs and rising. Again, with spring around the corner, and my diligent attendance at weight watcher meetings, I expect this trend to reverse itself. My fifth requirement is to blog and to kwoon talk. Both of these things help me to maintain my commitments to home training and to many other aspects of preparing for black belt testing. I will talk about the last 4 of my personal black belt requirements next week.
Home reading: Currently reading 'The lost Massey lectures'. There are 5 or six lectures in this volume. The first one, which is what I am reading right now is by John Kenneth Galbraith (distinguished liberal economist and diplomat) and is called 'The Underdeveloped Country'. this lecture was presented in 1965 and in it Galbraith analyzed the causes of poverty and barriers to advancement in the 'underdeveloped' countries of the world at that time. As the editor notes in this 2007 volume, the issues in 1965 are 'depressingly familiar' today. I am finding that Galbraith's comments about our (developed countries, specifically Canada), responsibilities with respect to the poorer countries are depressingly valid today. So far, definitely worth a read.
Monday, February 9, 2009
The Travis Panasiuk Memorial Award
Without a doubt, had Travis been with us today, he would have recieved the Student of the Year Award on February 7, 2009. Everyone who new him at Silent River Kung Fu will have in their minds, at least one or two reasons why this it true. For me, four reasons come to mind.
At the top of my list is something that I did not realize until he passed, and the entire school was left reeling with the loss. Travis, as member of this school, had somehow relected to us who we were and what we were all striving to become as individuals and as a group. What I saw in the reflection was how much we have come to treasure eachothers' company and common love of martial arts.
As a student, Travis was indeed an 'empty vessel'. His mind, attitude, and senses were pliable and receptive and at the same time he seemed to be developing the ability to think critically about what he took in from his instructors, and from his fellow students young and old.
What I found most amazing about Travis was that he was a mirror and an empty vessel. He made no judgements of people and was happy to share his hat with any one of us. In my books, that is leadership.
As a martial artist, Travis worked hard, putting all of his soul and body into every challenge. From shaolin training, I ho chuan, lion dance, and, I'm sure, in his weekly classes, Travis worked harder than many of us. He truly had embraced the concept of intensity.
It is with a heavy sense of responsibility that I reflect on being the first recipient of the Travis Panasiuk Memorial Award. Can I measure up to the qualities that I believe made Travis such an important student in our identity? The burning question for me is, "What would Travis have done after recieving this recognition?". And the burning answer is, "He would have joyfully increased his efforts 1000-fold". I believe it is my responsibility to do the same, and to encourage my fellow students to do so also.
Claire Finnamore
At the top of my list is something that I did not realize until he passed, and the entire school was left reeling with the loss. Travis, as member of this school, had somehow relected to us who we were and what we were all striving to become as individuals and as a group. What I saw in the reflection was how much we have come to treasure eachothers' company and common love of martial arts.
As a student, Travis was indeed an 'empty vessel'. His mind, attitude, and senses were pliable and receptive and at the same time he seemed to be developing the ability to think critically about what he took in from his instructors, and from his fellow students young and old.
What I found most amazing about Travis was that he was a mirror and an empty vessel. He made no judgements of people and was happy to share his hat with any one of us. In my books, that is leadership.
As a martial artist, Travis worked hard, putting all of his soul and body into every challenge. From shaolin training, I ho chuan, lion dance, and, I'm sure, in his weekly classes, Travis worked harder than many of us. He truly had embraced the concept of intensity.
It is with a heavy sense of responsibility that I reflect on being the first recipient of the Travis Panasiuk Memorial Award. Can I measure up to the qualities that I believe made Travis such an important student in our identity? The burning question for me is, "What would Travis have done after recieving this recognition?". And the burning answer is, "He would have joyfully increased his efforts 1000-fold". I believe it is my responsibility to do the same, and to encourage my fellow students to do so also.
Claire Finnamore
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Where Am I?
