TKD, in the pursuit of form and function

[TeaKwonDo]

'Cause it's a pun. Form. Poomse.

 

/crickets.

 

Tripping back to the Assassins to get my body in order for greater Warrior Monkeying.

 

Mind: NASM studying has been going well, but now it's time for it to pay off. 90% or higher on the exam.

 

Body: Glutes and core. When in doubt, more of both. 5x20 hanging leg raises and 1 unassisted GHR.

 

Spirit: Srs bsns is great for martial arts, less so for being human. Thus, post three positive things every day. Extra fluff required if the post includes a rant.

 

Last challenge was about getting past myself, a mental detox. Lately I've been feeling so dang awesome that it's hard to imagine the bad moments, but this ain't over. When the strip hits the fan, I'm ready.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6fju3Pce3s

[Phayze]

SHINING FINGEEEEEER!!

Puns, martial arts, and G Gundam? Yeah, I'm in. ^^

[mitch_dee]

**hangs hammock for the pun of it**

[TeaKwonDo]

Bonus goal: Eat food, not feelings.

I eat intuitively, which goes under the category of "Do not try this at home, kids." Caveats being that I live a pretty active quotidienne, am on medication for Hashimoto's, and drink a lot of tea.

A lot of tea.

This leads to varicolored n=1 experiments that would make Tim Ferris blush. Sometimes they work, and sometimes not. But y'know what? It's fun, and keeps me on my toes to keep researching different methods of nutrition and finding unexpected parallels across cultures. Which then, of course, lead to all sorts of debates about nature v. nurture.

But back to the point. Food not feelings.

[TeaKwonDo]

Dang, before I forget!

 

3 shots of positives:

 

1) Complimented on an original drink! Roasted Tieguanyin oolong with heavy cream, dusted with cinnamon and brown sugar, and something like 140g liquid sugar inside. No idea what it tasted like, but the drinker was happy!

 

2) The slow week at work has allowed us to relax and do non-work-related things, ie: language lab. My Mandarin is approaching the level of an articulate caveman.

 

3) Really, really good bridges this morning. I don't have as much muscle as I used to, but my flexibility is now through the roof.

[TeaKwonDo]

3 smile shots:

 

1) PUs had lats in them! Actual lats! And the GHRs are coming along by keeping the movement eccentric and as FROM as possible. Haven't had a workout this good since last year. Studying NASM and Bruce Lee pays off, incorporating shorter rests and more beat-the-hell-out-of-your-abs junk.

 

2) Started tax prep.

 

3) The train conductor on my morning commute is such a sweetheart. She punched a smiley face into a kid's ticket today. I told her that I do the same thing at work (checking off free drink rewards with a little smiley) and we high-fived.

[Kishi]

Dang, you're that close to a GHR already, huh? Looks like if I intend to catch up, my work is cut out for me...

 

Also, that drink sounds amazing.

 

And remember: food is fuel, not feelings.

[TeaKwonDo]

Kishi: Still not at full unassisted, so there's plenty of room to catch up. The gainzz will be coming in no time.

 

Blurry pics from today's tournament:

 

 

Forms, palgwe il jang. I'm the knife-handing one on the left.

 

 

On the left again, pre-match. It was close! Came in second--out of two. =P

 

Three positive shots:

 

1) Did not win a single event, which gives me plenty to work on. Extra motivation = yes.

 

2) Demo teams doing their thing. Someone got it on video already!

 

3) After flailing through palgwe il jang all day, found an empty cafeteria playing this song and nailed it.

 

It was nice to do my first tournament alone. Breathe a bit. Be where I wanted to be and just watch for the sake of watching, get lost in it.

 

TKD is the only place where I'm my own person. Otherwise it's "the tea girl" or... Well, that's really it. With TKD, I'm just a body performing techniques, and nobody asks or expects anything else.

 

It's such a relief.

 

The whole morning I wondered what I would post today. If I would post at all.

 

TeaKwonDo spars with my old handle, Knockingdog, every day.

 

Knockingdog was a paleo Leangains badass, who graduated Magna Cum Laude and could hang from a bar forever. (Sixpack sold separately, batteries not included.)

 

TeaKwonDo messes around according to her variable instinct, occasionally goes against science in the pursuit of science, and only just got lats this week.

 

Yet she's hardcore studying for NASM, knows EXACTLY what she wants to do, and is slowly figuring out how to get there.

 

(Feelings sold separately, batteries not included.)

[Phayze]

Dang... now I gotta go buy batteries, too?!

I had a similar experience at a fencing tournament once. Lost every match and loved every second of it. ^^

[nightlight]

ugh. GHR.

i can't even attempt these b/c my hamstrings cramp up immediately. 

[karinajean]

best. ever. thoughts. from tkd. tourney.

BEST.

[TeaKwonDo]

Dang... now I gotta go buy batteries, too?!

