Thursday, August 19, 2010

Day 90+ Overview

Well, it's taken me longer to sit down to write this final post than I either expected or wanted. I suppose this is in line with the fact that I've posted less frequently on the KFB than I did on PCP.

Which also frustrated me and left me feeling a little disappointed in myself - although intellectually I know that continuing to post daily for 180 days straight (and taking as many photos) was more time than I was willing to commit and (I thought) I'd mentally let go of the idea. Apparently I'm better at guilt than I imagined :) I think I also posted less regularly because, as Shivani said, there seemed less to say than during the heady days of PCP when everything was new and fresh.

To be honest, I was very relieved when Patrick sent us the email about not being able to go home again for post-PCPers doing KFB. That struck home for me why I'd been feeling a bit frustrated with the KFB project - he's right, especially as I'd only just come off of the PCP, that the lack of new took a little out of the WOW of the experience for me. I mean, it was a plus that I still remembered the little tricks to make managing the diet less time intensive and what sorts of meals were more satisfying - but that also meant there was less of a challenge to try to find new foods/meals and ways to make the diet an adventure.

For me, there was also a little loss of adventure in the workouts as well - I'd never really done strength training before the PCP, so that was all new and exciting. On the other hand, I have done martial arts before, so that portion of the KFB workout wasn't so new and exciting. In fact, it made me really miss having a partner to spar with :( Until I'd started the KFB, I'd sort of let myself forget how much fun sparring can be (even if it usually kicked my butt!).

Which isn't really a negative - I'm jazzed to try to find a place to take a martial arts class again, thanks to KFB! Once my calf/achilles tendon loosens up, that is.

While a part of me wonders what the KFB experience would have been like had I had more of a break from the PCP - had I a good stretch of time to settle into a non-Patrick/Chen determined exercise and diet routine - I'm more glad I did it when I did it than not. For one thing, now I've got twice as much time of regular exercise and diet habits under my belt as I would have otherwise had - so am more confident that they'll "stick". For another, as it happened the KFB filled the time between when my Dad died and when we held his memorial. While I probably didn't have the attention and focus for KFB than I might have otherwise had, I also had KFB to keep me glued together. On KFB I was getting enough (or more than :) exercise, eating well, and sleeping well - All the sorts of things I tend to let slide in times of stress, and all the sorts of things I need to manage the stress.

So Yay KFB!

Another thing about KFB, now that I've had a week or so to move on to trying my own thing, is that I think what I really like is a mash up of KFB and PCP. Over the past couple of weeks I've been doing:

  • meditating first thing in the morning,
  • running (love it sooooo much more than jumping rope - and my poor jumprope is just hops away from breaking),
  • and then doing PCP exercises - but instead of just hanging out between reps, I've been doing KFB stretches. Such as push-ups, followed by rabbit stretch or the cobra stretch.
So Cheers to the freedom/risk of doing my own thing!

And Yay Team Tiger! and my friend's on Team Crane (Lili! Shivani!)!

Way To Go!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Day 89 - That blasted persistent calf muscle!

I gave my calf muscle a couple of days off to rest and relax -

Finally, it felt better (and, let's face it, I was impatient) so I got back into the workout groove yesterday.

Sigh. Mistake. I spent the rest of the day limping with the super tight muscle. Sure, I should have probably not leapt back into the fray so quickly, but I think the main problem is stress and tension. See, my shoulders, back, and neck have been tight as well - and I've noticed that they are more tense in the morning than at any other time. I've also been sleeping less well and waking earlier and anxious.

So I think my mental tension is just migrating down the back of my body.

Sigh.

But I also think my main source of tension will be over this weekend, so I'm hoping to get back to my own stride next week. ....

Fingers crossed!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Day 85 - bad luck


Tight calf muscle yesterday ...

Stepped on something yesterday and embedded it deep in my
foot today. sigh.

Thank goodness for callouses, I think it'll be ok tomorrow.

Meanwhile ... I got a little greedy at the farmer's market and grocery today:
Heirloom tomatoes
peaches
eggplant (for eggplant caviar Yum!)
celery and apples for that salad ...
cilantro and avocados for salsa ...

so many yummy veggies!


Thursday, August 5, 2010

Day 83 - REALLY tight calf muscle

And it's driving me crazy!

It's been tight for a few days now and is crimping my style :(

(or at least half of it :))

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Day 82 - A plank challenge ...

Holy Crap -

A FIVE MINUTE plank routine.

I feel a challenge coming on ....

Monday, August 2, 2010

Day 80 - Mindfulness, A choice

This past weekend I went back up to Boston to visit with my Mom and finalize some details for my Dad's memorial. And I've realized that I've driven 500 miles or more each weekend for the past 3 weekends!

No wonder I've been having trouble with the KFB workouts on the weekends .... that's a long time to spend in the car, and draining all out of proportion for the activity. Yesterday I tacked on a 5 mile run, because the weather was finally prime for a beautiful morning run. And then I went and sat in a car for 6 hours, so I was rather stiff when I got up this morning.

Now that I've got that negative stuff off my chest - on to the positive!

The KungFu push ups are, I'm surprised to find, not as impossibly hard as I thought they'd be - yay me! NOTE: I have no desire whatsoever to see what I look like doing them. Though I think they might be more descriptively called "grasshopper" push-ups ....

I've discovered another way that mindfulness can be a boon. I was mentally griping/whining/complaining to myself (I've noticed that I've been doing that alot lately ... STRESS!) on Friday about going to Boston this past weekend: I didn't really want to go, I'd been doing alot of driving, I hadn't finished unpacking from my vacation, I had piles of chores I'd left backed up, and I really didn't want to spend my time that way.

But then I became mindful about how negative my thinking was, and it occurred to me that with that sort of a mindset, I was just about guaranteeing that I'd have a miserable weekend. So I set about mindfully changing my mindset.
  • I reminded myself that it was my choice to go up to Boston
  • I reminded myself that it was a great opportunity to spend time with Mom
  • I reminded myself I would get to spend time with my Brother
  • I reminded myself that one of the side effects of letting chores pile up is: I won't be doing chores this weekend (I suck at doing fun stuff first - which generally means I tend to have little time for the fun stuff)
  • I saw the driving as an opportunity to listen to an audio book and chat with friend
And it worked! I was relaxed and had a great weekend (well, aside from the excess traffic on the way home).

Now it's time to do laundry. And prep food for the week...

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Day 75 - The Crash

I was not (apparently) mentally prepared for the crash back to earth after returning from vacation. I thought I was, but the deep-dark-demented-me that lurks within was apparently unwilling to relinquish a life of indolence and leisure ...

Which means I stayed up too late not so much doing fun stuff as NOT doing useful stuff like preparing my food or getting sleep so I could get up and workout.
BUMP, Bump, bump.

AND I've been waking after not enough sleep, anxious about work. I should have spent more of my vacation clearing my head and less of it goofing off like a teenager :(

This morning I had enough. I woke after 6 hours of sleep (not enough) and this time I got up. I did not workout. I DID, however, spend a good chunk of time meditating and attempting to clear my head (like 90 minutes). It's impressive how big a monster something small can become when you refuse to look at it straight on and it sidles up into your periphery vision.


So I'm feeling better centered now and am ready to go to bed early this evening and KICK ASS tomorrow!