Goal Girl’s Blog

I’ve done four things recently to push harder toward the weight loss goal.

• Forgiven myself… again.  Sometimes forgiveness is not an act, but a process.
• Returned to practicing Kenpo Karate after a couple year’s hiatus.
• Got my four year old hooked on Kid’s Club at 24Hour Fitness
• Bought a Body Bugg

I have lots of “reasons” but no excuses for setting aside thoughts of losing weight for four months.   The reasons are not going to go away, so unless I want to be overweight forever, I have to shake them off and keep marching.    I spent about a week beating myself up over 10lbs gained back while I was on ‘vacation’ from the struggle.    Now it’s time to move on.    It appears I might need to forgive myself more than once during this endeavor?

I only practiced karate sporadically after I had my daughter.   After a couple of years, I did get back on it.  I took a bunch of private lessons because work schedule didn’t mesh with the class schedule.    Finally in July of 2006, I earned my first degree black belt.    Since then, I’ve gone to classes here and there, and every now and then to a seminar, but largely slacked off.     A little over a month ago, I was invited to a picnic being held by the instructor who had helped me most with my last big push toward first black.  She’d broken away from my Sifu’s school and started her own school.   At the picnic, she said I should bring my daughter to a couple of Little Dragon’s classes.     Well, of course, my daughter, who has been around Kenpo from before birth (I taught Little Dragons up until I was 7 months pregnant with her and she used to watch from her pack-n-play in the corner of the studio while I had classes or sparred) loved it (after some initial coaxing to get her on the mat).    I signed her up.   Since I was going to be there three times a week for K’s classes, might as well attend the adult classes immediately following.    So now I have a new Sifu (not really new…  I’ve studied with this lady for about eight years, but not with her as the one in charge).      I can’t say I’ve lost a ton of weight after doing Kenpo for four weeks, but I can feel myself getting firmer in places where I’d gone soft, and my gi pants are starting to feel a bit more comfortable.    The cool thing is that my daughter is seriously into it and asks me three or four times a day to practice with her.   For me, it’s a good review of basics and a wonderful way to spend quality time with my daughter.   I’m bringing home a free-standing punching bag (WaveMaster) today so that we can work on our kicks together.  I’m looking forward  to this as this is where I burn the most calories!

I also had a 24Hour Fitness membership that was laying fallow.  I was only using it to grab a shower at lunch time, if I got a lunch time (yes, my schedule is nuts).    Then one day I took K with me and let her hang out at the kids club there.  She ran into a couple of friends from her daycare, they had a blast, and now she asks for Kids Club whenever we don’t have karate.  So far, I’ve mostly been doing cardio until I figure out the proper balance between the strength training and the Kenpo.  I don’t want to over train and get injured while I’m still trying to build my strength back up.   For example, several Kenpo forms, done with deep stances, are a good leg/butt workout, so I wouldn’t want to hit squats hard and fast the day after really working low stances.  I would love to get back in fighting form and do a few tournaments next year.    For K, she gets some un-structured playtime with her pals, and a chance to run off extra energy and make new friends.   Here in the Dallas area, it’s also wonderful to have an air-conditioned place for her to play so she doesn’t blister herself on scorching playground equipment or develop asthma in the “level-orange” air quality during the summer.

Which brings me to the Body Bugg.  One of the ladies at the Kenpo school had one of these.  For those of you who don’t know, it’s a small electronic device that you strap to your left arm (or right, depending on model).  It keeps a log of how many steps you take and how many calories you burn.  It measures calorie burn by measuring galvanic skin response, motion (has a 3-axix accelerometer), and two other factors I can’t remember (I’ll get the facts and present them in another article).   You then plug the Bugg into your computer and upload the data recorded to Apex Fitness’ website where it uses the data to calculate calories burned per minute on a minute-by-minute basis.    First, this appeals to my geeky side.  I love gadgets.

Second, it appeals to my scientific side (I’ve a M.S. in physiology)… it’s fascinating for me to be able to look at a specific time frame and see how many calories i’m burning per minute.   For example I’ve found that on a non-workout day, the time I burn the most calories per minute is in the morning hour while I’m rushing around the house getting myself and kiddo together, breakfast made, lunches packed, taking my mom her coffee and news paper (she moved in with us two years ago when she retired),  trying to find my car-keys (will I burn fewer calories if I get more organized?).    I’ve had the Body Bugg for a couple of weeks now, and I’m loving it so far.  I’ll write more about it tomorrow.  For now, I hear my daughter stirring in the other room… time to start getting us ready to face the day!