Expansion

I've decided to make this blog more about my personal life and how it intersects food and fitness. Recipes included? Sure. They're fun, and above all, useful. Lately, however, I find myself yearning to write down my thoughts on life and sort everything out on the page (well, digital page, that is).

Right now, I'm waiting to leave for the boxing gym. I'm leaving in about twenty minutes. I'll then do a thirty minute "warm up" run, followed by the general boxing class with Head Trainer Rob at Pacific Ring Sports. This first class is mostly pad work, or boxing combos on hand-held pads, and a mixture of army-like pushup and sit-up floor drills; sometimes there is work on the heavy or hanging bags. After an hour of this, the real workout starts; Advanced Boxing. In this second class, a small team of people participate in sparring and more intense drills. Sparring, for those unfamiliar with it, is a slightly less intense "fight", or a "practice fight". Rob matches us up against one another in the ring, and we work mostly on skill and not so much on hurting each other. As Rob says, keep the power behind the punch at only around 30%. Sure, there are some black eyes and bloody noses, but for the most part it's less brutal than football or hockey or any other team sport practice I've seen.

I'll be at the gym for about three hours in total, and will easily burn 1500 calories while I am there (about one fast food meal, and at least half my caloric expenditure for one day).

It's intense work. I usually take a Tylenol PM just to get to sleep afterwards. I get home around 9:20pm, still revved up from sparring, even though I need to be at work by 6:45am the next morning.

This is one part of my life that makes me stay on my toes. Another is my academic career path, which is currently fixed toward law school.
Sigh. It's the summer of the Law School Admissions Test for me. Last year, I took the LSAT and did NOT do so hot. At all. I had no preparation, and I toggled between completely freaked about the test and overly nonchalant. During the test I felt like I guessed on almost every question, and could not explain why an answer was correct even if I got it right. After I got my rather horrifying score last October, I vowed to approach the test fully prepared next time.

Now, I am signed up for a Testmasters prep course. It runs from July 13th through test day at the end of September. I had to save over one month's wages to pay for the $1450 course. Since I have a few weeks before the class starts, I've begun reading through some old Kaplan test prep books handed down to me by a friend. It still looks like I need some live instruction to begin understanding everything on the level I want to (not to mention test prep materials without all the answers already marked in them...Testmasters will be sending my *new* test prep materials in about a week or so).

More later, time to go!