Boxing As A Workout?...I Can Dig It

I've often come to the end of a long day and wished to heaven I had a heavy bag, a set of boxing gloves, and tons of space within which to use them both. Seriously, even as a stay-at-home-mom, there are days when you want to kick the living crap out of people for their blind ignorance.

That said, I have often mentioned the idea of purchasing said bag and gloves to my hubby—if only to at times save his shoulder from coming into contact with a wandering blow—and he's as been pretty receptive to the idea as well.

Bearing all that in mind, it was interesting to read the following article last week regarding the increasing number of women who use the sport of Boxing as a release and workout for both their bodies and their sanity.

"It's fun. It's empowering. It's as much psychological as physical," he said of the workout, which he said can burn up to 1000 calories. "If you can't do a six-punch combination, you do a two-punch. Everyone gets their own bag and goes at their own pace."

He calls the hour-long classes hardcore and quick.

"It's a testosterone-filled environment for people who seek out an intense workout. Women don't walk in there with makeup on."

...boxing workouts are great for toning the upper arms, back and abdominals, areas that women often like to target, while providing a high-intensity cardio session at the same time.
"It's all intermixed with boxing," she explained. "Just hitting the bag is cardiovascular, and you're working on your abdominals and your arms. You're also twisting, and then there are plyometric (jumping) moves, followed by pushups and sit ups."

She said boxing is a particular draw for professional women.

"The people who take our classes are Type A," she said. "They learn to do it well."

Her clients mainly attack heavy bags, not people. "I don't think anyone imagines they would hit anybody," she said. "But just imagining they could is a confidence booster."

 So I can burn up to 1000 calories and I get to hit something...sign me up!

Related articles

• For women, boxing workouts pull no punches - Reuters (drugstoresource.wordpress.com)
• Bags, Pads and Mitts (wingchunkuen.me)

Strength Is Not Given

Strength is earned.

The biggest misconception any woman (or man for that matter) can have is to believe that strength is inherent from birth. It isn't. It's something that is acquired through overcoming the challenges and trials that He sets in your path. Those obstacles are like weights for your soul and—the more you lift, the stronger it gets—it's up to you to step up to the bench and do the heavy lifting all by yourself. That's the only way to become a stronger, more spiritually balanced woman of God.

Of course, over time, it becomes easier to remain still and shy away from the unknown because it's easier to not keep opening the doors with unknown paths and struggles behind them. However, there is little glory in conceding to your fears and allowing your soul to cower and remain weak in the face of a new challenge—challenges that, I truly believe, He skillfully places in our paths as reminders  that a) He knows you're there and b) is confident you can handle whatever it is He presents to you.

My personal view on facing these challenges is that we should feel blessed by their presence because it shows us that He's confident in our strength and ability even when we're not. That realization more than anything else gives me the motivation I need to continue to face my demons—no matter how frightening the battles might seem because I know where the strength to fight those battles will come from and I know I'll earn a few more stripes along the way if I stay the course.

Don't ever be afraid to step up to the bench, put on your gloves, and do that spiritual heavy lifting. I promise you as each set gets harder, He won't be far behind to help you—His hands beneath your elbows, offering you His services as your personal "spotter".

Get lifting.

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I'm Almost There...

The hardest thing I ever did was to allow myself to feel beautiful. No, I'm not kidding.

Believe it or not, at least for me, it used to be difficult to look in the mirror on a daily basis and tell myself that I was every bit as gorgeous as the woman on the cover of the magazine, the starlet playing opposite her leading man, or the young lady at the local grocery store who's every bit as elegant as Audrey Hepburn.

But here's the thing I finally realized about physical beauty—and trust me it's a simple concept for me  to have glossed over—it's not in the eye of the beholder, nor is it defined by what society wants you to think it is (i.e. those women on the cover of Elle or Vanity Fair), but it is in fact a characteristic with absolutely no definition.

It was after the above epiphany that I began to understand that my personal quest to be beautiful will not be something I find in any mirror, but rather something I have spent far too much time concerning myself with because, in the end, it's irrelevant.

My face, my body, etc. are filled with little imperfections that I can't Photoshop or crop out, but those imperfections are unique to me. So I can either a) live with them and accentuate the parts that actually matter or b) allow my need to nitpick at said imperfections to lead me away from cultivating the parts of me that will be the most beneficial in the long run.

For the record, I chose to focus on the latter.

And even though I confess fully that my obsession with being fit caters a bit to that remaining vanity, I am okay with that because it also emphasizes to my daughter and son just how important it is to keep your body the temple God made it to be. 

In the end, I know that this is me...on my best day:

And I'm okay with that.

Judging eyes be damned.

Don't Listen To That Negative Voice In Your Head

The question I get the most from family and friends is, "how do you stay so fit after having had two kids?". My answer is a simple one, "I work hard to look the way I do".

I don't diet, I don't take weight-loss pills, and I don't starve myself. My methods are the tried and true ones that continue to be the most effective of any diet I've ever heard or read about, "I eat right and exercise". Period. And though I always consider myself to be a work-in-progress, I know I am a lot further along than I was several years ago, and I'm proud of that fact.

So the advice I give to those who tell me they don't know that they can stick with a program long enough to see the results they'd like is they are their only roadblock.

It's not about being skinny, it's about being healthy, and being healthy is about changing the things about your life that contribute to your feeling bad about yourself—food and all.

The first step is to overcome that voice in your head that keeps saying "you can't" and replace it with the one that you've buried deep in your subconscious. The one that knows "you can".

Go find that voice and let it out. It's time for it to be heard. 

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