Just a warning, this post might be a little unorganized, disjointed, and generally not very well thought out. That's because my brain is STILL not working quite how it should be, and I have a lot on my mind when it comes to jiu jitsu and such.
So, 2012 was a pretty good year as a whole, I Joined Pura BJJ very late 2011 and really started training hard in Jan 2012. I have absolutely loved every minute of training with my the team and am so thankful that they have all welcomed me with open arms and have made me feel like a part of the team.
It feels like I've been there a lot longer than only 1 year. That could be because in that one year we had five road trips to Montreal, a road trip to Ottawa, two trips to New York, and ten or so tournaments in the GTA that we competed at together. That's a lot of time in a car, gymnasium, and Pizza Hut to get to know each other, support each other and become good friends.
Over the year, I attended over 25 events, including competing at 17 tournaments, fighting in one super fight, attending the IBJJF ref course, attending Sub-X, training in California, and attending a couple tournaments I did not compete at. That's over half the weekends of the year spent doing something jiu jitsu related! Great times. Of course, because of that, I have seriously neglected my non-jiu jitsu friends and family and I feel pretty bad about that. In 2013 I am going to work harder to find a balance so I can pursue my jiu jitsu career and support my teammates while not neglecting my friends and family who have supported me so much over the years.
I had plans for 2013 to start with a pretty big bang. Ascension, Montreal Grappling, Toronto Grappling, and the Montreal Pro Trials, all in the first six or seven weeks of the year. I was also planning on re-starting working with my kettle bells, doing some serious cardio, and lifting heavy things with my mega strong power lifting teammate Ken all in December to be better prepared for the competitions in Jan/Feb. Instead I've sat on my ass, played XCOM, watched a couple classes and tried really hard not to get depressed and fat.
I credit eating mostly paleo to helping me with that last bit. Normally, when I'm injured, I eat garbage, feel like crap, so I eat more garbage, then get depressed because I get fat, so I eat garbage. It's a pretty vicious cycle that I've been working on not getting into. Jon's been pretty helpful with that because there have been a few times where it's like Jon: "What do you want for supper". Me: "Pizza and Ice cream". Jon: "No, what do you actually want for supper". So that's good at least.
Oh, that reminds me, one of my other goals for the new year was to fight in the -132 or whatever division at the Abu Dhabi Pro Trials in Montreal. I know that is mega light, but it's day before weigh ins, and with clean eating, and lots of cardio and lifting and whatnot I could have done it, IF I had been able to get an early start in Dec and kept to it. Not any more. Now competing there at all is a grey area.
This whole paleo thing has been going pretty good. I haven't really lost any weight in December, but, all things considering, the fact that I haven't gained 20 lbs is a win for me. I've maybe gained 2 or 3, depending on the day, and how thirsty I am when I weigh myself.
I've been sleeping a whole lot better, and feeling generally more energized, except when I over do it, and the stupid concussion symptoms come back. It's really hard to say exactly how things are from my diet when I am dealing with this head stuff. The other good thing is I haven't caught any of the crazy flu/colds that have been going around and I am usually the first person to catch them, and then the last as well. I'll catch the same flu twice haha.
I read the other day on Facebook that last year at this time there was 10 lab confirmed cases of the flu in Ontario, and this year there is over 1000. I think this is partially because the flu season peaked a bit early, but it's still insanely way higher than it normal. So it doesn't just seem like there is a lot more sickness around this year, there IS a lot more.
The other, probably most noticeable side effect of eating this way has been my ability to sleep well. I used to sleep terribly. I had to take melatonin to get to sleep pretty much every night and I would wake up a bunch of times throughout the night. Not anymore. I fall asleep much easier, and wake up a LOT less. Even Jon noticed that HE is sleeping better, because I'm not waking up and tossing and turning and waking him up with it.
The one good thing about not being able to train, and being on vacation from work, is my disaster area of a house is getting a good cleaning... the main floor anyway. It's been in a state that is to embarrassing to have people over for over a year. I just haven't had time to clean, and was a a point that it was overwhelming to start somewhere. I was planning on cleaning over Christmas either way, but not being able to train/exercise gives me even more time to do it. I still have to take it easy, and not do to much though, or i get a headache and nausea all over again.
I started with my living room, rearranged the furniture completely, so I could move some dining room furniture to make room for more storage space. That is one of the big reasons my house was always a mess, there just wasn't anywhere to put a lot of stuff. Also, I have too many small appliances: microwave, dishwasher, 2 single serve blenders, coffee maker, Keurig coffee maker, food processor, hand mixer, and a George Foreman grill. and if they all sat on my counters I would have one square foot of empty space. Now, things like a hand mixer, and one of the blenders could easily go in cupboards or cabinets, but they are all full of dishes because there is so few of them.
Ikea solves everything. We picked up 3 24" cabinets to put in the dining room for more storage AND counter space. WIN WIN! also, they look nice. We don't have a top for them yet though, Jon is hopefully going to get one tomorrow when he borrows my parents truck. we couldn't quite fit a 72" counter top in my accent. The cabinets pretty much fit entirely in the trunk though, which i was impressed with. Except for the bag of hardware, which would have fit, but i felt it was probably best to go in the backseat. I didn't even have to put the seats down!
