Floating

Today's workout:

20 minutes on the recumbent bike, which hurt really bad. Every time I pushed with my left leg I felt like screaming.

After my workout I came home and stayed in my pool for 2 hours. Floating with my chest on float and legs dangling in the water seems to be the only comfortable position for me. Water is awesome! In my dreams my house has a mote, which is really just a lazy river. I could float around forever.

When I finally got out of the pool I started to take inventory for my new hobby. I've made a list for the supplies I want to by for my first couple attempts to repurpose some containers. I hope to make it to the store tomorrow. I have some really awesome ideas pinned on my Pinterest board. I swear I'm addicted to that site.

I also think I may have found another way to keep my mind busy as well. I want to try to learn how to do more on my computer such as WordPress and Photoshop. Any ideas of things to learn to do on the computer?

Repurposing

Today I took the kids to McDonald's (I know, but Faith got 3 shots so I felt like she deserved it), and as they were throwing away their milk containers I had an epiphany.

Okay, so maybe epiphany is a little dramatic, but I realized that my household wastes A LOT of containers, boxes, cups...

I got to thinking I should be more purposeful in the reuse of these things. Yes, I know, I could recycle, but come on! Have you been on Pinterest? Have you seen all the cool things you can do with "trash". And what's great about it is that it is trash. So if my lack of artistic ability messes it up, it is no big deal!

I think recycling is great for Earth. I think our culture is very wasteful and we are careless about the environment. I want to take it a step further, though. I want to find ways to turn these objects in useful items around the house. That way I am not only saving the environment, but I am saving money and reducing my carbon footprint. Plus, it can be a hobby, which keeps me busy and not laying around feeling sorry for myself.

Pretty cool! Now on to find a place to store all these containers I want to reuse :-P

Oh, by the way....Today's Workout (had to do something, I had McD's for lunch):

20 very painful and boring minutes on the Elliptical.
400 Crunches
50 Push-ups
Followed by ingesting 6 different pain pills

Swim and Aquakwondo

I woke up this morning in pain, but the pain was tolerable enough to not take the drugs that make me loopy. Therefore, I was able to drive to the YMCA to workout. Yes, I know, but working out is my drug of choice. If I don't workout I am cranky and my life seems miserable. But because walking is still difficult because of my back, I decided on a pool workout. Swimming, so far, is the lesser of all the exercise induced pain.

I love being outside, I love water, and I love sunshine, so you would think that swimming would be perfect for me. The problem I have with swimming is that I get bored really easy. Looking at the bottom of the pool for an hour drives me crazy, so I have to mix up my swimming workouts every time I go to the pool.

Today's pool workout:

20 roundhouses, 20 sidekicks in the pool
Freestyle pull with buoy 100meters
Freestyle kick with board 50 meters
Dolphin kick with board 50 meters
Breaststroke 5 minutes (I lose count after 100meters)
Backstroke 50 meters
And repeat for one hour

By the end of the hour I had all I could take, so I made my way home and popped some pain pills. Even though I am in pain, I am better off now that I have had some exercise for the day.

Now What?

So my back is back to where it was prior to my surgery in September of 2010. I just had more injections, which did nothing but make me feel worse. I'm constantly in pain and I am depressed because I can't do the things I love...like Taekwondo and weightlifting.

my spine post surgery

I've been playing volleyball for the past 6 months. I am not very good, but at least it keeps me busy and is physical. Volleyball was never easy on my back, but the pain was tolerable, until last night. Last night the left side of my lower back locked up. I had a hard time walking off the court and out of the gym. I'm feeling better today, but now I'm contemplating my life.

As I mentioned, I love to be active and prefer to be physically active. But that doesn't seem to be an option anymore. Because of the pain medicine that makes me loopy, and my inability to stand or sit for long periods of time, I am unable to work.  Instead of being active and/or working, I am laying around bored, depressed, and in pain.

So now I am on a mission. I need to change this! I am looking for new hobbies. Hobbies that do not irritate my back. I want to find something that keeps my mind busy and off the pain and the loss of my beloved Taekwondo and gym.

My plan is to try all sorts of new activities...I'm searching the web for ideas, looking on Pinterest, and asking friends for ideas to try. I am going to keep trying new things until I find something I love.

If you have any ideas, please comment here. I know I've not been on my Blog in awhile, but I will be Blogging now.

Vampire Craze

I just saw a preview for the new Twilight movie, "Breaking Dawn." I started to get really excited about seeing the movie, and then are started to feel a little embarrassed. Teenage vampires falling in love, getting married...really?

But then I realized that the Twilight saga is more than Team Edward or Team Jacob for me. It's about my love for vampires in general. I have been a big fan of vampires for a really long time, and the Twilight saga is just another outlet for me to enjoy those blood suckers.

It all started back in high school when I saw "Interview With a Vampire". I loved that movie! For me it wasn't about how hot the vampires may have been or that there was a love story. It was about how badass and funny the vampires are.

