Opened my window to this scene today -- snow gallore!!! I totally blame my friend Meaghan in Canada too for this, after all she's the one who asked me today if it snowed in Korea. Yes, Meaghan, it does snow so do you mind taking your Canadian snow back?!

As for the kisses, I totally blame Snicker for these car-riding kisses on account that it was his attempt at cheering me up after I got word of some disappointing news.

Super exhausted from our sparring but able to mustard up just enough strength to lift up our arms for a shot.

Off My Chest and Over My Shoulder... Tuesday, January 31

Yesterday I was informed by Junior Mint that my February 5th fight that was postponed to February 11th has been postponed yet again – February 12th. Ok, so it’s only a day postponed but this particular day isn’t just a day. Hearing my fight was postponed by a day wasn’t what I wanted to hear but having to tell my father I’m now fighting on his birthday is definitely not what he’s going to want to hear!

I ended last night’s training on a disappointing note, knowing that I now have the task of breaking the news to my father, but this disappointing note cared on into today’s turn of events. To say the least, today was jam packed with disappointment and discouragement and it really took every last ounce of self motivation to get my butt in gear and off to training.

I found out that my leading sponsor in Cheonan has taken up boxing and is boxing at my boxing club’s only real rivalry club – where Snickers originally trained at. The boxing club is owned and operated by Snickers’ former coach. He’s the very man who backstabbed Snickers and cheated him out of his Korean Super Light Weight Champion belt; the very man who we fired, who I swore I’d upper cut if I ever so much as heard him say Snickers’ name, and who I’m still waiting upon karma to deal with. He’s the only person on the face of this plant that I can honestly say I hate. My mother always told me not to say hate but I’m sorry. I do hate him.

So, getting word that my sponsor is supporting this man was very disappointing to hear and hard to accept. I fought the many urges today to march right over to his office and tell him I want nothing more from him. I don’t want my name attached to him if it’s attached to “him” – that idiot who acted nothing short of a jealous ex-girlfriend at my husband’s expense. For those of you who don’t recall or know the story, this particular person handed in my husband’s champion belt to KBC when he heard Snickers was getting married. We had kept our relationship a secret from him because we feared him lashing out at Snickers but never in our wildest dream did we ever foresee him doing such an inappropriately rude and disrespectful thing as giving up Snickers’ belt. KBC accepting the belt is definitely questionable too but then again Snickers’ coach was quite the conniving individual. So, ya…

I was supposed to have a dentist appointment at my sponsor’s office but upon hearing the news I scheduled an appointment with another dentist – the dentist who trains at my club. Actually, I just showed up at his office and he took me right in.

All day the news of my sponsor supporting “him” really weighed heavily on my chest. I felt so disappointed in him. He knows all about Snickers’ story and he knows where I train so it’s not like he’s got ignorance to lean on.

Needless to say, I wanted nothing more than to stay home and skip training. I felt rather embarrassed about the whole situation because everyone at the boxing club knows who are my sponsors. I walked into the boxing club feeling rather down but was greeted with lots of smiles and hellos from my teammates and other boxers.

It’s funny how the boxing club effects me, it’s like no matter what crap goes down during the day, as long as I can get myself to boxing everything feels corrected, more manageable. I sparred tonight with the Cheonan Bulldog and then after he, Captain Jab and I stood around talking about wanting to make a new UP Boxing Club homepage together. They had seen my page and tonight I let them in on what boxers sported what nicknames; they had a good laugh over that. The Cheonan Bulldog joked about wanting to change his nickname to “Tom Cruise”… hahaha.

Despite taking a brutal body shot in the first round that almost winded me and surely left me with a sure bruise that will form, our sparring was great and it left me on such a high. I was exhausted, don’t get me wrong, but I felt like I was on cloud nine. I had wasted my whole day worrying about people that obviously don’t care about me and it took me to step into boxing, into a club full of those that did care about me, to really take a reality check. There’s really no point worrying over people who don’t care and things you can’t control. Honestly, I felt rather silly having almost skipped out on training because of it all. I would have really missed a wicked – wickedly hard but wickedly good – sparring session and a great chat with some really great teammates.

Two pictures I posted on Facebook today that generated a lot of hype, resulting in a lot of comments and messages in my inbox.

Pictures of The Day... Monday, January 30

Today I posted the above picture of Pyen Chi on my Facebook page, noting to my friends in Canada that I wanted to know if any of them could send me some of this spice that I’m running out of. I got a lot of super sweet responses, both of friends offering to pick me up some while others complimented me about Pyen Chi, but one response definitely stood out.

"...Ummmm not to sterio type the region but perhaps havin Pyen Chi in the picture with that spice was not the best choice of photo to use"

I had a good laugh at this because I totally didn't foresee this misconception of the picture but thought it was hilarious. I wrote back thanking them for the laugh and writing that yes I have tried eating dog. "I didn't know it was dog at the time mind ya" I wrote, "and it wasn't anything great. Perhaps it would have been better had it had this spice on it"... hahaha.

As for the second picture, it's on my current weight loss in anticipation of my fight weigh-in. I've been focusing on cutting weight since last Thursday but with the addition of daily sparring to my training it's been cutting my weight so much more than ever anticipated. I lose about 1.5kgs of sweat during training and even after eating a large clean meal of chicken and some kind of veggies after it I still wake up so much lighter than the day before. I should note though that yes, I am no longer drinking water but am still drinking -- boiled milk with coffee.

Posting this particular picture on my Facebook resulted in about ten random emails from friends asking me for my so-called secrets to cutting weight. There's a big -- a HUGE -- difference between what I'm doing and what one would do to lose weight. I'm aiming to lose weight, as in numbers off the scale, whereas they're interested in losing body fat, inches off their body. We're playing with two totally different sets of numbers. Plus, there is no secret to losing weight anyways, but if I were to have a so-called secret it'd be that I eat clean, train hard and stay focused.

Pyen Chi kissed a girl and she liked it... hahaha;)

And to think I was the only girl she kissed, now I've got Jennifer Aniston to compete with, yikes. That's hard competition.

