Karate

Exercise 4/6: Karate
Time: 1:30

We are having a one-year anniversery dinner for our dojo a week from Saturday night! Hard to believe it has been that long already.

Settling into routine...

Exercise 3/6: Mission 1: Tae-Bo
Time: 40 min

It is getting easier every day...though I am not sure that is a good thing ;-). I will have to add weight and tighten those bands!
The town clock started chiming an hour earlier on Monday. "What is this?" you say, "Daylight Savings Time isn't until the end of the month."
Ah, yes. But in Japan, they don't have DST. Each town or neighbourhood has a chime at 6pm. This is the signal for all children to return home. (Actually, most children arrive home at that time...they LEAVE wherever they are 5 minutes before that. The Japanese have an expression that being 5 minutes early is actually being on time...Man! have WE had to adjust!!!!)
Well, now the daylight is getting shorter, so on the first school-day of October, the chime is rolled back to 5pm. Thus, our after-school routine has to change because there is less time available to play...AND THAT IS VERY IMPORTANT! ;-)
Anyhow, I am figuring all that out now...when to work-out, when the kids do their homework, when to make supper etc. I think we've just about got it.

Its Oc-freaking-tober!

I can't believe it is October already. Time is flying here in Japan, the second year round. :-)
I am currently going to follow Billie Blank's work-out schedule and am on week 2 of that. He suggested a rest on Monday...so I did.
Today after school, however,

Exercise 2/6: Mission Two/Upper Body work-out
Time: 40 min

Conundrum

Exercise 1/6: Karate
Time: 1:30

I really enjoyed tonight. I especially like sparring with Colin. (and NO, not because he is my husband;) . He is the only one in the class, besides Sensei, who I can really go after with no fear of hurting them. My kids don't really try very hard. :-( and after a year of Karate, I think it is because they just don't like it. I am preferring to think this way because I don't want to think they are lazy...
...well, their problem might be solved because it is fee time once again and we are not sure if we can afford it. (we need to be able to return to Canada in 10 months...). We shall see how it turns out.
When we DO get back to Canada, I am really interested in continuing my Karate training. I have previously posted on this blog why I like it so much. Number 1 because it is something we do as a family. However, I don't want to cram it down the kids' throats if it is genuinely not something they enjoy. I know Selah would love gymnastics and Mixon would love basketball. But that could mean different nights out and a lot of money. So, there is the conundrum. How do we keep everyone in the family active and healthy AND enjoying it, but not give up family time and a balanced lifestyle in regards to time management. Is it possible? I invite your comments.

Now, where were we?

Friday, Sept. 29th
Exercise 5/6: Tae-Bo: Mission Two
Time: 45 min

Great work-out! My arms and shoulders are killing me! The Bands work great. Because they are adjustable, I think Colin would even love this work-out. I will see if I can convince him...;-)

Saturday....had ALT's over. I got great exercise cleaning the house ahead of time, but I think I set a precedent already that excludes this from counting as exercise...

Sunday AM...(I still have 3 hours until my deadline of Sat. midnight in BC, Canada...
Exercise 6/6: Billy Blanks 8-Minutes SuperCharged Cardio
Time: 8 minutes (ha ha)

I actually worked up a pretty good sweat! Great work-out when you don't have much time.

Karate with a headache

Thursday, Sept. 28th
Exercise 4/6: Karate
Time: 1:30

Looking at getting another notch on my yellow belt. There is a test in a couple of weeks. :-)

I spent the morning at the city hospital with my daughter (long story...but good news. Check out my famiy blog:-) Anyhow, I didn't have anything to eat or drink between 6 am and 1pm and by the time I got to Karate last night, even though I HAD eaten and re-hydrated, it wasn't enough. WOW. My headache got worse over the course of the evening to the point where I thought I would vomit! I rarely get headaches anymore (maybe its Japan?...or my diet in Japan?) and have only bought one or two small packages of Tylonal since we came here last year. But this was definitely in the catagory of migraine-type pain.
I thought that doing Karate would HELP the headache go away, but it only served to make it worse this time. I am thinking it is due to the above. Oh well, a couple of tylonal and a nap put me in good stead. And I did complete the work out. :-)

Tae-Bo

Exercise 3/6: Tae-Bo
Time: 45 min

Learning the new moves. :-)
Cleaned the bottom of my runners beforehand , so I could work out in my living room. Hope I didn't bother the people downstairs too much ;-). At least it is low-impact compared to aerobics.