I had a similar experience at a fencing tournament once. Lost every match and loved every second of it. ^^

 

Funny, TKD is just like fencing! Only with feet instead of foils, and every match is saber. But the principle of points based on targeting certain areas of the body is the same, being light on your feet, get in WHAM WHAM WHAM get out, all the same.

 

ugh. GHR.

i can't even attempt these b/c my hamstrings cramp up immediately. 

 

At least you have hams! Mine are overstretched to hell, so doing GHRs reminds them that they exist.

 

best. ever. thoughts. from tkd. tourney.

BEST.

 

Though trufax it took a while to get past, "DANGIT WHY I AM SUCH A YELLOW BELT."

Now I tentatively post the "Heads Will Roll" form, on the off chance Cheechoe axe kicks in here, and accept that I need to work a LOT on my stances.

 

Three happy shots from yesterday:

 

1) Hung out with a friend I hadn't seen since 2012 and she is about fifty million kinds of awesome.

 

2) The mask exhibit we saw was pretty cool, too.

 

3) Treated myself to a massage and Ippodo matcha. If you're ever in NYC and like matcha, theirs is like drinking clouds made of kittens. In the best way.

 

Three happy shots from today:

 

1) Did not fail at double kicks during sparring practice!

 

2) Work flew by with the spring break returnees.

 

3) Shrimp squats getting tons better. ~10 hours of sleep = totally worth it.

[Kishi]

Ten hours of sleep is some serious magic-sauce. I love it when it happens. Sadly, it's all-too-rare.

[nightlight]

 

 

 

At least you have hams! Mine are overstretched to hell, so doing GHRs reminds them that they exist.

 

this is debatable. my quads are like 4x the size of my hams. 

[TeaKwonDo]

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.

[Kishi]

It's tricky, the business of eating enough to fuel training without fat storage. If I figure something out, I'll let you know. But so far, the only thing I got is, "Fear not."

[TeaKwonDo]

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.

[TeaKwonDo]

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.

[Kishi]

That learning is going to take time. It's a good thing to learn, but every time you'll think you have it, it'll try to slip out from beneath you, and you'll have to start again.

 

It used to drive me nuts. Particularly when I finally began to realize that my body's assymetric anyway, so even if the day comes that I get abz and teh sexy leanness, I still won't be particularly pretty.

 

But you learn, day by day, over and over again, how very unimportant that is, and how much better it is to enhance your function so that your life is better.

[TeaKwonDo]

That learning is going to take time. It's a good thing to learn, but every time you'll think you have it, it'll try to slip out from beneath you, and you'll have to start again.

 

It used to drive me nuts. Particularly when I finally began to realize that my body's assymetric anyway, so even if the day comes that I get abz and teh sexy leanness, I still won't be particularly pretty.

 

But you learn, day by day, over and over again, how very unimportant that is, and how much better it is to enhance your function so that your life is better.

 

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?

[TeaKwonDo]

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.

[Kishi]

Hiiiiiii~!

 

Glad to see that my ramblings are useful fodder for ways to go off and constructively wreck oneself.

 

Also, thanks for letting me into your head. As I suspected, it's a complicated place. I can tell you all kinds of stuff about how packing some meat on your bones isn't gonna hurt you, but ultimately unless I can help you feel comfortable with that on your own terms, it's not terribly helpful.

 

I do the one meal a day thing too, when I can help it. Glad to see I'm not the only one doing that. My body seems to like me better that way, though really, it likes me any way it can get me to not go to bed hungry.

 

I feel as if I can relate rather thoroughly to all of that laundry. At least to the scope of it, if not the depth of it. You're not alone.

 

It is good to see that you can keep finding happies. I have no input for how to fix throwing your head forward. It's just not a thing I've run into. Hopefully your teachers can help with that.

[TeaKwonDo]

Hiiiiiii~!

 

Glad to see that my ramblings are useful fodder for ways to go off and constructively wreck oneself.

 

Also, thanks for letting me into your head. As I suspected, it's a complicated place. I can tell you all kinds of stuff about how packing some meat on your bones isn't gonna hurt you, but ultimately unless I can help you feel comfortable with that on your own terms, it's not terribly helpful.

 

I do the one meal a day thing too, when I can help it. Glad to see I'm not the only one doing that. My body seems to like me better that way, though really, it likes me any way it can get me to not go to bed hungry.

 

I feel as if I can relate rather thoroughly to all of that laundry. At least to the scope of it, if not the depth of it. You're not alone.

 

It is good to see that you can keep finding happies. I have no input for how to fix throwing your head forward. It's just not a thing I've run into. Hopefully your teachers can help with that.

 

/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:

[Kishi]

The GHRs are coming along! Slowly but surely. I've worked up (down?) to a weaker band, and I had a lot of fun with the move today. It really seems to like to play well with sprinting, I'm finding.

[TeaKwonDo]

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.