Started work again after three weeks of being away and the welcome and greetings I got from long-time-no-see Hulkies was pretty great. It felt so good to hear how they missed me but more specifically how they missed doing crossfit with me, missed eating my food at our juice bar, and missed my positive energy at the club. Many members noted that the vibe of the club was off, Snickers only coached boxing, and no events were held during my absence. It was bitter sweet hearing this. It was nice to be appreciated and missed but not at the expense of my members not being particularly happy when I was gone. Many also noted I looked so different -- I looked absolutely happy in my pictures posted on Facebook and on my homepage and had arrived back in Korea looking so much smaller (and much darker too) than I had left. This is true.
In Canada I trained less, ate more and ate better.
I dropped running and did only boxing and weight training at the gym. I stuck to three large meals with one snack before training, and then I stopped eating much earlier in the evening than I am used to. I made sure all my meals were loaded with veggies. The Canadian grocery stores made it super easy for me to eat clean -- prepackaged mixed veggies, spinach sold so nicely pre-plucked and pre-washed, whole grain and multi-grain tortilla shells. Moreover I had a kitchen -- a REAL kitchen -- to cook in. I enjoy cooking but cooking at Hulk's is kind of ghetto and I can't make stirfrys because of no stove top. Another point I'd like to note is that I didn't eat any Korean food. I went out for burgers once and pasta twice but though these meals posed as a carb-overload meals for me, I used them as my "refuel days", they weren't bombarded with sugar and salt like so many Korean dishes are.
In Canada I stressed less, slept more and slept better.
My days consisted on meeting friends and making sure I got my training in. I wondered the streets of Toronto a lot by myself, just looking in shops and having the most random of conversations with strangers. Canadians make for extremely friendly strangers and I didn't realize that until this past trip. I don't know how you can wake up in a bad mood or feeling lonely in Toronto, seriously. For the most part, everyone I passed in the street would either smile or say hi to me and that worked wonders for my soul, seriously. It was so nice to sit on a streetcar and just randomly say something to the person sitting next to me if I so pleased. Koreans aren't friendly strangers and the contrast between them and Canadians is incredible. Consequently, my days were much happier and so I slept a lot better too.
A fellow coach and pro boxer told me the other day, "You're the only person I know who goes on vacation and comes back in better shape". I think the key components to my personal success with staying fit and healthy on my vacation was I tried to ease up on my training a bit, I didn't overload my days with training twice a day, and I didn't lean on any processed fitness foods like protein shake mix or protein bars. Although I think it's important to get in my protein and value protein shake mix, I find in Korea I tend to lean on them more than I should because of my hectic schedule with training and coaching and my lack of time to really sit down to slowly eat, fully digest a meal. But in Canada I think I only had access once or twice to any protein replacements and they were a lot more expensive than if I had bought them in Korea, almost double the price actually. I pretty much had cancelled out all processed foods and stuck to snacking on a lot of fruit and edamame beans.
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