Did you know that if you buy certain things at Ikea, like cabinets, you have to get an order printed, pay at the checkout, and then drive to the furniture warehouse around the block to get the stuff? They don't have everything in the self serve area! It's a bit of a pain, but also kind of nice, because they find all the boxes for you, which is good, because each cabinet had 7 different boxes/packages, not including the handles, which were found and bought in the store. Complicated. I know.
Tomorrow I'm going to fill my new cabinets will all the stuff for baking/cooking... Big utensils, pots, pans, glass things for baking, measuring cups, bowls, spoons, that kind of stuff. Well, I might leave the pots and frying pans in the kitchen area, we shall see how it all fits and works out. I also have to unpack all my new containers, and put them away on the new lazy susan in the other corner cupboard. It was to a point that we were just tossing in the containers in the cupboard, with the lids sometimes, but not usually, it was impossible to find anything. I threw out an entire recycling bag full of containers with no lids and lids with no containers. Most were those disposable Glad and Ziploc ones, but not all. We are switching to mostly glass ones, I don't like plastic containers, especially for using in the microwave. Jon's always like "it says microwave safe" so it'll be fine. But when you see the plastic all kind of melty and weird looking on the inside, especially when there is tomato in it, you have to think twice about using that for food right? So I don't microwave in plastic anymore, even if it says microwave safe, glass only. So for lunches, it's a lot easier to have glass containers than plastic ones.
I've noticed, the last week especially, that I've been having trouble thinking of words and when I'm writing things down, I'll skip like 5 letters in a word. I've always done that, but it seems like I've been doing it a lot more lately. Or maybe I'm just noticing because i'm trying to be aware of my head and other concussion related symptoms. Thinking a lot still gives me headaches to, I thought I would be past that by now, but maybe because I didn't take any time off work when it happened I think I've delayed my recover a bit, which sucks, but you gotta pay the bills right?
So, 2013... I'll be reffing at ascension probably, not fighting for sure and maybe heading to Montreal for Montreal Grappling- not fighting there either, but supporting Jon and my other team mates, and maybe reffing there too. I don't see myself fighting till probably March at this point, fingers crossed.
Gui Mendes is coming to Pura for a week in January. starting Jan 12th till Ascension. I'm really hoping my head holds up for the technique portions of the classes at least. I will be so disappointed if I can't train with Gui! On Jan 12th there is a 3 hour seminar, 100 bucks before Jan 1st, 125 after that. Then Mon-Fri, there are 1.5 h classes for $70 for non-Pura members. It's going to be an amazing week of training and if you can get to any of it, you should. Gui is an amazing instructor, and not to mention a 3x world champion at black belt.
I just made a batch of cocoa roasted almonds, and they are delish! Just take a cup of raw almonds, coat them in a tbsp or two of maple syrup, then toss them in a tbsp or two of cocoa. Put them in the oven at 275 for 20 min, stirring them up every 5 minutes. Then let them cool down, and eat them.
I totally forgot to mention, in my blog post about Grappler's Quest, that I went from having zero sponsors to TWO in one day. I earned a sponsorship from Pecker'd Promotions by wining the no-gi women's advanced absolute.
The other sponsorship that came to fruition at Grappler's Quest was Redstar BJJ. Now, if you've seen my posting and stuff on Facebook and my blog, you probably thought I was already sponsored by them because I go on about them a lot, but that is because I LOVE their gis and Egor is a cool guy and is working hard to progress the sport and support local athletes and tournaments and stuff. Well, now it's offical and I couldn't be happier to be part of the team. Speaking of Redstar, they are having an INSANE sale right now in their website. $100 for a stamp gi is ridiculous, it's outrageous, it's amazing. They are pre-orders so you won't get your gi till Feb or so, but that's still pretty quick turn around for a pre-order.
I rearranged my blog layout, and added these two logos/links to the side bar, so check them out and support them, because they support me. I also made a new cover photo for my fan page to add Redstar BJJ's logo to it as well.
I think that is enough rambling for now. I'll see you on the mats, from the sidelines.
Saturday, 29 December 2012
Tuesday, 11 December 2012
Help a friend out!
Hey Everyone,
My Friend and Australia team mate Cristiano recently had a bad eye injury that requires 2 surgeries and since Australia is only ALMOST as amazing as Canada, the surgeries aren't covered by their health care.
Full Metal Jiu Jitsu in Australia is hosting a fundraising night on Friday December 14th at 6pm. So if you're in Australia you should be there to help a jiu jitsu brother out. Checkout this Facebook Picture for details. They have some sweet raffle prizes to be given out like RVDDW shorts and t-shirts, spots at the upcoming mendes bros seminar and more!
