Am I doing this for the right reason?

 One of my personal goals was to do 50 vegetarian days.  I had only logged a couple of them up to now so I decided I would go vegetarian consistently to get these completed.  Mike stated "Sounds like you are doing this to check it off your list, isn't that the wrong reason".  Initially I was defensive and said "absolutely not" but as I have had time to reflect he is correct.  That is not stopping me from staying with my vegetarian diet, but it is changing how I look at it.  Why did I choose this as a requirement?  What am I trying to accomplish?  

I wanted to be more mindful of my eating habits.  What I was eating, what I was discarding, where was my food coming from, etc.  I had a goal "Mindful Eating".  I had a plan "growing our own food, limiting our food wastage, knowing where our meat comes from, and increasing our vegetarian meals.  To accomplish this will entail document and weighing any food placed in the garbage for 30 days, having 50 vegetarian days, 30 consistent days of gluten free and lactose free" and I have almost completed my steps in my plan so I must be successful, correct?  WRONG!  

I had great intentions when I started and have accomplished most of these requirements but along the way I lost the intent.  I know this because I am not being as mindful on what and where I am wasting food, something that I just finished and blogged about. I was being vegetarian to finish my 50 day requirements.  So is this a failure?  No, it just means I need to stop, take a breath and ask "Am I truly mindfully eating?".

This has been a huge revolation for me as I recognize the pattern in so many more aspects of my Kung Fu and my life.  Am I doing this for the right reason? There are many places where I can say yes but there are others that are going to need adjustment.  All of them will need constant review (hmm sound familiar?). 

On a side note, growing our own food has taken off.  Literally LOL!

See you on the mats!

Injuries and Kung Fu

Yesterday I was at my chiropractor.  I had went to see if there was anything that he could find out with my knee.  The swelling has not gotten better after weeks, even with physio and massages.  He found an issue that he wanted my physiotherapist to work on which in it self would have made my day, but the highlight was when he felt my neck and said "you need more stress in your life, you neck is very loose".  I had the biggest smile and said "I've been working on that for MONTHS while doing my shoulder stretches and exercises" (thank you Ms. Ward for keeping me going with them).  It showed me how constant repetition benefits you, even if you don't see the results yourself.  Today it was physio and massage directed specifically at my knee and my knee felt the best it has in many weeks.  My physiotherapist still wants an ultrasound to make sure there is not something underlying.  Before this would scare me but not anymore.

This year was the first year that I have been so proactive with injuries.  Not just accepting them but dealing with them head on.  Even my shoulder has strengthened way more than before.  There is no more pain, I have increased two band strengths for my exercises.  I was able to do 30 knee pushup in class today (2 sets of 10 and 2 of 5)  but this is further than I have been able to progress in YEARS.  Next month will be working on a normal push up.  A small victory for some but a major one for me.  I have a medical team that is helping with my training and that is helping me mentally as well.  Working through injuries will help me be a better martial artist, it will just be a different path than others.

See you on the mats!

Hiking and Kung Fu

One of my personal goals was a multi day hike.  I enjoyed hiking when I was in my early 20s but then I didn't do any until 8 years ago.  This was directly related to joining Kung Fu and for that I am eternally grateful because I love hiking.  Multi day hikes not only test your endurance and stamina but also your mental strength.  There is always a time that you think "I can't go any further", it usually comes after tripping over the last root that you just didn't have the strength to lift your foot over, but you dig down and continue on and lift that foot a little higher.

Last year I even started making our own hiking meals and really enjoyed that process.  This year I added more recipes, including dehydrated yogurt for breakfast.  I enjoy knowing exactly what is in my meal, the science of dehydrating and weighing to make sure you know how much to rehydrate.  I've done Butter Chicken and Rice, Shephards Pie, GF Spaghetti and sauce, Sweet and Spicy Cashew Chicken and Rice, and Chili and all of these have turned out really well.  Hiking allows for my "control freak" to be let loose and I really enjoy that.  

I like to take time to stop and enjoy the views, being grateful that I am able to be there physically and mentally.  Knowing that many people will never see these views.  This year I embraced the similarities between my hike and my Kung Fu journey.  Really focusing on the journey not just the destination. 

I was even able to find a nice sandy spot that I could get some setups and pushups done alone the way.  😀

Every hike comes with new experience and learning.  This year was doing creek crossings that you needed to take your boots off, watching changes in water levels and planning around them, and blister care.   You meet people who are like minded and supportive.  You share information, adjust for challenges, learning along the way, and keep forging forward with a positive attitude.  Is that not the same qualities needed in Kung Fu? 

