Fascinating

And so the dreaded apple, banana, egg white, milk dinners begin.  Well I did once dread them, but this time around it's different.  I'm ready, I actually look forward to the minimal effort on these dinners.  I just hope they give me enough energy come morning time to get my workout in.

This past weekend was interesting.  Fit in week 4's first workout on Saturday after a bikram yoga session.  I found I was a bit tired but I made it through the entire workout.  The elbow blows felt a bit different, meaning I didn't know if I was doing them right.  And the jumping side kicks, they are getting better.  I still need to work on landing with control, transitioning back to kung fu stance between kicks and figuring out where my hands and arms should be throughout the entire movement.  I feel that changes randomly depending on the what kind of control I have before, during and after the kick.

Early Sunday morning I woke up and felt pressure in my lower lip.  I went to the bathroom and turned on the light and was like, "WHOA!" (ala from the movie Hitch). My lower lip looked like a botched lip enhancement; like someone injected triple the amount of collagen into just that lip.  It was obvious I was having an allergic reaction to something, but I felt fine everywhere else and could breathe.  Nonetheless, I drove myself to the ER at 3:30AM to get treated cause I never had this happen before.  Turns out it was not a fast night at the ER, as they got really busy and since I wasn't life threatening, I was moved to low priority.  Well I waited and waited and finally my nurse got me a shot of benadryl and administered some other antihistamines at 5:30AM.  I waited some more because I just wanted to chat with a doctor and get properly discharged.  I finally saw a P.A. at 7:15AM.  He said that it was quite a peculiar allergic reaction, to have the swelling so localized.  But he also said it should go away in 1-2 days with antihistamine treatment and after whatever it was gets out of your system.  I have a feeling I know what it was, I tried some new freeze-dried asian pears and well, now I know, those are not for me.  That wait time was ridiculous, but at least I had a bed and could take quick naps in between the nurse performing routine diagnostics.  When I was finally discharged, the swelling had gone done a tad but my lower lip was still pretty inflated.  I felt like the guy from Kung Fu Hustle when he was stung by a lot of bees/wasps and as he was recovering from those stings, his lips were just hanging there swollen and not under his control.

For the rest of Sunday 9AM-4PM, I played in a volleyball tournament.  So having my sleep interrupted was not ideal, but I was only a bit tired throughout the day. I ended up having a pretty OK day of play though.  My volleyball game is improving beyond my PCP and KFB expectations.  I was able to get to a lot more balls than I could before PCP/KFB.  I felt more explosive and quick out of my defensive position.  I was also complimented on my play by several peers.  Yes, I'm well on my way to being at my best volleyball ability ever thanks to PCP and KFB.  And playing with a swollen lower lip didn't hinder me at all.

I am fascinated by the little improvements I notice everyday. <3 KFB.

Return of the Cookie Dreams

So during the first 30 days of my PCP experience, I started having very realistic dreams about cookies.  The dreams would start out normal and then somehow a cookie would come into the picture and the dream exploded into anything and everything about cookies.  There were even times where I felt like I cheated on the PCP nutrition plan because the dreams were so realistic.  I swear one morning I woke up and I could still smell the chocolate chip cookie smell lingering in my apartment from my dream!  Some kind of subconscious I have, eh?  Nonetheless I blogged about it, my team decided it was a very appropriate team name and thus the creation of Team Cookie Monster!

Well last night, I had my first cookie dream on KFB.  The nights without carbs are starting to rev up my cookie craving subconscious and last night I guess it couldn't stay hidden anymore.  It was a dream where I was reaching into a cookie jar and I would say "just one more" after ever indulging bite.  I kept repeating that philosophy until all the cookies were gone in the jar.  I woke up this morning and I felt like I seriously cheated.  Cheated on my KFB nutrition plan.  Ugh!  And so the anxiety of cookies begins for me.

Balance...wobble, wobble

Just got done with today's workout.  Resting Buddha proved a bit difficult.  I didn't really get my leg parallel to the floor and I kept falling out of the balance every 3-5 seconds.  I did find the jumping straight kicks to feel a bit more coordinated, so that was good. 

I should really drink more straight up water today but coffee and tea is what I'm craving.

Burning the daylight

It's been a while since my last post, but I've been continuing on the kung fuey way.  The past six days have been filled with my life and many career hats I wear.  This weekend was President's Day so I had a three day weekend away from my full time job and all that time was promptly filled with coaching and recruiting for volleyball.  I spent the long weekend in Washington, D.C. where there was an annual 3-day volleyball tournament for 12 year olds to 18 year olds.  Over 600 teams come from all over the nation and even some international teams make the trip.  I coach a 12 and under team.  Something about that age that's full of such raw, wonderful, contagious energy and enthusiasm.  

Food-wise went pretty well.  Stayed on kung fu plan for most of the meals.  Made on exception for Thai food, but even that, they offered some amazing brown rice for my carb.  It was much different then I ever had, almost an earthy texture and flavor.  No added salt or butter, just the brown rice grain.  I hope I get an opportunity to eat there again. 

I missed one workout just for being absolutely exhausted.  I will make it up on the last day of the Kung Fu week.  But I did get a chance to walk for 2 hours everyday.  Yesterday I practiced a random act of awesome and went ice skating right outside the Natural History Museum.  They were rockin' tunes from the 80's and even though it had been about 15 years since I last ice skated, it came back to me rather quickly.  Extreme success was met when after 2 hours of skating, I didn't fall once!!  Whoo-hoo!

