Post class

Why the heck was I nervous about this class? Was it because I have a low sense of self esteem? Possibly. Possibly because I didn't know what to expect and therefore expected the worst? I don't know, but once I started showing Mrs. S. my forms, everything settled down. I felt like I had a captive audience, one who expected to see perfection and yet was understanding that I felt odd. I haven't worked on forms in a really long time, so this was a good thing for me. I felt that I was showing them that I am capable of going into their school and performing at a high level. You know what? I wasn't showing them. I was showing myself!

I pretty much glued myself to Ms. S for the duration of class. I like her. She has a great sense of humor, and I found out that she teaches her kids to do a middle knife hand block as "a cup of tea and slicing bread" (you are basically holding one hand in front of your sternum, palm up, flat and the opposite hand is out in front of you as if you're slicing something.). That was a good thing to learn. I told her that we learned Pyhung an Sam Dan and Pyhung an Sa Dan as "Superman" and "splat!" for certain parts of the form. I did Pyhung an Cho Dan and goofed up part of it. I wasn't remembering my forms properly because of nerves or something, but I caught it and stepped back to the point where I lost it.

It was funny to see these guys realize that I was Aidan's mom. They've only seen me twice in the kids' class, out of uniform, and again twice on Saturdays. I had a bit of fun when Ms. M recognized me as Aidan's mom, but also as a black belt.

I won't be participating in the Dan pre-test on Tuesday. It's an assessment of people's abilities. Mrs. S said it was a "benchmark" of fitness and ability. Should be fun when I finally get to jump in on one. Of course, I have to learn the names of the blocks/kicks/punches/etc. That's something I need to put out there. I need lots of work on the Korean. In my last school, we didn't use the Korean terminology all that often. We switched from calling the first form "Basic Form #1" to "Keechyo Hyung Il Bu" about the time we started having Master St. James attend our belt tests. Having gone through two belt tests at USMA, I'm sure I'll be able to attend a belt test at BTK with little difficulty. I'm going to start working on my terminology and studying. This has to be treated like a university program in order for me to excel. I prefer to think that I'm learning at a higher degree of education, so I'll get myself into that mindset now.

New form!

Last night's class was great! Sa Bu Nim started teaching me my next form, so I'm officially on the path to second Dan!! I'm really excited about it! I like the way it looks. I just need to get the arm movements down (the "darkwing duck" move, as one of my companions calls it!). It doesn't have a special joon be move, so it's actually easier than some of the other forms I've learned, but...you have to know how to do the arm/hand movements properly. One of the things I find the hardest is performing Naihanchi Cho Dan properly--there's a step to a horse riding stance with an inside/outside block. If it's done correctly, you're chambered and ready to actually do the block as you step down with your right foot. I want to make sure that my technique is spot on for Friday.

Friday is now 3 days away. I'm excited. I want to be cautious about it too but...I'm excited because I think it's going to be fun. I asked my friend Jason to hold my board during the firecracker break. He's a good friend and I thought it would be cool to ask him.

March 2, 2008

Happiness is having a quiet house so that you can enjoy a cup of coffee! The cats and I are the only ones up this morning. Everyone else is still in bed. This gives us time to sit in the living room and listen to the black birds cawing, and the mockingbirds yelling. They aren't singing--yet.
Today's supposed to be a gray day. The skies are overcast right now which is just fine with me. I'm an oddity down here as I LOVE gray days. I have the windows open. The cats are in the window and on the back of the love seat in front of the window. Every time a bird flutters by, they both go on alert. They're silly!

Last night I crashed completely. I guess I needed the caffeine withdrawal I had. I'm not going to do that on Friday--I'll have my morning coffee. I need to figure out what I'm going to eat during the day so that I'll have plenty of energy for the test that night. I'm open to suggestions.
Obviously it'll need to be something points friendly!

Speaking of points friendly, yesterday's weigh in was anything but friendly. Again, I didn't go up to the meeting, but weighed in at home. I did put it in my weight tracker on WW. I am seriously unhappy about it, but...I needed that wake up call. I haven't been tracking my points and I need to. I also need to drink more water--that's a huge thing for me. I drank 2 litres of water yesterday but feel like I could have drunk more. I usually have tons of excuses for not drinking water but they're just excuses. I shouldn't let work or my co-workers interfere with MY health.

Less than a week to go

There is less than a week left before the black belt test. It's one week from tomorrow. A LOT of things are happening, some are good, some are so-so. I'm not going to get all stressed out with nowhere to go. I'm going to try to maintain a cheerful, happy mood. I decided that I wasn't going to let my office stress me out anymore. I'm only one person and I can only do so much, you know?