See you on the mats!

Training

How do you train properly?  I have been struggling with this over the year.  I would focus on fixing one thing in my entire form and then move onto the next but sometimes all the work I did didn’t stick totally before I moved on so many times it was back to the beginning.  It’s only been recently that I have seen (and felt) the advantages of breaking things down and focusing on smaller chunks.  Really cementing things in.

What is the definition of insanity?  Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. We know this!  So why do we do it in training?  As I prepare for grading, I’ve been working on improving technique and speed on my kicks but when I looked at the numbers, my speed has not really improved.  I was doing the same things over and over.  I decided to focus only on speed but then my technique suffered.  Why?  It shouldn’t be suffering that bad at this stage.  It is all in my intent.  When I focus ONLY on speed, I am not being true to my Kung Fu.  Kung Fu is not only about speed but this is also true when I focus ONLY on technique.  What?  Isn’t Kung Fu all about technique?  It is a balance of feeling and doing and more doing.  Always trying to improve.  I can’t keep doing the same actions but I also can’t throw away the good things that I have.  It’s that balance and there will be no moving forward unless I embrace it.

See you on the mats!

The Sucky Factor

 As I went through my belt levels, I always felt like I was progressing in a way that was easily identifiable and measurable.  I am now at the stage where “the sucky factor” has come into play.  What is “the sucky factor”?  It’s the stage where I see the things that I do awful (and boy is there lots to see).  Was I always this awful?  Yep!  But before I was focused on learning new things so I didn’t see these.  Did I do something wrong?  Nope!  I wasn’t ready to see these “sucky” areas, I didn’t have an eye for detail.  

So what are my next steps?  Once I identify a “sucky factor”, I need to ask myself “why is it sucky”?  and it usually comes from a few moves earlier.  My cat stance is not square, I am coming out of my center when I transition, I am winding up before I punch...the list goes on and on.

Initially when I was aware of my “sucky factor” I was discouraged.  How could I be  a brown belt and be so bad but Sifu Brinker said this comes when you start seeing an eye for detail.  Once I let my ego go and embraced my “sucky factor”, it blew so many things open.  I am able to make changes to eliminate the “sucky”.  The bad thing is once you fix one thing, you see three more things that need fixing.  The good thing is the fixes you do carry forward to other areas of your Kung Fu.  Here’s to embracing the “sucky factors”!

See you on the mats!

Mindful Eating and Waste

 One of my goals for May was to measure and record our organic waste that was put into the garbage.  We started putting organics in pails and taking them into town for recycling or feeding then to the chickens that we have.  Still the total amount of organics placed in the garbage was 2,437 gms.  That consisted of bones (until I found out I could put them also in organics) and some waste that others threw out but the biggest culprit was the Kurig coffee pods.  I tried to open them up and dump the grounds but I could never get them all out and there was so much plastic left over.  We don't drink a lot of coffee at home but we seemed to go through more pods then I thought we would.  We are really considering getting rid of our Kurig just due to the waste that they create (just haven't made the jump yet LOL)

By monitoring our organic garbage, it made me mindful of the other items that were recycled or garbaged.  The biggest waste in our garbage bags were the clam shells that my fruits and vegs came in.  I remember when we were in the Maritimes,  produce was placed in cardboard containers, not the plastic clamshells we have here.  It is making me look at the packaging that food comes in as well as the quality of the food.

The other big difference was the reduction of wasted food.  We still had some items that needed to be sent to the organic bin, but by being mindful of what we had in our fridge, we used most items up instead of them rotting in our fridge.  I started buying items only when I needed them and developed more meal plans using what we had on hand instead of buying more items.  According to lovefoodhatewaste.ca, Canadians will throw out 2.2 million tones of edible food each year, costing Canadians in excess of $17 billion.   That is a lot of food and resources (water, gas for transport, packaging, etc) that are wasted for no good reason.

You might wonder why I am blogging about my May goal in July, but I wanted to see if my habits would stick for longer than the 30 days and they did.  It has been easy to incorporate these new changes.  I am still very mindful of my garbage, and more importantly, making choices to limit that garbage.  Are you mindful about your eating and your waste?  If decreasing the amount of waste in our landfills is not incentive enough, think of all the money you will save just by being mindful and not wasting food.