Pura BJJ will also be hosting a special workshop/class on Wednesday December 19th at 6pm to raise money for Cristiano.. Not a lot of details have been finalized. But keep an eye on PJ's Facebook for details. Here's what we know so far:
"Next Wednesday December 19th at 6pm we will be having a special workshop with a few raffle prizes - gis, rash guards etc with all proceeds going to help out our aussie brother from another mother Cristiano!! Details to follow! Donate what you can!"
Hit me up on facebook, or twitter, or comment here or more info on either event. Or, donate straight to his paypal account: crisdelgiacco@hotmail.com.
My Friend and Australia team mate Cristiano recently had a bad eye injury that requires 2 surgeries and since Australia is only ALMOST as amazing as Canada, the surgeries aren't covered by their health care.
Full Metal Jiu Jitsu in Australia is hosting a fundraising night on Friday December 14th at 6pm. So if you're in Australia you should be there to help a jiu jitsu brother out. Checkout this Facebook Picture for details. They have some sweet raffle prizes to be given out like RVDDW shorts and t-shirts, spots at the upcoming mendes bros seminar and more!
Pura BJJ will also be hosting a special workshop/class on Wednesday December 19th at 6pm to raise money for Cristiano.. Not a lot of details have been finalized. But keep an eye on PJ's Facebook for details. Here's what we know so far:
"Next Wednesday December 19th at 6pm we will be having a special workshop with a few raffle prizes - gis, rash guards etc with all proceeds going to help out our aussie brother from another mother Cristiano!! Details to follow! Donate what you can!"
Hit me up on facebook, or twitter, or comment here or more info on either event. Or, donate straight to his paypal account: crisdelgiacco@hotmail.com.
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
Grapplers Quest - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Saturday December 1st brought Grapplers Quest to Ontario for the second time in 2012. The first was June 23 in Toronto. This time around it was in the booming metropolis of London, Ontario, also known as really far away from the major population hubs in Ontario. Probably not the best choice of city, but far from the worst. It did bring some people up from the States, who probably wouldn't have made the drive up to Toronto. I don't think anyone flew in, because London's airport is very small, and very expensive to fly to. Toronto probably could have gotten some more wide spread attendance because of it's airport.
I will break up this review/report into 3 sections, like the title implies... The good: things that were good about the tournament, things that I liked, things that other people liked, and things that didn't make me curse the sport. The bad: things that weren't so good that I, or my friends noticed. The ugly: things that were really bad.
The Good
The Bad
The Ugly
So, that's that. Hopefully Grapplers Quest, and all the tournaments can learn from all the great things, and the less than great things that happened in London and together we can all make competition in Ontario better and better.
A little bit more about my experiences in particular:
As I suspected, there wasn't originally anyone in my advanced absolute, or purple and up absolute. I was a bit surprised, because I saw some pretty intense looking ladies walking around, but I guess they were all in the beginner and intermediate divisions. I talked my friend Tee into the advanced absolute so I would have a match, and then Chealsey's coach moved her up from intermediate absolute to advanced.
I had a lot of fun in the match with Tee. She's like 115lbs soaking wet so I tried to keep it a technical match. She snuck in a pretty tight toe hold which had me quite concerned and i finally managed to get a tight arm bar with about 10 seconds left.
The match with Chealsey was not fun. I started out fighting very calm and trying new things like knee bars and wrist locks. Chealsey came for business though and was very intense and tenacious, and rough. she took my back a time or two, and the score ended up very close 7-5 or something like that with 30 seconds left, when the ref finally noticed I was bleeding profusely from my forehead (from one of several knees/elbows/heels to the head). Once I was finally cleaned up and taped up, we tried to restart, but there was some confusion about our position, she thought we were in 1/2 guard, I thought we were in guard. Well, the reff listened to her and her coach, instead of me and the rest of the crowd. But I digress, I managed to keep a hold of her leg for the last 30 seconds and get the win.
I headed over to the medic after wards because He wanted to assess the cut and my brain. After about 25 minutes of questions and forms he concluded that I MIGHT have a concussion and that I should get stitches in my head. I, like the idiot competitor that I am, disregarded his advice and competed in Gi anyway. like I mentioned before I have no recollection of the fight, other than feeling very week, disoriented and unwell. I lost and was unable to pick myself up off the mats when it was over. I was so weak, and dizzy. I was eventually brought over to the medic area and re-assessed. I did much more poorly this time around and was told much more firmly not to compete and not to referee or work a table the rest of the day.
I will be off the mats for at least a week, probably 2, and then will have to be very careful working my way back up to proper training levels. Light cardio only first(after at least a week of no exercise), slowly increasing the intensity, then maybe light drilling, no resistance, and light weight lifting. Won't be rolling for probably a month. If I try to get back to it too fast, I'll just make it worse. This is probably going to be one of the most difficult injury recoveries I have had to deal with because once the cut is healed, I will have no real physical indicators of the injury and It'll be hard mentally to pace myself and not get to depressed when I cannot train.
I'll see you from the side lines.