TV Rambling... Sunday, January 29

Joe Rogan, the interviewing guy on UFC… urgh! Don’t even get me started. Am I the only one who thinks this scruff-master needs a good shaving?! Either shave it off or grow a beard; the whole in between state mixed with what sounds like a smoker’s voice just comes across as dirty and screams lazy. Mind you, some guys can actually pull this look off and make it look quite hot, but Joe Rogan, nope.

Today I watched the UFC fights but find myself annoyingly and frustratingly distracted by Joe Rogan. So silly, I know, but with every finish to every fight he’d jump in on the action, take over my TV screen, I’d mutter something silly, and then I’d have to either change the channel or leave the room.

Upon changing the channel at one point, I found out that Pyen Chi absolutely loves Jennifer Aniston… hahaha. Seriously, it’s hilarious. I noted this to Snickers the other day and he didn’t believe me, well, when she popped up on the TV today Pyen Chi scooted over to the TV and licked the screen. Yup, Pyen Chi licked Jennifer Aniston’s two dimensional digital head… hahaha.

The key components needed for tonight's successful "kidnapping" were a sweet destination (beach), a Korean hottie to keep me warm, some Korean food to keep my Korean hottie of a kidnapper happy, and a four-legged friend to keep me company (tonight I had two actually).

I'll Happily Be Kidnapped Again, Thanks... Saturday, January 28

At exactly 7:50pm I was told I had ten minutes to get ready. “Get ready, I am kidnapping you” Snickers said. “Get ready for what?” was my question. I had no idea what Snickers was planning but I knew it had to do with a comment I had made earlier. Earlier on in the day I had complained about being so consumed with my boxing. I love boxing, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes it’d be nice to be able to escape it, even if for a day. Right now I’m definitely feeling the pressure of my upcoming fight. Meeting up with friends for coffee is a no go on account that I’ve started to restrict my liquid intake, like wise with heading out to a restaurant. I miss the days when I used to get dolled up or even put on heels and make-up for that matter. Now days I eat, sleep and do boxing. I wake up and head out for a morning run or sit with Snickers to go over the video footage of last night’s sparring session. I train like a beast at boxing, especially now that I have sparring every day, so I spend a good part of my day sleeping, storing my energy for my evening of intense training at the club. Then there are emails and random drop-bys I need to do with various sponsors, clients and regarding the 63 Day Fat to Phat Challenge I’m hosting via Flipside Fitness.

These days I seriously envy normal people, and by normal I mean anyone and everyone who isn’t doing what I’m doing, preparing for a fight. I don’t crave junk food and I don’t drink but sometimes, when I’m walking home late from training, all sweaty and exhausted, I see people in the window of local pubs. They’re downing their beers, chewing away at fried chicken and ketchup-drown French fries, or so I envision them doing and I envy them. They seem to not have a care in the world and natural things to them, like eating what they want and doing what they want, continues on without a second thought.

My actual boxing training may only take two hours of my day and thus my “work” schedule doesn’t compare to the average person’s 9-5 work day, but sometimes it feels the very opposite. I can’t just clock in and clock out of work now with a fight scheduled. And that's the thing, it's never a set thing that I'll get a fight. I continually train so hard in hope of getting a fight. I love boxing but sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it. I’ve got sponsors invested in me, a boxing club’s image to uphold, hell I’m the only registered foreign boxer in this country so I’ve got that on my shoulders, and then there’s the fact that I’m totally going against the natural flow of what mainstream Korea thinks it means to be a woman and they always seem so obligated to remind me of this.

Anyways, back to the initial story I was writing about…

So I figured Snickers would be taking me on a long drive somewhere because he threw some of his snacks into my purse and brought Pyen Chi along. Two and a half hours later we showed up at one of my favorite places in Korea – Daecheon Beach. He had taken the scenic route to get here and had made a special music CD for the ride, very sweet.

We walked along the beach, allowing Pyen Chi to go wild and free, which meant she ate the sand and ran in circles around us. It was rather chilly out on the open beach but it was nice. It was nice to just get away.

We love the beachside restaurants with all their fresh seafood but with my fight just around the corner I couldn’t indulge. Snickers felt bad for being hungry but I insisted he eat. Thankfully he ordered something I don’t like – noodles. Unless the noodles are drowned in some kind of spicy sauce or are outnumbered by chicken, I don’t like noodles. At the restaurant there was a little dog, her name translated into English was Pearl, so I distracted myself with playing with her while Snickers ate.

On the way home we leisurely took our time but when we were just a mere 20 minutes from our house we ran into quite the roadside scene. There just feet in front of us on an open massive road was a road barrier shattered into a million pieces. Up ahead was a white car beside the continuing road barriers and a woman kneeling down beside its’ tire. We ended up turning our car around, parking it facing the oncoming traffic and jumping out to help the lady. As it turns out, she had fallen asleep and crashed into the massive barrier. Mind ya, because the barriers are filled with water they’re now frozen because of winter, so it totaled the front of her car. She was all shaken up so I tried to comfort her while she called her mother. Snickers scrambled to drag the large pieces off the road but other cars ended up being tied into the situation as large chunks of the barrier got stuck under their car while others swerved and hit other cars. Within a matter of minutes eight cars had become involved. It was quite the dramatic ending to our sweet beach date – my kidnapping.

You can tell I was way too exhausted when I couldn't even bring myself to lift the camera and taking any interesting shots at the boxing club... hahaha. My arms were throbbing as was my eye, so I took these shots -- my bruised knuckles and the Korean Hornet training on the heavy bag.

Crunch Countdown Begins!!!... Friday, January 27

My two week Crunch Countdown to my fight weigh-in day began today and, on account of this fact, I’ve freed up my schedule so that I can basically train, eat, sleep, repeat for the next two weeks. I’ve limited my boxercise classes to only two weekend classes, meetings with personal training clients are still a go but I’m not scheduling running with any of them.

For the next two weeks my days will consist of early morning runs, boxing in the evening and a lot of sleeping in between training. My training at the boxing club will consist of the usual components I do -- skipping, shadow boxing, pad work, weight training and ab work – but it’ll also include daily sparring sessions which definitely jump my training up several notches on the intensity scale. “Train hard, fight easy”.

