Adventures in Health and Fitness

This morning I went to Weight Watchers and became a lifetime member. I was able to keep at or below 179 lbs for six weeks, so that makes me lifetime. Actually, the second week of maintenance, I dropped five pounds in one week for some strange reason, so my final weight is around 174. That was just before my Sandia interview, so I guess I was so nervous that I didn't digest all the calories in my food, or something. Whatever caused it, I'm not complaining!

All told, I have lost about 68 pounds. I am now at about the same weight that I was when I began college. I was delighted to find out that I now fit into a little black dress that I had saved from back then. I imagine I would fit into my prom dress too, but I haven't tried it on. I'm going to a semi-formal banquet on Friday night, and I plan to wear that black dress, provided that I can find the shoes that match it. Otherwise, I'll wear the purple suit from my advisor's assistant.

I now face the challenge of keeping the weight off. I can tell that this is going to be more difficult than losing weight, in some ways. I have already caught myself thinking that I don't need to watch what I eat anymore, because I don't have to lose any weight. But I mustn't think that way, unless I want to gain it all back! I plan to continue going to Weight Watchers meetings as close to weekly as possible. (I'll skip the weeks I'm on travel.)

In other news, I'm going to take my brown belt test next week. The most daunting task is that he said he expects us to do 25 push-ups in a row (without stopping) for the test. I can do 20 bad push-ups in a row, so I'm thinking I might be able to swing 25 really lousy ones. The trick is remembering to breathe.

I feel so much more coordinated nowadays, and I attribute that directly to karate. I am a lot quicker on the draw, and I fall less frequently. When I open a cabinet and things start falling out, I'm able to stop them from falling, and it's just about automatic. I just know the location of my body in 3-space better than I did before.

I have a bit of an identity crisis with one of the girls in the children's class. When she started karate, she had absolutely no body awareness. She also doesn't have an innate athletic ability like some of the kids in the class. She's still a little clumsy, but she's doing a lot better. In particular, I think she's become a pretty good kicker. I'm impressed by her tenacity, because even though two girls who started a month later than her already have their yellow belts, she's still sticking it out. I think we've gotten her to about the best that we can at this level. I told my teacher that it's time to test her and give her a yellow belt, because holding her at this level any longer is not going to do her any good. She needs to try something more complicated in order to learn more. So I think he will probably give her the test on Thursday, or maybe next Tuesday.