Fighting spirit

[booksie_girl]

I read fighting spirit today, the autobiography of Lauren Burns, an Aussie who won an Olympic gold in TKD, -49kg division. The name probably doesn't mean much to most of you, but she became a bit of a legend here in Aus. I think seeing her on the news after winning her gold was the first time I'd ever heard of TKD.

It made me see my beloved TKD in a new way. The dieting which she went through to fit weight divisions made me think. Surely you wouldn't be fighting at your best after starving yourself.

It was well written, and I enjoyed it.

[Dark Blade]

I met Lauren once in the Melbourne CBD at a world vision function, she's really nice.

Can't say I've read the book though.

[Whitetiger76]

When was her book released? I would like to find a copy, but I think that they only sell it in the Aus area.

[booksie_girl]

It came out this year or last year, I'm not sure since I had to return the book to the library. I'm not sure if it's available in Canada. Some smaller libraries actually borrow from giant libraries that only lend to libraries. If you have one of those in your area, it would probably be your best shot (that's how I get a lot of less common books, I'm not sure if you actually have that system anywhere nearby)

[craigwarren]

I doubt if she "starved herself". It can be quite a tast to loose weight to fit into a new catagory, but it doesnt require starving yourself, mearly curbing your calorie intake slightly. Of course it would become harder as your body will eventually start burning and running out of its excess fat, at which point she would raise her intake again to a level where it can keep her weight stable.

I myself did the same thing and in less than 9 months managed to drop from 86Kg to 72kg. 2 more and i will have reached a target weight at which point i will raise my intake slightly in order to start loosing fat but have enough energy to start building muscle and hopefully keep my weight roughly constant.

But you are right if you starve yourself in order to loose massive ammounts of weight before a competition then you will become sick and very weak.

Loosing weight is ment to be slow because if you do it fast you could become very ill, or maybe just sling shot and put all the weight back on plus more when you start eating more again.