Candidate Journals

What an experience!! Master Knight was grading me and I was the first to hear my critiques and there were none. I was shocked but having a great mentor, masters at my school, and putting in the hard work really paid off. We still have to spar and break board but I am going in with a strong sense of, “ I can do hard things!”

Today is the day. I am equal parts, excited and nervous but I’ve gotten so much good advice from past testers and my mentor. Going to try and take a nap before the late night because I am an early bed goer and an early riser so this is going to be tough, but I can do hard things. 

I can’t believe it’s the Thursday before testing how the time has flown. I definitely feel like I’m a better version of myself for going through this process and learn learned that I am stronger than I think I am.

It’s official I’m done with all of my physical requirements. It feels so good to know that I have accomplished so much in these past 12 weeks.

Slowly working through my final requirements. I am done with so many and only a few more to go. This is a great week minus the 30° weather we had this morning

4 day left!! Today was a good day, work wasn’t too bad and I got to meet up with friends for dinner. I would love if everyday could be this easy. 

What a beautiful Sunday!! Poomsae class was amazing and I received some good advice for the upcoming testing. Thank you to all the fellow black belts who have helped me throughout this cycle. 

Today was a Workout day. Got through all of my requirements did a little bit of extra, hoping to have all exercising done by Monday of this week coming up. I am so grateful for all Senior black belts who have helped me throughout my journey and it’s been great getting to know them on a deeper level.

I can't believe in 1 week I will be testing for my first don, this has been a crazy great journey but also so fulfilling.  In celebration of the last week, I took the day off work and decided to have fun with Cenzo because who doesn't need a little fun in life :)

Today was a good day!  Made it yesterday and today so far without crying for no reason.  Looking forward to class tonight and my mentor session with the best mentor in the world :) Here's to working out, running, and doing hard things.

I hope that everyone had a Happy St Paddy's day.  I am thankful for a new day and a clearer headspace, but I am ready for some fun and good times again.  What doesn't kill me definitely makes me stronger.

I am ready for this year to be over. I can’t take Any more bad news. It definitely makes me go stronger on my workouts, but I’m ready for some happy news  

Happy Monday all!!  Here is to a great week of training and getting the final parts our cycle done. My cup is still very full from our community service event.  I love when things we do affect us in a positive way for days; it makes going to work and dealing with hard issues a little easier.  Here's to a successful week 11 in training.

What a great poomsae class!! It feels so great to be back on my normal routine and I know I’ve said this before but it’s amazing. I’m still very sore from yesterday and testing but I know I’m getting stronger and that’s all that matters. Loving  the final countdown for Black Belt Training Where I can see all of my hard work truly pay off. 

What a great day!!! Started with a fantastic run and beat my original time by 26 whole seconds.  Then it was off to testing and physical testing.  I beat all my pre-test score and did a full pull-up.  I was so happy with my results, and it proves that if you put in the work, you can achieve anything.  Our final stop of the morning was our community service event, we all had so much fun packaging the food for food insecure families.  Our table was singing and dancing the whole time and enjoying the positive vibes from the whole group.  All in all, it was a fantastic day!

I can't believe there is only 2 weeks left in cycle.  This process, while grueling, has been amazing, and every day I get stronger and become a better version of myself.  I am so proud of myself and all my fellow blackbelts on cycle for putting in this work.  We can do hard thing and anything is possible 

My last sparring class is today!!! I thought I was done but I was so wrong, one last time to get sparring in

Oh, the soreness!  Being back to full steam is better than I could imagine but it is amazing how you can lose certain aspects of strength when you deviate from a routine.  I am happier more than words can describe with my sore body and look forward to beating my pretest goals on Saturday

Finally back in class. Best part of the day was seeing baby Olive second best was seeing all of my tae kwon do friends again. 

After a long hard day yesterday, I am back in North Carolina and I’m so happy to be back. Looking forward to working out tonight and seeing all my taekwondo friends tomorrow.

What a day!!! I was supposed to be in Jersey until tonight but life has a way of throwing curveballs. I’m now home and get to handle emergency surgery recovery for my husband. While I didn’t get to do the things I wanted I did the things I needed. 

So happy it’s the weekend! Time to get started for the next cycle week and have a little fun. 2 more days until I’m back in NC and back to the grind. Happy exercising all!

It is so much easier to work out when you do not have the normal day to day.  I will miss this time in NJ because it allowed me to do so much more than I expected to do.  That being said, I am looking forward to getting back to the routines next week.

Happy Friday Eve all!  Been a great week of training and running but I miss the classes so much.  I had to get creative this with my weapons as I did not have them in NJ.  My Bo staff was an old rain stick, and my sticks were old Hawaiian instruments.  Sometimes you have to be able to work with what you have in front of you and get creative :)

I am missing my routine of working and then going to Taekwondo class.  I can't wait to come back home and pick up classes again.  Having routines is not only good for the mind but also for the soul.  Practice hard this week my fellow people on cycle!!

