I am an athlete

         I've always considered myself athletic, but it never occurred to me that I was an athlete.  I am just someone who likes to be active, and who tries to take care of their body.  Be it running, the gym, or Kung Fu, I like to move my body, and I feel my best physically and mentally when I do so.  It has been recently that I've really considered myself an athlete, and not just because of Kung Fu.  I have a holistic nutritionist and personal trainer that I have been working with.  The nutritionist has really helped me with my meal timing, so I can get the best out of my workouts, and also have the proper nutrition for repair and to keep inflammation down in my body.  My personal trainer has helped with my programming to help me push past some plateaus I've had in my training, and to strengthen my body all around.

        When it comes to Kung Fu, the realization that I'm an athlete manifested in my eye for detail and how I use that to progress my training.  Feeling when something is off in a technique, looking at how others are moving and how I want to move.  Kung Fu has gotten me in-tune with my body in a different way before.  It is like seeing the world with different eyes, except in my case, it's moving through the world with a different body.  My movements have changed, the way I hold myself has changed, the way I exert my energy is different.  

        Probably the biggest challenge I face, is on the one hand I am very active in area which requires me to muscle everything, with good technique obviously, where as the other side I don't want to use that muscle and just let things flow more.  Combining these two aspects has been a big learning curve, but again, has given me so much great insight.  So am I an athlete?  Yes.  Yes I am.