Kathryn Woodall
01-28-2007, 01:09 PM
Confucius (or Lao-tzu) is quoted as having said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” In the case of this challenge, my journey began with a single typed word in an email explaining why I wanted to be considered to be part of a transformation challenge. While packing bags is part of most journeys, most of the reasons I gave for wanting to be part of the challenge have to do with getting rid of baggage.
With the exception of a very short time in my life, I have been seriously fat. Once I was an adult, I ate good food but I ate way too much of it. So last September I started a portion control THP and began shedding the excess fat. With a family history as rich with nutritional diseases (diabetes, heart disease, etc.) as mine is, it was something I should have done years earlier. I saw participating in the Challenge II as a way to help ensure that I kept the ball rolling in the right direction. While there is no doubt of its benefit for me to get rid of that particular piece of baggage, it is my hope that my nieces, nephews, great nieces, and great nephews will be able to see what I have done and realize that they have choices and aren’t destined to suffer with diabetes and poor health. It is also time that I be an example for my patients so that instead of just telling them what is best, they can know that I live it. While it will take longer than this Challenge for it to be evident, I also want very much to be as beautiful on the outside as my husband sees me on the inside. The guidelines we are being asked to follow nutritionally are definitely helping me to keep moving in the right direction and are allowing me to travel a little lighter even after just two weeks.
In high school I loved being active in sports and I excelled at it. But regardless of how hard I tried or how much I worked at it, I couldn’t do a single pull-up. It isn’t that I wasn’t strong because I could leg press 500 pounds (the damage done by doing that is for a different story), but I did not have the skills to do pull-ups. Thanks to Coach Wilson’s article about pull-ups and the practice I am getting with the 4x7 workouts, I am consistently getting closer to being able to meet my goal of doing un-assisted pull-ups. I’m not there yet, but I can see and feel the progress toward it. My work with the RMAX materials is helping me to embrace the idea that regardless of how big or unattainable something first seems, if it is broken down and worked at appropriately, it is neither big nor unattainable. So the baggage left behind in this regards contains the lenses that make it hard to see my way.
The last piece of luggage that I wanted to drop off during this journey is more difficult to define and will require that I go further back in my story. A little over a year ago I purchased the Prasara Yoga DVD because I was totally enthralled by the way the guy in it could move. I was enthralled because I had been in pain for so long that I couldn’t even begin to imagine the freedom he must feel while performing those motions. I convinced myself that I needed the Intu-Flow® set because even if it couldn’t help me, it might be something my patients could benefit from. So I bought it and became a member of the RMAX forum. Much to my surprise, I was greeted by “the guy” himself, Coach Scott Sonnon. But to my even greater surprise, Intu-Flow® did help me. Within a very short time my pain level started dropping.
To keep this story shorter, one thing led to another until I was well enough that I knew that I wanted to be able to do more than just encourage my patients to buy the products. I signed up for the certification seminar that will occur next month. When I signed up, I still hadn’t started to explore Prasara. Initially I thought that as well as everything else had gone, I would start working at it and it would just come to me. HA! Knowing I needed help, I signed up for the Vegas Prasara seminar which happened to occur during the Challenge II.
The first three days of the challenge went well and although it was a lot of work, I was immensely enjoying it. But the fourth day rolled around and a huge road block called a prasara flow slammed down in front of me. I had been working the various pieces of the flows for a couple of months and had memorized what I was supposed to do but anytime that I tried to put them together, within 10 minutes I was ready to do one of the following three things: pick a fight, roll up in a ball and cry, or laugh hysterically - but not in a fun way. The fourth day of the challenge was no different except that if I walked away from those sensations, I was quitting the challenge. Quitting isn’t really my nature so I did a whole lot of vibration drills and got through it but was totally drained for a couple of hours. While several of my teammates had been happy about the low intensity day, I was quietly wondering how I was going to get through 6 more day-4’s. And then the real kicker hit me, I was signed up for an entire day of prasara two days from then.
I flew to Vegas, did my high intensity training that morning, and then headed for the seminar. I got myself there with one thought. The urge to pick a fight always hit first and the seminar was being taught by 2 martial artists who would kick my behind, throw me out, or both - regardless it would end my struggle with prasara if I wanted it done. After the warm up we started working the flows and the sensations came rushing in, but I didn’t really want to quit the prasara, the pursuit of instructor certification, or the Challenge. What I really wanted was to let go of the fear that I would go back to being entrenched in pain. Coach Sonnon had told me in the Challenge Forum that it was likely that my struggle centered there, and while I wanted to think that I was beyond the fear of that, he was right. If I was going to hurt, it might as well be the result of something that looks as cool as prasara does instead of because I picked a fight with a couple of martial artists. So I surrendered. The sensations came and went a few times throughout the day but always with less intensity than the time before and they have not returned. I was sore at the end of the day, but not hurt. I still can’t define exactly what it is, but in that moment of stay or run, something truly incredible happened. There was more of me than I had realized wrapped up in the fear of being in pain and staying that way.
I still want to win this Challenge for all of the reasons listed above. I want to be truly healthy and to help others find their way there as well. I stand taller, have a different sense of purpose, can feel the fat melting away to unveil my physique, and I move better. 4x7 is teaching me that training well is possible in a much shorter time each day than I had ever done before.
It is two weeks in and I’ve already changed more than I knew was possible. Who knows what the next two weeks will hold?
Rather I win or not, I’m competing with good people. Each inspires me in his/her own way:
Annie for her enthusiasm
Charles for his desire to understand
Jason for his competitive nature
Jeanne for dealing with external challenges and still hanging with this one
KD for his thoroughness
Matthew for his sincerity and openness
Paul for his expression of delight in transforming, and
Victoria for her stick-to-it-ness and friendly encouragement of all involved.
