Hey guys, I have missed you. How weird is that? I haven't really written in a couple of days and I keep finding myself thinking during the day 'Oh! I should blog about this!' and 'Oh my gosh my readers need to try this' because I have you all in mind going about my day of self motivation and search of inspiration for all that is good and sexy in life.
So I decided to try something new the other day. BOXING!! It was the day before my photo shoot (I'll post pictures soon) and a friend of a friend of mine contacted me to join him in one
of his nightly training sessions.
His name is Paul Cheng, and if you don't already know who he is I'll tell ya! Paul was taken 6th overall by the B.C. Lions in the first round of the 2002 Canadian Football League draft. He is now a Pro Boxer, and a Stunt Man. He is legit the biggest Asian guy I have ever seen in my life. Like huge. I looked like what I always imagined Elton John's 'Tiny Dancer' was beside him. Has anyone else ever wondered what Elton John's 'Tiny Dancer' may have looked like? Or is that just me? ... Anyway, that's how I felt standing next to Paul Cheng. Freaking tiny.
So when Paul told me he was going to train me to Box, I put my game face on, wrapped my freakishly small wrists and hands, put on a pair of his smallest boxing gloves along with my game face, and was on full attack!
With hopes to be the first
Asian Heavyweight Boxing Champ in history, training with Paul was no joke to me, I knew this guy was serious!!
We started out with some footwork, Paul showed me how to shuffle forwards and backwards while throwing 'Jabs'. The rhythm threw me off at first but after a couple of minutes I started to get it. He taught me a 'Straight Punch' with my right hand, and how to protect my face from getting hit by keeping my gloves up. In fact whenever I dropped my gloves from my face he didn't hesitate to give me a little hit just to scare me into keeping them up. I also got a few punches throughout the training that I didn't expect but definitely put me in my place and kept me from repeating the same mistakes. My face, was my inspiration to keep everything he was teaching me in mind, because I knew if I were to slip up he was going to take that opportunity to teach me a lesson.
This wasn't 'Dancing with the Stars' people, this was real life boxing with a 6 foot 4 inch ginormous man with a crazy aggressive personality, a strong athletic existence, and a 'no games' attitude. This was one of the few situations in life where I couldn't lean on being pretty, funny, or just blonde to get away with slip ups! Talk about pressure!!
Can you imagine being hit by this?...
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| Here's Paul wearing the same gloves that he lent me! |
Ya! No thanks. Or else I'd have to change this blog all together and change the name to "
Blonde and Mangled - The diary of the butter-face princess"
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Left Hook. My arms not high enough (for the pictures sake).
A perfect example of how to get hit! |
Anyway back on topic. He taught me other things like a 'Left Hook', how to 'Tic Toc', and how to 'Roll with a punch'. He also taught me that what ever I do I have to keep my left hand high because when I drop my left hand...I get hit with the right! Ouch. I kept having to remind him that I had a Photo shoot the next day to remind him not to bruise me !
So after he prepped me with these moves, Paul put pads on either of his hands and we started to dance! (Not literally...that would have been super weird, or maybe not? I'll try that next time and see if I get punched in the face. Just for you guys). Paul would yell out different combinations of what he taught me and like the little fighter I am,
my whole goal was to punch him straight in the face. I tried, very, very hard. He blocked me every time. I was so focused on trying to hit him that when he swung at me I was nowhere near ready to protect myself. This was the first
and last time he had to teach me the importance of keeping my gloves up!
I got so into this, I started to feel like a Ninja (which happens to be Paul's doggies name), or a character from
'Fight Club', when in reality, I was getting so worn out that I was really probably looked more like a character from 'The First Wives Club'...
Anyway, what I am saying, is that I felt
hardcore! No matter what I may have looked like...appearance was not on my mind! (IMAGINE THAT?!) I didn't fix my hair ONCE the entire time we trained. I didn't have a chance! I was too busy protecting my 'girls', and my perfectly orthadontatized (not a real word) teeth along with the rest of the wonderful features on my face that make me so
VGL.
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| Steph Costas vs Paul Cheng |
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| Straight hand punch! I'm dangerous! |
I think all you guys need to go out and try Boxing, feel hardcore for a bit, and do something so intense that you can't think of anything in the moment except keeping your gloves up and punching someone in the face! It's so empowering and freeing. I felt like a new woman when I was done...well...when I thought I was done...
