nancykicks30's blog

I should explain this one - "Honey..." is one of my favorite TV shows because it encourages health and fitness. However, I wish it wasn't necessary to have such a program since its focus is unhealthy kids. This is a reality show in which nutritionist, Dr. Lisa Hark, develops a better eating plan for children in a different family each week. Watching the show, I'm amazed (in a bad way) how badly some of these parents allow their children to eat. Last night's family featured 3 boys who eat food containing 23 cups of sugar (and God only knows how much fat) each week. Yuck! Even worse, the boys didn't drink any water, or eat a single vegetable during said week.  read more »

Recently, I completed the MS150, which is a two-day I50 mile course through the rolling hills, (did I mention HILLS???) of PA. This was around 29 combined total hours of riding so I had A LOT of time to ponder all kinds of things. But one thing that occurred to me was how this bike ride reminded me of Taekwon-Do. For example:

Lesson #1: It’s essential to have the right equipment.

Before the race, I purchased a bike helmet, gloves, arm warmers, handlebar bag,, windbreaker, and perhaps the most important purchase of all, the padded bike shorts! I’ll be honest – the cost of bike equipment left a void in my wallet. But once on the course, these things were invaluable. The weather was sunny, but windy, and chilly most of the time, which made the windbreaker essential to have. The arm warmers underneath served their purpose well, keeping me cozy. As for the padded bike shorts…well they were the best investment of all! Thinking about my bicycle equipment brought me back to a segment of the instructor’s course in Philly where Sabumnim Marcello spoke about the fact that, as an instructor you may often have to explain to students and parents, the need to buy equipment, and that this is often met with opposition due to the impact on the wallet. It’s not inexpensive to buy the necessary gear, as well as breaking boards, but these are necessary tools to have in Taekwon-Do. Testing and tournaments cost money too. However, they are part of the "equipment" that we need to be successful in Taekwon-Do. After all, Taekwon-Do more important that a few less weekends eating out, or stuff that we might buy on a whim and quickly become bored with? The outfit you splurge on may be out of style in a year, unlike the functional dobok and protective gear that are ALWAYS in style in the dojang. If you realize what your priorities in life are, it’s easy to see how equipping yourself serves your best interest.  read more »

This past week I saw a commercial for a wireless company. While the actor is talking about dropped calls, and whining about her celluar service, there are kids in doboks in the background standing in 2 lines, demonstrating some of the weakest punches I've ever seen in my life. Ever get the limp wristed "dead fish" handshake from someone? Well, these were dead fish punches. Shame on the director. Once that woman switches to new cell phone provider, she also might want to switch her kid to a different martial arts school!

I don't know how it is spelled, but I know that the ki-ahp works outside of Taekwon-Do. Case in point: it was Sunday morning, and the dogs wanted out NOW. But alas, someone, who shall remain nameless, had shut the back door way too tightly and the doorknob wouldn't budge. I tried to pull it left, then right, but it simply would not budge. Even the rubber kitchen device used to open stubborn pickle jars wouldn't work to open the door. I began to become increasingly frustrated as the dogs looked at me with desperation, their big brown eyes looking sad, tails wagging, as they began to whine, which in dog speak is "Mommy, we REALLY have to go out!" Then I gave it one last shot, with a hefty pull and more importantly a loud ki-ahp...and the door popped open!  read more »

I was watching TV and just learned something new (and sadly it wasn't on TLC or the Discovery Channel). Apparently, the World record for self-inflicted front kicks to the head is...or should I say was, 42 in a span of a minute. The guy on TV broke the record by only a few kicks. Had to laugh since hitting yourself in the head is what Sabumnim warns us not to do when doing rising kicks. I was thinking that it would interesting to see how many of these kicks I could do in a minute (without the hitting-myself-in-the-head part of course).

I forgot to bring my heart rate monitor, which also has a calorie counter to class, so I was disappointed that I couldn't measure how many calories class burns when we spar. So far the monitor measured the following (some of which I tried to measure more than once in my half-baked attempt to be scientific):

1. Cardio kickboxing class - about 400
2. 8 hours sleep - night after a kickboxing class - 700-800
2. TKD class w/o sparring, but about four 30 second rounds of going against the bags.- about 430
3. Advanced step class at Bally's - 364
4. Overnight with about 8 hours sleep on a day when I haven't exercised - 200-300  read more »