*tears*
I will break up this review/report into 3 sections, like the title implies... The good: things that were good about the tournament, things that I liked, things that other people liked, and things that didn't make me curse the sport. The bad: things that weren't so good that I, or my friends noticed. The ugly: things that were really bad.
The Good
- The mats: They were high quality tatami mats, and the fight areas were large enough. They didn't come apart, and they weren't crappy wrestling mats. I absolutely HATE fighting on wrestling mats. I can't stand the way you sink into them a bit. I feel like my knees are going to get blown out anytime someone tries a foot sweep or even a sweep from guard. Any tournament that uses Tatami gets a bonus * in my books.
- The whole computer system: They used Splitdraw and used all parts of it. The weigh ins recorded everything and put you in the right division. In addition to that, each mat area had a laptop that worked as a score board, and kept track of who won what matches. They also had a monitor on the table listing the orders of the matches so people would know when they were up. Finally, each mat had 2 monitors attached to the laptop for scoreboards, facing opposite directions. These showed the score, and which fighter was which colour. All very cool and very helpful for the competitors.
- Sponsorship Prizes for the advanced absolute divisions, including the ladies. It's really nice to see tournaments giving equal prizes to the ladies, even though there is so few of us. It's strange to me, how few people (men and women) signed up for the absolutes at GQ though. Some of them were packed, but the ladies divisions were very small. There was a lot of beginer women out though, which gives me some hope for the future of the sport.
- They collected food for the London Food Bank. I love events that try to help out with the community. Women competed for free if they brought a bag of non-perishable food! I think that's a great initiative, and I think it did help bring out more ladies. I think there was more female competitors out than at any tournament in Ontario in 2012.
- Round Robin for small divisions. Divisions of 2 did a best of 3, divisions of 3 did a round robin, and I believe divisions of 4 also did. I'm not sure about divisions of 5, but bigger than that got into the single elimination. There was always a fight for 3rd as well, instead of 2 bronze medals. It's nice to see them realizing that people don't want to pay 85 or 100 dollars for 1 fight if they have a small division.
- The podium area. They had a nice stage setup, and the hardware is high quality. They had a guy working the camera and had bright lights so everyone's pictures should turn out well.
- The venue was nice, spacious, and pretty easy to find. There was enough sitting room, and plenty of room for all the vendors that were there. Also, there was food available from the venue's food places all day which is very important.
- The Medics. They were very qualified, quick to respond, and took great care of the injured athletes. Trust me, I was in their capable hands twice. and saw them take care of a few other people while I was there. Thanks Jon the Medic!
- Lots of sponsors and vendors around the venue offering a wide variety of goods for sale. Was great to see so many brands out supporting the event.
The Bad
- Started around 2 hours late. Now, this was due to a few things.
- Allowing same day registration
- People showing up really really late
- Not enough pens at the registration area
- Having too many divisions so they had a lot of lonely people that had to be sorted out.
- A shortage of table workers and referees. They had to use some referees who did not have a lot of jiu jitsu experience. This caused quite a stir in some of the matches as they were unfamiliar with many of the positions and scoring opportunities. This was caused by refs not showing up due to sickness and unforeseen circumstances, as well as me getting a concussion in my match, leaving them short a referee. This is a really common problem at events and one that needs to be addressed. I think the first step would be to encourage competitors to volunteer by allowing them to compete for free if they volunteer for a set amount of time. This opens up a huge pool of volunteers.
- A lack of intermediate and advanced women competitors. Now, this is clearly not the events fault. They even let us fight for free. This is on you ladies. What more can you ask them to do? Get your butts out to these events.
The Ugly
- The cut on my head and the concussion that went with it. Jiu Jitsu is supposed to be "The Gentle Art". But there was nothing gentle about my last no gi match where I sustained the cut and head injury, or the Gi match after that which I should never have gone into. I have no recollection of the Gi match I competed in that day. I lost... on points I think. I don't even know if the score was close, I have no idea. I think I have video of it...I'll have to check my camera.
So, that's that. Hopefully Grapplers Quest, and all the tournaments can learn from all the great things, and the less than great things that happened in London and together we can all make competition in Ontario better and better.
A little bit more about my experiences in particular:
As I suspected, there wasn't originally anyone in my advanced absolute, or purple and up absolute. I was a bit surprised, because I saw some pretty intense looking ladies walking around, but I guess they were all in the beginner and intermediate divisions. I talked my friend Tee into the advanced absolute so I would have a match, and then Chealsey's coach moved her up from intermediate absolute to advanced.
I had a lot of fun in the match with Tee. She's like 115lbs soaking wet so I tried to keep it a technical match. She snuck in a pretty tight toe hold which had me quite concerned and i finally managed to get a tight arm bar with about 10 seconds left.
The match with Chealsey was not fun. I started out fighting very calm and trying new things like knee bars and wrist locks. Chealsey came for business though and was very intense and tenacious, and rough. she took my back a time or two, and the score ended up very close 7-5 or something like that with 30 seconds left, when the ref finally noticed I was bleeding profusely from my forehead (from one of several knees/elbows/heels to the head). Once I was finally cleaned up and taped up, we tried to restart, but there was some confusion about our position, she thought we were in 1/2 guard, I thought we were in guard. Well, the reff listened to her and her coach, instead of me and the rest of the crowd. But I digress, I managed to keep a hold of her leg for the last 30 seconds and get the win.
