Incapacitation via the Hindu Squat and Other Such Things

Just the other day, in an effort to supplement my current weekly exercise routines, I went onto youtube and started viewing instructional workout videos. I stumbled across one for the Hindu squat. My interest was piqued. It seemed like a good idea, that is until the next day when I found myself nearly incapacitated. 

Once upon a time, long long ago, I was a fairly physically active person (well, "active" in the broadest sense). I didn't necessarily seek out this physical activity (seriously, I'm like the least athletically minded person on the planet). Rather, it was just organic to my lifestyle at the time. I'd describe it all as purely situational. I worked in the city, and my days started off with a long brisk walk to the office after a lift in on the bus. My lunch hours included nice leisurely strolls, often time spent window shopping, and then later at the close of the day, another nice walk back to the bus station. Sure, it was low impact, but it was consistent, and I felt great. Once my children were born, I did the regular running around involved with toddlers, and while by then, I was officially a full-time stay-at-home parent, I got enough of a workout to keep me at least somewhat fit. It was right around this time that I became interested in Pilates, and started following the Fit for Life diet, so I was a practicing vegan, too. In the meantime, I sought to make some extra cash by taking on occasional freelance work--nothing steady at all. It wasn't until I found a more steady gig, working as a researcher, that things began to change. I found that the only times I'd get out and about, were when I was getting the kids to their extra-curricular activities. Most of my time was spent on homeschooling and working. Even my hobbies, when I could get to them, offered no outlet for physical activity. My life went from just barely active, to primarily sedentary. The Pilates was placed on the back-burner, and I grew tired of cooking two separate meals for every days' lunches and dinners. I didn't expect of course, for my entire family to follow my diet, hence the extra time spent in meal preparation. And yes, I got lazy.

Falling out of shape took no time at all. In a matter of weeks, I started to feel sluggish. Walking up a flight of stairs was enough to get me out of breath. As my work schedule became more demanding and I was spending even more time seated in front of my computer screen, the pounds started piling up. I found myself getting into cooking ruts, making tons of pasta and rice dishes which were quick and easy, and of course, that didn't help at all.

In the meantime, I was intent on keeping on top of the kids' levels of activity. It's funny how I was so hyper-focused on their keeping physically fit and active, while dismissing my need for the same. The girls had been involved in dance classes for several years, but I had yet to find something for my son, who is very physically active anyway. He's the sort of child that has to move to think. He needs frequent breaks from his schoolwork to stand, walk around, jump, and run. Yet despite his high levels of physical activity, he wasn't particularly interested in sports. He was however, very interested in pursuing martial arts, especially kung fu or jeet kune do, thanks to his love of Bruce Lee films, brought along in large part by my husband's love of the same. I set out to find a kung fu school which proved much more difficult than I thought. There are karate and tae kwon do schools seemingly everywhere, but kung fu lessons were much more difficult to find. Thankfully, before too long, I was able to find a place not terribly far from home that offered a free introductory lesson for my son. We all tagged along and the sifu insisted that we all take part as well. Yes, even me. This was definitely not my intention in going, but I figured, I may as well give it a shot. Not fifteen minutes later, I found myself quite unable to move. Every muscle in my body ached. Even just lifting my arms to adjust my glasses, was painful. It's funny to me now, but right then, it all became a major epiphany for me. I quickly talked things over with my husband, and we all decided to enroll. It is one of the best decisions I've made for myself and my family in a long while.

The past few months have made such an amazing difference in my life. Not only have they tested my will in so many ways, but I am sharing this new journey with my family, and what great motivators they have proven to be. Just a few short months ago, I could barely make it through fifteen minutes of training, and here I am, able to do that and more. Granted, the Hindu squat experiment has shown that I have a long way to go, but I'm less disheartened by that realization now, considering how far I feel I've come already. I will from time to time, update this blog with my progress in this area, and as I discover new aptitudes and challenges along the way. Until then, in the words of Bruce Lee: "There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." I hope to do just that.

Letting go of that OCD (or trying to)

Recently when I was proofreading a friend's paper for a graduate class she's been taking, I noticed that her spacing between sentences wasn't uniform.  I had to fight against an intrinsic desire to update all of the spacing to two spaces as was common when I first learned to type on an antiquated machine called a typewriter (remember those?), but of course that is no longer considered the proper form.  No longer is it correct to follow a colon with two spaces either.  Oh, the horror!  And just now, I was reminded of this new (yes, it's still new to me) and now firmly established form as I look over my last post and see that my left margin isn't all lovely and flushed against the side because I still subscribe to old school spacing!  I'm not necessarily of the "you-can't-teach-an-old-dog-new-tricks" variety, but why mess with something so basic and as ingrained as proper sentence spacing?  I mean, really.  I understand that the computer has made all of it irrelevant, as it adjusts for proper letter spacing all on its own (shudder), but yikes.

If it wasn't for that dang left margin looking so well, NOT uniform, I'd probably stick to my guns and just type as I always have.  To have to catch myself after every single sentence is just torture, akin to Chinese water torture I'd fathom.  How such an insignificant (to most) little detail could grate on me so much, I'll never understand.

