Sacrifices

Just had to ask the question, "If we're supposed to be on a health kick / intending to lose weight, how many times can we have 'one last takeaway'?"

Mother in law rang up offering a communal takeout. Missus agreed then I countermanded with pesky facts.

Now I am in the doghouse

Pah!

I fear not the man who sends 10,000 tweets once...

I had occasion to post the following tweet just now:

Only problem is now that I stink of smoke, having (circle)walked past the aforementioned chiminea a few dozen times.

Shower soon, I think.

Fitness Nutrition

Had this morning's porridge with skimmed milk. Went against all my sensibilities as a northerner, but the secret seems to be to add loads of topping (fruit, yoghurt and honey, in this case) to make up for the reduction in taste on the milk side.

Question that springs to mind is how will all my baguazhang applications work if I no longer have 16 stones of weight to put behind them?

"Give it a bit of yang..."

1,000 Days of Bagua: The first week

So, I have passed the first week and a bit of the 1,000 days in which I intend to practice baguazhang daily.

Frankly, I have been surprised by how easy it has been. While I have not exactly exploded into my training regime, I have been pleased to note how often in daily life I think about bagua or move myself according to the principles I have learned in class.

Next week (or, perhaps, the week after - I am attending a festival next week), I plan to formalise my training a little more and place some minimum requirements for the duration of my daily training routine.

Why do I practice Baguazhang

There are many perfectly understandable reasons I could give to explain why I practice Baguazhang.  Most of them have probably been covered elsewhere other Internet by other bloggers.

Health reasons, self defence,  improving the mind-body connection.  All are valid.

Mostly, though, I enjoy the act of practising and thinking about bagua.

Then, additionally,  I like the heritage aspect.  Perhaps a strange word to come from a Non-chinese when talking about Baguazhang.   However,  the tales of the venerable masters of the Yi Zong lineage really interest and excite me.

1,000 Days of Bagua: Day One

Managed to practice my baguazhang during my lunchbreak at work today. Or, rather, at the park near my work. It was pretty windy and cold, despite the bright sunshine. So I had to keep my overcoat on for the full five minutes of basic hand movements and single palm change.

Doesn't really match the iconic image of the internal martial artist that I have gained from watching way too many martial arts, herioc swordplay and chop sockey movies. Call it is misspent youth, if you will, I consider it a valuable education.

The movies, though, really hammer home the idea of an internal practitioner, honing their art for hours on end. Usually at sunrise and probably while sporting an impressive pair of pajamas (possibly shiny).

I, on the other hand, was wearing a pair of camouflaged combat trousers, a t-shirt, fleece and overcoat and a pair of Everlast trainers. Not exactly iconic, is it?

Still, it was good, focused practice and I must have been doing something right, as my be-trainered feet were slowly drilling down into the muddy, sodden grass.

After that, I went on with my usual, lunchtime walk. It felt really good to take a break and do something I actually enjoy in that time of day normally reserved for the drudgery of work.

First day of 1,000 Days of Bagua has been a success. Roll on tomorrow's practice.

1,000 Days of Bagua: The Preamble

Okay, so elsewhere on the information superhighway, you may have come across the concept of "100 Days of Bagua". Not sure who came up with the concept, but essentially, it requires you, the bagua player, to commit to training Baguazhang at least once a day, every day for a continuous, 100 day period. Usually starts with the new year in a resolution type way.

Really good idea, and a task I have undertaken a couple of times. Both times failing a few weeks down the line. So, perhaps hoping to redeem myself, or maybe by way of punishment, I have corrupted the idea into 1,000 Days of Bagua.

Essentially, on April 6th (in a few days - this Wednesday, to be precise), there will be 270 days left of the year. 270 + 365 + 365 = 1000 (days).

So, if I begin on Wednesday, April 6th 2016 and train Baguazhang each and every day until 1st January 2019, then I will have completed 1,000 continuous days of Baguazhang training.

Why am I deciding to do this? Well, weirdly, for me it sounds like the kind of thing I would find easier to keep going. And, anything that encourages me to train more can only be a good thing, right?

So, to add a little detail, to avoid making my training a chore, anything more than 10 mins counts. However, it has to be focused, good quality training. And, after a few weeks, I will work out my average training time per week and make adjustments to improve upon that on a monthly basis - where possible.

As often as possible, I will try to log or at least recount in retrospect what training I have managed that day/week.

Watch this space.

Afterglow. Ermm...?

Last night,  after practicing single palm change for perhaps as little as 10 minutes, I experienced something of a revelation.

At class just the Monday before,  teacher had mentioned a curious sensation often felt after walking the circle.  The sensation of aliveness of the limbs and big hands.

I had dismissed it as something people of greater ability would perhaps feel, but didn't expect it to happen for me.

Yet I did, indeed, feel just that.  Could have been my minds creating an experience I wanted to share.  But I'd like to feel that, on that night, at least, I was "doing it right".