TeaKwonDo

Got a new job towards the end of last challenge and life went WHOOSHUPUPUPANDAWAYYY. In the good way. Now to balance training and... more training. This means cutting taekwondo to once a week or less, but still working in conditioning to keep up with the class--not to mention the sheer volume at my new job. Goals! Stamina. The early bird must learn to be a night owl for shifts. Skill. Full inverted sit-ups on the bar. Make it happen. Stability. Maintain sanity and control at all times. Bring it on. Will probably post once a week to update, but this is a tight time with job training and completing my tea sommelier cert at home. And still working on back kicks. In all honesty, I'll probably spend more time on your thread than mine. It actually keeps me sane. =P

24 hours ago I was heading off to the airport after a Tea Sommelier certification class in Long Beach. Spent the World Tea Expo drinking tea, eating steak, and making good on a promise to my master that I'd practice forms and kicks. Could have done more of both, but isn't that the way good training always feels? It's freaking hard to try 30 kicks on one leg in the sand. Also went on a treadmill for the first time in years. And screw it, it was fun. (Granted, this was because no one else was in the hotel gym and I could run in sock-feet.) Hooooboy am I overdue for happies. But this Expo was such a blast that I was doing it in my head anyway, zeroing in on the blessings and positivities each day, so I get a pass for the week. Back to the grind tomorrow.

100 freaking burpees? You are the man. Also congrats on the handstand progress! Been working on those as well, and in the same boat actually regarding the microbalancing off the wall. I still can't get the hang of a kickup, though. One leg will find that magical little air-anchor, but the other never wants to follow. Airbending is hard.

Yes! It's like slapping someone in the face with your feet. Follow it with a roundhouse and you're essentially giving your opponent a double backhand.

Also posting here for accountability: beach house training. Master Mac recommended working up to 30 kicks on each leg--roundhouse, side, stepping side, to prep for back kicks and hooks. Homg hooks. So much fun.

Thank you, bro! Been packing like a mad thing for the World Tea Expo, so there goes a week+ of happy backlog. Just. Lots of stuff going on right now. Many apologies.

Took the week off NF to study, and it paid off. NASM certification get. That counts as happy for the whole week and a while longer.

Also thinking of trying a crazy experiment: cutting out everything in my MWF conditioning except shrimp squats, chinups, and core work. Thoughts?

Thanks, Kishi. =) There's a lot that's not so happy, but it seems more productive to post the good parts--makes the bad ones seem smaller. Likewise, glad to see you're doing well in your own challenge. Sunday happy: 1) Took myself on a date to the Met. The exhibition was dizzying, requires future visits. 2) Stopped in Central Park on the way and practiced forms. Made progress on palgwe il jang, and glad I still remember ki cho il bu. 3) Bake-'sperimented an utter failure, but it was worth it for the discovery of coconut flour and practicing various frog stands while waiting for the thingies to turn out.

Also, how is it that social media only realizes you exist when you post an update regarding taekwondo? (Oh wait, because you don't update about anything else, except the World Tea Expo and fandom ships that have sailed.)

Lots of happy to catch up on. Holy truck, can I even believe I'm saying that? Happys for the 23rd: 1) Thirsty Thursday heralded all my favorite customers. All of them. 2) Tried inverted situps and did not die. 3) Made progress on personal projects. And yesterday: 1) Got hand-tipped by a customer for making/bagging her drink. Sweetest. Lady. Ever. 2) Broke two boards with a stepping side kick-- 3) --and now I'm an orange belt. Which leads to being very, very thankful for today. 1) Assisting the Dragons class. Have you ever raced a 5-year-old? Try half a dozen of them, three times over, and then tell me the world isn't something beautiful. 2) Huge learning experience with today's taekwondo birthday party, proving once again that my master (henceforth known on NF as Master Macaroni) is awesome. 3) Learning to balance on back kicks. Will never cease to be amazed by how muscle memory can be translated into new forms. It's just like learning languages--take familiar roots and apply new accents. Case in point: back kick. Today an old ballet memory clicked and suddenly, "Wait, this is a pirouette!" Now it's all about sticking the landing. In sum: "Horse stance!" said the martial artist. "Two-point!" said the equestrian. "Plié!" said the dancer. "Chair pose!" said the yogi. "Squat!" said the gym teacher. "...Ow," said everyone else.

Dude. He's in first grade already. High. Five. Bro.