My 2nd Personal Black Belt requirement is to do with Home training. From Dec. 1 2008 to September 1, 2009, I have committed to doing the following;
1. 41,000 pushups (150/day)
2. 27,400 round house kicks (100/day)
3. 27,400 situps (100/day)
4. 4100 squat thrusts (15/day)
The surprising thing about this requirement was that I was the most confident about this one when I wrote it down back in November. I had been doing all of this except the crunches, and also doing a bunch of other stuff, since Sherri Donohue started the 100 day challenge back in September. And I had been doing the pushups since last March. It had all become a fairly successful newly-formed habit. There were a few hiccups along the way, but I was always able to bounce back on track. However, December arrived, and New Years. It turns out that routine is vital to my success in habits relating to exercise.
Now that the holidays are over, I have my routine back, but not all of the habits. It is hard work getting back on track, and I've grasped at every tool that presents itself to me in order to re-establish the good habits. Planning for the Chinese New Year 1000 push ups and sit ups has really helped because I realized that I couldn't possibly expect to succeed on this if I had not been doing daily pushups and crunches for at least a week prior. Speaking out about my struggles has also helped because alot of people have responded by giving me a kick in the pants. Increasing accountability has also helped; and that also relates to refusing to ignore the facts. Here are the facts.
As of January 21, I re-established the daily pushups and situps. Before that date, my routine was sporadic.
My daily squat thrusts and round house kicks are still sporadic.
As of today, I have to make up 4605 pushups, 2750 sit ups, 2650 round house kicks, and 670 squat thrusts.
I plan to make up 850 pushups, and 850 sit ups tommorrow.
For the rest of the year, I will have to do 17 extra pushups, 9 extra sit ups, 12 extra round house kicks, and 8 extra squat thrusts daily.
At this point, doing the extra is not all that hard. The hard part is re-establishing the habit; its where my energy needs to be focused.
1. 41,000 pushups (150/day)
2. 27,400 round house kicks (100/day)
3. 27,400 situps (100/day)
4. 4100 squat thrusts (15/day)
The surprising thing about this requirement was that I was the most confident about this one when I wrote it down back in November. I had been doing all of this except the crunches, and also doing a bunch of other stuff, since Sherri Donohue started the 100 day challenge back in September. And I had been doing the pushups since last March. It had all become a fairly successful newly-formed habit. There were a few hiccups along the way, but I was always able to bounce back on track. However, December arrived, and New Years. It turns out that routine is vital to my success in habits relating to exercise.
Now that the holidays are over, I have my routine back, but not all of the habits. It is hard work getting back on track, and I've grasped at every tool that presents itself to me in order to re-establish the good habits. Planning for the Chinese New Year 1000 push ups and sit ups has really helped because I realized that I couldn't possibly expect to succeed on this if I had not been doing daily pushups and crunches for at least a week prior. Speaking out about my struggles has also helped because alot of people have responded by giving me a kick in the pants. Increasing accountability has also helped; and that also relates to refusing to ignore the facts. Here are the facts.
As of January 21, I re-established the daily pushups and situps. Before that date, my routine was sporadic.
My daily squat thrusts and round house kicks are still sporadic.
As of today, I have to make up 4605 pushups, 2750 sit ups, 2650 round house kicks, and 670 squat thrusts.
I plan to make up 850 pushups, and 850 sit ups tommorrow.
For the rest of the year, I will have to do 17 extra pushups, 9 extra sit ups, 12 extra round house kicks, and 8 extra squat thrusts daily.
At this point, doing the extra is not all that hard. The hard part is re-establishing the habit; its where my energy needs to be focused.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Regrouping
I've taken a good look at the personal black belt requirements I wrote out back in November. There are 9 of them. Its interesting that I've made the most progress on the first 5 of my requirements. When I listed my requirements for handing in to Master Brinker I seem to have ordered them in the order of importance to me. The community project was listed first; daily hometraining in physical conditioning and forms were listed 2nd and third; healthy nutrition and weight was fourth; journalling was fifth. I'm a bit embarrassed that 'acts of kindness', sparring, public testing performance and daily meditation are at the bottom of the list and I have the most work to do on these requirements.
