Everyday two particular mini Hulkies come in for training, almost always at 10pm. And when they come, I've got exactly an hour to train them and feed them before their mother comes to pick them up. Today they arrived super sad, with tears streaming down both their faces. Their parents have made it official -- their beautiful bulldog Lex is leaving the family but with no yet decided place or new home to go to. I would love to take her in but honestly I am very nervous as to how Pacquiao will respond to her. More specifically, I am nervous as to how jealous he'd get of her and what manner that would bring out in him.
My hour with them today was spent trying to wipe up their tears and then distract them from their distress they sported when they first arrived.
Mission a success.
I'm quite pleased with their training so far. They always remember to stretch before training and their warm-up exercise consists of 10 minutes of either light jogging or "power walking" on the treadmill. As for what power walking is, it's walking but with wrist and/or ankle weights on. If they wear both, it's an added 4kg in total. After warm-up training, they then do padwork, sandbag work, and then weight training followed by a cool down and different stretching.
They were all excited about today's post training meal as it meant getting to taste test the new protein bars I got shipped in -- cinnamon roll flavor and vanilla almond crunch. While nibbling away on these post training snack, I asked them what they usually eat for breakfast. "Nothing", was their response. Now most know I am a huge advocate of breakfast -- it really is the most important meal of the day -- but so many skip it. I know way too many people who think they should stop eating early in the evening, then skip breakfast. I'm sure those that do this also are the same people super eager to get to lunch and consequently load up at lunch time because their body is now starving. Not good...not good at all. Fuel your body right to make it work.
I love using my car analogy here because it's straight and to the point and everyone gets it. Your body is like a car and your food is like gas. You wouldn't expect your car to run on empty just like you shouldn't expect your body to. Simply put, simply understood.
Me asking them about breakfast lead to me teaching them how to make a very simple but very tasty breakfast -- overnight oatmeal. Together we made each other's breakfast and then I sent them home with a cup each. My version of the overnight oatmeal includes extra protein via French vanilla protein shake mix I added in. Got to load up on protein to get big and strong!
The mini Hulkies, they're my "speciality" here at Hulk's. I come up with fun games, activities, and somehow manage to keep up with their high levels of energy without blowing mine out totally with one shot. They're easy to train in that they just want to have fun so as long as I make it out as some kind of competition or game then they're good to go. Moreover though, they don't resist my help, question my methods and/or authority, nor do they refuse to do an exercise without giving forth their best effort. Also, they always do my "Healthy Living Homework", as I like to call it. Mini Hulkies require the most energy but they do exactly as told and seem to be the most responsive to my clean eating/healthy living advice.
Examples of Healthy Living Homework I've given out:
- Tomorrow... go to bed before midnight.
- Tomorrow... drink a cup of water before you eat any meal and any snack.
- Tomorrow... wake up and stretch for 5 minutes.
- Tomorrow... eat 2 pieces of fruit.
- Tomorrow... ask your family to go for a walk together this week.
- Tomorrow... tell me two things you like about yourself.
- Tomorrow... make breakfast the biggest meal you eat.
The key to really getting them eating clean however is educating their parents and one way I've been trying to do this is to send them home with Healthy Living Homework. So far it's just a verbal task I give them but I'm looking into making little wrist bands and typing their homework out on it. The wrist band would be similar to the ones you get at a concert -- a plan band that is easy to cut off but hard to rip off. I figure if they wore their "homework" on their wrist then it'd act as a physical reminder them to do it plus it'd get others asking them about what it is all about. The key is to get the parents asking about it and thus our mini Hulkies talking to them about it and getting them on board too. I was thinking about making some kind of tracking system too, like a simple chart with their names on it. For every parent-signed wristband they bring back, they'd get one point. I'd have to assign a point system but was thinking that certain amounts of points could buy them things at Hulk's, like a t-shirt or snacks from our juice bar. Many of the mini Hulkies love our chocolate chip protein bars so that definitely would be on the reward list.
My wristbands are the key to getting my mini Hulkies living healthier lives and now the next step is to purchase the wristbands and type up a Korean notice for the parents. Some of my mini Hulkies have "graduated" to regular Hulk status, meaning they're now above the age of 15. We have a total of 10 mini Hulkies now with another 9 having just graduated. Not all of our mini Hulkies would suit this pilot program however. Because the program would be more so directed towards those needed the extra attention with losing weight and changing their lifestyle habits, out of the 10 mini Hulkies only a handful would be best suited to participate in it.
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