OOF yesterday was a day.  Between working and working out I am taking care of my elderly mother, and it takes a toll on the mind.  Love my mom but I never want to grow old and have my kiddo deal with this.  The one thing that made me happy was I was working through Il and Yi Chong and my mom wanted to learn the arm movements.  While she didn't understand all the movements, she gave it a go and smiled and laughed the whole time.

Need these skies to be blue again because running in the cold gray world is sad.  Other than that it has been a great week on cycle getting stronger and can do pull ups now :)

Today was a bit of a struggle as there’s a lot going on with work, family, and home. However have 2-5 minutes every hour to work on my exercises really helped me stay on track. Looking forward to the end of cycle but Will utilize my newfound love of micro brakes to help me get through tough days

So excited to be in the home stretch of cycle.  It has been a tough but now everything is so much easier and I can see my toned arms!

What a great week for my workouts!  I felt the strongest this week because I did 2 pull ups and when I started this journey, I could not even do 1.  This is a huge accomplishment for me and I really can't wait to see how many I can get to by the end of cycle.  Hoping next cycle Cenzo will be able to join me because he graduated to high red yesterday and broke that board on his final attempt.  Overall a great week!

So excited for today, my son is testing for his high red belt.  I know he can do hard things even if he thinks he can't.  I am such a proud mama bear and can't wait to see where he goes.

After a long week of feeling tired and unmotivated, I pushed through over the weekend and finally feel like myself again. I’m especially excited for this week because my kiddo is finally testing for High Red. He has worked so hard, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.

I am so happy to be closing out week 6 of cycle, halfway through the cycle. The first half of this journey has been great can't wait to see where the second half takes me.

We are 1/2 way through cycle and I can see the difference in me.  I am so grateful for this journey and can't wait for it to be done.  Each week gets easier but also harder with the amount that needs to be done. Looking forward to the finish line and saying," I did hard things!"

It is nice to get outside and run, however my love for running has not improved.  It is still the bane of my existence, but I am getting better at running a complete mile without stopping.

After a really tough week battling sickness, I’m so grateful to finally be on the mend. This week was just a small bump in the road on my journey to earning my black belt—I know that, and I know exactly how to get back on track. You never know what life will throw at you, but it’s how you recover and keep moving forward that makes you stronger.

Trekked through the snow this morning to get to Black belt class and what a crate black belt class we had. It was such a great start to my day. Then I got to come home and play in the snow with my dog and my son and have the best Saturday ever!

The good thing about all these snow days is I can get ahead of in my requirements.  However, I wish I was a kid down in NC when it snowed because I never received a snow/remote learning day when the roads were clear.

Woke up to another day of remote learning for my kid.  Trying to work, teach, and workout during the day is getting the best of me.  I hope CMS goes back to school tomorrow so I can get back to normal.

Waking up to "snow" was great it was so nice to see my dog and son playing outside. This is perfect weather to get some workouts in as we are stuck inside.  Everyone stay safe and warm

I felt like the workouts were becoming routine, so I decided to break them all down in 1-minute increments.  Let me tell you the amount of energy I put into the workouts today were 1000% better than my previous ones.  Gotta find ways to keep the monotony at bay when working out!

Yesterday was such a great day. I got some stuff done around the house and all my work outs done by 2 PM then got to spend the evening with friends. Looking forward to tomorrow and my day off from working out. 

So this week, I decided to do my white belt challenge. It was so wild going to the back of the line again and working on the fundamentals. This journey is amazing and is teaching me so much.

Thank goodness for Friday's and 3 day weekends.  This is a great time to get ahead of cycle workouts for all of us.  Looking forward to the weekend full of blackbelt classes and the white belt challenge.

Today is my day off from working out, I have been looking forward to this all week long.  I have to tell myself to give my body rest after a long week of work, working out, and taking care of my kiddo. Being a working adult and doing cycle is hard but as long as I take care of myself, I can do anything.

Getting through pre-test was tough but did way better than I expected.  My whole body hurts A LOT, but now we are on week 2 of cycle and every body part should be getting used to this training.  

Yesterday was my first sparring class.  I will say sparring kicked my butt, but it was more fun than I expected.  Looking forward to today's rolls and falls class.  First week almost complete!

I hate running, it is literally the bane of my existence, however if you run to good music, it is not as bad.  Today I did my fastest mile with proper musical motivation.  Every step hurt because I am so sore from training, but it is worth it because I can do hard things and I will be strong.

Sundays are for cycle training and homemade pasta.  After 2 longs days of training, it is important to recover with pasts :)

What a first day of cycle!  I always tell myself I can do hard things and I can, but this is so much harder than I expected. It is important to keep in mind that it is only day 1 and each day will make me stronger and better.

Here we go, day 1 is upon us, and I am so excited it is finally here

I am so excited this journey and show everyone that it does not matter what your age is you accomplish hard things.  I can't wait to see everyone on this journey and how they progress!