Next Paul told me that we hadn't even started training yet. By this time it was 11:30pm. I didn't hesitate to follow him (who would miss getting the opportunity to stomp the zone with such a well developed athlete, inspiration, and motivating instructor?? Not me!) to 'The Testosterone Zone' , where a big guy complimented me by telling me he saw me 'throw some good punches' while training with Paul. Way to boost my ego big guy! You're next!
Paul made me 'dead lift' with him, and super set a shit-load of squats and different 'dynamic stretching' which I had never done before. I got a full athletes workout. I told him to do what he would regularly do to train himself as if I weren't there, and that I would be able to keep up. AND I DID! barely. I survived!? That's more like it.
After all this I was so wrecked, I was ready to pass out and work some of my new boxing moves at my photo shoot the next day (which I did!). So at 1:00am, when I thought we were about to leave to go eat out after gym meal of chicken and rice. Paul, pulled a Stephanie. I couldn't believe my ears when he said "I need to tan before we leave". This is proof of three things my friends:
1) Paul Cheng is high maintenance and Tanorexic. The guy who worked there had to see if Paul was even safety allowed to tan so soon since his last session.
2)The fact that I said I'd wait for him rather than go for a tan also, shows you how warn out, hot and tired I truly was. Because everyone knows, Steph Costas DOES NOT turn down a tanning session.
3) Paul Cheng is on the same journey as we are, to not only be
Real on the Inside, but to maintain a
VGL lifestyle.
I left that gym, a survivor. I like that. Although Paul has a couple nicknames for me (the main one is 'abs'), his new nickname for me is "Champ" and I hope to one day live up to that name in some way or another because I plan to continue training to Box, and have made a Boxing Fight a new goal for my fitness journey! I just hope it's against someone a little bit smaller, more female, and just as pretty as me.
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| Sorry it's so blurry, my hands were very shaky after I took my gloves off. I didn't want to annoy Paul by being a picture queen at his gym. I'm sure he made quite a statement to everyone in the gym by bringing me in to be his new partner in the first place. I'm sure my pink weight lifting gloves didn't help his reputation either...(considering everyone in the gym knew him - it took us 15 minutes of conversation with random people at the door before we could actually hit the gym. |
All in all my babies I want you to try something super new out and get your ass kicked, kick some ass, break something, throw your cell phone, infant, microwave - Or let's just keep it to punches? Throw some punches! BE HARDCORE and do something you wouldn't regularly do, try and see if you can survive like I did!! Feel the burn, get heated, get aggressive, get mad while you get into shape!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Walk out of that gym a NEW WOMAN!
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| To check out more of Paul's fights click right here! |
(No, not a VGL dinosaur, my version of a thesaurus)
See below for references on some of the Stephalicious words I used in this post:
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| Option A |
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| Option B |
Which Stephathaurus Dinosaur do you guys like better for me to use as my Stephathaurus Dino Buddy?
*Butterface- When everything about a girl is hot 'But-her-face'. My friends and I have come up with many variations such as:
- Butterbod (The direct opposite of a Butterface)
- Butterbuns
- Butterfriends
- Etc...Feel free to make up your own as life goes on. You will catch yourself making them up without even knowing. For example "She's super nice but-her-weave looks like roadkill" That girl is instantly a 'Butterweave'. Get it? Have fun with it, let me know what you come up with!
*Tanorexic- When an already visibly tan/dark person looks at themselves in the mirror and sees Casper The Friendly Ghost.
*VGL - Very Good Looking. Can be extended to VVGL, or VVVGL, or VVVVGL etc, depending on the situation. I keep it humble describing myself with just one 'V'. Therefore, I am VGL.
*'The Testosterone Zone' - The section of the gym where men are the majority. This area is filled with groans and moans as men lift their weights, followed by dropping their weights after their sets to let everyone know they are done and how bad-ass they are for challenging themselves. This is both annoying and inspiring to me. For the guys who are genuinely lifting such heavy weight that they can't control the sounds that come out of them, makes me want to lift heavier. But everyone knows that annoying guy at the gym that's doing flyes with 15 pounds and drops the weights when he's done...annoying + dangerous. He's usually the guy who doesn't wear deodorant too, and spends his time talking to people who are actually trying to work out between his sets. You see a lot of characters at the gym, it's a fun part of working out.
As you let yourself go a little with eating and drinking this Christmas, why don't you bump up some fun Christmas physical activities too? Go ice skating, snowboarding, have a snowball fight, or build a snowman (it's hard work!)! Find ways to stay active and be festive at the same time. Especially if you have kids, they love this stuff! If not, plan a snowball attack on your boyfriend or girlfriend, they have no choice but to retaliate which = your workout! That was a joke, but hay, what ever works!