I’ve got exactly 14 days till I’ll have to step on the scale in front of my opponent and KBC for my fight weigh-in. So, with only 14 days left,, this means I’ll be weighing-in an average of 3-4 times, depending on if I go running that day.

1. immediately when I wake up
2. after my run
3. upon arriving at boxing
4. after boxing training

My weight will be watched like a hawk, not only by me but also by Junior Mint and Snickers. It’s kind of strange waking up, leaning in for a kiss from Snickers but being interrupted by him saying “jump on the scale”. Nothing like a good morning weigh-in… hahaha. Mind you, weighing-in so frequently keeps a constant pressure on me but it’s a needed pressure, a means of keeping me focused. My weight fluctuates so much during the day and as I approach my fight weigh-in day it’ll fluctuate even less though as I start to dehydrate myself next week, then I can practically count the few beads of sweat after training.

Wearing a sauna suit is also a mandatory Junior Mint’s placed on me for when I’m boxing. It’s like a thick plastic suit that ups your body temperature, helps to elevate your heart rate and thus makes you sweat much more than usual. Thankfully I’m not being forced to wear the full suit, only the shirt.

Tonight I got appointed a second sparring partner so I was pretty stoked yet intimidated over that. It’s always a bit nerve-racking, stepping into a sparring session with a new sparring partner but it’s good in that it’s just like on fight day. You don’t know you’re opponent so there’s no getting use to them. Staying with the same sparring partner for too long can prove to be ineffective in that you do get used to them, learn their weaknesses and strengths, and also pick up new moves from them. I’ve never had the opportunity to get comfortable with a sparring partner though on account that I’ve never really had a set partner. Now I’ve got two – Captain Jab and the Korean Hornet – and that’s awesome. The Korean Hornet is a few weight classes above me and is more of an in-fighter, unlike Captain Jab who is almost the same weight as me and is an out-fighter. As for why the Korean Hornet is called the Korean Hornet, it’s because he definitely knows how to sting you with his punches and I got a swollen eye to testify to that, yikes.

We were supposed to go for 4 rounds of sparring tonight, the Korean Hornet and I, but when the kid went to press start on the round bell he accidently turned it off. It wasn’t until Junior Mint noticed that we had sparred through an entire song, about 4-5 minutes, playing in the background that he took notice and stopped us. “Restart!” he yelled out. Turns out by restart he meant restart the whole sparring session so basically we sparred for 6 rounds.

Snowy day playdate at Pyen Chi's favorite play spot -- Taedu San Park, Cheonan.

One Last Day... Thursday, January 26

With tomorrow marking the start of my two week crunch countdown to my fight, today I enjoyed my last day of real relaxation. It’s not that I haven’t been training hard or haven’t been focused on my fight, I have, but tomorrow it’ll get all that much more intense.

Today Snickers and I took Pyen Chi out to Taedu San Park to check out a new display that commemorates and pays tribute to the Cheonan warship that North Korea sunk last year with a torpedo. It’s quite a respectable display, showcasing a replica of the boat and a large statue that has all the names of those killed engraved into it. All those young men who lost their lives, of course very sad but I think it’s sadder because they were so young.

I always like exploring the various military machines on display at the park and today it was hilarious to see Pyen Chi explore them too. She literally tried to climb over the barrier robe and climb into one of the flighter jets… oh gosh. I personally love the tanks.

So I spent a good chunk of my afternoon at Taedu San park and then Snickers and I did a couple of errands – dropped by the bank, picked up chicken at the grocers and his coat at the dry cleaners – then we headed off to boxing.

I tell ya, after quite the relaxing and enjoyable day I had, stepping into the boxing club today was quite disappointing. KBC called the club today with bad news and with my fight almost 2 measly weeks away, KBC (The Korean Boxing Commission) playing with my patience isn’t a good thing. Recently they changed presidents but apparently the switch wasn’t one without complications and now both the former and present president are butting heads. Consequently, because things are up in the air with management at KBC, Snickers’ much anticipated, much needed fight at the end of February has been postponed and risks being canceled. I felt so frustrated for him and so angry with KBC. Junior Mint was frantically on the phone, phoning other boxing coaches and managers, scrambling around to find out if my fight has been affected.

Whether it’s their ill matching of opponents, canceling of fights, or silly things like not updating their website and even so much as posting correct fight locations, I’m so sick and tired of being sick and tired of KBC. KBC is suppose to be working for and with us boxers, not against us.

Get it together KBC, seriously!!!

Ahhh… let’s change the subject.

Needless to say, upon getting word that his fight has been postponed and is on the verge of being canceled, Snickers didn’t train tonight. He left in frustration and headed off to Suwon to hang with Wonder Boy, leaving me to train without him. I totally felt his frustration so I let him go, telling him to drive carefully and that I’ll see him tomorrow. I knew he needed to get away, vent his frustration and then come back refreshed and refocused. Wonder Boy will help him get his head cleared.

Junior Mint is going on the notion that my fight is still on so tonight he continued with putting me through grueling training which meant I had to gear up for sparring. My coach Junior Mint was asked today by a visiting guest as to why I spar with guys and I took it upon myself to answer his question. “Because I have no choice, because I’m a girl and that’s my disadvantage in Korea” was my answer and it’s true.

There’s no other female professional boxer in Cheonan and as for the other females at my boxing club, they all do boxing as a means of exercise. None of them are interesting in actually stepping in the ring. My former sparring partner is thinking of retiring from boxing and she’s a two hour ride away. Bella Punch isn’t allowed to spar with me anymore because I fractured her nose and her husband refuses to have her spar with me. Little Miss Sunshine used to spar with me but was a temporary partner and has since stopped boxing, got married and had a baby. So that leaves me with… no other female. That leaves me with Captain Jab, a young guy who is in the same weight class as me, has much more amateur experience than I do, and who, because he’s been working as my coach’s assistant coach, is here every single day the club is open so there’s no guessing as to whether or not he’s at boxing. He’s a very reliable and very skilled sparring partner, perhaps the best sparring partner I’ve ever had. Having said this though, the poor guy is getting dragged through grueling training with me because of me having a scheduled fight so I know he goes home every night sore and exhausted just like me.