And I thought it was bad enough when Pluto was demoted.  Sure, I understand that it is neither terrestrial or jovian, but again, really?  Well, I just wanted to say, Pluto, I've got your back.  And all this because you're a dwarf and a bit of a tag-along.  In my world, "My Very Educated Mother" still serves us "Nine Pickles." (Note: for those not familiar with the planet order mnemonic, it's My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles--or Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto). Kids today are being served Nachos. Nachos! Can you stand it?

Tagentially related, I think I preferred living in a world where brontosauruses (brontosauri?) existed, and were still known as brontosauruses.  "Apatosaurus" just doesn't have the same ring to it.  And from the looks of it, the triceratops might be on its way out, too.  Oh, the inhumanity!

Busy-ness

Well, October has been kind of busy, and I've been in a haze precipitated by a near constant dosage of allergy medication.  'Twas my pulmonologist's idea...something about nipping symptoms in the bud or some such thing.  The result however, has been that I've been in this zombie-like state for weeks--zombie-like yes, but with no appetite for brains.  I've managed to avoid allergy induced asthmatic flare-ups, but egads, this is intolerable.  I feel as if I have to broadcast that I'm really not this slow...at least not regularly...as far as I'm aware anyway.

School has gone well, particularly considering all of the above.  Dd1 seems to be taking greater charge of her education.  I've always felt like I've had to be her cheerleader in all things.  Well, that's not entirely true either.  She does do some things without any prompting, but keeping on top of her assignments has always been a challenge.  Then of course, sometimes I doubt whether or not the reason for this is that perhaps I'm expecting too much of her.  If anyone is out there, reading my blog, please feel free to opine on this topic.  I originally set out to expect her to write about two one-page "response" papers per week, in addition to the assignments required in her writing program.  I often provide her with an essay question to answer, but she is welcome to write on any relevant topic she may choose.  There is a bit of writing involved across our curriculum, but nothing too over-the-top--i.e. the occasional outline of a passage in one of her books (Chemistry, Rhetoric, etc.).  I haven't quite gotten comfortable with her just reading through her history book on her own.  Maybe it's just my hang-up, but I don't believe that she really absorbs the information in one reading.  So, I've taken to reading ahead of her, keeping my own notes which she's welcome to reference, and we just chat about the section's material.  Is this too much hand-holding?  I'm genuinely curious.  Every now and again, I pop on over at the WTM boards and check to see what other children her age (14) are doing, and it seems that several are way more autonomous at that age.  I realize that no two children are the same, and that ultimately, I should follow my conscience and do what is best for my particular child, but I'm always worried about making her too dependent in the process.

Dd2 is proving to be challenging in another way.  She is such a driven child...but only for things that she loves to do.  She's an amazing artist.  Really and truly.  And I'm not just saying this because she's my child.  She has an amazing eye for subtle detail, and she is such a visual learner.  Rather than pry her away from her sketchbooks, I'm trying to incorporate art across her curriculum.  Her eyes just brighten up when she knows she can turn whatever she's learning into a drawing of some sort.  And oddly enough, this excitement even plays a part in her math lessons.  We use Singapore Math, and there are many opportunities for drawing models with that program.  Yes, she even gets excited over something as simple as model drawing.  Granted, she takes some artistic liberties with regard to these diagrams, but I'm not complaining.  Oh, and we did decide to take part in a special homeschool series of art classes at one of our local museums.  The first session was on contour drawing, and she was just so excited.  This was our first time taking part in something art related outside of home, and so far, so good.

As for my ds, well, he is about as well-rounded as they come.  He seems to be equally interested in everything, and shows an aptitude for everything we've covered as well, with the exception of the physical act of writing.  Even small amounts of handwriting frustrate him, and he's permanently attached to his eraser.  I've never seen a child so intent on erasing, even when erasures aren't even necessary.  I'm guessing this could be a tendency toward perfectionism, and frankly, that scares me a bit.  Sounds a bit like me actually, hence my worry.  Why couldn't he have inherited something else from me?  Well, he does have his Mama's hair.  ;)  While I don't want him to be careless, I certainly don't want him to be so hung up on being perfect either.

And that seems to cover things as they currently stand.  Oh, I did go ahead and assign some long term assignments for the kids...stuff I think they would enjoy.  In an effort to capitalize on their love of art (all three of them enjoy art, it's just that my middle dd LIVES it), I've asked the kids to come up with their own manga.  They are open to developing their characters and storylines fully into a short graphic novel, but really, there are no real requirements.  This is just something I think they'd enjoy.  Last year, I had them make short claymation stop-motion films, and they were hilarious.  If I can figure out how to post a few of their videos here, I will.  Given their interest level, I may just have them design their own board games based on their manga characters and storyline.  I bought those game kits from Bare Books a while ago, and I actually had forgotten I had done so.  I stumbled across them the other day and got excited all over again.  'Tis the one positive aspect of being a bit absent-minded.  Everything old, seems new, as you're always looking at things with new eyes.  Uh-huh...this is a glass half full kind of day.

Happy homeschooling!