I headed over to the medic after wards because He wanted to assess the cut and my brain. After about 25 minutes of questions and forms he concluded that I MIGHT have a concussion and that I should get stitches in my head. I, like the idiot competitor that I am, disregarded his advice and competed in Gi anyway. like I mentioned before I have no recollection of the fight, other than feeling very week, disoriented and unwell. I lost and was unable to pick myself up off the mats when it was over. I was so weak, and dizzy. I was eventually brought over to the medic area and re-assessed. I did much more poorly this time around and was told much more firmly not to compete and not to referee or work a table the rest of the day.
I will be off the mats for at least a week, probably 2, and then will have to be very careful working my way back up to proper training levels. Light cardio only first(after at least a week of no exercise), slowly increasing the intensity, then maybe light drilling, no resistance, and light weight lifting. Won't be rolling for probably a month. If I try to get back to it too fast, I'll just make it worse. This is probably going to be one of the most difficult injury recoveries I have had to deal with because once the cut is healed, I will have no real physical indicators of the injury and It'll be hard mentally to pace myself and not get to depressed when I cannot train.
I'll see you from the side lines.
*tears*
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Paleo Food Adventures!
So I've been doing the Paleo thing for just under 3 weeks now. I think it's going pretty well, I am DEFINITELY sleeping better than I used to. That, I think, has been the biggest difference so far. Some days I am waking up feeling almost rested, which hasn't really happened since I was a kid.
I didn't check my body fat or anything right before starting, but a few weeks before, it was regularly around the high 25 and low 26 range, when sitting at about the same weight as I am now. This morning, on a whim, I weighed myself with my profile, and it was low 24. Now, this could just be a fluke, because bathroom scales are notorious for giving not so accurate measurements, but it has been pretty consistent in its accuracy or lack there of, so I'm going to go with this being an actual drop. A small one, but I'll take it.
Ideally I want to get to around 20%. My non-athlete friends will be all "that's way to low to be healthy for a girl". My guy friends will be all "20%, you fatty" and hopefully a few, educated, friends will appreciate that 20% is a pretty good spot to be as an athlete and a women.
I think, in the last 3 weeks, I have cooked and baked more than I have in the last 3 years combined. My kitchen has never seen so much use, other than to put a frozen pizza in the oven hahah. So many dishes!
My staples for lunches have been vegetables cooked in a pan with some olive oil and random spices, and either chicken or steak. I cook up a whack on Sunday afternoons and put it in my lemon grass take out containers and into the freezer. This system is working out pretty well, an hour or two in the kitchen and I've got 6 or 7 lunches/dinners ready for the week.
Sweet potatoes are my new favourite thing. They are so delish. I don't know why I didn't eat them all the time before. Jon made a batch of roasted sweet potatoes the first week I started this diet and I was
hooked, just chopped up, with some olive oil, rosemary, shallots and garlic. Stick them in the oven for an hour or so and bingo, amazing.
He also made this casserole thing, which was delish, but the texture got a bit ... stewish after being frozen and microwaved.
Everyone says they could never do paleo because they love bread and carbs to much. I'm not a big bread eater, but I do love sweets, and cakes and ice cream. There are a LOT of really good paleo alternatives. Like the cup cakes I made for my birthday on Wednesday. They were really good, and full of nutrients and not processed junk. I also just made a chocolate zucchini loaf, which is also very tasty, it sounds weird, but it's super moist and has a great texture. But, I think, the greatest thing I have discovered since starting this is new lifestyle is Paleo Chocolate Frosting shots. OH MY GOODNESS. The most amazing thing in the world.
Last weekend was the provincials, I wasn't fighting, so I wasn't too concerned about what I would eat. I brought along a couple clementines, some dark chocolate, and some almonds and walnuts. I didn't even think that there could be kids will allergies there when I was packing my lunch, so I didn't open the bags of nuts, which left me with very little food for the day. They gave us some coupons for Tim Hortons, and Subway, but nothing there was really edible for me, so I didn't use mine. Now, 4 weeks ago, eating as little as I did would have destroyed me, I'd be getting light headed, insanely grumpy and would have had a killer headache. I'll be honest, I got a bit tired, and wasn't feeling amazing by the end of the day, but I didn't have nearly as bad a time as I would have eating the old way.
Tomorrow is Grapplers Quest, I'm fighting in 2 absolute divisions and refereeing the rest of the day. I am going to have to pack a bit smarter this time. I'm going to bring my zucchini loaf/muffins, the trail mix I have for snacks all the time (yes, it has nuts, but unless the facility says it's nut free, I'm going to eat them. It was probably silly of me to not eat them last weekend). I'm also going to bring a bunch of berries, apples, and coconut water. That should be able to fuel me for the day. It's going to be strange not getting a giant bowl of pasta the night before a tournament, but hopefully my body has had enough time to adjust to eating like this that it will perform well on this alternate fuel.
