What do you do when your friend tells you they're organising a charity white collar boxing event?
The continuing diary of two girls who said 'I'll do it!'
Boxing For Buhinga: The Fight Club Diaries. Week Six
As predicted the Mykonos Training Camp consisted of a few walks up and down the hill from our hotel room to the pool, about 10 minutes of lazy swimming and the lifting of some cocktails from table to mouth... For me the three day break passed in a blur of daiquiris, fried cheese and mainly being horizontal under 30 degree sunshine. Bliss for a holiday, not so much for the fitness regime.
Unsurprisingly I've put on a couple of pounds from the fact I've just been single handedly supporting the Greek cheese industry all weekend (Lora was MUCH better than me), but I'm feeling quietly confident I can shift them once I start eating properly and exercising again. I hope...
Whether it's the holiday blues, the dawning of autumn in London or just plain old grumpiness Lora and I are really struggling with motivation for boxing club on Tuesday. Thus far we've been excited and keen every week but tonight we both agree we could happily skip the session and curl up with a bag of crisps in front of Snog, Marry, Avoid. (In the pre-boxing days Lora christened Tuesday night - 'Trashy Tuesday' when you could watch Junior Doctors, aforementioned popular 'make-under' show and various other TV trash, pluck your eyebrows and eat pesto on toast without fear of reprisal. Ah those were the days.)
Of course we don't.
This week we're doing more sparring and everything has stepped up a notch. We learn the second rule of boxing club - which is "stop bloody saying sorry". For some reason our girliness is hard-wired and we can't help but apologise or giggle when we actually connect a punch. Our trainer makes us start swapping around so that everyone gets to fight different people, it seems I have no problem aiming a few punches at Rich and by the time I'm back to Lora the apologies have almost gone. Boxing means never having to say you're sorry
Lora coins the term 'de-ladying' which I'm guessing means she had a few undefended punches aimed her way, but to be fair she gave as good as she got - if Amazon had a spike in purchases of cricket boxes the following day I wouldn't be at all surprised.
On Friday something odd happens - I put on my 'Friday casual but not really because I work in an online company and we're always casual but I like to wear something different on a Friday' clothes and shock horror...my jeans are too big! Last Christmas I had a literal nightmare trying to get my ass into any type of jean on the High Street, I ended up ordering about 10 pairs from Topshop and trying them all on in the privacy of my bedroom. I just about squeezed into a single pair of Baxters - and now they are too big! I couldn't be more excited and wear them to work on purpose so that people will comment. No one does because (newsflash!) they clearly don't care but I bop about all day quite smug with myself.
I find myself once again in the gym on Friday night (seriously WHAT is going on?) and Mr-Merciless takes the opportunity to "step it up" (oh here we go). I genuinely think I might die on the 10% incline on the treadmill...like actually-not-have-enough-air-in-my-lungs-pass-out-and-die. I don't. But I do whinge a lot about the heat - it's like a Bikram gym session in there.
Two unprecedented things happen at the weekend 1) I choose to SHARE a pizza with my boyfriend instead of inhaling an entire one to myself (this has literally NEVER been known to happen before. I don't share food, and especially not pizza) and 2) I voluntarily suggest we go and collect my boyfriend's new bike from Kingston and WALK back. That's 6.8 miles people. 6.8 miles of walking. Voluntarily, after a punishing session at 8am with Simon. Yes be impressed people, be impressed.
Times they are a changing.....
About Boxing for Buhinga & Universal Chance
The Boxing for Buhinga event will be held on the 24th of November at the Grange St Pauls hotel in London. For tickets and enquiries go to http://universalchance.org/tickets/. You can read profiles of all the fighters at http://universalchance.org.
Universal Chance is a charitable trust set up by a group of friends who share a common desire to use the skills that we have developed through our careers to do what we can to help communities that have not been granted the same chances that we have whilst inspiring others to do the same.
We are dedicated to implementing tangible projects that will help less privileged communities and individuals reach their potential . This could be anything from improving education facilities to providing medical facilities or giving access to clean water. To find out more check out our site http://universalchance.org/ or follow us on twitter at @universalchance.