Wow is there a lot going on this year with the Ultimate Black Belt Test!
W have a strong team. People are engaging each other, asking questions, sharing successes and being all together amazing. Starting strong as we all have has been a great way to get this year rolling.
It’s been fun working through different ways I can focus on physical fitness in lots of different ways in my daily life. Not just to get stronger and leaner, also working on flexibility I feel will be important for some nagging back injuries that tight muscles are not helping. I know the physical fitness piece will be doable based on what needs to be completed each day. The most important part is that consistent every day action. A favorite quote of mine is from Zig Ziglar and it goes something to the tune of relating motivation to cleanliness, and that neither lasts which is why we take showers every day. When you have a big goal in front of you, it’s easy to fall off if you do not keep organized with what is in front of you. I’ve done this pretty well this week.
I was fortunate to have a call with Sensei Tom earlier this week to talk about the Wow project and how to start thinking of ways to implement this not only in my school, but something that could potentially affect many throughout my community through my students. I have some design work to go through before I toss out any big reveals (I’m one that likes to really think through and mentally work through many scenarios until I reach on that resonates with me). The project will revolve around prevention of bullying and domestic violence, and I’ll be spending time researching things to see what is already out there in terms of information.
I also was able to travel to South Carolina from Ohio this weekend to participate in a jiu jitsu seminar as an Uki for my good friend black belt Jennifer Recinos. The instruction and opportunity to roll with many different ladies was amazing! I spent the entire day Friday in a car which kept me off the mat, but I planned ahead with some of the exercises the day before and will make up a little time as well during the week this week. It made for a very tired day today as I took a flight home to make sure that I was there and present for my nutrition clients as well as the jiu jitsu class I co-teach on Sundays. I feel its important to keep my commitments and I planned appropriately to be there for them.
I feel I was most successful with my jiu jitsu sparring rounds this week, as I was able to complete 29 five minute sparring rounds, almost all which entailed rolling with upper belt women. I also did some digging on where I was going to take my 10 boxing classes. I have a current shoulder injury that I am in the process of healing up, so I want to wait until this is not aggravating me so I can fully focus on strong punching.
Food has also been good – I was strategic with cheat meals, paired them with workouts (still had protein, fats, and smart carbohydrates just not the best form of them) and the rest of my meals were full of great veggies and fully on track with my goals. I sleep so well hydrated and properly fed. It motivates me to do more of it.
One of the bigger struggles for me is mediation. It always has. I have an incredibly active mind – which helps me with problem solving and day to day live. In that way I am appreciative. But with mediation, it is very difficult for me to sit still and see the thoughts pass by without wanting to act on them. It’s hard for me not to use mediation as an idea factory – which is what seems to be happening. I know I’ll get better at it, but for now ….. I’ll get there. I want to do some training with Transendental Mediation as I am intrigued by the different brain waves that are accessed with TM. I did some preliminary google searches on finding specific instruction in this area, and need to find something more local than what I was coming across on the web.
Going into this upcoming week I know that things will be a bit of a challenge. I work pretty much every day this week as a school psychologist in various duties throughout the day, which will test the limits of my food prep and workout organization. I’m planning on rising to the occasion by planning meals ahead of time, going grocery shopping tomorrow, and doing workouts earlier in the day to make sure that time does not get away from me and take me from being able to get things done or stuck doing them at 11:30 pm when I should be going to bed.
Till next week.
Check us all out at https://tomcallos.com/ubbt-team-2018/
The Great ADVENTURE 