Drop and give me 50 she said

In recognition of a special bday I'm writing out my physical activity designated to participate in Julie's birthday challenge.

It seems my coach was in cahoots with her as last week as he structured the class around sets of 50.  Here is a detailed description of my TKD class (fairly typical but no class is ever, ever the same)

•  Jump-rope (6mins – I’m an awful skipper so I may have only got 50 jumps in)
• water
• hurdle/hops
• sprints/zig-zags
• water
• partner up
• umpteen rounds of arm fakes and counter kicks
• sliding back, counter kicks
• sliding forward counter kicks
• water

Suit up in body pads

• one-legged front leg roundhouse – 50 each leg without putting down the other foot (made to 25 on the right leg, then had to put it down every 5-7 to 50, same pace for right leg)
• 100 kicks (50 left and right) – first 40 went fast, started to slow to 60…next 25 were painful and last 15 I could barely feel my legs.  The partner acting as target had to hold their arms above their shoulders to avoid getting kicked – resulting in burning shoulders by the end.
• With partner combo front leg, backleg, spinning kicks

Finishing core work

1 min planks (30 sec rest between each)

•  Front
•  Left side
•  Right side
•  Back (v-sit)
•  Back rotating v-sit.  

At one point one woman let down and said – I can’t. Coach said – sure you can just breathe through it – she responded with “I’ve given birth, I know about breathing through pain but this isn’t happening” – the over 30’s in the group started chuckling.   At the end we all (aged 15-63) just collapsed and were still on the mats for a while. I love that feeling!

And I also want to contribute my bellydance class to the special day – though it’s less structured and I don’t know the names or can describe much of what was done. Something like shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, shake it, shake it, hip bump, hip bump, snake arms, veils, shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, shake it. :-)
Happy Birthday Julie!

 

Hmmmm

That was a week ago – since then I changed my eating habits drastically from my farm diet of fresh fruits, veggies, eggs and pasta to a junk-food munching machine.  Snacking, margarine on things I usually eat plain.  I ate an entire family size bag of chips (and I’m more of a sweet than salty-treat person) in two days.  And it’s not cause I was feeling hungry but because it was there. And back in my normal life, at work I felt it was a little break from my day to day, a pause from whatever was stressing/confusing/challenging me and I didn’t want to think about.  

On the farm if I was feeling that way I’d take a minute and smell some flowers (literally), or play with a dog or pet a horse or mess about in the garden and pull some weeds or just a deep breath and look at the beauty around me.  I didn’t eat a lot, but neither was I hungry and I wasn’t fixated on food or when my next meal was. 

For me the beauty of vacation is to recharge and refresh the body and mind and I always take time to reflect some on my “truths”.  There are some things I learned there about stress and communication and perceptions, that I don’t want to forget. And I’m going to integrate some of those good eating and living habits into my “everyday” life.

So that's where I am (haven't checked but guessing back out of the jeans)

The jeans are on...

After a vacation/volunteer stint at an organic farm in the caribbean I am tanned and feeling fit. So I thought - why not try on "the" jeans and boom!  There they are.  I can walk, stand and sit in them.  They are a little tighter than I'd like and probably couldn't eat in them but I'll get there. 

This is a couple of weeks past my deadline but who cares, not I and not you - you all have been most supportive. 

On vacation

Haven't thought about calories or cardio or cellulite in 10 days - it's been lovely - hope you are well.