I'll let you guys know how it goes.
I've gotten a bunch of recipes and ideas from PaleOMG. Juli has some great ideas, and is hilarious so I've been spending a lot of time reading on her site. A lot of her recipes use dark chocolate chips, which I'm trying to avoid (they have added plain sugar, at least the ones I've found). But that is where I got the cupcake recipe and some other ones I've saved for Christmas!
I didn't check my body fat or anything right before starting, but a few weeks before, it was regularly around the high 25 and low 26 range, when sitting at about the same weight as I am now. This morning, on a whim, I weighed myself with my profile, and it was low 24. Now, this could just be a fluke, because bathroom scales are notorious for giving not so accurate measurements, but it has been pretty consistent in its accuracy or lack there of, so I'm going to go with this being an actual drop. A small one, but I'll take it.
Ideally I want to get to around 20%. My non-athlete friends will be all "that's way to low to be healthy for a girl". My guy friends will be all "20%, you fatty" and hopefully a few, educated, friends will appreciate that 20% is a pretty good spot to be as an athlete and a women.
I think, in the last 3 weeks, I have cooked and baked more than I have in the last 3 years combined. My kitchen has never seen so much use, other than to put a frozen pizza in the oven hahah. So many dishes!
My staples for lunches have been vegetables cooked in a pan with some olive oil and random spices, and either chicken or steak. I cook up a whack on Sunday afternoons and put it in my lemon grass take out containers and into the freezer. This system is working out pretty well, an hour or two in the kitchen and I've got 6 or 7 lunches/dinners ready for the week.
| Breakfasts have tended to be eggs of some sort, scrambled, fried, or in a quiche. I made a spinach quiche on sunday, cut it up and put it in the freezer for the week. It freezes, thaws surprisingly well. I've also been drinking coffee with coconut oil pretty much every morning. I know, that sounds gross, and the flavoured coffees probably aren't the strictest paleo, but whatever. It gives me a tonne of quick access energy and I like it. You can read more about this at the bullet proof coffee website. Since I'm also not eating dairy, I skip the butter, but I know lots of people who love it that way to. | 
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Sweet potatoes are my new favourite thing. They are so delish. I don't know why I didn't eat them all the time before. Jon made a batch of roasted sweet potatoes the first week I started this diet and I was
hooked, just chopped up, with some olive oil, rosemary, shallots and garlic. Stick them in the oven for an hour or so and bingo, amazing.
He also made this casserole thing, which was delish, but the texture got a bit ... stewish after being frozen and microwaved.
Everyone says they could never do paleo because they love bread and carbs to much. I'm not a big bread eater, but I do love sweets, and cakes and ice cream. There are a LOT of really good paleo alternatives. Like the cup cakes I made for my birthday on Wednesday. They were really good, and full of nutrients and not processed junk. I also just made a chocolate zucchini loaf, which is also very tasty, it sounds weird, but it's super moist and has a great texture. But, I think, the greatest thing I have discovered since starting this is new lifestyle is Paleo Chocolate Frosting shots. OH MY GOODNESS. The most amazing thing in the world.
Last weekend was the provincials, I wasn't fighting, so I wasn't too concerned about what I would eat. I brought along a couple clementines, some dark chocolate, and some almonds and walnuts. I didn't even think that there could be kids will allergies there when I was packing my lunch, so I didn't open the bags of nuts, which left me with very little food for the day. They gave us some coupons for Tim Hortons, and Subway, but nothing there was really edible for me, so I didn't use mine. Now, 4 weeks ago, eating as little as I did would have destroyed me, I'd be getting light headed, insanely grumpy and would have had a killer headache. I'll be honest, I got a bit tired, and wasn't feeling amazing by the end of the day, but I didn't have nearly as bad a time as I would have eating the old way.
Tomorrow is Grapplers Quest, I'm fighting in 2 absolute divisions and refereeing the rest of the day. I am going to have to pack a bit smarter this time. I'm going to bring my zucchini loaf/muffins, the trail mix I have for snacks all the time (yes, it has nuts, but unless the facility says it's nut free, I'm going to eat them. It was probably silly of me to not eat them last weekend). I'm also going to bring a bunch of berries, apples, and coconut water. That should be able to fuel me for the day. It's going to be strange not getting a giant bowl of pasta the night before a tournament, but hopefully my body has had enough time to adjust to eating like this that it will perform well on this alternate fuel.
I'll let you guys know how it goes.
I've gotten a bunch of recipes and ideas from PaleOMG. Juli has some great ideas, and is hilarious so I've been spending a lot of time reading on her site. A lot of her recipes use dark chocolate chips, which I'm trying to avoid (they have added plain sugar, at least the ones I've found). But that is where I got the cupcake recipe and some other ones I've saved for Christmas!