Today's workout went well.  I did have some trouble performing the jump side kicks.  It was a bit challenging for my mind to tell my body to jump off this foot and then kick this foot out.  I was tired but I did the workout anyway. 

During my meditation, my mind was chattering like crazy.  Thinking about how the weekend went, wondering how I can keep the girls inspired and improving in their volleyball skills, thinking about what I need to do when I get home, etc...

Missed Bows

Ugh!  Again with the missed bow before I commence my workout!  And again I missed the bow after meditation.  How do I forget that one??  I mean I'm already, calm and collected and shouldn't I want to honor the light within me???  Ugh, meditation is making me frustrated- HA!  OK venting done, moving on.

The food is going well.  I miss Chipotle but I'm getting by.  This morning's breakfast seemed gigantic, hard boiled egg, avocado, tomatoes all sliced on top of some prairie gold bread (my favorite kind of whole wheat bread).  I suppose it would have made a nice picture, but alas it ended up in my belly in no time.

As for the 4 things Patrick asked for a few days ago, I have accomplished 1 out of the 4.  I tested my "cold, just woke up" forward fold.  I was still a good hand length from the floor, so yeah, I hope to see some improvement here.  I still need to test my ping-pong ball punching accuracy, jump to a specific height and finally take that photo.

I'm enjoying the Kung Fu workouts and in combination with bikram yoga...I'm feeling really good as of late physically.

Mindfulness

As I start to really delve into this Kung Fu program, I'm noticing it is definitely testing my patience.  I forget to do the bows before and after the workout.  I think I'm still used to the PCP lifestyle, and trying to cram in the workout everyday.  And though Patrick calls the progressions of the workout a "mess", I find myself still missing the mundane resistance bands, counting the numerous reps and going to failure.  KFB is just different.  I am happy I'm doing it, because to dedicate 3 months to stretching and being mindful everyday is something I haven't done yet.

The food part is going well.  It's nice to have set grammage for the day, although the first and second days I was just a bit hungry at night, craving more vegetables.  My go to protein is salmon and I have some really nice balsamic vinegar I use to flavor it.  Tonight it's tangerine infused balsamic vinegar.  Although I have found my favorite is Blackberry infused balsamic vinegar on my salmon.  I get the vinegar from this place called L.O.V.E. which specializes in olive oils and vinegars right down the street from me.  I feel lucky to have the it so close by!

Inside L.O.V.E.

   The store features these large stainless steel canisters which house the various infused olive oils and vinegars. I just finished my last L.O.V.E. bottle so I should be showing my face there soon to re-stock/try new flavors!

The End of Week One

The first week of KFB went flying by.  It's hard to make time to blog.  The jump rope and meditation went well.  Although, 10 minutes did feel significantly longer.  And I started to notice and a dull ache in my inner legs and mid back in the few last minutes of meditation.  Guess I just need to practice the stillness. 

I'm looking forward to the next week's nutrition plan and exercises.

I'm already Kung Fu-ey?? Neat.

During yesterday's workout I got a nice surprise.  I have a regular recreational volleyball league on Wednesday evenings and I didn't have a chance to do my workout in the morning.  So I decided to do the workout at the gym.  I found a nice cozy spot with little foot traffic and went at it.  While I was doing my forward straight kick's, a guy walked up to me and said, "What? Are you like training to be the next karate kid?"  I laughed and said, "No, they already made that movie!" He then when on to comment saying he was just kidding.  That he noticed I was very good at it and continued to mumble and walk away at the same time saying he made it up to green belt or something there of.  Anyway, I would have continued saying, "Umm, sure...really this is only my 5th day of doing kicks, but whatever!"  So that was an unexpected surprise.  To be told I look like I'm really good at doing kicks is kinda cool.  I've always been good at acting as if...acting as if I know what I'm doing...acting as if this is been something I've been doing for a long time.  Guess it helps keep me confident.  Not egotistical, I want to be informed when I'm wrong or that there might be a better way to do something, but the feeling of doing something right, that is something I really like.

Today's workout went by fast.  After watching the stances video, it really helped point out what I need to do better.  The meditation part went by so fast, it's as if I blinked and 5 minutes went by.  My mind was definitely racing though, thinking about the life I've made for myself and am I truly happy.

Looking forward to today.

New soreness!

So I've accomplished Day 4's workout and meditation.  I'm definitely sore from something, I believe it's the combination punches.  I can feel some back muscles that have never truly been worked that way before.  I must confess, I've been doing more jump roping / cardio warm-up than suggested on the workouts.  It's a habit that developed from PCP, daily jump roping / cardio.  Also, the sit-up portion, I've been doing more reps there as well.  It may sound silly, but I don't want to loose what I've maintained and developed physically through PCP.

The flexibility sections are testing my patience a bit.  My hips are tight. The workouts are not super challenging.  Maybe it's because I've kept up with the PCP workouts.  But even after the entire KFB workout, my body doesn't feel loose/warm enough to stretch.  I know, I know...KFB is going to swing into full force soon enough and I may find myself wishing I could just go back to a "nice" PCP workout.

The meditation portion is happening.  Not sure what to focus on but I have found it easy to soften my gaze and just be still and meditate for the 3-5 minutes.  The time goes by quickly, or maybe my brain is busy thinking about what the day has in store for me.

Patrick, when we take breathes during the stretching portion, should they be similar to yoga deep breathing - in through the nose and out through the mouth (with a nice HA sound)?  Nice long inhales followed by nice long exhales?  

Ready!

Close your mouth,
block off your senses,
blunt your sharpness,
untie your knots,
soften your glare,
settle your dust.
This is the primal identity.