I think it will be a good exersize to summarize my progress with respect to only one requirement each week. So I will start at the top this week.
1. The Community Project: Help promote lifelong physical activity at Onoway High School.
I have already posted the details of the Community Project previously. In a nutshell, I plan to help promote lifelong physical activity at Onoway High School by facilitating some opportuntities for students to participate in some track and badminton. To date:
Becoming part of a community coalition that works to make the Onoway a vibrant and healthy one for years to come:
Nothing has progressed with respect to the formation of this interagency coalition, but I am preparing myself. I have learned through experience about how to start an athletic club, because I just started a volleyball club in Saint Albert for Under 15 girls. (In previous postings I mentioned how this club came about, and why it has contributed to much needed opportunities for girls who so desperately want to play volleyball.) This exercise has allowed me to become comfortable with the concept of doing something like this in Onoway. Along the way I also increased my knowledge and confidence in runnning physical conditioning warm ups for youth as well as providing them with education and mental challenges. I'm quite pleased about my personal progress, but am dubious about whether my efforts will end up benefiting Onoway youth in particular. We plan to move out of the community in the next 6 months to 3 years. We shall see what happens.
Increasing the duration of the practice season for badminton at Onoway High School.
Gym time is the issue here. Jill and I have talked with Mrs. F, who runs the badminton club in St. Albert about having a fun tournament one thursday night for the Onoway junior and senior high students. Its a go on her end, so my next step is to chat with the princial and coaches at onoway about a date and also secure a bus. Furthermore, there is room for a skills and drills night and the principal at onoway high school would like Jill to run that. I'll set it up. In that respect, I also recently chatted with the Badminton Alberta president about my project and he offered to look into providing a coaching seminar for badminton coaches in the school division and possibly have Onoway High School host it. All this stuff should occur in February and March.
3. Help to promote a longer school practice and conditoning season for the track and field team. I have approached Mr. Joines (the track and field coach at Onoway) and 'warned' him that I would like to help with track season. That's not until April and May.
I think it will be a good exersize to summarize my progress with respect to only one requirement each week. So I will start at the top this week.
1. The Community Project: Help promote lifelong physical activity at Onoway High School.
I have already posted the details of the Community Project previously. In a nutshell, I plan to help promote lifelong physical activity at Onoway High School by facilitating some opportuntities for students to participate in some track and badminton. To date:
Becoming part of a community coalition that works to make the Onoway a vibrant and healthy one for years to come:
Nothing has progressed with respect to the formation of this interagency coalition, but I am preparing myself. I have learned through experience about how to start an athletic club, because I just started a volleyball club in Saint Albert for Under 15 girls. (In previous postings I mentioned how this club came about, and why it has contributed to much needed opportunities for girls who so desperately want to play volleyball.) This exercise has allowed me to become comfortable with the concept of doing something like this in Onoway. Along the way I also increased my knowledge and confidence in runnning physical conditioning warm ups for youth as well as providing them with education and mental challenges. I'm quite pleased about my personal progress, but am dubious about whether my efforts will end up benefiting Onoway youth in particular. We plan to move out of the community in the next 6 months to 3 years. We shall see what happens.
Increasing the duration of the practice season for badminton at Onoway High School.
Gym time is the issue here. Jill and I have talked with Mrs. F, who runs the badminton club in St. Albert about having a fun tournament one thursday night for the Onoway junior and senior high students. Its a go on her end, so my next step is to chat with the princial and coaches at onoway about a date and also secure a bus. Furthermore, there is room for a skills and drills night and the principal at onoway high school would like Jill to run that. I'll set it up. In that respect, I also recently chatted with the Badminton Alberta president about my project and he offered to look into providing a coaching seminar for badminton coaches in the school division and possibly have Onoway High School host it. All this stuff should occur in February and March.