Vampires are the badass-iest of the supernatural if you ask me. They are quick, smart, and strong. They are funny in that they are so out there, so confident, and witty. I love watching vampires because I like to laugh and see them kick butt.

After seeing "Interview With a Vampire" I fell in love with the tv series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I had seen the movie, but it was too quirky. The show, however, had more dimension and character development of the vampires. Spike and Angel quickly became my favorite characters. Besides the show "Friends" there hasn't been another show I was sad to see end like "Buffy". I was happy, though, that they continued on with the show "Angel", but that too had to end.

The idea behind "Blade" was pretty awesome. I love the character and the story line, but for some reason the movies don't hold my attention. Maybe it is too dark...who knows.

My favorite right now is "TrueBlood"! Eric and Pam make me laugh and I love watching them kick butt. I hate that the seasons only last a couple of months. I need more vampire on tv.

So that is why I am happy to see the next Twilight movie. More witty vampires being badass. My favorites in the saga are Alice and Emmett. Both are pretty tough and funny. In the movies, Edward is too wimpy for my taste. Too much crying over Bella. Buffy should come kick Bella's ass.

Yes I am not embarrassed anymore that I have a love for Vampires. It's not like I want to be one or anything. I am not hoping to fall in love with a vampire any time soon (of course if he looks like David Boreanaz I might reconsider, ha).

Kissing a Dolphin

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Bahamas for the weekend to get away from my kids and chores. While the majority of the cruise was a bust, my entire weekend was redeemed when I got to swim with dolphins.

In Freeport, there is a place called Unexso that has diving tours and dolphin encounters. If you are ever  on the Grand Bahama Island, you have to look this place up. The people are fabulous, and the dolphins are amazing. 

http://www.unexso.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1

It was storming, and raining, and just plain ugly the day we were in the Bahamas, but 1 hour before our scheduled swim with dolphins it finally stopped raining. The water was still murky, but the dolphins were playful and ready for me to jump in.

In the movie Dolphin Tale, they  tell a story about children being turned into dolphins so "they can play forever." This is so true to the Dolphins. While swimming with them, I would spin, they would spin, I would swim on my back, they would swim on their back, I'd go underwater and they would nudge me back up...they just loved to play. Just being around them made me feel 20 years younger.

After the free swim with the dolphins, we got to do some tricks with them. It was fun to interact with them, and get them to do tricks (kinda like playing with a puppy). 

My favorite tricks were getting them to hug me and to kiss me.

In addition to the dolphins being great, the trainers were colorful. They were not your typical G rated SeaWorld trainer. There were locals with an amazing sense of humor. They made us laugh for the majority of the trip.

I had the best time with the dolphins, and am dying to get to swim with them again. How can you not be happy when you are around dolphins?

The Problem With Taekwondo

For those of you that do not study Taekwondo, Taekwondo means the way of the hand and the foot. Very traditional Taekwondo focuses on punching, striking, and kicking. It does NOT involve grabbing, throwing, or wrestling.

The problem with modern Taekwondo schools is they try to incorporate the grappling and throwing of other martial arts. We saw how Bruce Lee took bits and pieces of different martial-arts to create something new. That is okay, I guess. I think Bruce Lee is pretty cool, but I do not like the idea of combining the martial-arts. The main reason: Tradition gets lost!

Traditional Taekwondo provides us with all the tools we need. If we can master Taekwondo, we do not need to learn how to grapple or throw people across the room. I personally think it's more fun to kick them across the room anyway. I've heard so many times that Taekwondo is not practical, but this could not be any farther from the truth. I think all the martial-arts have strengths and weaknesses based on the practitioner. If you are not good with your legs but you are great with your arms, then an art that uses more arms would be more efficient than Taekwondo in that situation. I personally prefer Taekwondo, and I know through forms that Taekwondo can teach me all I need to know. (I don't know it all...I still got a long way to go).

The forms (poomse) in Taekwondo teach us all we need to defend ourselves. The strikes, punches, and kicks alone reinforce how we can hurt an attacker. If practiced correctly and often, the basics in forms will make sure we can respond effectively in any situation. Plus, blocks can be blocks, blocks can be strikes, strikes can be release moves, kicks are kicks, and those weird moves that instructors pass over actually are great release moves. By release moves, I mean if somebody grabs you, you use that move to get away. For example, the big move in Koryo before turning to the last bar (I affectionately call this "pretty burst") is a way to get out of a hold. Forms alone teach us all we need, we do not need to add Hapkido, Judo, or Jujitsu to Taekwondo.

Still, Taekwondo schools all over the US are not teaching students how to effectively use Taekwondo. They rush through the basics and the forms to get to the "fun stuff." The commercialization of martial-arts forces instructors to keep things "fun" so students don't leave and train at the other school 1 block away. The popularization of UFC/MMA has forced many Taekwondo school owners to incorporate grappling just to keep students in the building. It's all about money and profit, which is why I HATED owning a Taekwondo school. It made me sick to go against everything I believed in just so we could pay the electric bill.

I wish there was a way for Taekwondo to get back to basics. I miss it!