Valsgoals Member

I do workouts during my lunch hour at the gym next door to my job. I vary the workouts between core routines, weight lifting, and cardio - by way of treadmill. Sometimes, if I am just not into doing one of my usual things I'll do something different; lately that's been a TRX routine. On Thursdays I attend the only lunch…

This is a good question that I really wish I could help with. I get very similar physical reactions to stress but add blotchiness in my face to the shrugging shoulders and the fists. Sometimes I wonder if its because I keep things in. I don't talk out what is stressing me. And I don't do that crying cleanse many women talk…

Jeez!: SW- 224.6 Week 1- 226 lbs Week 2- 224.4 lbs Week 3- 223.4 lbs Week 4- 222 lbs Week 5- 226 lbs Week 6- 223.4 lbs At this point I know it's impossible to make my goal (210) for this challenge. Not that I'm going to stop trying and stop logging into the spreadsheet. I will say that I will be up for the next challenge…

Oh boy, in my Monday night class...I was in rare form in a bad way. I could not concentrate to save my life. I couldn't even remember the name of or how many moves were in my form when my instructor randomly asked me. That really bothered me. Thankfully I was back to normal in last night's class. We ended both classes with…

Mine's been a rocky road: SW- 224.6 Week 1- 226 lbs Week 2- 224.4 lbs Week 3- 223.4 lbs I've been tweaking my food intake and switched out 3 of my regular workouts for other routines between this and last week. My regular Mon/Wed night class added about 10 minutes of cardio at the end the last 3 classes. This stall has…

@Geo, I have a love hate thing having to wear a long sleeve gi for that reason. I hate it because of the heat buildup but love that my "wings" aren't seen flapping away when throwing punches or doing forms. I do like the idea of mirrors and the ballet bar.

Wow! That looked tough. Great fight Megan!

Yes, very motivating. Like Versiclour, it gave me the urge to practice more for sure!

It is coming back down, thank goodness! Still not where I was that first week of October so in addition to starting to weigh my foods I am now re-evaluating my exercise routine and water intake. Please come back down before the first holiday hits. :worried:

WOW, 4.4 is a huge accomplishment. Congrats!!

I spent part of my lunchtime workout stretching and part of it practicing my kicks and double kicks. They have a big padded thing similar to that video Soy posted a while ago. I rarely see anyone use it. I took my gym shoes off and kicked my heart out. I'll have to do that more often! Once I get my sparring gear I can use…

Thanks BW. I do practice in multiple directions but not 8 times in a row. I usually alternate between the two when practicing on my own.

My short term goal is to master my form, regardless of distractions. I have it down but lose focus and mess up when there's activity in the gym bleachers. My Chon-Ji turns into Ki-Bon Hana and back again after I catch myself.

Ok, I have to share this funny story about class last night. We were practicing our fluidity of going from one kick to another, in this case side kick, spin, and side kick again. When my turn came I did my first kick, spun and BAM, my braid whacked me right across my eye and cheek. I was stunned. I had to stop, check…

Today we did a lot of drill work and immediately went to the pads to do the same drills but with a target. That was different, and fun. We were all over that gym. My kicks are getting a little stronger. Little by little! We ended the class with a few minutes of sparring. He doesn't want us using any gear right now,…

Before class officially starts he'll sometimes tell historical stories about the forms, their creators, battles, etc. Mostly just after promotions. Sometimes he'll ask how we are physically, inquire about our injuries. The first class in each session he'll give us a verbal synopsis of that session. "This session I want to…

So amazing Soy. I second the idea about laying it out in a frame. I also feel awkward, being older, and a female, and overweight attempting to do martial arts. But, eh, like that one article BW posted a few weeks ago said, many people want to do this and just never do, so who's the weird one? Not us!!

I weighed myself again this morning and it's coming back down...crossing my fingers my loss prediction for next week will come true......

Great before/after pics Kay! My inspiration is similar to Diggy's. I lost quite a bit, gained a lot (not all) back but want and need to get back to where I was and then some. I had full focus before and feel I still have some but not as forceful as before. I was doing eh-so/so before this challenge. I was hoping this…

At our last tournament (mostly only kids compete in sparring) I saw evidence of this. It was very clear which students practiced in full gear as opposed to those that didn't. And the injuries racked up on the kids that regularly didn't use gear. The injuries or lack of didn't determine the outcome of the matches. So long…

I've been doing really well as far as I thought but my scale isn't in agreement with my assessment. I am logging a 1.4 gain in the first week. Yesterday I decided to pull out my food scale rather than relying on eyeballing my portions. It would've gone well had yesterday not been Halloween and I'd been looking forward to…

And today, my legs are like mush from my lunch TRX workout. I focused on arms and legs-mainly squats and one legged squats (from PT homework).

My class was missing a few people too. Besides forms, we did a lot of pad kicking and punching. I see I still have to go light on my roundhouse and crescent kicks. Front kicks were fine. I can do the moves, just can't get any force in there without feeling a bit tender.

Chicago, IL, ITF Tae Kwon Do, practicing just over a year, long term goal is 150-160, I'm 48years old.

I can't even get my kid on board to wear the arm straps on her glasses to keep them from sliding forward. I can't imagine the protesting if she had to regularly wear a face mask. :(

Lol...yummy!!!

This is more along the lines how my class views sparring. It's more about control and technique than trying to do damage. They tell us the damage will come if we ever need to use our skill out in public but for class, control and look for every opportunity to use our forms and one steps in our sparring.

Back to topic, for the goggles...you can reach out to your optometrist and get your kids prescription and order the goggles online at another site..I think it's called Zenni. My sister swears by them. She has her own goggles for her sports. They are very inexpensive. I too wear contacts. My kid wears glasses but since she…

I did my normal mid-day workout yesterday-I focused on Core. Had class last night. No sparring gear yet but....after forms and drills we spent some time doing some non-contact sparring. Non-contact so us newbies to sparring can get a better feel for it. Oh boy, already having a blast with it. And this morning I had my…

On Monday, myself and my fellow yellow belt asked our instructor about buying sparring gear, of course if he thought we are ready for it. He said yes. Now that there are more lower belts in class he'll have us start sparring before the end of this session. He also mentioned since there had been no new additions to class in…