Monday, 26 November 2012
Gis For Sale
So, over the last year I've won a few gis from various tournaments. Some I love, some I do not. Between Jon and I we have, I think, 16, with two more on the way. I'm looking to sell a couple of them, to help raise money for a trip to Chicago, Pans, and Worlds. So, without further adieu, here are the gis I am looking to sell. I'd prefer someone kind of local, because paying for shipping will defeat the purpose of this sale. I will be traveling to most of the tournaments in Ontario / Montreal over the next 6 months though, so if you're going to any of those, we can work it out.
That is all of them for now. I'll update this list if/when I win others or when they sell. Thanks for looking and helping me out.
See you on the mats!
A1L Redstar Clean White. $100
I believe this is a 550 weave, and shouldn't shrink much. I have another A1L Redstar that fits me pretty much perfectly. I love my Redstar gis, I just have to many gis and this one is still in the package, not even opened. It has no patches on it, but came with some, if you like to patch up your gis. This is a great training or competition gi and would fit someone about 5'8-6'2 ish and probably 130-160 lbs. Donated to a raffle for a friendF3 Kingz 420 Blue $100. sold
Pretty much the whole world loves the Kingz gis but the fit is all wrong for my body type. Apparently I'm not built like a girl. The size charts for this gi say: 5'6 - 5'9 and 150-180lbs. I probably should have known I'm outside the range for a Kingz women's gi, because i am 5'10 and 150/155ish, but it was a prize, so I hoped for the best. This is not a lanky persons giA2 #ONE Kimono Black (Very gently used) $75SOLD
I won this one in Ottawa and it fit great, but then I washed and dried it and now it's flood pants and 3/4 length sleeves. It's a very comfortable gi, and light weight. I probably wore it 3 or 4 times max. It's not faded and won't shrink anymore than it has already. I Imagine it would fit someone who is 5'6-5'8 and maybe 140-170lbs, but that is just a guess.A2 VVV White (Gently Used) $50SOLD
This gi never really fit me well, and when I washed and dried it it became mostly unwearable. The good news is, it's a great gi and it's done shrinking. The bad news is it's probably about a size A0 in most gi brands. I have worn this gi probably less than 5 times. The jacket has a fairly lean cut, so it would be good for someone who is on the short and skinny side of things. I imagine it would fit someone who is about 5'4 - 5'7 and maybe 120 - 150.A2 Original Red Star Black (Used) $50I picked this gi up at the MMA Expo when Red Star was just starting out. Love the cut, and the look, but this was before gis wear sold pre-shrunk and I accidentally washed and dried it once and that was the end of the properly fitting gi for me. I still wore it fairly often, but the pants come more than 1/2 way up my shins if I wear them so my butt isn't showing haha. It still has lots of wear left and would make a great spare gi. Likely this would fit someone 5'4-5'7 or so and 130-160 or so, but It's hard to say for sure.SoldA3 Fugi All-Around Gi $50 (Gently used)
I picked this up on a BJJHQ sale about 8 months ago. Got the A3 because in the past everyone on the site had written about how much they shrink. Turns out they fixed the shrinking problem just in time for this batch. It's too big. I've worn it maybe 10 times, most of those teaching classes so it didn't even get sweaty. It's probably good for someone 6'0-6'2 and 170-190lbs.
That is all of them for now. I'll update this list if/when I win others or when they sell. Thanks for looking and helping me out.
See you on the mats!
Sunday, 25 November 2012
Week 2 Paleo Log
Day 14 November 25th
slept great.Morning weight:155.8
Breakfast: coffee w/ tbsp of coconut oil, roasted sweet potato
Lunch:2 paleo coconut brownies
Dinner:bit of steak, spinach quich
Day 13 November 24th
slept good, but only a couple hours, (1am-6am). was at the provincials tournament reffing all day.Morning weight:156.5
Breakfast:coconut oil coffee
Morning Snack:clementine, blackberries, 30 or so almonds, 1 square of chocolate
Dinner:la luna express order of cauliflower and tomatoes, large fatoush with chicken
Day 12 November 23th
sleeping by 10/1030. slept well, less trouble getting up this morningMorning weight:156.3
Breakfast: coconut oil coffee, still nut much of an appetite
Morning Snack:Honey Crisp apple
Lunch: 1.5 turkey sausage and some roasted sweet potatoes. (probably 1/2 potato worth)
Dinner: 1 sweat potato cooked in a frying pan w/ a bit of olive oil, but of steak.
Day 11 November 22nd
slept well, but couldn't get up in the morning, hit snooze till 830Morning weight:155.5
Breakfast: 9:00am cinnamon pastry coffee w/ coconut oil (no appetite)
Lunch: a bunch of fast fry steak, and some grilled Mediterranean veggies(ate less then 1/2). lemon water, 1/2 of 1/2 a pint of raspberries
Afternoon Snack:clementine, 1 lindt square, trail mix
Dinner: banana/raspberry/coconutoil/coconutmilk shake, 1/2 pint of blackberries
Day 10 November 21st
slept terribly, couldn't get to sleep till 2am at least. woke up several times. just not sleepy. mega sleeping in the morning though
Morning weight:155.5
Breakfast: 6:30am 2 eggs with 10 asparagus and a bit of olive oil.coconut oil coffee.
