I was trying on clothes for work this morning, and, lo and behold, my skinny girl black slacks fit again!  (This is Kelly, by the way, not Ric.  His skinny girls pants have fit for quite some time now.)  In honor of that and the fact that Ric is starting to get his six pack back, I figured it was time to share our fitness secrets.

1)  We eat like crazy people. We eat everything we bump into. This week alone, we have consumed chocolate, cotton candy, ice cream, calzones, hot dogs, nachos, and gigantic shrimp and chicken burritos.  And Ric had a corn dog covered in french fries this week, too.

2)  We walk everywhere.  Everywhere.  Work, the grocery store, out to lunch, to the bus stop, from the bus stop.  Down four or five flights of subway stairs and back up them again.  One of the advantages of not owning a car is that commuting time almost always doubles as a supplemental workout. We probably walk enough most days that we counterbalance the disgusting amount of calories we consume daily.

3)  But this, ladies and gentlemen, is our ace in the hole.  This is our pure gold fitness baby right here.  For the past two months we have been taking hapkido classes three times a week with Master Yoon Il-Bong, who runs Master Yoon’s English Hapkido School in Gwanganli. After the first week of classes, both Ric and I were in agreement–we had never sweat so much in our lives.  And it hasn’t let up.

We kick, we punch, we flip each other, we play punishingly, excruciatingly difficult agility games, and on Thursdays, we play with bow staffs.  I am doing pushups like it’s my job, and I think both of us are more flexible and agile than when we started.

My time in the dojang is frequently one of my favorite parts of our weeks here in Korea.  I love wearing my supercomfy dobo with its South Korean flag patch.  I adore the fact that I get to work out barefoot.  Master Yoon is funny and a great teacher…not to mention that fact that he could totally kill both of us with his bare hands.  He is patient with my beginner mistakes.  Sometimes, I look up from attempting ninja rolls or front falls or some other move that I’ve mommicked, and he’s just shaking his head and smiling.  Despite my initial (and, let’s face it, continued) incompetence, I HAVE gotten better, and I know it’s because I’ve got a great teacher.

Hapkido has become a pretty big part of our lives here in Korea, and I was kind of surprised when I realized I hadn’t really blogged about it yet.  We have so much fun learning and working out together each week.  It has really been the perfect exercise regimen for us.  So there you have it, folks.  The reason I’ll (hopefully) be rockin’ my skinny girl clothes all winter long.

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