Getting excessively punched in the head and drilled to exhaustion wasn't going to stop this Polack from getting dolled up for her man on their 2nd anniversary. I thought sporting a dangerously short dress with kicking leather boots would score me a for sure smootch but it was Snickers who was quite the show stopper tonight with a little something he had shoved up his sleeve;)

Celebrating Two Years, Snickers, Me... and Bob?!... Wednesday, January 25

When Snickers and I were on our honeymoon, in Bali, I was approached by a little girl selling postcards in a rice field. She was no older than eight and she spoke to me with such a sweet voice and with such perfect English that, well, I couldn’t resist buying her little stack of postcards. Snickers teased me about being putty in the little girl’s hands so I told him that I bought them for him but because he made fun of me I was going to wait to give them to him.

Today, for our second year wedding anniversary, I finally gave him one of these postcards. On the back of it I had written him a little love letter and then later on in the day I sent Pyen Chi over to Snickers with it in her mouth. It was quite the cute presentation of my letter and he greeted it with a huge smile.

Snickers and I aren’t really into the exchanging of gifts but we’re really big into letters. Occasionally I’ll find a post-it note stashed away in my desk or stuck on the bathroom mirror. Tonight, when we headed out for a late dinner after boxing, he surprised me with a letter. Originally we had made reservations at 5-Star’s restaurant but because I was kept longer at boxing with having to spar and whatnot, we couldn’t make our reservation. We headed to a local little café/bar for a plate of hot chicken and salad and it was there that Snickers surprised me with a letter. He had asked me if he looked stronger and then insisted I feel his arm. I thought it was a rather strange request and totally out of the blue but when I felt his arm I felt paper crumble in his sleeve – it was a letter. He had stuffed it in his jacket and thought he was pretty smart having pulled off this surprise.

I had anticipated a sweet letter written all in Korean but much to my total shock it was written in English!!! English?!... definitely a first for him. Snickers has never written anything in English, not by himself that is. He’s written a letter to my family but it was my English translation of what he initially wrote in Korean that he copied down. Tonight’s English letter was something he wrote solely by himself. I can only imagine how long it took him to write, yikes!

Of course the letter was bombarded with grammatical errors, misused words and scattered sentences but I definitely gave him A+ for effort and thought. I was touched though I must note Ibusted out in laughter at the glance of the first sentence.

“Bob and I’ve been married almost two years...”

“Who is Bob?” I asked him. “I don’t know too. Dictionary told me Bob” he told me. I think what had happened was he had used his online translator for random translations he couldn’t do and things got lost in translation. The end of his letter had a couple of sentences in Korean. I think that’s where his frustration with English and sweating away at trying to express himself in another language got to him and he gave into wanting to just write in Korean.

Apparently now my new nickname is Bob… hahaha, too funny;)

There's something special about the relationship between a boy and his dog.

My father used to tell me that if I dug deep enough I'd get to China, but now that China is next door, will Pyen Chi's digging get us to Canada?!

Snickers will forever be my man, Mi Nam will forever be my baby but Pyen Chi... she'll forever be my girl friend;)

This marked are last shot of us before we step into two years of marriage tomorrow.

And this is our family shot, a sad revised but happily together family shot for 2012.

Last Day of Year One... Tuesday, January 24

I once asked my mother “How did you know you wanted to marry dad?” and she answered by saying “I just knew -- when you know, you know.” Snickers and I dated for a very brief time before jumping into marriage but I knew; I had finally understood my mother’s words because that answer was the only answer relevant to what I felt. It’s like I felt it in my bones that Snickers and I were right together.

I remember waking up on our wedding day, full of fear. Fear because I was so afraid that in the night he had developed jitters and realized that he was way too good for me. I’m four years older than Snickers and in addition to these four extra years of life I’ve had so many more experiences and opportunities to explore life – university, travel, living on my own, and so on. I was ready for marriage but I feared he wasn’t. I find Koreans tend to hold on too long to their young and sometimes it disgusts me that they live with their parents until marriage. They go from being an over-aged child to suddenly being expected to fufill and fit the role of husband/wife when really they’re still very much wet behind the ears with lack of independence and life experience.

I was ready to marry Snickers and though I thought he wasn’t when we did, I wanted so eagerly to start a life with him. A friend once told me that no one is perfect but when you find someone who loves you – flaws and all – you hold on to that person and don’t let go. I refused to let go of Snickers so I married him and I’m glad I did… so damn glad I did.

Snickers may not be the typical husband but he tries. He still leaves his underwear randomly in the kitchen, he never washes dishes unless it’s to “make up” for something he did and I always have to remind him to take out the trash and recycling. But he always goes his way to drive me wherever I have to go, surprises me with random Post-It love letters and egg bread, and always holds my hand when he goes to sleep. He always kisses me before eating whatever food I’ve cooked him and he’s not shy to hide being cutesy towards me, even in public. Hearing him yell out “Baby Angel” in the grocery store as he searches the isles for me always makes me smile.

Being married isn’t easy nor is it easy being married when you both come from different cultures, different countries and speak two different languages but I think it’s these differences that have added to our marriage. They’ve made things more “interesting”. Things are definitely never dull, that’s for sure. In so many ways we’re so different but in so many ways we’re exactly the same, it’s strange in that way because we work.

Tomorrow marks Snickers and my two year wedding anniversary so we headed out for a road trip today, visiting the beach side and laughing at the fact that we still can’t believe we’re married. Still sounds funny to call myself a married woman.

Snickers usually doesn't like my food so we cook our own meals BUT there is ONE meal of mine that he loves. He loves, loves, LOVES my chicken stirfry. Tonight I used a crazy combo of different spices to make a chicken stirfry I called "French Chicken A La Love"... such a cheesy name, I know;) Cooked up some homemade garlic tortilla shells and added a dash of red wine for him to down it with.

