State of My Arts

I wasn’t sure if I’d feel up to it today, but I was feeling good after shoulder PT, so I went to TKD.  Tonight’s class involved a lot of punching with gloves and hogus (chest protectors), followed by forms and then Kali stick work.  It was a good, energetic class, which stressed my not-quite-well cardio a bit, but I still made it through okay.  As always, it felt good to get my work in. 

Smaller class tonight, though, only ten.  One of our master instructors had a toe operation last week, but he was back in today hobbling around on his wrapped-up foot.  He spent most of his time watching, though he led the Kali portion that comprised the final 20 minutes.

TKD

I felt progressively worse yesterday, and finally took my temperature: 103.8.  I took two more Tylenol (I’d been taking them a bit irregularly), and this time they really worked.  I eventually started feeling warmer and broke a little bit of a sweat.  I went to sleep, but woke up two hours later, soaked;  I sweated so much I turned the flannel sheets into a puddle.  I spent the rest of the night on the couch.  Parts of the sheets are still damp 11 hours later.

I won’t work out today, and we’ll see about tomorrow, since I don’t want to overstress my system.  I’m feeling a whole lot better now, so hopefully I’m on the mend.

Fitness

Yesterday was the final day of my six-day diet, and the results are in.  I weighed in today at 195.6 with 16.4% body fat, a drop of 6.4 pounds and 1.6% body fat.  Multiplying that out results in a 4.3 pound loss in fat alone.

But there are definitely caveats: the fat reading on the scale is highly dependent on water percentage, and wacky things going on with your body can skew it in odd ways.  And there are wacky things going on with my body this week — I’m home sick today from work.  I’m feverish, and I have a cough.  The symptoms started Tuesday night, and that caused me not to work out Weds or Thurs, and I can’t imagine I’ll work out today.  The whole “feed a cold, starve a fever” doesn’t appear to be good advice.  Quite possibly I’m in worse shape with illness because I didn’t have the bodily reserves to deal with it.

But back to the diet, I think it is a winner.  If I ever do it again (motivation is tough), I might make some substitutions.  I can survive tuna steak and shrimp, but I wasn’t thrilled with them.  Not into bok choy or brussels sprouts.  But if I want another round of kick-starting a weight-loss program, this is something I’ll definitely consider.

So far I haven’t binged on food today.  My fever woke me up at 3:15, but it wasn’t until 4:30 or so that I could drag myself out of bed to put on sweats because I was freezing under the covers with a mattress heating pad turned on full blast.  Around 5:15 I was ravenous and had some leftover deli turkey, swiss cheese, and dijon mustard.  Then later on I had a big bowl of oatmeal.  I’m figuring I’ll put a couple pounds right back, but if I can re-stabilize around 198, then that’d be a 4-pound drop for 6 days of dieting, and that’s a success.

Fitness

I’ve been not very happy with my weight since, oh, last Thanksgiving.  My minimum sustainable weight seems to be 190, though even that does take a bit of effort.  With my surgery and my toe injury, I haven’t worked out like I’ve wanted to.  And I’ve been lazy with dieting.  I like to eat.

So, that all culminated in ordering a bunch of DVD’s from BeachBody: Power90 and P90 were the main ones.  In our big expensive package, we also got 4 other DVD sets, some stretchy bands, weighted gloves, a squishy ball, some overpriced supplements, and hopefully a lot of motivation.  Wife of State and I both started the Power90, though the “sculpt” workout is probably a little more than I should be doing with my shoulder.  One of the items in this overabundance of stuff was a “Fat Burning Express” exercise DVD and a 6-day diet.  I’m on the six-day diet, and this is in fact Day 5.  I think the daily calories are in the 1500 range, and it is heavily skewed towards the protein side of things.  I think the diet is pretty decent, and I’m trying to follow it without substitutions.  That’s a bit tough when there are things I don’t like, but hey, it might hopefully expand my food list.  This week I had (among other things) chicken, tuna fish, shrimp, tuna steak, steak, deli turkey, roast beef, Swiss cheese, cottage cheese, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, protein shakes, omelets, almonds, salads, bok choy, swiss chard, asparagus, and brussels sprouts.  Okay, that was probably just about everything I’ve eaten.