Last night's class was a bit more interesting than usual. I managed to do 75 jumping jacks in a minute by NOT racing through them! That was a huge surprise to me because I *usually* get either winded or I feel like my legs are going to fall off from the fatigue of doing the jumping jacks. We also had to do a BUNCH of push ups. 30/20/15. 30 regular. 20 wide arm, 15 diamond. UGH. Not my favorite thing to do. For the entire time I've been going to class, I've been doing my push ups incorrectly. I *sagged* at the hips instead of staying board straight. Last night I did them correctly for the first time and man! I can feel the difference! My shoulders are letting me know I did them. It's a great feeling!

Tonight I'm going to Mr. A's Den meeting with him. Hubby is going to a Dallas Stars game tonight (bum! Didn't even ask me if I wanted to go!). I was SUPPOSED to go teach with Susan but that's not happening. I called her at lunch and told her. All the fun thing happen when I'm not there anyway.

This weekend is the final run-through of the belt test. I'm actually looking forward to it. I want to work on my Bong Hyung Il Bu plus the other forms I have to know for next week!

The verdict is...

Sigh. I have been fighting with pain in my left leg/hip for about two months now. I FINALLY went to the doctor today and guess what?? I have tendonitis. He originally was worried about my actual hip (the bone) but it's not that. He's thinking that since it's been so long and because it's associated with any kind of...I think he said "external rotation" (I'm badly paraphrasing) causes pain, it's tendonitis. Yeah. Yay. I am SUPPOSED to be "taking it easy" for the next two weeks. He gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory. It's a different one than the last one, which causes me to swell up. I haven't filled the prescription yet. I'll be doing that here shortly.

I'm on vacation today. I'm just hanging around, not doing much of anything. I have laundry to do but that's it. I have my prep class tomorrow with a pre-test and I'm going to be rested up for that. I kind of got a bit panicky with my doctor because this upcoming test is sooo important to me! I really need to do well for this test. I have to work on my physical conditioning too, so I've got to get busy with that. I should start walking a mile this weekend to see if I can get it done within 7 minutes. I think I'm supposed to be able to walk a mile in 7 minutes or less. I do believe he said that we're supposed to run a mile in 10 minutes or less, so a 7 minute or less mile, walking, is a good goal to strive for. When I can hit that goal, I'll work on another goal. I didn't walk or run any marathons last year, so maybe I can look toward that this year. Just another thing to put on my potential agenda!!

Another WW update!!

I had my usual Saturday morning meeting today. Now bear in mind that I haven't been to meetings since September 29th. I went back last week after making a promise to my best friend that I'd get back on track. I had gained 3.4 pounds in that time frame. I'm happy to say that I've lost it again. I'm back to 42.6 pounds GONE! This makes me happy because I didn't go in the wrong direction.

Today we talked about the Weight Watchers from the 70s. There were a couple of ladies who had followed that plan many years ago in the meeting. They had a lot of weird, probably not medically sound, "diet mentality" things they were doing...one of the things these ladies mentioned was the *6 meat servings* in a day, that you HAD to eat?! EWWW!! I eat meat but 6 servings *in a day* is too much for me!!! Some days I don't eat meat at all. It all depends on my mood. I guess that my peanut butter counts as a meat, but geez, eating THAT much meat?! I'm glad I have the plans I'm following now!!

The major reason we talked about this was that WW rolled out their new and improved meeting materials this week. We can all "start over" in a matter of speaking. We got a new Week 1 book and a booklet titled "KickStart Your Success". It's got information about the Flex Plan and the Core Plan. I personally follow the Flex plan, where you have a given number of points daily and 35 "flex" points a week. The idea is that you have the extra points, but that you don't necessarily have to use them. My goal is to eat my points (or stay under a bit) but not to dip into the flex points. MOST days I can stay within points. This past week, I didn't do so well because I actually went over on Thursday and on Friday. No matter how many fresh veggies and fruits you eat, no matter how much water you drink, if you go over on portions, you'll gain. I know this from experience. I'm not getting down about it. I've already gotten over that.

So this morning, at W/I, I went to the usual lady I go to. I absolutely adore Bernice. She's lost something like 150 pounds and is just one of the sweetest, funniest people around. She saw me and told me it wasn't that cold. I told her, "I'm that cold!" We laughed as I unearthed myself from my coat, gloves, and shoes, put everything down and got ready to get on the scale. When I stepped up, she told me I scared her! LOL! I had a really great week, despite not journaling and keeping up with it like I'd planned.
We got a laugh about me scaring her, but it felt good to see that number. I also surprised another lady, Doris, when she saw me there for the second week in a row. She asked if I was coming in next week and I said "YOU BETCHA!" I'm going back. 21 times makes a habit--I have 19 times to go to ingrain the habit.

I start training for my black belt recertification test on January 5th. That class is at 8:00, so I'll get into uniform, go weigh in and attend most of the meeting, then head to the class and work for 2 1/2 hours. Then it's home to drink LOTS of water and recover. We won't even TALK about the fact that for THIS test I have a PT test. (anyone want to be a "pinch runner" for me? I have to run a MILE and I'm NOT a runner!!) I think that over the holiday break from Martial Arts, I'll go out and either walk or run after work. Who knows, maybe I'll wind up liking it. It'll be a challenge, like my belt test was.