Ramble-Bambleness... Monday, January 23

Not much of a family Lunar New Year celebration on account of some fist-throwing drama that went down a month or so ago. So on that note, Snickers drove Granny-K to Seoul and came back to join me in Cheonan for a romantic candlelit dinner. Well, it was as romantic as it could possibly be with Pyen Chi -- the Pee Master Beast of Fur -- nudging us at the dinner table;) I miss the times when it was little Mi Nam nudging at my toes, asking for handouts at the table. Ahhh Mi Nam, I miss him so much.

Pyen Chi is going through a little bit of a rebelious stage; definitely testing us. Whether it's her jumping on me when we're out walking or her randomly biting me when I'm in bed, she's figured out she's strong and is testing to see who is in control. This has been going on for a good solid week and it's not cool, so I'm not about to let it continue for much longer.

On a different note, this past weekend I've been doing a lot of jogging. Last night I went out for a 15km run and then today I went for a timed 7km run. Am contemplating joining the Adidas MBC Hangang half marathon and am even considering possibly stepping it up a notch and doing the full marathon. It isn't until April 8th so it's plenty of time to train but I think I might just do the half marathon. Set up another "deal" with the Cheonan Trump, like last year but this year I'll beat it. Last year my goal was to do the half marathon under 2 hours -- my time was 2 hours and 7 minutes. Seven extra minutes that killed it for me. Not that I'm making excuses or anything but I did run that half marathon just a week or two after my scooter crash that left me hospitalized and the race route was brutal. Something about running along the Han River -- a totally exposed path with no trees -- in the winter screams silliness to whoever planned it and to me too for that matter for joining it. The Adidas half marathon is basically the same route, well the same area, but doing it in April will mean a world of difference with the weather.

This was a screen shot of a YouTube video I did. Little did I know that it'd lead me to getting sponsored by Adidas... very cool! And as for this shot, that's Snickers beside the boxer all geared up to go, with his best friend Wonder Boy on the left. Little did he know that girl in the back with her boyfriend [me and Q], who is gearing up for her debut fight, would later be his wife.

Seven Years Recap... Sunday, January 22

And here I thought I was going into my seventh year in Korea. Turns out I’ll be entering my EIGHT year… wow! Come this February 16th I will have successfully tackled seven years of existence in this country, so I started thinking about it. What do I have to show for these seven years?! I started thinking about this, so I sat down at the computer and gave myself a good solid twenty minutes to think of the main moments that went down in my life here in Korea. Sure, much more has gone down beyond the moments listed below and I'm not entirely sure if my dating of such events are correct but this is what I came up with in the allotted time.

YEAR ONE – Feb. 2005
Started a job as a kindergarten ESL teacher.
Called off my engagement to the retired pro soccer player.
Decided to stay in Korea to avoid engagement call-off.
Went to Thailand.
Dyed my hair black as a situation of pure discrimination.
Visited the DMZ.
Met a North Korean soldier.
Started dating The Ex.
Experienced my first national air bomb raid practice
Surprise visit to my parent’s house on Christmas Eve – BEST Christmas ever!!!

YEAR TWO – Feb. 2006
Called off my relationship with The Ex.
Got into the public education system with a public school teaching position.
Adopted Mi Nam and instantly fell in love with him.
Learned how to snowboard.
Went to Japan.

YEAR THREE – Feb. 2007
Scored a sweet university professor position at Dankook University.
Was adopted into the UP Boxing Club family/team.
Started dating Q.
Got into a brutal motorcycle accident in which I totaled the motorcycle.
Turned professional with my boxing – first foreign female in Korea to do so.
Earned a sponsorship by the Cheonan Trump for my boxing.
Started getting privately tutored in the Korean language.

YEAR FOUR – Feb. 2008
Experienced my first female-induced heartbreak – lost to Park Mi Ran at my debut bout.
Was the focus of two human documentaries.
Was the focus subject an up-and-coming photographer’s photo shoot.
Was discovered on YouTube by Adidas and this lead to them sponsoring my boxing.

YEAR FIVE – Feb. 2009
Started dating Snickers and then, in the same year, we got married.
Moved out of Sambu and into Ggum Guum.
Had a massive picture of me boxing displayed in a gala.
Had another human documentary focus on me as a female boxer.
Went back to blond hair.
Met Jose Sulaiman, President of the World Boxing Council.
Met Judy Kulis, President of the International Female Boxers Association.
Went to Bali, Indonesia.
Did a commercial with the Wonder Girls.
Had another human documentary focus on me and my boxing.
Starred in two human documentaries about Snickers.
Had to a student hint at sucide and then he went through with it.
One of my Korean friends committed suicide.

YEAR SIX – Feb. 2010
Took Snickers to Canada for his first time and to meet my parents.
Got into a scooter accident.
Had a photographer ask and do a focus piece on Snickers and I.
Touched a real life bear for my first time ever – was stoked about that.
Had my apartment Ggum Guum underwent two-time renovations.
The wife of a common friend of Snickers and me committed suicide.
Ran my first half marathon.
Had to deal with a short-time stalker.
Snickers lived in Japan for a little over two months – definitely hard with him MIA.
Represented Korea in Japan for a boxing bout.
Proudest moment ever as Snickers’ wife -- watching 35,000 crowd members watch him fight in the Philippines.

YEAR SEVEN – Feb. 2011
Started working at a Korean daycare.
Attended a surprise wedding ceremony for me and Snickers, hosted by daycare.
Had Ggum Guum renovated for the third time -- yes, very annoying.
Traveled to Canada to say goodbye to my mother.
Started my own personal training/fitness company – Flipside Fitness.
My fitness company was officially sponsored by Adidas.
Adopted Pyen Chi, the Pee Master Beast of Fur, and slowly fell in love with her.
Mi Nam passed away.

As many people know, last year was a hard, hard year -- the Year of Heartships and Loses -- so I'm totally optimistic and stoked about 2012. This year has already been so much better than last year with the anticipation of my friend Nick visiting us from Canada, Satoshi coming from Japan, and both Snickers and I having scheduled fights for February.

2012 is going to be fabulous, it ALREADY is, so stayed tuned for more fabulocity to come!!!

The harsh reality that so many -- too many -- people are perfectly content ignoring. I've never been a believer that "beauty" is a specific size or number but, with over 60% of Americans being overweight or obese, things associated with being overweight -- high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart attack, and depression -- are definitely NOT beautiful.

