Health & Fitness....personal rambling

EXERCISE....oh that dreaded word.  Who here loves to exercise, raise your hand.  Ya, just what I thought, not many of us.  One of my goals for 2010 was to get back into shape and really take control of my overall health.  I want to be able to be on my feet for 12 hours holding up to sometimes 5 pounds of camera and lens with more gear hanging from my shoulder, photographing a wedding and not be out of commission the next day.  That's what was happening last year.  I would spend a whole day photographing a wedding and the next day I felt like I had been hit by a Mac truck; all my muscles were sore and I could hardly get off the couch.  It seemed it would take me until Tuesday to get back to normal.  Enough of that!  I love photographing weddings and I don't want to waste a day laying around because I'm so drained.


The training has begun!  No, I'm not standing on my feet for 12 hours holding a camera to condition myself.  I'm doing a combination of Muay Thai and workouts with my personal trainer....5 days a week. What is Muay Thai you ask.


Well it's a form of kickboxing..Thai kickboxing, where you throw a lot of knees and elbows.  The class I'm in has guys and girls in it and some of them are training to be fighters.  I'm not looking to get into the ring to fight, I'm doing it for the fitness aspect and self defense.  I feel empowered that I am learning the skills to defend myself if anyone tried to attack me.  Unfortunately we live in a world that has some crazies in it and I don't ever want to be a statistic.  And in the words of Mr. T "I pitty the fool, who'd mess with me" HA!


I won't lie, there are days I dread going, because I know I'm totally going to get my butt kicked; but I go and I feel great afterward.  My energy level and my mind are renewed and I have a better attitude and any grumpiness I had before I worked out is suddenly gone.


I was working out last year, but I wasn't giving it my all.  I didn't have the eating aspect of it worked out.  I was still eating junk here and there and not being consistent in making healthy food choices.  I've been at it for about a month now and things are changing.  My measurements are going down, my body fat percentage is going down.  I can't say the same for the scale yet, but that will come.  My trainers gave me a nice lecture which was "stop looking at the scale" and go by how your clothes fit.  I can do more push-ups and squats and jump rope longer than I could before....things are definitely changing.


Once a month I'm going to post my progress just to help keep myself accountable and to see how far I've come.


If you are looking to change your health with personal training and martial arts, Bill and Heather Mayfield are the trainers to go to.  They have martial arts classes for kids as well as adults.  For more information about their martial arts school and personal training click here to visit their website.


If you want to see what Muay Thai looks like, just google it, it will pull up a bunch of videos on Muay Thai fights. Here's a link I found that demonstrates what some of the training looks like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2RlFrRbB1c