Belt tests, graduations and a realization

Friday night was wonderful! It was really incredible to be able to see my son receive both his black belt as a Young Warrior and his new uniform, complete with ORANGE belt! He's not starting all over! He knows two of the basic forms, so that qualifies him to be promoted to orange! I'm so proud of him! He really has tried very, very hard in his classes! We'll see how things go now that he's graduated. I'll be going to his classes with him for a while as they'll be at 6:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays. This means that he can now stay at Kids' Club full time! Woo hoo! He'll love that! It'll give him time to get help with homework during the school year. I like that idea.
While the Young Warriors and Little Ninjas were being promoted, people started arriving for the test at 6:00. Mr. M had me round them up and herd them off to the small room. Of course, I raced out of there after rounding people up and went back to the big room so that I could see Aidan get his belt and his uniform.
We had something like 55-60 people there for the Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced test. I was testing with the other Cho Dan Bo's for our CDB1, then we had four people testing for Cho Dan Bo and everyone else was advancing. I had to cheer very loudly for three people who went from white to Yellow belts because they're in the Adult class and they all have been working VERY hard!
Board breaking. I tried three times to break a board with a front snap kick and just could NOT go through the board!! One of the dads came up to me afterwards and asked if my foot hurt. You can say that! It was hard trying to put the ball of my foot through a stubborn piece of wood! I even tried my elbow and just didn't get it! I finally wound up breaking a smaller, thinner piece of wood. I wanted to break the one I started out with but it wasn't in the stars last night. Oh well. I have all summer to practice for my black belt test and that WILL have the harder wood, I'm sure!!
This week we start our Summer schedule. I'll take Aidan to school, drop him off, pick him up after work, come home, go to class, watch him and then I'll get ready for MY class. Tony will pick him up from his classes while I'm in mine. It's possible that Amanda may join the classes too, but we'll see. Our school is family oriented. I would love to have my entire family involved but this is my obsession, not theirs. Aidan so far is the only one who is truly interested in it like I am. He's looking at it from a different perspective though. I originally joined these classes to lose weight and somewhere along the line, it hooked me and I've developed a true love for the sport. If you liken this to school, it's rather like going to college. By the time I get my black belt, it would be the equivalent of graduating college. Okay, maybe that's not the right thing to compare it to because I know that college is/was a lot harder than this is, but when you start out to do something that requires this commitment, it's pretty close.

Amanda and Tony went out to see Pirates of the Caribbean yesterday. I wanted to go but didn't. I got up at 5:30, got myself dressed and ready for WW. Skipped weighing in (I had a "get out of jail free card, basically), but attended the meeting. The meeting was worth it. I heard a lady in the meeting say that she'd just come back to meetings after falling off plan because she was getting seriously frustrated. Our leader sends cards and emails to encourage us, so that's a good motivator too. Mollie said that she came back and is working on not getting frustrated that the weight isn't magically melting off. Another member said the same thing and I realized that I'm not alone--I thought that my 31 pound loss in 9 months was a bit too slow, but...it's not!! It's actually fairly normal for some of us. This is something I need to keep in mind the next time I get irritated with myself about my perceived lack of progress. It may be a slow loss, but it means I'm more likely to keep it off than to put it back on.

Ramping up for the belt test

Tonight was Tang Soo Do class. It was tough but well worth it. Next weekend is the belt test. I'm still in shock that I've been taking lessons since August of 2004 and am almost at the point of getting my Cho Dan Bo. For those of you who aren't familiar with my tradition of martial arts, Cho Dan Bo is a black belt candidate. I think I'm ready for it. My good friend (the one who's been making me go walking) has been helping me tweak my forms and get them into more presentable shape. There is one form called Ee-Dan, which I have managed to do properly. It looks so much better now and actually FEELS better as I'm executing it! I am really looking forward to it. I WANT to prove that I'm every bit as good as the people who have gone before me. I am following some really talented martial artists. I admire people who succeed at what they're good at. I didn't used to think I was good at anything, but I've really gotten to the point where I feel like I'm doing something I am good at. I've seen a LOT of improvement from where I was this time in 2004. I have not given up on this. I've pushed through a lot of self negativity. I told myself "I don't know if I can do this." but I'm doing it. I feel a strong sense of accomplishment. I still get down on myself at times for things-I know that it's no reflection on me, but I hate being last. Not everyone can be first and I'd do well to remember that.
Next week he'll run classes as if it was an actual test. This means that I have to settle down and work hard because I want to make sure I'm ready for that test!! I will be ready! Like I said, I have some really talented people whose footsteps I'm following in. I don't want to let them down.