3. Help to promote a longer school practice and conditoning season for the track and field team. I have approached Mr. Joines (the track and field coach at Onoway) and 'warned' him that I would like to help with track season. That's not until April and May.
Friday, January 16, 2009
I've lost track of how many weeks until black belt grading.
I've been way off track with respect to my weekly home training, journalling and nutrition. Christmas happened and I'm still struggling to get back the habits that will progress me towards my black belt requirements. Two people have helped me this week.
Person number one was the lady at weightwatchers who made me get with the program. I knew that due to some indulgences over christmas, which were turning into daily habits, my weight was beginning to creep up. I needed to nip this one in the bud and get back to healthy eating habits to maintain my goal weight. I decided to go to the weight watchers meetings weekly but adapt the program so that I didn't really have to face the music (the scales). I planned to go to the meeting and get some motivation, but only weigh in when I was confident that I was back on track and at goal weight. Quite accidentally, this lady, who works there, found out what I was doing, and she told me that I had to do the whole program or she couldn't allow me to sit in on the meeting - those were the rules and the rules are made for a reason - blah blah. From the look of determination on her kind, grandmotherly face, I knew that I would not be able to slip past her without causing a scene. The police would have to be called, and I would be ejected from the meetings for life. I paid up, got on the scales, took 10 minutes to reflect on my position, and then listened to Norma, the inspirational meeting leader. When the meeting ended, I realized that because I had weighed in, the meeting was more real for me; the accountability factor is a large part of whats needed. I went back to the lady who had stopped me and thanked her for standing her ground.
Person number two was Master Brinker. In class on Friday he had allowed for the fact that some of our personal black belt goals may change 2 months after we set them down. When I mentioned my struggles with training and journalling goals, he commisserated, mentioning his struggles with push ups after the New Year 1000 push up challenge. And then, in no uncertain terms, he said that we have to get back to the good habits we had before the Christmas. I could tell by his tone that he wasn't going to let me adapt my physical training goals.
I'm feeling that I am two 'kick in the pants' closer to getting back on track.
So tonight, right after getting home, I journalled. In one or two days I will journal again after reviewing the progress I have made towards my Personal Black Belt Requirements and setting out a plan for moving forward from here.
Person number one was the lady at weightwatchers who made me get with the program. I knew that due to some indulgences over christmas, which were turning into daily habits, my weight was beginning to creep up. I needed to nip this one in the bud and get back to healthy eating habits to maintain my goal weight. I decided to go to the weight watchers meetings weekly but adapt the program so that I didn't really have to face the music (the scales). I planned to go to the meeting and get some motivation, but only weigh in when I was confident that I was back on track and at goal weight. Quite accidentally, this lady, who works there, found out what I was doing, and she told me that I had to do the whole program or she couldn't allow me to sit in on the meeting - those were the rules and the rules are made for a reason - blah blah. From the look of determination on her kind, grandmotherly face, I knew that I would not be able to slip past her without causing a scene. The police would have to be called, and I would be ejected from the meetings for life. I paid up, got on the scales, took 10 minutes to reflect on my position, and then listened to Norma, the inspirational meeting leader. When the meeting ended, I realized that because I had weighed in, the meeting was more real for me; the accountability factor is a large part of whats needed. I went back to the lady who had stopped me and thanked her for standing her ground.
Person number two was Master Brinker. In class on Friday he had allowed for the fact that some of our personal black belt goals may change 2 months after we set them down. When I mentioned my struggles with training and journalling goals, he commisserated, mentioning his struggles with push ups after the New Year 1000 push up challenge. And then, in no uncertain terms, he said that we have to get back to the good habits we had before the Christmas. I could tell by his tone that he wasn't going to let me adapt my physical training goals.
I'm feeling that I am two 'kick in the pants' closer to getting back on track.
So tonight, right after getting home, I journalled. In one or two days I will journal again after reviewing the progress I have made towards my Personal Black Belt Requirements and setting out a plan for moving forward from here.
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