Week In Review

I'm still struggling to find consistency in my numbers. I'm still working on a good way to log acts of kindness. Even just peforming them is still tough too. I'm trying to change my driving habits but it's really hard for me. I can't stand the way everyone else drives and it's very difficult to keep my composure behind the wheel.

All my pushups this week are modified due to my shoulder. It feels like cheating by doing them but I guess building the habit of getting them done is more important at this point.

I'm happy that I've been getting in my form reps and all my kicks. Although there are days where I feel like my kicks are terrible and my balance is bad, I feel like some of the little things are improving and that's all due to putting in the reps.

Last Week:
Pushups - 920
Situps - 320
KM - 4
Da Mu Hsing Reps - 16
Kicks - 560
Acts of Kindness - 4

Overall:
Pushup - 2060
Situps - 850
KM - 6
Da Mu Hsing Reps - 62
Kicks - 1770
Acts of Kindness - 14

I'm Good At Something!!

I think I might have finally found something in Kung Fu that I'm not awful at. I've been putting in a fair amount of practice with the nunchuks and I feel like I have already improved quite a bit. I feel much more ambidextrous with them than I do doing anything else. Normally my right side is dominant to the point where you would think the left side of my body is paralyzed. It's that bad. Not so with the chucks. It feels really good to try something new and pick it up fairly quickly for a change. Obviously, I still have a really long way to go and "good" is a relative term, but I don't care. I'm happy with where I'm at and I'm going to enjoy this feeling and keep practicing.

Odds and Ends

A few thoughts I had after class tonight...

Sifu Brinker led class tonight and besides him, Sifu M. Playter, Sifu Langner, and Sifu Langner were also there. It was really nice to have so many Sifus to correct us as we were going through combinations. I was corrected a few times and each time I didn't even realize that I was doing something wrong until it was pointed out to me. I will admit that sometimes I get frustrated when I get corrected if I'm doing something wrong, mostly when I'm already trying to fix it but my body is not cooperating. But in the end I'm thankful for the extra instruction because it sucks when you practice a technique at home extensively, when all the while you're doing it wrong and a few small corrections were all that was needed.

I stopped to shovel snow after class and Sifu Masterson and family were already there and she answered a few questions I had about Shaolin Fitness class. When she answered my questions, her enthusiasm really came through and it really struck me how awesome everyone is at SRKF. As far as I'm concerned, volunteering to help with Adopt a Driveway, helping with renos, and joining the I Ho Chuan were some of the best decisions I've ever made. Getting involved is the best way to get to know everyone and there are so many great people here. I wonder if Silent River attracts awesome people or just makes everyone awesome. Maybe a little of both. 

I went to the store to pick up a few groceries on the way home and when I was in line to pay, I noticed how people seem to go out of their way to not talk to others, or even look at them. Everyone just looks down or stares straight ahead. I'm as guilty of this as anyone and I wonder if this is a symptom of why I'm behind on my acts of kindness. I'm going through life, oblivious to what's going on around me. A perfect example of this is the adult beginner class. There is a new student in our class. She has been here for a few weeks but I realized tonight that I haven't even bothered to stop and introduce myself.  How awful is that? I will definitely introduce myself next class but it shouldn't have taken this long for me to do so. I am going to make an effort to be more mindful of those around me from now on.

Week in Review

Looking back on last week I have to say that it was pretty good. I earned a stripe in class, learned a couple more moves with the nunchuks and had another good Friday practice. I wasn’t sure what to expect initially from Friday nights but I’m really enjoying them. I don’t feel out of place because it seems like most other people are learning a new weapon too. After kung fu I go to the gym and I’m always in a really good mind set after practice so I always have a good workout.

I helped with tiling yesterday and it was a lot of fun. It didn’t seem like work at all because we were all having a good time together and there were enough of us there that one or two people didn’t have to do everything.

My shoulder is feeling better although I don’t think it’s really healing, it’s just that I haven’t been using it so it hasn’t been bothering me. I’m following some of the advice that I was given and I’ve been doing modified pushups. I feel weak doing them because they’re not really that hard but I guess it’s better than nothing.

I’m finding that it’s really difficult to log acts of kindness; partially because I’m not being very kind to others and also because I flat out forget to log them. I definitely need to do better at that. I’m also having a hard time getting in any kind of running. I have an elliptical at my house so I don’t really have an excuse other than I hate doing it. There are no words to describe how much I loathe running. I’ve done it in the past and really can’t stand it. Not sure what to do about this.