2 for 1

Sunday, Sept 24th.
Exercise 1/6: Karate
Time: 1:30

Monday, Sept 25th.
Exercise 2/6: Tae-Bo from my new DVD's!!!!!!
Time: 45min

Yep, my problem of being "housebound" by darkness and children is solved! It would seem that Colin had ordered the exercise DVD's that I wanted a long time ago. They arrived a couple of days ago! Thanks Mom, for shipping them over. :-)
I tried the first video out today. It was just the intro video in order to learn the proper techniques. But it was fun! And ALOT of it matches with Karate (I guess the instructer on the DVD, Billy Blanks, being a 7-time world martial arts Champion would have something to do with it...:-/) Anyhow, I am amused.

Sports Day #2

Exercise 6/6: Walking/Tugging/3-legged running ;-)
Time: 40 min (walking)/other stuff...throughout the day

Today was the kid's school sports day in the morning and the town one in the afternoon. For those of you faithful readers, last year we attended 4 seperate sports festivals. Our town merged with the closest big city in April, so some things have been restructered. This year, the town and the school shared the festival and it ran very smoothly...not much differently actually.
Last year, the Madlands loved this day...except Mixon, who was still in the throes of culture shock. He shed many tears last year and wouldn't let us out of his sight (it was very hard to participate in some things...) . Today, last year was barely a memory :-). We hardly saw both kids all day, except from afar, and then they were waving huge flags or organizing OTHER kids into groups for the next game. My neighbours were keenly watching the mouths of my children during the cheering contest to see if they knew the Japanese. They still can't get over the fact that our kids are fluent and have no accent! ;-)
We have come to learn, this past year, that this little town does very little changing in general. I think our presence here has been quite an experience, not just for us, but for many of them as well.
It was a good day.

Friday and Early don't go together!

Exercise 5/6: 100 squats/5 hindu push-ups (previously called yoga-push-ups...)/60 crunches ( in 2 sets of 30)

I did NOT want to get up this morning. But once again...y'all came to the rescue. I was convincing myself to work out after school...but knowing at the same time that I probably wouldn't...being Friday afternoon and all. Then I remembered I would have to post 6 times this week...and that leaves only Friday and Saturday to get the last 2 in. So, I got up and worked out this morning.
This accountability (the threat of having to put out money for failure...) really works! :-)

Tired Kiddies

Exercise 4/6: Karate
Time: 1:30

Karate was chaos tonight. All the kids in elementary school were out to lunch. The one kid still in kindergarten cried for the first half and then spent quite a bit of time in the toilet pooping. (I only mention it because it was a big deal...) Selah spun in circles and rarely paid attention and Mixon sat on the side with an upset stomach. They are all exhausted from being back to school AND practicing every day for undoukai (sports festival). None of them really wanted to be at Karate.
Anyhow, I had a fairly decent workout AND enjoyed myself...at the very least, the kids were amusing. ;-)

100 in a row!

Exercise 3/6: 100 squats in a row! 50 crunches. 3 (in a row) yoga push-ups.
(NOTE: Previous squats were done in sets of 10 with 2 yoga push ups at the end of each set...)

Wow, my quads felt like like big knots after that was done! I surprised myself by getting to 100! (this seems to be a running theme in my work-out journey....)
Now, if I could just walk... (ha ha, just kidding)

いたい です!!!

Exercise 2/6: 70 squats/14 yoga push-ups/ 35 sit-ups on the ABS ball (& I don't mean crunches!)

The title today is "itai desu" which roughly translates as It Hurts!!! Yesterday, I was still recovering from back catching and Karate the night after. (How embarrasing! ;-) So, I took the day "off". It was a national holiday in Japan, so I REALLY took the day off! :)

Today we have an interesting dilema. Colin has decided to drive to school from now on. That means he wants to work out in the mornings before work, too. But we can't both go riding and neither of us is willing to get up at 5:00 either...but the point is moot because it is too dark to ride then. After school I could go except I can't. The kids need their mom and Colin doesn't get home until it is almost dark. hmmmmm. How to (both) get a cardio workout is the question of the day.