So far I’ve been (not surprisingly) hungry, but I haven’t had sugar level issues (yay for low carb).  I started on Saturday at 202 and 18.0% body fat (according to our Tanita scale), and today I was 196.8 with 17.3%.  I’m aiming for 190 (eventually), with not much over 15% fat.  Tough for me to get there, and my motivation also wanes the closer I get to my goal.

I signed up as a “coach” to get this big bundle of stuff, which means that if anyone is interested in buying any of this stuff, let me know and I’ll figure out how to send you a link so that I can get 25% of whatever you buy.  (Not sure what your motivition is, other than a desire to be nice).  Somehow, with my limited readership, that’s not something I expect to happen. 

Of course, I threw the exercise portion off track today because I’m feverish.  I got home last night after running a hard TKD class (lots of jump kicks) that I participated alongside the greens and blues I was working with, started making dinner, and started feeling sick.  I thought I was just tired, so I went to sleep early.  I woke up this morning feeling better, but as I went through the day I started feeling colder and colder.  We raised the heat and I put on my jacket.  When I got home, I curled up under 2 heavy down comforters and watched 3 episodes of Season 2 of Angel.  I went in to teach the intermediate class tonight (I just couldn’t call in sick the first week back after losing our instructor) and felt better for a while after throwing some kicks.  But I’ve crashed again.  If I feel like this tomorrow, I’m staying home from work.

Fitness

The last few days have been a bit cathartic.  The luncheon that followed the service on Thursday really was good.  The service itself was what you’d expect for a religous service, but the luncheon brought out some good stories and humor.  Master Wilson was always cracking jokes, though only some of them were funny.    He always loved saying, “A horse walks into a bar.  The bartender says, ‘Why the long face?’”.  As I said, many of the jokes weren’t particularly funny…

Master Wilson was very much into martial arts as a medium for self-improvement.  In a lot of ways he tried to teach about life, and if kicking and punching came along with it, that was a bonus.  He truly cared about each of his students, and reveled in their successes and kicked their butts when they needed it.  He showed students what it was to have the honor and integrity of a true martial artist.  He was a dynamic presence in any room he entered, and was as outgoing as they come.  I’m one of those people who make small ripples in the world around me, but he had a huge impact on the people he came in contact with.

So at the luncheon there was some laughter, and a lot of fond memories.  There were also several huge tables full of desserts.  He had a sweet tooth and would have loved that.  The luncheon was catered by a local restaurant (he was friendly with the owners), so the food was barbequed pork, chips, chicken fingers, etc.  Again, some of his favorites.

Friday night was a children’s service, and it was well done.  The mats were put out for the children and their parents to sit.  One of Master Wilson’s senior students (a 5th dan who started training with him 23 years ago) got things going and led the service.  Master Wilson’s widow spoke as well, and their three children were there as well.  Part of the service was candle-lit, and despite a little minor apprehension regarding 5-year-olds holding lit candles, there were no mishaps of a pyrotechnic nature.  Afterwards, there were desserts for all (leftovers from the previous day’s luncheon).  And desserts, kids, and mats led to the inevitable gymnastics and horsing around.  So the kids all had fun working off huge sugar rushes, and the adults had a chance to talk.

Yesterday morning was TKD as usual.  Every once in a while, was do a “Super Circuit Saturday” class.  This one had been scheduled prior to Master Wilson going into the hospital.  We set up lots of stations, from medicine balls to jump ropes to heavy bags, dumbells, a dip station, wall sitting, mats to run and jump over, and pretty much any type of body-weight exercise you’d like to do.  We stayed at each station for a minute before moving on.  Around 50 minutes or so into class, I was doing some squats with dumbells, and heard a “rrrrippp” sound.  Whoops!  My dobok pants split right down the crotch.  I thought about it for a bit, then went into the dressing room, put on my jeans, left my dobok top on, and came back out on the floor.  Everyone got a good laugh at that.  My name was Chuck Norris for the rest of the day.

