I am sitting in my annual women conference and this woman is talking about women empowerment, kids, blogs and life. Half of the things that I want, and I don’t want.
And here I am thinking about what has been driving me the past months, and often saved me from insanity and it is my fitness journey. Classy right?
I am the proud and happy member of Spartans boxing club ( moved out and Proud member of the RING NOW ), a franchise boxing club in Singapore! I usually go there up to 4 to 5 times a week to take a boxing class or learn with my boxing coach technics or even for sparring with my friends. It sounds so cool, a woman who boxed and doesn’t get scared.
REALITY? TRUE REALITY — I STRUGGLE AND I STRUGGLED AND I WILL STRUGGLE.
I get into boxing by chance and not by interest and I grow my love for boxing right after the first class. I was going to meet some friends for dinner, and I saw the club board, I got the intuition that I should go and join for a trial, and I signed up straight after that, it happens more than 3 years ago. More than anything I am a very (sometimes too much) very active person. And since I left France (almost 10 years ago now) it is important for me to have a sport active, either Zumba, Capoeira or Running, I have been very sportive & Active.
Boxing is very perfect mix of cardio, strength and conditioning, and a great stress relieve.
But you need to know, I start working out only when I was 28, and I am 35… So do the maths…I started all of this very late…
Boxing is a combination of everything, when I go to class, I can enjoy a session with my friends where we learn together and laugh a lot because we are together trying to figure some boxing moves or do our abs together. I also had some personal training session with the coach there, to get more technical and improve my skills and finally because it goes together, and it helps for your stamina a lot, I run.
But the other reality is that I have never been able to be happy about the person I am physically.
The kind of always feeling insecure, big and fat and too many times alone. And I won’t lie, it is not because I boxe that I feel better in my skin, would be too easy but it helps,
It helps to achieve my goals or at last to respect myself physically time to time. In the sense, that you can look ton or fit but you know that when you step into a scale, it is not what you want.
If you are too big, you can’t fight, so you decrease as a size but keep the same weight. But knowing that you are getting into a fight and then you have to double up the work. And every time I have a weight goals and I got there … Damn, I feel like I have accomplished something, and it gave me confidence and that I can really get what I want but also remember that I can do it.
But I used to struggle and I still do, and I don’t know if I will be successful or not until the very end, but I try to embrace as much as I can. I diet, I say no to cake, no to candies (keep the dark chocolate) and leave alcohol! but it is hard, because no one will understand why you run at 2pm under the sun with a sauna suit or why you go to the sauna for 45 min….All of this, to get weigh in, and ready to fight. and also because he doesn't kill you, it will make me stronger mentally and keeps me going when I am down.
I love boxing because it has been there in the good time and bad time of my life, boxing has always challenging me to be a better version of myself.
Boxing has a sport helped me to meet new people and being part of a community. I meet so many people throughout the year, some of them became good friends and became part of my Singapore family. They are here for training, they are here for sparring, for running and we all get together one of us is fighting. It is just amazing to be together and cheer someone.
And maybe because it has helped me in the best and worst time of my life. Two years ago, I was facing a challenging time at work, and Boxing was where I will go to work out but also find an escape for the stress that I was facing. I would go there every day to punch bags to relieve or forgot my days at work. It will come to the things I would have faced during the day and that’s when my bond with boxing was created. Stepping up in the gym, wearing my workout, going for a class and being unpersonal because you just follow the instruction of a coach can be a relief. You put yourself into an auto pilot state where you just jab, cross, hook and repeat and just like that your mind has more space and ready to face the following day. Sometimes I do remember seeing myself going for a run just after because I was looking for more space and reassure myself that everything will be ok. And no one at the club knew what was going on at work… but they will let me do my routine….
But boxing and getting in the ring is not always about winning or losing it is about performing and putting yourself at 100% and going back to the ring. I realized it after my last fight, I lost, but as soon as I lost, instead of crying (there was tears believe it but later ), my thought was, I learnt so much, I learnt about myself and how to handle my emotions. And get addicted to the grind, the addiction to go back to fight camp and fight again. Get the addiction to something going, around and around.,
It is how I challenge and push myself. When I boxe, I know when I am 100% of my capacity and doing something myself and how can I go beyond myself. Every fight, every competition and it transforms you, it makes you stronger and different, it can also a turning point and game changer as a boxer.
The challenge and the goal keep me going on those runs, sprints and time where I eat less in order to make sure that the weigh in is there and then go eat my candies and after that you got the adrenaline coming up for the D-day where you will have to step up in the Ring and compete against someone.
Now boxing is like love, it challenges me, makes me happy, drives me nuts and always pushes me for the next steps when do I know when I am in love? When I start things that I would normally don’t do, going for a 7:00 AM training, train 2x a day, being happy because I managed to do some sparring session at the club or not drinking wine for months…So yes it matters and yes it is not only two people throwing punch at each other.