7.6

 In my last blog, I went over my personal requirements for the year, with one of them being weight loss. This is the one that I'm finding the hardest, for two reasons. 

The first one is diet and proportions. My diet has never been good, and it's still not good, seeing as I'm eating a leftover pancake for breakfast as I'm writing this. But it is Easter weekend, so special and big meals are tradition at this point. But it goes farther than that. Last night my family went to The Taco Shop in the mall, which already shows that it wasn't the healthiest meal. Between the three of us, we shared guac & tortilla chips as well as a platter of 12 tacos. We then got ice cream at Marble Slab after. Now I could've not gotten anything at Marble Slab and had less chips and tacos, but I didn't. These are choice that I know affect my weight and health, but I still make them.

The second one is lifestyle. Since I went back to school in January, I've been using less energy throughout the day. Even the most demanding nights at Kung Fu take less out of me than most work days did during the winter rush. What I've been eating hasn't changed, just what I've been doing has. That's the biggest factor for me, since between September and December I lost around 20 pounds, and then from January to April I haven't lost any. 

 Those two reasons are what is really affecting my weight loss. While the second one will only really be relevant until school ends in August, it is still affecting me right now. I knew this coming into the year, so as long as I don't start to gain large amounts of weight like I did last year (265 up to 295 during the school year) I'll be on the right track.

12430 push ups

12430 sit ups

1225 Mlong Kuen

225 Hockey Stick Form

295 Kilometers

7.5

I haven't talked about my personal requirements since the first few weeks of the year, so this is just a little update on those. 

Saving Money

    This one is kinda hard to judge until I get back to work in Aug/Sep, but so far I am doing pretty good at controlling my spending. (TBD)

Losing Weight

    This one has been a hard fought battle, but I am still making progress on it. My goal is to be a max of 250 pounds by the end of the Lunar Year. I started this Lunar Year at 285, and as of today I am at 272. 13 pounds down, 22 pounds still to go.

Pass My Final Two Years at NAIT

    With around a month left in my third year, my grades so far are doing pretty good. Earlier in the term my grades were a little bit lower than I would want, but now that I'm fully back in school mode they are right where I want them. For reference, a pass in the class is a 63% and to take the government test at the end I need a 65% in every module. I have completed 3 out of 5 modules in the class, with one in progress for the whole term. 

AUTO1230 : 76.55%

AUTO2120 : 80.12%

AUTO2130 : 90.01%

ENGL2354 : 84.11% (Ongoing)

Overall, I am making good progress on all of my personal requirements, which is a major improvement on years gone by.

8955 push ups

8955 sit ups

154 Mlong Kuen

54 Hockey Stick Form

223 Kilometers

    

7.4

No deep insights or thoughts for this one, just something that I've noticed. I have been helping out with the kids classes more lately, thanks to the school day ending at 3 as opposed to the work day ending at 5. Even compared to last year at this time, I've been able to attend more classes. I believe this is due to me already having the balance between the two figured out, something that took a decent amount of time last year. Since I'm able to manage my workload at school better, it allows for more mental capacity for Kung Fu. That's what has allowed me to be at more of the classes, while still keeping up to speed at school.

4150 push ups

4150 sit ups

85 Mlong Kuen

85 Hockey Stick Form

101 Kilometers

7.3

The journey of mastery is something that gets talked about a lot, specifically the role that the black belt plays in it. What I'm going to write is essentially what has been said, but put into my own words to help me and maybe even a few others grasp it and understand it better. On the day you receive your black belt, the journey towards mastery isn't over. In my mind, that's not where it starts either. I would say that the "starting point" towards mastery is different for everyone. For some, it might be when they joined Kung Fu. I was 2 when I joined, so it's probably safe to say my start towards mastery was a little bit later. While the black belt is not the end of the journey, it is still an important piece. It shows your dedication, skill, and knowledge is where it needs to be to further the journey closer to the "goal". I believe that it is not possible to truly achieve full mastery in one lifetime. There is simply too much within the concept of mastery to achieve without some form of immortality. But that should not deter anyone from striving towards it, as the process towards achieving mastery is still beneficial without ever fully achieving the end goal. That's my interpretation on the mastery subject. Not sure if it makes sense to anyone else but this is how it works in my head.

