A little of this, a little of that

Saturday was the Open Training and I was very glad I went. I got a chance to work on the first eight one steps and Ho Sin Sul. I remember the Bear Hug one and am going to make Tony practice it with me. It's always good to practice, especially when you've got someone who doesn't know what you're trying to do. I won't hurt him or anything, but I want to make sure I can perform that Ho Sin Sul properly for when we run through them in class this week. I'm going to attend one class...I have Cub Scouts on Thursday, so Tuesday is my only day.
That's my birthday, so I am hoping that I get a wickedly killer work out in.

Saturday afternoon, I got a quick lesson in picking out wood for the Gup test too. My friend, Ms. S, took me with her as she picked out the boards. That was an interesting concept. The first plank of wood we picked out was very light (for an 8-10 foot piece of wood!). The second one was heavier than the first. It was amazing--we could tell how wet it still was. Like I said, that was definitely an eye opener.

I got a very nice surprise from Miss Amanda on Saturday as well. We received (finally!) the scores from her state mandated tests in Social Studies/History and Science. I knew that she'd do well, but I wasn't prepared for HOW well she did!
She was commended on both of them! This is her third test this year that was Commended!! I am really proud of her!!

I signed up for a "Biggest Loser" thing with my apartment complex. I've finally decided to get smart about working on my health. We had to weigh in, plus they ran us through a fitness test. I did 32 crunches--my fitness goal for testing purposes, for my age, is 34, so I'm on target there. I don't EVEN want to mention the pushups, but I will anyway. I only did 5. I'm supposed to do 36 of them for fitness requirements, so that's something to work on. The trainer didn't allow "girlie" pushups (on your hands and knees). No, these were full on, "military style" pushups in a plank position. Can we say "more work needed"?? Yep, that's me!!

I was the shortest person there and the largest as well. All the other women were so small, I was questioning the "whys" of them, but I decided that I really don't CARE why they're there. I'm not going to be all self conscious about why I'm there. We all want to be healthy. *I* want to be healthy. I want to get some guidance in my work outs so that I can drop close to 100 pounds. It won't happen in 8 weeks, which is when the BL program runs, but if I lose about 4 inches, I will feel great. I am going to start pushing myself to get my butt out and exercising during lunch at work. I'm not taking being "large" anymore. Ms. S reminded me of something I said in my last black belt essay. I had written that "a black belt is an example to the rest of the martial arts community and others" (paraphrasing badly, I think), so I need to make sure that I'm providing a good example!