Geocitiesuser Member

Looks like the pic of my belt rack didn't work, so here it is again :) I still have to fit five more belts on it, so I'll have to start doubling up the striped ones.

Thanks! Here I am after the test with the TKD family (adult belts and high color belt children from our 1/3 of the schools). Grand Master Pai on the left is an 8th degree. My instructor is in red on the right. Here's my belt rack so far

We make our kids in that age range do them hundreds of times. I think the kids handle it better than I do teaching them. Our typical class is roughly 10 minute warm up, 20 minutes kicking, 20 minutes cirriculum (forms usually). I would imagine that you'll get a feel from the kids if you're able to keep their attention and…

Somewhere between orange and green belts I had fallen off the wagon, didn't go to class, and did nothing but eat for 3 months. I put on about 80lbs in that short stint of time. Not being able to wear my belt properly was humiliating, much less not fitting in the uniform. It took a lot of will power to drag myself back into…

The behavior and maturity level of the kids who taekwondo is leaps and bounds higher than I'd ever expect. I really wish someone pushed me through TKD as a kid. The behavior modification you learn sets you on the right path to be a proper human being. Even though I'm old now, I still benefit from it.

I did it. Got my red belt. That marks 2.5 years of training so far. We got lucky this time because bodans are testing for their black belts in a separate gym, so our test was exceptionally easy. I did great sparring. The people from other schools don't know my style so I got lots of really clean kicks to the hogu in. I…

I don't think close to 4 years to a black belt is all that "short" though, and there is a lot more scruitiny at our black belt tests vs colored belts (the black belt test is multi part over multiple months, involves binders and written work, etc). But the colored belt tests are pretty simple: Show up, do your best, get…

It's sort of a belt mill. Learn a new form. make class attendance. Know your kicks. Show up at belt testing. I think that's part of the reason TKD gets cast as "McMartialArts" and "McDojangs", but the vast majority of students are children, and the school has to make money. It needs to be accessible enough that people (and…

We have blackbelts who are around 13ish. They're skilled, and have all been through the curriculum. We also have black belts who are 40ish but their bellies are too big to do a stretch kick. TKD has a curriculum. Pass the curriculum, get the belt. I'm fine with that. It gives clear structured goals and achievements…

That's awesome. I'm so jealous MT gets to wear normal gym clothing. Wearing a full martial arts uniform is a drag.

Testing for my Red belt in just 5 days. The red signifies the blood of my enemies. :) Maybe. LOL. I'm getting closer and closer to black belt. After this all I have left is 3 months at Red 3 months at High Red 3 months at Brown 3 months at High Brown 6 months at Bodan 1ST DEGREE. In less than two years! What a journey this…

I go to a big school run by two brothers and a cousin who each run their own set of schools. The two brothers don't allow sparring until green (so, about 9 months in), but at my school run by the cousin we start at yellow belt. All together they have 11 locations, my grandmaster runs 3 of them. For white belts we do "two…

I find myself using this site from time to time http://www.taekwondoanimals.com/

How often do you guys spar at your school? We typically spar twice a week unless it's a sparring focus week.

We're preparing for our next belt test. So for the kids it's mostly going over poomsea over and over. We also dedicate a week once in a while to board breaking which is going on now. In our adult class we've been doing a lot of line drills and kicking drills. There's one exercise I call "monkey in the middle" that we do…

I'm Geo (real name redacted). I'm testing for my red belt in tae kwon do next week. I started TKD because I wanted to do something social along with just weight lifting by myself. Turned out I really liked it. Now I go to as many tournaments as they let me so I can spar, and I'm being trained on the "assistant leader"…

I saw someone use blended cauliflour as a sauce base. You could make "mashed cauliflour" and use that as a spread as well.

Wow, I never thought of using cauliflour as a base for a sauce. That's sort of brilliant!

base for cheese sauce is: Melt 3-4 tablespoons butter (there's really no sub for this) in a pot with ~4oz fat free cream cheese It's going to look weird b/c that ff cream cheese doesn't melt like full fat, but take it slow, keep stirring so it won't burn. Once the butter and cream cheese have pretty much fused into a goop,…

Get a partner to help you do negatives. You'll build up the strength to do them fast.

four cups of air popped popcorn with a pinch of salt and a quick spray or two of butter flavored non stick spray is like 130 calories for FOUR CUPS (that's a lot of volume). You can also go nuts with cauliflour. I love riced cauliflour, very versatile. Nearly a pound of riced cauliflour and a can of chop suey veggies with…

I will never stop making them haha. They're not as sweet as a "real" donut, but if you want to add more sweetener you can. It's basically a fun way to cake up pancake mix and cook it in a donut mold.

looks like they're using corn syrup. First two ingredients after popcorn are sugar and corn syrup. Kinda surprised considering the macros. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree.

So, that was disappointing. Nothing like ICON popcorn. I was hoping the coconut oil would congeal and make a thick coating, unfortunately it got absorbed immediately similar to butter, and it was a challenge getting all of the powder to stick. The whole thing ended up being way more calories than it was worth. (600ish by…

So much this. There is a lot of group think amongst people that labels anger is a bad emotion that you shouldn't have. For me, personally, accepting that anger is a natural healthy emotion, really helped me accept and improve on my situation. It's okay to be angry at yourself within reason. Let it be the drive to help push…

Two scoops of casein mixed with a bit of cold unsweetened almond milk makes pudding. Low fat reddi-whip is only 15 cals per serving to put on top.

Really misleading. If you batter something of course it's going to retain the flavor. The physical components of an air fryer are a toaster oven with a fan. Take with that what you will. I battered some chicken and it came out crispy in my air fryer too, but the results were barely different from using an oven. In fact pan…

I throw mine away.... I typically hate wasting food, but certain things like brownies, cake, pizza, etc, I don't consider food for purposes of sustaining life. I see them as disposable because keeping them around too long means I end up eating them and wrecking my diet. There have been times I really wanted a "specialty"…

The philips air fryer is a heated coil with a fan. It is physically and literally a toaster oven with circulated air. Food is not capable of tasting "fried" unless it is seasoned/battered and cooked with a liquid fat. At that point a toaster oven would yeild a very similar result. There is nothing magical here.

You can cook anything you would cook in a toaster oven. So yes. It is literally a toaster oven with a fan. Physically, and literally. It is a heated coil with a fan above a non stick bin that helps swirl the air around. The bin size of the smaller air fryers are pretty narrow, even for one person, if you're going to get…