Bold, Beautiful Bundang Women... Saturday, January 21

Today I held two boxercise classes, one in the morning for those in my Advanced boxercise class and then a free class in the afternoon. The free class was for first-timers and I extended the free invite to returnees if they brought a first-timer.

I live in Cheonan but NO foreign women from Cheonan took me up on the offer. Some tried but it was a no-go. Ended up being contacted by a group of girls living about an hour and some away from Cheonan, in Bundang. Eight women came out and impressed the socks off me and it wasn't because they trained hard but because of what they talked about both before and after the class. Instead of ranting and raving about downing x-number of drinks or hitting the bar later tonight, they talked about how they're swapping clean eating receipes, jogging together on the weekends and how there's more than just these eight in Bundang that are like them. There's a massive group of them.

I'll be honest, I envied them. My Advanced boxercise ladies are a fierce group of gals but they're a small number. Our numbers in Cheonan aren't anything like those in Bundang. Maybe they are but in the seven years that I've been living in this city of Cheonan I've yet to be shown otherwise. The Cheonan crowd is a tough, tough crowd and by 'tough' I don't mean strong tough.

The group of Bundang ladies that showed up today represent only a small percentage of a much bigger crowd of physically-active foreign women. And they're not the only city that's got a good healthy group of health-conscious folks. For example, Seoul, it's loaded with tons of athletic things to jump into. Their running club has a membership of a couple of hundred and they've got a women's rugby team that tours, to name off a couple. But Cheonan... what does it have?!... it's got me with my Flipside Fitness. I've become like the It-girl to go to for health in this city but you'd be surprised at just how many people seriously could give a damn about their health. I'm just sick of feeling like I'm back in university again with the dominant crowd that is here. If you don't drink or shot pool than you're totally out of the social scene. I don't drink, I don't like pool and I sure as hell don't want to be the sober one at a drunk man's party or smell like smoke thanks.

Whether it's been imprompt sleepovers at the boxercise club or having trainer-buddies slip me the key to their fitness gym for my friends to play squash at midnight, there are a ton of things for foreigners to do in this city that don't involve alchol or dishing out mad cash.

Time after time I hear so many foreigners admit that they used to be so fit before Korea but now they're so out of shape. Why does moving to Korea mean ditching your health? I understand where they're coming from -- new country, different food, change of jobs, etc. -- but we all go through this. Moreover, I make it my business to try to help them. I am MORE than happy to help them. I sure as heck don't make a crazy living running Flipside Fitness. Trust me, there's months when bills (as small as they may be) are hardly met, but I continue. I continue to run Flipside Fitness because I believe in what I'm doing is right and I think I can help people but, more importantly, I love seeing people get excited about changing their ways. I take great pride in knowing that I helped them become healthier, stronger... happier.

Having said all this, today I vented my frustration on Facebook, this is what I wrote:

ATTENTION CHEONAN WOMEN, It's with great sadness -- sarcastically speaking -- that I tell you this... Bundang women rock.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are some of you Cheonan ladies who I can so easily list off as being proactive about your health and do put more time into being proactive about your health than simply sitting around and complaining about it over the latest Starbuck latte, but what I saw today with the crew from Bundang who joined my free first-timers boxercise class was incredible. Incredible but also somewhat discouraging. They trained insanely hard but their concern for their health went so much more beyond the boxing club. After class, they pulled out brown-bagged lunches full of clean-eats and good foods.

Health IS life. Health IS my business -- YOU are my business, and somedays I honestly feel like I'm the only one in this damn city that cares two cents about your health. I think I care MORE than you care, how strange is that?!!! Having said this, I'm not saying you have to join my boxercise class or hire me as your trainer. What I am saying is that we're already 21 days into the new year and yet old habits and bad eating from last year continue.

MAKE THIS YEAR BE YOUR YEAR -- YOUR YEAR OF CHANGE!!!

So whether you come out to my boxercise class, go jogging, join a gym or just focus on cleaning up your eating, DO SOMETHING. For the love of yourself do something. Don't feed into the stereotype of what a typical foreign woman in Korea is like. Show them that the foreign woman is healthy strong -- mind, body and soul. I've lived in Korea for almost 7 years now and I'm sick and tired of the brutal foreign woman stereotype being recycled over and over with each new flight of foreigners who arrive.

TOGETHER LET'S BREAK THE STEREOTYPES.
Let's be the strong foreign women most of you claimed you were before you came to
Korea!!!

Despite not being full charged and still sporting sore legs from last night's timed run, I had boxercise class in the morning, another run but with a client, and then I had boxing in the evening.

And then when I went on my dinner/movie date with Snickers, we sat around for a good chunk of our date disecting my sparring session. I guess that was rather inevitable, seeing as I'm married to a pro boxer;)

A Minor Change in Plans... Friday, January 20

MY FIGHT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11th.

I got word of this today when I walked into training. It's great in that I get to train more for this fight but it's bad in that, well, I get to train more for this fight. I've been seriously training like a machine and eating like a beast. Junior Mint has me sparring practically every time I step into the boxing club for training and he quizzes me everyday about what I've eaten, what time I've gone to sleep and how my condition is. I'm rather exhausted -- more so physically than mentally -- but with my fight being postponed I'm getting a bit mentally exhausted. I've totally got my "game head" on but dragging this fight out by postponing it is brutal. My only fear now is that with this extra time I might get somewhat distracted or become a bit relaxed with my thinking.

On a different note, my 63 Day Fat to Phat competition I'm hosting via Flipside Fitness ends on February 12th -- the day after my fight -- so I'm assuming I'll be looking rather "interesting" for that day. I'll be fresh with bruises and stiff with snoreness.

Hell Boy was at training today. I've run into him a couple of times at training this week. Today he stood around watching me train and then approached me about wanting to spar with me. I don't know but a full grown man in his 40's wanting to beat upon a young lady like me just doesn't seem normal. I mean, if he wins our sparring session he just beat a lady less than half his size and about 10 plus some years his junior. But if he loses, talk about a blow to his ego, getting beat by a chic! Anyways, I think it's rather silly and don't really care to have a recap of the last sparring session we had some years ago when he almost broke my nose and yelled at me, telling me I should "just take it". Ya, cause I can really afford to break my nose just weeks before a fight... not so smart!

