Awesomness Update

Ruben is still at camp and I've been missing him to the point of tears.  I know he's not having the best time at camp, but he hasn't called or texted and asked to come home.  He did text yesterday and say it feels like he's been gone a month.  Sigh.

So the rest of this post has nothing to do with Ruben. It also has nothing to do with Fred. Its entirely self centered and highlights a little of my neurosis.

A big part of my awesomeness plan was to get some muscles and start doing martial arts again.  As soon as I made this decision a series of auspicious events that helped assure me that this was a good choice.

1.  I found two women who were willing to trade martial arts training for other things. My friend LeRina is trading me Polynesian dance instruction, and hopefully if schedules work out Patty will trade for speech therapy for Ruben (stuttering).

2. One of the main reasons I just joined Phisiq was because they have a huge air conditioned empty room I can use to practice martial arts. They also have a heavy bag.  And its cheap, and only a mile away. (They also offer yoga and zumba)

3. Since I started training for martial arts I feel stronger, more confident, and my shoulder is hurting less (impinged rotator cuff).

4. I was able to remember ALL of my forms and techniques thanks to my careful note taking. Although my main martial arts folder walked away, I had backups of 90% of it.

5. I went to Polynesian dance class Wednesday evening at LeRina's house and had a fantastic time.  I did great, and I got a HUGE ego boost because everyone was exclaiming about my abs, and that I had great footwork.  One of the ladies there OWNS a martial arts school (Tae Kwon Do) just around the corner and she invited me to come down, in my uniform, with my own brown belt, and spar sometime.  For you non martial arts folks: this is a really big deal!.  Often when you go to a school of a different style you don their uniform and a new white belt. You pay lots of money to learn minor differences and often they won't let you spar right away anyway.  This lady must have been very impressed with my abs and dancing.  She was a very strong looking woman. Whether I go or not, it was a big boost to my shaky self image.

6. This isn't really about martial arts.  At the end of the school year I weighed 130 lbs.  I like weighing 130lbs, in fact when I was in the best shape of my life I weighed between 130 and 135lbs. But coming off my illness last winter very very little of my 130lbs was muscle.
So at the beginning of June I signed up to join a fitness challenge with some friends from work.  Its called Zults War and its offered through the Courthouse Athletic Club which is close by. It costs a bit of money but they have a nutrition plan and do body composition testing (bod pod) in addition to full club membership (yes I'm enrolled in two clubs but only for 6 weeks). So for 6 weeks I eat their nutrition plan which is nearly what I eat now but with more protein which I'm sure I need, I go to exercise classes twice a week with my friends, and I get the body composition tests. (I have friends now! Friends who do stuff!)
Since I got out of school nearly a month ago I've been trying to do one heavy workout or two light workouts a day to increase my muscles and get rid of some fat. I've been eating a lot, of healthy stuff. Well I didn't realize how successful I was until I got the results of my body composition test yesterday.

18.6% bodyfat almost puts me into the elite athlete category. So I don't really have much fat to lose, just muscles to gain which this fitness challenge should help with.  The eating plan they gave me has me eating over 2000 calories a day which should be about right.

So in the evening I was just having a burger with Freddie letting all this sink in, that I'm going to be 40 soon (2 months), and that I'm likely going to be in the best shape of my life again. That I don't need to lose weight, in fact I can gain a little more, (I've put on 13lbs since Christmas) and that I really look good. I don't know if its body dismorphic disorder, or just lack of a full length mirror in my apartment, but I really had no idea what I really looked like today until I got those comments at dance class, and I read the report from the body composition analysis.  So I had Fred take a picture of me after dinner while still in my dance class outfit.

I win. I am fit, I am HEALTHY. I am awesome.