Day 3

Day 3 : Let's get moving!

This morning I got up slightly later than the last couple of days, had breakfast, and left my children with my sister and mom so I could go to my first CrossFit training in Tokyo.

I visited Reebok CrossFit Musashino. This is a new box that just opened a couple of months ago, and conveniently located from my parents house. I left home early so I would have enough time. It turned out that it was only 30-40 min. to get there. I might even consider biking to the gym next time. (Yes, there will be a next time for sure.)

The gym was located in a basement of a small building. When I got there, there were two athletes prepping for bench press. Coach Miki greeted me with a gentle smile. I was already feeling good just seeing their rowing machine and Rogue weight sets. I signed the waiver and got changed, and then Coach Miki told me that I could use whatever was there to warm up. I took my time to do all my routine, and just watched the other guys doing their workouts. When I said hi to everyone, they were like "Wow, you must train a lot." I guess I didn't really hide it.

When Coach Miki announced that today they would do Murph, one of the Hero WODs, I got a little bit nervous. He kindly let us know that it was already scaled, but I knew it'd take a long time nonetheless.
It was 1 km run (instead of 1 mile run), 100 pushups, 100 pull-ups (instead of 200), 200 air squats (instead of 300), and another 1 km run (instead of 1 mile).

We went outside, ran to a school which was 1 km point, did the pushups and squats, ran back to the gym and did the pull-ups. My pushups and pull-ups were scaled and I finished at 38:22, and felt pretty good about it. I earned a cool wristband for completing the WOD. Wahoo!!

Since this gym is very close to my parents house, I've decided that this is going to be my home gym for the rest of my stay. I will try a couple of other CrossFit gyms in Tokyo.

I went home, and found that my mom fed my children some lunch. She also had some buckwheat noodles. I did not see any protein on the table, so I passed on the noodle and made myself a meaty buttery plate. It was my first time really saying No Thank You to the food my mom prepared. I felt a little bit awkward when I offered some of my food to the others and everyone said No Thank You. But I quickly got over with it because I definitely felt good about feeding myself with what my body required.

Then I spent a little time with my boys, but they had the neighbour friends over, so I decided to just keep doing my own stuff. I went out to do the groceries, and bought us some more fish.

After that, I went out again to see my dad. I brought him a radio, some clean pjs, and his cell phone today. He told me that a friend of his from high school came for a visit today. So great to hear that someone cares for him.
Then I started to do some exercise with him. I started with his ankles, and was surprised how cold his feet were. He said they were always cold, but I was sure that they needed more blood flowing down there.
I expected his joints to be very stiff, and they were more so than I had imagined. But after a couple of minutes of moving the ankle joints, they did start to loosen up a bit. He had some sores on his right heel  from rubbing against the bed sheet, which apparently hurt to touch, so I needed to work around it. I moved up from ankles to knees, hands, elbows, and shoulders. But I didn't really know what to do with his hip joints, so I'd have to look them up.
Then, I had him sit up on the bedside. I ran my hand down his spine, which felt really exposed, and there was a sore spot on the back as well. I wondered how Dr. Jamie would approach this. I really wished I could bring a LBD chiropractor with me.
I kept telling him how amazing the human body is, how his broken bone could still heal, and how I had transformed at the age of 38. He is no different. He is the same human. If he chooses to keep moving, his body will move. If he chooses to stop moving, his body will stop moving too.
I'm no expert, so whatever I do may not be the most effective, optimal way. But I do know that I'm heading the right direction, and I know it's a process. So I will keep going.
There were a couple of other things I found out today. Their breakfast and lunch always include bread, which my dad prefers to rice, and dinner comes with a huge bowl of rice porridge.
The other thing is that my dad does want to go home.

The hospital staff asked me if we as a family had discussed what we'd do about my dad. Well, it's not something we can decide in a couple of days, so I just said we didn't have time to talk about it yet.

I came home, and my mom had dinner ready. My kids were already done eating. I need to plan my day better, so I can be home prepping meals with my mom.

I had another little chat with my mom after dinner. Long story short, she is not ready or willing to take care of my dad at home. Her back still hurts. And more than anything, she is deeply scarred in heart. There was something that my dad said while he was home for a couple of months that really really hurt her. And she cannot take it any more. She has lost hope in my dad.

I think she deserves a better life as well. She does not have to live as a servant to my dad. If having my dad back home means my mom sacrifices her life, then that's not going to happen.

But the other option poses whole a lot of other problems too.

I'm thinking that my family need to start with figuring out their values. Think By Design 101.

I will need more chats with my mom.

It really comes down to taking full responsibility in your own life and health. 

"No one is coming to save you."

That's the reality.

How am I going to present it to my parents? I don't know.