Numbers:

      Last week                          Total

Pushups -                       610 (incl. modified)           1320

Situps -                           390                                    590

KM -                                0                                        0

Da Mu Hsing Reps –      23                                       49

Kicks -                             640                                    1300

Acts of Kindness -           2                                        11

Diet

I've always known that I have some self-destructive habits. Maybe self-destructive is a poor description because I'm not referring to anything that is ruining my life per se, but more so things that prevent me from doing my best. One of the biggest things that I struggle with is my diet. Overall, my diet isn't that bad. I'm pretty good at portion control, I try to eat healthy carbs and fats, and I'm trying to add more fruits and vegetables into my diet. The description I just gave sums up how I eat about 80% of the time. But the other 20% can be out of control. I crave junk food ALL THE TIME. Yesterday was my day off so I decided that it would be a good idea to eat a whole pizza from Little Caesars along with a full order of crazy bread and a large coke slurpee. I think I might still be full. 

I am capable of eating clean for long periods of time. I did the Body for Life program a few years back and I had great results. The problem is that I don't think that kind of eating is sustainable. You have to view food as fuel and nothing but fuel and you can't enjoy it at all. I don't care what anyone says, healthy food doesn't taste good and nobody will ever convince me otherwise.

I think another challenge I have is that even though I am an excellent cook, I find it hard to get motivated to cook for one all the time. I'm not sure if I don't feel like I'm worth it or if it's just that by the time I get home from work, go to the gym, practice kung fu, and do all the other things around the house that need doing, the last thing I want to do is cook for myself. I guess I'm wondering if anyone else has the same problem, and if so, how are you dealing with it?

Attention to Detail and Injuries

Last night in class we did fitness testing and I got my yellow stripe. After class, I was discussing roundhouse kicks with my classmates and the consensus was that “roundhouse kicks are hard to get right”. That has been my sentiment from day one and it was nice to see that I wasn’t alone in thinking that.

One of the things that I took away from last night was attention to detail. One of the things that Sifu Playter mentioned to me about my roundhouse was to watch my back foot when coming back to a bow stance after my kick. I have a tendency to have it facing more sideways than forward. The funny thing is that, even after being reminded about it, I was still doing it when we were working on combinations. Even when I thought my foot was facing straight ahead, I would look down and see that it wasn’t. These details are difficult for me to work on in class because I need to be able to slow down and watch my feet and think about what my foot feels like when it’s straight.

The combinations portion of the curriculum didn’t seem as intimidating last night as it usually does. I still have a lot of practice to do but I feel like I am improving. It’s all little details that need improving, like snapping punches, watching my back foot, etc. My plan for the next 10 days or so is to really focus on my stances and combinations.

I’m at the point where I’m really not sure what to do about my shoulder. I have continued to train but my pushups have been limited and I’m already pretty far behind in them. That’s disappointing because going in to the I Ho Chuan, the pushups were the one thing that felt I would have very little trouble with. I had been doing 180/day for a couple of weeks going in. It even feels weird for me to admit to myself that I have an injury. When I think of an injury I think of professional athletes, not people like me. And my injury is originally from falling on the ice, which is kind of embarrassing. I wish I could say I was attacked by a shark or something cool like that, but, no, I slipped on the ice and landed right on my shoulder. I guess the part that I’m uncertain about is at what point do I sacrifice training for healing? Last night it felt pretty good but it’s only certain movements that give me trouble. My plan is to keep going unless I feel it getting worse or if I feel that it isn’t getting better at all either.

Week In review

I feel like I had a pretty good week in spite of myself. I had acupuncture done on my shoulder on Tuesday and unfortunately it did basically nothing. I understand that it's going to take more than one treatment but it was still a bit discouraging since it actually feels worse now than it did before I went in. I have almost no strength to lift something up in front of me with my right arm. I could barely lift my gym bag out of my backseat. Right now I'm trying to train through it as best I can but my pushups have been limited over the last few days. 

Friday night class was amazing. The energy in the kwoon was contagious and it was impossible to not get caught up in everyone's enthusiasm. I hope every Friday is like that. Thanks to Mr. Repay and Sihing Berney for instructing me in the use of nunchucks (spelling?). I've already whacked my head, face, legs, and other fun places countless times but I'm having a lot of fun. 

The Saturday meeting was also great. There was a really positive vibe, lots of enthusiasm, and I'm excited to be a part of the team.

Numbers for the week were:

Pushups - 710
Situps - 200
KM - 2
Da Mu Hsing Reps - 26
Kicks - 660
Acts of Kindness - 9

Here are my personal goals for the I Ho Chuan year:

1) 25,000 kicks – this will give me 90 kicks every day (6 days a week) for the year. As a beginner, this seems like something that will help reinforce the basics for me and help me develop a strong base for my kung fu.

2) Give up all single player video games for the year – At times video games can be a pretty big waste of my time. Even though they’re a source of leisure for me, I can get caught up in them and I find myself wasting time and putting off housework and workouts to play. If mastery is all about consistent effort and utilizing the opportunities presented to you every day, video games aren’t going to have a place in my life. The reason I specified “single-player” video games is that I have friends that play and when I visit them, we often play a game or two of hockey. I see no value in giving up an activity that I share with friends. This is not a waste of time to me.