3040 push ups

3040 sit ups

56 M'long Koon

56 Hockey Stick Form

70 Kilometers

7.2

On the Monday following the Chinese New Year banquet, I was heading home from school when I got into my first accident. It wasn't a bad accident at all, as everyone walked away and the vehicles were still drivable, but it still happened. It was a three person accident, including me, my friend from school, another guy. I was coming up to a light when it changed to yellow, so I decided to stop. My friend was behind me, but couldn't stop in time so he swerved into the other lane, hitting the other guy and then bouncing back into me. I got out, looked at everyone, made sure everyone was okay, and then got us all pulled off to a side street just around the corner. This is when the other guy revealed he had a shoulder injury and demanded I call 911 to get police and medics on the team. After I had called, he got back in his truck and started to feel out his hip, which raised. some red flags for me. At the same time, my friend started to have a panic attack, as he had only gotten his license a few months ago. When the fire truck came, they checked out my friend to make sure he was okay as well as the other guy. After a few seconds the firefighters determined he was fine and just acting for insurance money. The three of us ended up going to the collision report center, where we waited in line for about an hour and a half before giving a full report on what happened and the damages that occurred. After it was all said and done, I got home and it started to set in what had just happened. I realized that in the moment, I had essentially blocked all adrenaline from affecting me, which allowed me to stay level headed and make the decisions I did. Staying calm in a situation like that is a skill that I got from Kung Fu, and I'm glad that it works. Turns out deep breaths really can do the trick.

2880 push ups

2880 sit ups

53 M'long Koon

53 Hockey Stick Form

64 Kilometers

7.1

 Why did I choose a hockey stick as my weapon for both this year and last? That's a question I have gotten a few times since I first chose it. last year, but I don't think I have really answered it until now. The idea behind it was simple. We are told in class that when Kung Fu was still in it's infancy in China, the government had a ban on all weapons, so those trained in the martial arts made staffs out of the handles of brooms and such as to "get around" the law. In short, they took an everyday item and made the most out of it. That was my thinking heading into last year, but I couldn't decide on what to actually choose at first. There were a few things around the house that stood out, but then I saw this old Chevy hockey stick beside the shed. With it being a stick based weapon, it wouldn't be too difficult to find ways to make it work with what I was already used to, with it being unique enough that it would stand out in a crowd of weapons. So that is why I chose a hockey stick as my weapon for the I Ho Chuan.

2720 push ups

2720 sit ups

50 M'long Koon

50 Hockey Stick Form

60 Kilometers

6.13

 With the year of the snake coming up, that means that the dragon is coming to and end and with it are all of the numbers and requirements from the past year. Overall, I'd say it wasn't that great of a year in regards to the I Ho Chuan for me. When it came to my numbers, most of them weren't the best. For blogs, my consistency sucked. For my personal requirements, Only one got completed. The whole year was somewhat of a "meh" year for me. I believe the biggest part of that was my personal requirements, and how I felt detached from them fairly quickly. That's why I have completely revamped my way of thinking for this year. Instead of thinking of a few things that I would like to accomplish, I instead focused on some goals that I was already working towards. With this approach, I already have a plan in place that I know will work for me, all it needs now is the year to progress to achieve these goals. For this year, my requirements are as follows: 

1.  Save money. Simple enough as is.

2. Lose weight. I plan to lose roughly 25 pounds by this time next year. 

3. Pass my final two years of NAIT. Again, simple enough as is.

All three of those are goals I've had for at the very least a few months now, so they are something I know I am invested in.

48400 push ups

48400 sit ups

1160 M'long Koon

1160 Hockey Stick Form

1724 Kilometers