Fighting, New Gear, and Red, White and Blue

So a few weeks ago my boxing gloves vanished! I think I left them at the gym and they got nabbed. It is a sad thing for a boxer to lose her gloves! You grow rather attached to them. They are like my security blanket!

So I had to buy new ones so I could train. I ended up with white gloves. At the end of my UVU schooling Jeff had bought me some headgear and shin guards so that I could spar and not just attend class. The headgear was too big for me, but I have been using it anyway. And then my son started switching from Jujistu to Muay Thai, and wanting to go to sparring classes as well. So he started sharing mine. He loves it when I sweat in it first!

But finally I am doing my third fight, and the headgear severely impacts my ability to see, cause it won't stay in place, so I bought a new Fairtex headgear that fits very nicely! And it is not as hot as the other one. The one in stock was blue.

Then I decided to complete my new set and get a pair of shin gaurds that are nicer, and then my son and I won't have to share gear, the ones in stock... red! I didn't plan it, but now I have a complete new set of red, white, and blue gear.

How patriotic of me eh!

I have been training like a ninja this month! I feel like I have reached a level of fitness that is higher than I have ever experienced. This should help my mental toughness for Wasatch and Bear. I have been personally training 2 times per week for boxing, and running longer runs closer together. I also started a weekly thing today. I really want to get faster, and do more speed work. So once a week  am going to start a self-timed 5K, and work toward getting my speed down. My first goal is to hit 21 min, and then 20 and then so on.

Today, without any speed work for months.... I hit a 23:40 5k. That is slow for some people, but I am a distance runner, and not so fast!

I am also entertaining the idea of becoming a personal trainer myself, in addition to the MSW degree I am working on. I am thinking I will do personal training 2 times per week, self-study, work with my brother who is an elite triathlon coach, and then I am going to work it into my treatment model for therapy for eating disorder treatment, lifestyle coaching, and other trauma or self-confidence issues.

Exposure therapy, done carefully, to take the power of exercise from the eating disorder, instead of telling the individual to avoid exercise. Of course they would have to be medically cleared, and this would be done carefully with psychotherapy, and a whole program, but that is what makes the new program I am working on different then many eating disorder treatment programs. Practical, real, and makes life not all about everything related to the ED! A person has to learn to re-identify themselves, and it is easier to do if he/she is not being told that everything that was part of their ED mindset must be lost, or given away, or avoided! Instead, working with people on redefining things like physical activity to learn to appreciate the body for what it can do, and gain joy and achievement through completing difficult goals helps a person find that definition of themselves, and positive self-concept in the process.

This will be exciting!