Of course Coach Sonnon can’t be left off because regardless of how busy his schedule is, he has been there to answer each of our questions.
May we all stand as winners at the end.
With the exception of a very short time in my life, I have been seriously fat. Once I was an adult, I ate good food but I ate way too much of it. So last September I started a portion control THP and began shedding the excess fat. With a family history as rich with nutritional diseases (diabetes, heart disease, etc.) as mine is, it was something I should have done years earlier. I saw participating in the Challenge II as a way to help ensure that I kept the ball rolling in the right direction. While there is no doubt of its benefit for me to get rid of that particular piece of baggage, it is my hope that my nieces, nephews, great nieces, and great nephews will be able to see what I have done and realize that they have choices and aren’t destined to suffer with diabetes and poor health. It is also time that I be an example for my patients so that instead of just telling them what is best, they can know that I live it. While it will take longer than this Challenge for it to be evident, I also want very much to be as beautiful on the outside as my husband sees me on the inside. The guidelines we are being asked to follow nutritionally are definitely helping me to keep moving in the right direction and are allowing me to travel a little lighter even after just two weeks.
In high school I loved being active in sports and I excelled at it. But regardless of how hard I tried or how much I worked at it, I couldn’t do a single pull-up. It isn’t that I wasn’t strong because I could leg press 500 pounds (the damage done by doing that is for a different story), but I did not have the skills to do pull-ups. Thanks to Coach Wilson’s article about pull-ups and the practice I am getting with the 4x7 workouts, I am consistently getting closer to being able to meet my goal of doing un-assisted pull-ups. I’m not there yet, but I can see and feel the progress toward it. My work with the RMAX materials is helping me to embrace the idea that regardless of how big or unattainable something first seems, if it is broken down and worked at appropriately, it is neither big nor unattainable. So the baggage left behind in this regards contains the lenses that make it hard to see my way.
The last piece of luggage that I wanted to drop off during this journey is more difficult to define and will require that I go further back in my story. A little over a year ago I purchased the Prasara Yoga DVD because I was totally enthralled by the way the guy in it could move. I was enthralled because I had been in pain for so long that I couldn’t even begin to imagine the freedom he must feel while performing those motions. I convinced myself that I needed the Intu-Flow® set because even if it couldn’t help me, it might be something my patients could benefit from. So I bought it and became a member of the RMAX forum. Much to my surprise, I was greeted by “the guy” himself, Coach Scott Sonnon. But to my even greater surprise, Intu-Flow® did help me. Within a very short time my pain level started dropping.
To keep this story shorter, one thing led to another until I was well enough that I knew that I wanted to be able to do more than just encourage my patients to buy the products. I signed up for the certification seminar that will occur next month. When I signed up, I still hadn’t started to explore Prasara. Initially I thought that as well as everything else had gone, I would start working at it and it would just come to me. HA! Knowing I needed help, I signed up for the Vegas Prasara seminar which happened to occur during the Challenge II.
The first three days of the challenge went well and although it was a lot of work, I was immensely enjoying it. But the fourth day rolled around and a huge road block called a prasara flow slammed down in front of me. I had been working the various pieces of the flows for a couple of months and had memorized what I was supposed to do but anytime that I tried to put them together, within 10 minutes I was ready to do one of the following three things: pick a fight, roll up in a ball and cry, or laugh hysterically - but not in a fun way. The fourth day of the challenge was no different except that if I walked away from those sensations, I was quitting the challenge. Quitting isn’t really my nature so I did a whole lot of vibration drills and got through it but was totally drained for a couple of hours. While several of my teammates had been happy about the low intensity day, I was quietly wondering how I was going to get through 6 more day-4’s. And then the real kicker hit me, I was signed up for an entire day of prasara two days from then.
I flew to Vegas, did my high intensity training that morning, and then headed for the seminar. I got myself there with one thought. The urge to pick a fight always hit first and the seminar was being taught by 2 martial artists who would kick my behind, throw me out, or both - regardless it would end my struggle with prasara if I wanted it done. After the warm up we started working the flows and the sensations came rushing in, but I didn’t really want to quit the prasara, the pursuit of instructor certification, or the Challenge. What I really wanted was to let go of the fear that I would go back to being entrenched in pain. Coach Sonnon had told me in the Challenge Forum that it was likely that my struggle centered there, and while I wanted to think that I was beyond the fear of that, he was right. If I was going to hurt, it might as well be the result of something that looks as cool as prasara does instead of because I picked a fight with a couple of martial artists. So I surrendered. The sensations came and went a few times throughout the day but always with less intensity than the time before and they have not returned. I was sore at the end of the day, but not hurt. I still can’t define exactly what it is, but in that moment of stay or run, something truly incredible happened. There was more of me than I had realized wrapped up in the fear of being in pain and staying that way.
I still want to win this Challenge for all of the reasons listed above. I want to be truly healthy and to help others find their way there as well. I stand taller, have a different sense of purpose, can feel the fat melting away to unveil my physique, and I move better. 4x7 is teaching me that training well is possible in a much shorter time each day than I had ever done before.
It is two weeks in and I’ve already changed more than I knew was possible. Who knows what the next two weeks will hold?
Rather I win or not, I’m competing with good people. Each inspires me in his/her own way:
Annie for her enthusiasm
Charles for his desire to understand
Jason for his competitive nature
Jeanne for dealing with external challenges and still hanging with this one
KD for his thoroughness
Matthew for his sincerity and openness
Paul for his expression of delight in transforming, and
Victoria for her stick-to-it-ness and friendly encouragement of all involved.
Of course Coach Sonnon can’t be left off because regardless of how busy his schedule is, he has been there to answer each of our questions.
May we all stand as winners at the end.