Ever wonder what you can accomplish with the self discipline learned from Karate?

CANOE -- SLAM! Sports - Columnists - Brodie: Kanata teen's a champion in karate: "Williams, who started into karate 'primarily to learn how to defend myself,' got a little more excited about it all when she began entering -- and winning -- karate tournaments. Within 21/2 years, she'd earned her black belt. Six months after that came her first world title in Italy.

Along the way, Williams developed an eye for art, starting out with pencil drawings and moving forward from there.

'I've always liked drawing,' said Williams, a winner at the Nepean student showcase art competition the past two years. 'Even when I was little, I'd draw to express myself.

'Right now, it's for my own enjoyment. But I'm planning a website to sell reproductions of my work. It's an alternate career choice.'

That's if the legal or medical professions don't get her first. Williams is a 95 average student in Grade 12 at Bell High School, where she is enrolled in the gifted student program. Right now, she aims to begin studying mathematics and physics at the University of Ottawa next fall.

'I want to be a professor or a lawyer,' she said."

And she's only 17!

Karate School Combats Adult Obesity with Information, Motivation and Exercise

Coral Gables Karate School Combats Adult Obesity with Information, Motivation and Exercise - Sandor Urban: "Sandor Urban, owner of Sandor Urban’s US Kenpo Kai announced today that the school has joined with the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health to distribute important health and lifestyle information to its adult students and all members of the community, as part of a community-wide campaign to reduce adult obesity.

“Did you know that according to both the University Of Missouri and American College Of Sports Medicine that by 2044 every American child, and by 2058, every American adult will be clinically obese? Recent studies show that already more than 65% of the population is currently either clinically obese or overweight. We are well on our way to undoing the tremendous gains in average life expectancy that we have made in the last half century! January is that traditional time of the year to make New Year’s resolutions about health, physical activity and weight loss, except too many of us quickly return to old habits, loosing focus of our goals,” said Urban. “Our martial arts school is being proactive, however, by providing our adult students and all other adults with important information about how to combat adult obesity. Health and fitness are important elements of martial arts training, but we want to give our adult students"

My opinion is that getting exercisie by learning martial arts is a lot more fun, beneficial and personally rewarding than running on the treadmill all the time.