There are sure to be some details as to how the dojang will proceed, but for now the idea is to keep going as we have been, keeping true to Master Wilson’s teachings.  We’ve got a great group of instructors, so I’m sure that we’ll continue to have great training in the future.

TKD

Today was the service for my instructor.  There was an hour-long service at a church, followed by a luncheon at a nearby fire hall.  There may have been 400-500 people there.  It was an amazing tribute to how he lived his life.  I really don’t have the mental energy after a draining day to write much more about this right now. 

But in the category of hits that keep on coming, there is a college-age girl who has been working in the dojang office for the last couple of years, doing a lot of the clerical work, answering phones, and basically keeps things running smoothly.  Well, she’s been battling Lyme disease for a year or more now.  But earlier this week she went into the hospital with abdominal pains; now she’s in kidney failure and is on dialysis and the doctors don’t yet know why.

Tomorrow is the service for the kids of the dojang, as well as a black belt meeting.  There will be the normally scheduled training for adults and kids on Saturday morning.

TKD

The services for my instructor will be held on Thursday.  On Friday, there will be a meeting of the black belts, followed by a service at the dojang for the kids.

I’ve had a tough few days dealing with this.

Uncategorized

I had mentioned in an earlier post that my instructor has been battling leukemia and that he was going in for a bone marrow transplant last week.  I’m not completely certain on the details, but I understand that it was his heart that ultimately gave out.  The transplant itself occurred without issue, but at some point along the line he contracted an infection, which caused a lot of discomfort as well as organ damage.  At the end of Saturday morning’s TKD class, the lead instructor for the class let the black belts know that the Grandmaster was having complications and was seriously ill, but by that point he had already passed.  I got the call later in the afternoon, but have had trouble writing this post.

There is always risk involved in treatment of this sort, and leukemia is a difficult disease to beat.  Still, it has always felt like if anyone could get through this, he could.  He was always upbeat and cheerful even when chemo and radiation were knocking him for a loop.  So this has hit me hard, as I’m sure it has for everyone in the dojang.  He is survived by his wife and three children, who range in age from (I believe) 14 to 20.

The dojang will be closed until at least the middle of the week, when a service will be held.  It is too early to know what will happen to the dojang in the longer run, but I believe it will survive in some form.

Grandmaster Wilson, you will be missed.

TKD

7 weeks since surgery, and all is well.

Today was my first full PT appointment.  I worked isometrics, and also some resistance band exercises working the triceps.  There were a few other arm stabilization drills, such as a “tripod” drill where I was on my knees and my left (bad side) hand.  From there, the other arm moves around the body, and the bad arm gets to work on stabilization without going through a range of motion.  The therapist did some manual stretching and stabilization exercises as well.

I’m actually having to hold myself back from going full-bore in workouts, because the shoulder feels so good.  I may have overworked it slightly tonight at TKD, but it is still feeling good.  Since I hurt this shoulder just about the same time the other shoulder was healing up from the Lyme disease nerve damage, I haven’t had a fully functional set of shoulders since September of 2007.  And my shoulders probably feel as good right now as they have at any point in the last year and a half.

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Today was my doctor’s appointment, and it is all good.  I had another two X-Rays taken; I think I’m about to start glowing green over here.  The doctor was very pleased with how my collarbone is sitting.  Everything is healing well, and he was happy with my range of motion.

I convinced him that I really wanted to do some physical therapy to start building my muscles back.  The danger at this point is still that I’ll overexert it and rip the graft.  So regular weightlifting is still out of the question.  But I’m allowed to do isometric strengthening exercises: internal rotation, external rotation, abduction, and uh, pushing forward and pushing backward.  And I’ll also be continuing with range of motion exercises.

On my way back from the doctor’s office today, I stopped at my friendly neighborhood physical therapist office with a shiny new PT script from the doctor.  They checked out my current state, and got me going on those isometric exercises.  Afterwards, I got electric stimulation and ice.

I think I might have to get in touch with the doctor prior to my next appointment on May 5.  Since that is two months away, I really think I’ll be ready for some additional PT prior to that.  In the meantime, I’m cleared for most of TKD, though not for punching heavy bags and other things of that ilk.

And knowing me I’ll continue to push the boundaries of what I can do.

Health