Health and fitness complication - Living with PKU

I was born with Phenylketonuria (PKU - read about it here). This means, for the first 15 years of my life, I was on a strict, very low protein diet. Until my mid-teens, I hadn't eaten any meat, fish, milk, eggs or bread and could only eat limited quantities of potatoes, mushrooms, beans, etc. I took (very horrible-tasting) supplements and visited the dietician at least twice a year.

These days, the recommendation is that people with PKU remain on this diet their whole lives. As I said, I started a normal diet at 15 and have eaten normally since. I often consider returning to my diet in the hopes this improves my life. Side effects of PHe build up in the body are severe, but I have lived with them my whole life - though it does seem as I get older that these are becoming worse. It is not quite that simple, though. While I was on my diet, my physique was, at most, a stocky 5'7". After a year or so of eating a normal diet, my height increased to the comparatively lofty 6'3" that I enjoy today. Clearly, the increase coming off the very restrictive diet did me some good.

That said, I am still very wary of getting caught up in the body building/protein frenzy craze as part of my health and fitness journey - simply because I know that, for me, there is much more at stake.

Regardless, I'm not going to allow that to compromise my current health kick. I'm 48 now. It is time I got this body into proper shape.

Passed down the generations - A love of chop sockey movies and Asian cinema

Nope, this isn't yet another post about martial arts lineages and authentic kung fu schools. It is simply about my love of cheesy Chop Sockey movies. As my daughter is now 11 and already has an interest in all things anime, I'm wondering if now is the time to try to pique her interest in the old school martial art movies that I so loved in my teens and 20s.

Back when VHS was king, I used to have a huge collection of such movies, and Hong Kong cinema in general. I was lucky enough to have a couple of friends who were also into such movies and we would swap recommendations all the time. So many conversations rattled on arguing who was the best oriental action star and which director's films were coolest.

Maybe I need to start by building up our DVD collection once again. There are a few good movies on various streaming services, but nowhere near enough!

All the motivation

The other day, we were out shopping at the local supermarket. My wife and daughter were walking behind me. I couldn't really hear much of their conversation properly. What I did manage to catch, though, was my 10 year old daughter telling my wife that I, her Daddy, protected her.

I've never been much of a physical specimen. Health and fitness has never really been that important to me. Most of all, I'm definitely no fighter - I have no competitive drive or killer instinct at all.

Hearing that from her, though. That's made me want to train my strength and fighting ability like never before.

There's no greater motivation than family, I guess.

Be careful what you wish for....

Pre-pandemic, if you'd asked me what I needed in order to be able to get my #baguazhang training on track, without hesitation my response would have been an emphatic "more time at home". Now that I actually work from home and have regained the lost commuting hours back into my day, though, I find it harder than ever to work up the enthusiasm to practice. Spending all day indoors, with our lovely comfy sofa within arms reach and all the food, drink and spectator-fodder (internet, films, etc) that I can handle has sounded the death-knell for my productivity.

It's really hard to volunteer to do difficult things when so many pleasant easy things are within reach. At least when I went to work, I was out of the house for maybe 10+ hours a day. Going for a walk, hitting the gym or practicing (outside) just meant maybe 30 extra minutes of my day away from home. No biggie.

There are methods for overcoming laziness, of course...

Now, working myself up to any level of activity is a gargantuan task in and of itself. What I'm hoping, though, is that by sharing methods of shaking off the laziness on here might help me to overcome my self-imposed lethargy.

Watch this space!

#StandWithTaiwan

Taiwan is undergoing a difficult time at the moment, due to China's threats to annex the island. The current lineage holder of our school, Luo Dexiu, is Taiwanese and currently teaches his class in Taipei. If China were to take control of Taiwan, it would not be good for our school. Not only would Luo Laoshi no longer be able to travel to teach his invaluable seminars around the world. But also, China is attempting to standardise chinese martial arts under the banner of Wushu.

Taiwan is of great strategic importance and internationally, the strong desire is that Taiwan remains independent. However, the recent withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan is a display of weakness that has emboldened China. Chinese ships and planes of war are regularly impinging on Taiwanese space and things are very tense, diplomatically.

However, this could end badly for China. Support for Taiwan is growing and becoming more vocal. Even Anonymous have let their feelings on the matter be known.

State of play

These days, I am actually managing to practice every day. Albeit in a very limited fashion. Teacher has given us an exercise to practice. Diligence, apparently, will be rewarded with enlightenment - just repeating this simple exercise every day will not only improve physique in the expected way, but also teach "the mind" something.

I'm already getting a small glimpse into changes that may be occurring. Teacher assures me just to keep practicing and all will be revealed.

I am managing to practice this exercise every day. If I am wise, I will try to tag some more traditional bagua practice onto it and soon be the kind of dedicated bagua player that I always hoped I'd be.

That old familiar ache...

Another class last night. Our Teacher is putting a lot of effort into helping us understand the transition from fixed step, through link step to continuous step.

This year, we missed out on the usually annual trip of our lineage holder to do seminars around the world. The Manchester seminar is usually very well attended and full of excellent tuition and displays of incredible skill. However, due to the travel restrictions, this year's seminars have had to be cancelled. Hopefully, Luo Laoshi will be able to hold a seminar next year - and that is something for which I intend to prepare myself.#

While it is quite high-level, both in terms of concept and skill, if I can go some way toward improving my continuous step, I feel this will put me in good stead to learn the most from the seminar. Luo Laoshi is always very generous.

I remember, when training in the mid-90s, things were very different. A seminar would consist of several classes from one school all training together in one hall. The lineage holder would walk in, speak to the senior instructor then look out over the class for perhaps a couple of minutes before nodding, "Good" and then leaving. That's no real reflection on that particular lineage holder, who is still teaching today. It is mostly just how things were done back then.

The first seminar I attended with Luo Laoshi had me almost aghast. Not only did he personally lead the class, but also took time to improve my technique and even demonstrating on me. So different and much more personable than those previous seminars to which I'd been accustomed.

The Golden Circumference of Mutant Stackable Crisps

It felt really good to attend class last night. Quite a good show of students led to some vibrant, interesting discussion with our teacher. The subject at hand involved pretty high level stuff. Luckily, everyone in attendance were long term students, so I don't think the details went too far over anyone's head.

I'm feeling it a little now. A slight ache in my shoulders and upper legs/hips. Thankfully, my injured shoulder isn't complaining too much, so I hope that means it had a useful workout, without causing any undue stress.

We've been given homework to try to fathom out for ourselves before next Monday. I have an appointment at David Lloyd gym tomorrow night, so I'm hoping I'll be able to practice some bagua after that. I plan only light exercise today, as I don't want to compromise my enthusiasm with an aching, fatigued body.