Highlights of my Day... Monday, February 18

1. Definitely not a good start to this week… seriously. Woke up, still hadn’t been able to do any “bathroom duties” (go ahead and joke…) so I decided to hit the gym. I hadn’t slept well, go figure, and oddly enough I woke up at 5:40am.

2. Arrived at the gym at 6am, right on the dot. Stripped down and stepped on the scale… oh the horror! I can’t even convince myself to type the number that stared back at me. I didn’t stare at it too long though… mind ya, I couldn’t. I was in tears, literally. Am sure the morning’s weight club ladies were really impressed, considering.

3. In total fear of having to fess up to the scale in front of my team mates today at boxing, I cranked up the speed on the treadmill, ran for an hour and almost cleared 900 calories. In the reflection of the TV in front of me, I envisioned Junior Mint coming at me with Mr. Bamboo Stick and I kept on thinking, “He’s going to kill me!” Needless to say, fear was definitely my fuel.

4. Then it was off to Seoul where I struggled to push aside my morning sad story and focus on my Korean studies. Thankfully today’s class was cut short cause my teacher had another meeting. I like our class time together but today I just wasn’t feeling all together in my own head. The morning episode at the gym had flooded my brain.

5. Was hoping I could merely get away with having to face the scale with Junior Mint. He had mentioned that he had some meetings to attend and so I was hoping to seriously kick my own butt at training, resume back to my expected weight and thus this little issue would seem as if it never occurred. Of course, nothing in life goes quite as planned and so when Junior Mint texted me, I got nervous. He texted me to tell me that Hye Min was coming in from Seoul today for sparring practice. I had about a two hour heads up and so I downed about two litres of water, hoping it’d help flush my system of that stupid, stupid sick chicken that I shouldn’t have ate in the first place. Arrived at the club and was greeted by a dozen or so people who all had been apparently informed that I was going to be sparring with Hye Min. I had come as requested, at 6pm, but Hye Min didn't show up until 7pm and so for that long, long hour, I sweated it out. For the past week I had been anticipating sparring with Hye Min. She had come in from Seoul to spar with me and honestly, I felt more stressed about sparring with her than my game this Saturday. Hye Min is definitely not a stranger to the ring and so I knew she'd be a challenge. I knew that if I could handle Hye Min and come out of the fight with confidence, than this Saturday would be awesome. There's no way Me Ran (my opponent on Saturday) could as good as Hye Min!!!

6. Tried to relax by joking around with some of my team mates. Milk Dud got a good kick out of my turtle shell bra (boxing chest protector) when I banged on my chest and it made an echoing sound. Unlike the old skool chest protectors they make us girls wear, this one is very discrete and so you can’t even notice it.

7. Then it was time... we both stepped into the ring. Junior Mint quickly rubbed my tummy before the bell went. My stomach was in knots and last night's chicken made my tummy feel like one crazy mosh pit. The bell went... it was game on. I knew the club was packed with people but it's amazing to note how I honestly didn't hear anyone. The only sounds I heard was that of my pounding heart. It was pounding so hard in my chest; I was convinced that had I coughed, I would had coughed it up. I heard my breathing, it was heavy. I heard the bell and the only other sound I heard was that of Junior Mint yelling at me from my corner. Four rounds, that's how long we went... and it was accelerating, heart-pounding, sweat-inducing, sensory overload, and hard, hard work.

8. I couldn’t help but giggle after I heard the bell ring, signaling that our fight is over cause one second we're beating each other up, the next second we had resumed our smiley faces and were hugging each other. Hye Min immediately congratulated me on my hard punches and improvements, and then continued to discuss our fight. That's what's so awesome about Hye Min. You see, she's a champion fighter here in Korea and has made quite the name for herself in the boxing community but she's incredibly humble, super positive, and always willing to keep the love of the game alive.

9. Unknown to me, apparently Q had called Junior Mint and Milk Dud, asking them when my sparring was going to start. He hid in the club bathroom while I geared up. It wasn't until I was doing work on the sandbag with Hye Min that I noticed him. I had recognized his laugh over the multitude of sounds in the club.

10. For the rest of the evening, Q and I spent it grocery shopping, talking about boxing, and then I spent a good part of it on the toilet. Hye Min's wicked body shots mixed with the chicken mosh pit in my tummy, the overdose of laxatives, and fight butterflies, had done a number on my tummy. Finally... felt much better… well, kind of. My sore tummy has gone away but now my attention is on my bruised nose.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Is anything impossible?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
-- Anais Nin