3) Include fruits/vegetables in my diet a minimum of 6 days per week – my diet is often lacking in vegetable/fruit consumption, even though I can feel a physical difference when I eat a lot of veggies. My problem is that I just plain don’t like most vegetables. With the structure that I will need to have to succeed in the I Ho Chuan, I should be able to better plan my meals. If I plan my meals I will be able to find creative ways to include vegetables on a regular basis. My goal is 6 days per week and not 7 because I feel like having a “cheat” day will help me to have balance in my life and will allow me to enjoy my days off and as a result , my goal should be sustainable.

Staying Humble

The concept of humbleness permeates kung fu. We wear black because it's a humble color in China. We bow in and out of the kwoon as part of showing respect and putting ourselves in a humble mindset so that we can accept the instruction that we are given. To be honest, I find it easy to stay humble because I'm so terrible at kung fu. I'm not saying that to beat myself up but it's true nonetheless. 

It's inevitable that every time I experience a high period where I feel like I am making progress, it's followed up by a class (or a series of classes) where I struggle and stumble through things like a fool. Tonight was one of those classes. I have so many bad habits to break and my right side is so dominant over my left that I feel overwhelmed with feelings of incompetence. There are so many things to learn and I only have so much time in the day and week to practice. I work on stances and my combinations are no good. I work on kicks and my centering is no good.  I work on one form but neglect another. I truly have no idea how to improve. I've asked for and received advice on how to go about my training and I feel like I have a good plan. I only focus on a couple of things at a time and try to concentrate on improving just those things instead of spreading myself too thin. 

I'm not saying all this to be negative; I'm just being honest. I also think that part of the problem is that my highs are too high and my lows are too low. I need to change that but I don't know how. One more thing I'm no good at I suppose.

Sustainability

I can already tell that this year is going to be a great one. I had to work late last night and as a result I wasn’t able to attend class. Obviously there is no replacement for being in class but when I got home I completed my I Ho Chuan requirements that I didn’t do at work (kicks, forms, situps) and I also worked on my stances and did some stretching, and when I was done I really felt good even though I wasn’t in class. I got home around 8 and because I get up at 5am, I’m usually in bed by 10, so it would have been easy for me to just forget kung fu for the night. The only reason I didn’t was because of the fear of falling behind on my requirements.

One of the things that I have been worried about is whether or not my goals are sustainable. Before the I Ho Chuan officially started I had been gearing up and doing pushups and adjusting my diet a bit in order to hit the ground running. I expected myself to hit all my requirements every day right from the beginning. I realized right away that I was being unrealistic. Even with a month of “gearing up”, this is still a major lifestyle change for me. But last night I realized that making a small change and then making it permanent is the key to sustainability. I hate running/biking/treadmill, etc but I did 2 km last night anyway. I hated it but I still did it. If I can do 2 km for a while and then add on another km over so often, I should be able to get where I need to be.

This also made me think how important it will be for me to have a couple of years of the I Ho Chuan under my belt before I get to grading for my black belt. It was naïve of me to think that I could hit all the requirements every day from day 1 as a beginner, but if I keep making slow and steady progress, I’ll have developed some really good habits 5 or 6 years from now.

Monday Morning Thoughts

My first Chinese New Year banquet was a great experience. It was really impressive to see the way that everyone came together to help set up for the banquet and then again to tear down and clean up at the end of the night. The demonstrations were amazing and I had never seen a lion/dragon dance in person before. When I was sitting at the table playing the music for the demos, I found myself repeatedly looking over at the two black belts on the table beside me. There was something about seeing them sitting there waiting to be awarded that stuck with me. It made me think about all the time and energy that must go into earning one. I found it exciting and intimidating at the same time. When Sifu Csillag and Sifu Langner spoke about their Kung Fu experiences it tied the whole night together for me. Hearing about how far they’ve come and what Kung Fu means to them really inspired me.

I had a bit of a rough start to my I Ho Chuan year in that I didn’t complete any daily requirements on Saturday so I put myself in a hole right off the bat, although it was only one day. Yesterday was a lot better though. I completed all my requirements except for my situps and I was able to spend some quality time with friends and family for the Super Bowl too.

Speaking of the Super Bowl, I came to the realization last night that I need to start distancing myself from professional sports. I feel like I waste a lot of energy following and cheering for my teams and they never win anything. After Denver got crushed yesterday I felt like someone ran over my dog. I had invested some much emotionally over the course of the season and the playoffs that the let down for me was awful. I’m still kind of feeling sad about it and I shouldn’t be. It’s a game. Why should I even care? There is literally no benefit to following sports the way I do, other than entertainment value. But I seem to take it far beyond mere entertainment value. So, in the interest of balance, I’m going to try to take a time out from sports for a while and maybe try to gain some perspective about the whole thing.