Typhoon Humidity

Exercise 1/6: Karate
Time: 1:30

Wow, is it humid tonight! There is a big Typhoon heading north between Japan's West Coast and Korea. This morning, the forecast said it would be over top of us by tomorrow. But when I checked a couple of hours later, ShanShan had changed course enough that we wouldn't be in the danger circle. It is cloudy, rainy and VERY HUMID though. I hardly had to move tonight and I had sweat pouring off of me. The air is thick and heavy. But, at least we don't have to deal with a typhoon here over the next couple of days.

btw: i am down another kilogram...which means another 2.2 pounds. :-)

Softball

Exercise 6/6: Backcatcher!
Time: 1 hour

Last night I was wondering how I could legitimately post softball as a work-out. Standing at 2nd base and then batting once in a while just doesn't get the heart-rate going. Then, they made me back-catcher! Now, I have NEVER played that position before (first handicap), I speak very elemenary Japanese (2nd handicap), and I am not well-versed in the details of Softball rules (3rd handicap). I was very grateful to my Dad last night, for all the times we went and played catch at the field down the street while I was growing up! I held my own pretty well. I kept hearing my team-mates yell, "Nice Catchie" (that is the Japanese accent...they actually have a lot of 'English' words in softball, here). And, it also happened that we, as a team, sucked! So, I was behind home plate for most of the evening. When we were up to bat, it was only for 3 batters, usually. By the end of the evening I was soaked in sweat. I had had a full work-out: squat, catch, stand, throw, squat, catch, stand, throw, squat, catch (nice catchie!), stand throw, repeat all evening!
Kudos to all back-catchers out there. I had no idea!
I am also sporting a beautiful war-wound this morning. I caught a ball with my calf last night and this morning I have a lovely contusion that hurts with every step. But I am proud to bear it! ;-)

Yesterday

Exercise 5/6: cycling all over town
Time: about 1 hour

It is a long weekend!!! Monday is Respect for the Aged Day in Japan.
Yesterday after school, we biked to the next town to get videos and then back to our Plant 6 (like Superstore) to get groceries. I remember last year when we got here, we found it SO overwhelming to have to go to Plant 6 on a bike to get groceries for 4 people. Mind you we only had 1 bike at the time...
Now that we have 4 bikes (actually 6, but that's another story) we use Selah's basket, my basket and one backpack. That does us for half the week, so we go 2 times. Not bad...and we get exercise and family-time out of the deal. (the kids have resisted initially because this cuts into their playtime with friends, but they are getting used to it. AND once we are actually on the way, they like it...I was the same way as a kid ;-)

Karate

Exercise 4/6: Karate
Time: 1:30

I enjoyed it...but the kids are tired. Getting back into routine makes Thursday nights seem long.

A Trip for Coffee

Exercise 3/6: 2 stints of cycling
Time: 35-ish min X 2 = more than 1 hour

Sports Day yesterday was a blast. :-) I ran with some girls in a 5 legged race. We were anchors for our team and our team fell way behind so when we ran we were totally on our own...all eyes on us. We chanted 1-2-1-2-1-2...in English and got around the pylon without falling. :-) If you have to lose...lose big! ;-)
After supper, I rode to Ogaki on my bike. I was out of coffee beans! Desperate times call for desperate measures. Anyhow, I went to my favourite coffee shop in the mall (Tully's) and met a friend there. We chatted (far too long!) over a peach smoothie and a banana/acai yogurt shake and then I rode home again.
One thing I am looking forward to back in Canada is wider roads and sidewalks! (Mind you, the vehicles will be going twice the speed...). I read the other day that Kamloops is well-known for its Mountain Biking trails! Those will be nice too!
Colin has all but given up on cycling all the way to work...again. After investing in better quality tires, he went to get on his bike yesterday morning and found a flat.:-| There is one section of the trail that is littered with debris (glass, metal etc) and he seems to pick something up everytime he rides by. Anyhow, he only cycled to our local train station today. It is about a 15 min ride for him. The commute will take just as long.

AM Strength

Exercise 2/6: 60 squats/12 Yoga push-ups

Today is Sport's Festival Day at the high school. I am on the white team this year and get to run in the 6 legged race (5 people)? Anyhow, I'll let you know how it goes. ;-)

Also, I am going to ride into Ogaki tonight for coffee with a friend. Going car-less tonight.

Karate

Exercise 1/6: Karate
Time: 1:30

Tonight was a stretching night...literally! We always do stretches, but tonight we worked with partners to stretch out our legs. I stood with my back against the wall and Colin stood facing me. He did a horse stance (in a squat position with feet parallel but far apart and knees out...like straddling a horse) and I put one leg on his shoulder (in various kicking positions...one front kick. another was a side kick) and then he stood slowly until I couldn't take anymore..and froze. Then we switched. A couple of the kids from one family are super flexible and they can do the splits in any direction. There is much difference between them and I in this exercise! ;-)

Colin has bought new tires that seem to be more durable. So, we shall see how they hold up during this week's commute. Ganbatte, my love!