No one in Snickers' family knows that I have a fight and it's been surprisingly easy to keep it a secret for the fact that none of them ask me about my boxing, or Flipside Fitness for that matter. It's rather ironic too in that Snickers' used to be the "dark horse" of the family, doing a job that none of them gave much respect or attention to (beyond K-Gere that is) and going off to marry me, a foreign gal. Now the tables have turned and it's now me who is the dark horse. For the most part, whenever I see my in-laws, the only thing they really talk to me about is my father and how he's doing with the loss of my mother. I'm curious how they think I make money or what I do with my time everyday. I doubt they even think about it though, to tell you the truth.

Snickers' upcoming fight at the end of February is talked about often these days with his friends and family and I just sit and smile through their chatting, dying to blurt out that I too have a fight. I figure I'll have the fight and then show up the next day with bruises and perhaps a black eye; give them something to talk about.

Even if they knew I had a fight they'd never show up. They've never shown up for any of my previous fights so why would they now?! My friend Satoshi from Japan is flying in to come watch my fight and my friend Nick from Canada will catching Snickers' fight. He's in Thailand right now, doing a tour of Asia so he's timed it perfectly that he'll be in Korea to see Snickers' fight.

Five of my favorite people in Korea -- my husband, my coach, two of my teammates (Black Skinny and the Cheonan Bulldog) and my new sparring partner. Five reasons, in addition to the already long list, as to why I love, love, love UP Boxing Club. Officially named him Captain Jab -- this boy has got a frustratingly fast jab that hit me way too many times tonight for my liking.

Hard Time Now, Easy Time Later... Thursday, January 19

Snickers returned to boxing this past week. Ever since he broke his hand at sparring he’s been sticking to mountain hiking and road work (running) as his main source of exercise. Just recently he’s returned to weight training too but the best was seeing him step back in the ring for pad work with Junior Mint.

I officially got appointed a sparring partner – my coach’s assistant, Captain Jab – and he’s awesome, though I must admit I had trouble at first punching one of my already favourite Koreans. He’s got a lot of amateur experience and fights purely amateur style in that he’s very fast on his feet and goes for speed as opposed to strength. From here on out I’ll be sparring at least three rounds a day till Fight Day, as if my training wasn’t intense enough. Tuesday was the official day my sparring partner was announced so my coach kicked things off by upping the intensity of my training from intense to insanely intense.

Fight Prep Training
(I should note too that all these exercises were done back-to-back with only enough time given to me to change my gear, like put on my heavy bag gloves or get my head gear laced up for sparring).
15 minutes of skipping
4 rounds of shadow boxing with wrist and ankle weights on
6 rounds of pad work with Junior Mint in the ring
3 rounds of sparring with Captain Jab
5 rounds of heavy bag work
10 minutes of skipping
15-20 minutes of weight training
10 minutes of ab work

Training for my fight continues to go on and continues to intensive. With the school kiddies being on vacation I’ve been training later than usual to avoid the mad flock of boxers at UP. I’m there training for a good, solid hour and a half to two hours and leave with just enough energy to walk home. As lazy as it sounds, there are some days when I wait for Snickers to pick me up, I’m just too exhausted, but no complaints. Hard time now, easy time later.

Still no real action on Operation Beatdown excepted for a heightened sense of anticipation and more people willingly signing up to be on the lookout. We’re seized a leading piece of evidence to the mystery identity of the person involved and are taking it in to be finger printed by the police.

Scored another job, something totally unrelated and incredibly disconnected from running my fitness company and doing my boxing. It’s a means of putting extra money in my bank for the anticipated traveling both Snickers and I want to do in the near future. So, basically for the next year, for every three and a half months of working this job with its 4 day work week with low hours I’ll be getting two and a half months off in addition to juggling Flipside Fitness and my boxing.

Tonight, with my two partners-in-crime (Snickers and Pyen Chi) we did some baking.

Whole wheat tortillas with a mixture of this, that and whatever thrown into them.

We also made some homemade almond butter, for our banana-smash sandwiches that are oh so delish mid-morning!

Getting Down and Dirty... Sunday, January 15

Got down and dirty in the kitchen… literally. By the end of our impromptu cooking date, Snickers was sporting almonds in his hair, I had a whole wheat powdered face and even Pyen Chi the Pee Master Beast of Fur hadn’t been left untouched. She had a few splashes of oil in her fur and oregano in her ears… oops. Ya, we had way too much fun baking. Correction, Pyen Chi and I had too much fun. Snickers ended up getting frustrated with trying to make our tortillas super thin.

We made more of a mess than actual things to cook. Whole wheat tortillas loaded to the brim with various splashes and dashes of spices and homemade almond butter were the two things we made. A couple of weeks ago I went on a rampage making numerous kinds of tortillas – my coffee flavored ones being the most “interesting” yet surprisingly edible and enjoyable with a cup of coffee – but lately I haven’t really baked anything. I’m kind of tortilla-sick. This week I want to attack making chili, particularly chicken chili. I read that I need cumin seeds but I have no idea what those are. I suppose I can just Goggle them.

In other news...

Got to send out shout-outs to my teammate, the Heavy Hitter, for winning his fight today. Good job buddy! Way to start the year off on a great high for us at UP Boxing Club!!!

It's been a long, grueling week of training...
... for everyone.

And it's important to remember to listen to your body.

Rest is just as important to your mind and body as training is and if you try to ignore it, trust me, your body WILL remind you of this fact (like my body did).

Second Catch-Up... Saturday, January 14

Wednesday – Dinned with the big league

Headed out to Seoul with Snickers for our much anticipated dinner with Adidas France and Adidas Korea. The man in contact from me from Adidas France has actually been relocated to Hong Kong so he’s just a hop, skip and a jump away from me in South Korea, none the less it was awesome to know he flew in to Korea to meet me. I won’t go into all the juicy details of our meeting but will say that it left me totally stoked, incredibly happy and super excited with working alongside Adidas. Adidas has some big plans and I’m so very honored that they asked for me to be included into them, of which my participation in an Adidas home shopping channel commercial definitely was the highlight of my evening.