/highfive, bro. Glad to have you on here, for what it's worth. How are the GHRs coming, btw? Happys for today before I toddle off to bed: 1) Bosses liked the hand-drawn menu I'd been working on (thinking it'd be temp until the official Photoshop one gets made) and they want to clean it up and put it up for the season. This is a big deal for someone who gave up being a studio art major for anthropology. 2) Stepping side kicks hitting with an actual, "WHUMP." And getting my belt stripes. =) 3) Re-discovered Coeur de Pirate:

Happys for Sunday: 1) Got through season 1 of Once. Sticking it out until Mulan shows up, then peace out I need to catch up on RuPaul or something. 2) Saw a friend, one of the few who comes by regularly to my job so that I have some semblance of social life. Bro keeps me grounded--and it's always fun talking about kids and teaching. Also started reading Supple Leopard while waiting for him, so double awesome. 3) Went back to an old Spanish castle with paper and pen. Rarely write or draw outside of work/studying, so... =) Happys for yesterday: 1) Sparring. 2) Realized huuuuuuge form error in my stances/punches/kicks/everything: I throw my head forward before every motion. Yay for form breakthrough--but how the heck do I fix it? 3) Stalking Kishi's thread for conditioning/training inspo. (Hi Kishi.) Happys for today: 1) Spent half the day freaking out that my back was being wayyy too mobile after bridges. Then realized how little lat work had been done recently. D'oh. 2) Chugging through that NASM text. 3) Activated glutes! Somewhat. It takes some serious coordination to get them at the same time as pelvic floor muscles, dang.

Congrats congrats congrats! Please give your kid an extra hug from me, and looking immensely forward to hearing how school goes. I had a brief stint assisting pre-K at a fancy private school, still miss it sometimes.

Blah blah but I'm a lady and there's more pressure on us in society and blah blah I'm already a twig so I'm freaked out what people will think if I suddenly put on pounds blah blah girl issues blah blah it's fun being twiggy I just hate when my body doesn't function right blah blah I should be practicing axe kicks because they're good for my hams. Welcome to my thought process. Every day. Also, still have no idea how to explain IF/1MealADay to regular people without sounding like I have an eating disorder. (To which I want to say, "Then show me what's an eating order. Wait, isn't that called a 'diet'?") For me, it just makes life easier. One meal, one thing to focus on at the end of the day, waterbend, move on. (Some tweaking in progress for evening TKD training.) Annoying trend: it feels like every time I tell someone, "Oh, I only eat X way," I promptly do the opposite a few days later. The only constant is IF, and the fact that my meals are awesomely ginormous, which is no problem when I'm taking care of the groceries, cooking, and dishes--but has appalled and bankrupted unfortunate dates. Being involved in martial arts, raised by European folks, and semi-spiritual on the side, leads to lots of doublethinking. "Be free and natural!" yet "Be disciplined." "Be healthy, rest and relax and socialize!" yet "Constantly improve your technique." "Consume only whole foods!" yet "System failure without BCAAs." ...and there goes all my dirty laundry. If this were a cocktail party, this is where I'd start talking about crazy exes and too many invitations to meaningless polyamorous trysts. That being said, the required six happys (double for a rant post): 1) Spent half the day with aforementioned Master Codename Too Cool For School and holy snap she is awesome. Yes, it's possible to go from zen to stock market in an hour's convo. 2) Still had time for errands and picked up Shogun from the library. 3) Did zen baking (aka "throw stuff together and bake!") and the folks raved. 4) Fast kicks getting faster. 5) Back stance has more back hip drive thanks to Master TCFS. 6) Today was just A Series of Fortunate Events, so why am I complaining?

There's a Box opening up near Grand Central. Would that convince you to come over to the East Side to play? =)

Things to do in Japan: Gundam cafe, Gion, collect all the Dragon Balls...

A lifew00t is a w00t indeed. =) Proud of you, bro! For the psoas, have you tried adding Warrior pose sequences to your stretching routine? Tight hips are often linked to tight ITBs. (I know everyone's a yogi-doctor on the Internet, but it could be worth a shot.)

Three happys for yesterday: 1) Nonstop at work! 2) Halfway through The Chosen (aforementioned good book). Not enjoying it as much as a good Jewish girl should, but at least I get brownie points for slogging through. Shabbat shalom, muthertruckers. 3) Relearning muscle coordination for tables and bridges. And three for today: 1) Again, solid workflow. 2) Slowly, slowly learning to accept having imperfect health, imperfect desires, and a very imperfect body. 3) Supercool master is subbing tomorrow.

Fingers crossed for kindergarten! Have you started him on reading/name-writing yet?

Naked Warrior love. Fisting makes all the difference, amirite? Also, negative GHR hack! Picture throwing yourself at the ground on the descent (max power with control) and the hams activate much faster. Try it and let me know how it goes?

Yesterday was a lesson in overdoing it. ("But I want to train like Bruce Lee!" said the grasshopper.) Waterbending: and we move on. Yesterday's happy: 1) Analyzed the above situation, pulled it together, and banged it out at work. No panic attacks. 2) Took the night off to read a good book and let my CNS recover. 3) Good talk with 'rents last night.

3 happy shots: 1) Got in a ton of NASM studying today. 2) Super busy awesome workflow, reminding me why I'm grateful for my job. Never would have fallen in love with foodservice otherwise. 3) Good news on tax returns. Also, been having crazy amounts of energy lately from all that wonderful sleep and going, "Truck it," on calories, which is great considering last challenge I was worried that I wouldn't be able to handle increased training if I want to enter more tournaments in the future. The only downside is that any excess energy not burned off during the day's schenanigans gets bumped into fat storage. C'est la vie. When in doubt, TKDproblems and Korra.

That GHR setup is awesome! But... how does it work, exactly?