Words can honestly not even begin to express the pride and excitement I feel with having Adidas supporting not only me and my boxing but also Snickers and his boxing. I don’t think I’ll ever wear any other sports wear but Adidas from here on out, mind ya, with Adidas once again showering us with sweet equipment and exclusive gear, it’s going to be next to impossible. Tonight they asked me to pick my colors and whatnot for an exclusive pro glove that’s made as ordered. They’re going to embroider my name into it --- sweet!!!


Thursday – Literally slept the day away

I wasn’t feeling well when I woke up for boxercise class today but I thought coming home super late from last night’s private Adidas dinner party was to blame for it. We had come home around 2am but I was like a kid on Christmas Eve, so very excited about the evening news and running off pure satisfaction from the meeting. By the time I feel asleep is was close to 5am, so a 7:30am boxercise class was a bit rough. Regardless, I pushed my feeling of blahness aside and headed out for boxercise class. Upon coming home however, the blahness returned and what was anticipated to be a simple sip of some NyQuil and a nap turned into a whole day event with me waking up around 8pm!!!

I’ve always been a believer in the more natural way of things. Taking naps when I feel tired or have a slight headaches, sipping on some warm milk if my tummy hurts and so forth. I remember back when I broke my nose I refused to go to the doctor and refused to take any pain killers. I simply placed a sock in my mouth, let Snickers reset it, and then tried my hardest to not touch it but to continue on through the pain. Having said this though, there are very few times when I have resorted to taking medicine, today being one of those days. One small sip of NyQuil was enough to push me into a comatose-like state. I was out like a light and for hours upon hours on end!!!


Friday – We Trained like Champs and Ate like Animals.

Tonight we had a boxing dinner party for UP Boxing Club, Cheonan, but I didn’t stay long. I wasn’t feeling up to par because of still not having shook off my cold from the other day. Training was rather rough for me today. In between sipping on hot lemon tea and chewing on Halls throat candies, I had boxing, running with client and weight training. Spent the day in a rather strange head buzz; definitely not feeling like myself or up to par with my focus, strength or capability. None the less, Junior Mint is all about “no rest for the wicked” so he practically killed me at training with loading me up on excessive rounds of pad work. Some days I wish I could curse his name but then I’m reminded that I do need his push and that I should be respectful of this and appreciative. I remember back in the day, watching Snickers with his former coach. His coach sat yelling at him, throwing him slander and discouraging comments. It was almost as if he believed the more he put Snickers down the more he’d drive him to succeed. He’s a big, dumb bully if you ask me. He doesn’t even have any kind of weight behind his name either to even back himself up. I’ve come to hate Snickers’ former coach and, to tell you the truth, I think he’s the only person in this whole world I can honestly say I hate. But that’s a whole other story….


Saturday – Cold Front Hits Again

Yesterday was spent in a strange head buzz and then in the evening I was hit like a ton of bricks again by the same cold that had hit me on Thursday. I had boxercise in the morning and was hoping to go out for a late night run to kind of sweat it off but that was a no go. What ended up happening was Snickers’ buddy 3Pak showed up at the house so the two of them chatted while I napped on the floor in the other room. Snickers cooked me up some eggs and I was basking in his sweetness when all of a sudden the unexpected happened… Snickers dropped my only bottle of NyQuil!!!

It crashed on the floor and out spurted NyQuil everywhere… and I do mean EVERYWHERE – onto the wallpaper, over our bedspread, on my clothes, on Pyen Chi’s head, and even on the shelf. It’s thick oozy gel stained the wallpaper and I watched as it crept under the heavy tv shelf. And with only three weeks till my fight and this cold driving me mental, I seriously had to hold myself back from licking it up with my tongue!!!

Before and After Shots

Decided with all my intense training and, consequently, having to shower twice a day, that the blond hair was too high maintance so I went back to a darker shade with a couple of highlight chunks.

Two for One Deal... Tuesday, January 10

Monday – Blood, Sweat and almost Tears

With the Cheonan Bulldog’s fight suddenly being canceled, he’s been a no-go lately for sparring with me so today I stepped into the ring to spar with my coach – Junior Mint. It was a weighted sparring session, which meant he couldn’t use his full force when punching me, obviously cause he’s like 80kg. Despite him not hitting me with full force it was a hard sparring session. When he was in his prime, Junior Mint was a Korean champion boxer so he knows his stuff. Moreover, because he’s been my sole trainer while here in Korea, he knows all my weaknesses, strengths… and dirty moves. A lot of dirty moves were pulled, a lot of punches we thrown and, oddly enough, a lot of head-butting occurred. At the end of our four round sparring session Junior Mint’s head was already forming a huge bump and my lip had been split open and was starting to swell.


Tuesday – Went Back to Being the Dark-Haired Villain

I made the mistake of listening to someone and heading off to Seoul blindly for a hair appointment I hadn’t yet made but was told I could simply show up and get. Well, that was a no-go and I wasn’t impressed. It took me over two hours to come to the conclusion that I should have just gone to Sunny’s in Cheonan. Initially I had ventured out to Seoul to check out a hair salon that had been getting rave reviews from various friends – various friends who have all got anything but mainstream hair dye jobs. Whether it was the one friend’s hair that had been dyed in chunks, another who got wickedly multi-tone low lights, or a friend who got a vibrant ash brown dye job that perfectly matched her natural hair color, I was eager to test out their stylist. I wanted a darker shade with darker toned low lights and chunks of highlights at the front.
Ended up heading over to Sunny’s and darker toned low lights and chunks of highlights at the front was exactly what I got, plus I scored some 20% off discount cards for my boxercise girls…. sweet!

Looking good ladies...

Ya, definitely looking silly here... hahaha.

But regardless of whatever look you ladies sport, I know you definitely bring your fierceness to my boxercise classes, thanks. Men of Cheonan beware, these lovely ladies are packing some hardcore hooks, crazy jabs, and wicked upper cuts that you wouldn't dare want to mess with!!!