Lunch: 12:00 pm chicken breast and grilled Mediterranean veggies, clementine
Afternoon Snack: 2 squares of lindt 85%, 1/2 pint of blackberries
started feeling quite sick mid afternoon. took a 2 hours nap when i got home
Dinner: 7:30pm lemon grass beef coconut curry.
went to be at like 930.
Day 9 November 20th
Slept terribly, had trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep, woke up groggyMorning weight: 155.0
Breakfast: 8:45am 2 eggs and some leftover sweet potatoes, coconut oil coffee.
Lunch: Chocolate Mint Tea in the morning, 1:30pm) skinny steak and veggies
Afternoon Snack: 1 square of lindt, 1/2 pint of raspberries, lemon water
Dinner: 8:30pm chicken breast and leftover sweet potatoes
Day 8 - November 19th
Slept pretty great. woke up on my own at 6:15am
Morning Weight: 155.8
Breakfast: (7:15AM) coconut oil coffee, 3 eggs scrambled with spinach, chocolate mint tea
Lunch (12:15pm ): chicken and vegetables (broccoli, carrots, water chestnuts pea pods) with montreal steak seasoning (not very good spices) 1 lindt 85% square
Afternoon Snack (1:45pm) trail mix and another square of chocolate
got pretty tired and week at jiu jitsu, should probably eat a proper meal before training for 2+hours
Dinner: 830pm steak and roasted sweet potatoes (in a bit of olive oil with some spices and garlic)
Sunday, 18 November 2012
Week 1 Paleo Log
Day 7 November 18th
Slept well.Morning weight:155.2
Breakfast: 2 strips of steak, very small chicken breast, a few black berries, coffee w/ tbsp of coconut oil
Lunch: 1/2 pint of black berries 1 square of lindt 85%
Dinner:(large fatoush, no pita chips) with plain chicken
I feel like I forgot something... I'm not hungry but I feel like I should be.
Day 6 November 17th
Slept pretty good for a hotel room. but only for about 6 hours.Morning weight:no idea
Breakfast: scrambled eggs (probably those fake ones restaurants use), fruit salad
Morning Snack:Pecan/walnut/almond/coconut shreds/sunflower seed trail mix
Lunch: 1/2 pint of raspberries 1 square of lindt 85%
Afternoon Snack:Pecan/walnut/almond/coconut shreds/sunflower seed trail mix
Dinner:Pecan/walnut/almond/coconut shreds/sunflower seed trail mix
hmmm, road food menu might need some tweaking.
Day 5 November 16th
slept well till about 4am, then tossed and turned.Morning weight:155.5
Breakfast: 3 eggs with spinach in cooked in a bit of olive oil
Morning Snack: Pecan/walnut/almond/coconut shreds/sunflower seed trail mix
Lunch: 1/2 pint of raspberries
Dinner: ace restaurant pea soup (definitely not legal, but i was hungry and it was there). steak and veggies
Day 4 November 15th
slept well till about 4am, then tossed and turned and woke up alot. had xcom dreams hahaMorning weight:158.2
Breakfast: 8:15am 2 eggs with a bit of green onion and 1/4 red pepper. 20 1/2 spears of asparagus. 2 cups of chocolate mint tea
Lunch: sweet potato and squash caserole.
Afternoon Snack: 1:30 green apple, 2:30 10 walnut halves
sleepy around 3:15
Dinner: ribeye steak and "asian style" mixed vegetables
Day 3 November 14th
Slept pretty well, but had weird dreams.
Morning weight:159.6
Breakfast: 8:00am 3 eggs with spinach and a bit of olive oil. chocolate mint tea.
Lunch: 12:05 pm chicken breast and "summer" vegetables
Afternoon Snack: 1:00pm clementine, 2:00 10 walnut halves, 3:30 20 almonds
very lathargic and sleep in the mid/late afternoon today.
Dinner: large fatoush from la luna express no pita chips of tomatoes
Day 2 November 13th
Slept much better.Morning weight: 160.7
Breakfast: 8:00am 15 asparagus spears grilled in a bit of olive oil. 2 eggs scrambled with a bit of red onion
Lunch: 121:15pm squash and yam casserole by Jon. Chocolate Mint Tea in the morning, water with blackberry tea after lunch
Afternoon Snack: 1:45pm - 20ish almonds, 2:15pm - honey crisp apple, more tea
bit of a headache
Dinner: 4:30pm - chicken breast and "summer vegetable" mix. 1/2 pint of rapsberries
snack: 8:00pm - coconut milk, coconut oil, 1/2 frozen banana, bit of frozen fruit mix, bit of honey, bit of vanilla
Day 1 - November 12th
Slept terribly last night. Great way to start the new diet.
Morning Weight: 162.5
Breakfast: (7:15AM) 1 cup of spinach pan fried with about 1tbsp of olive oil and 2 eggs. 1 cup of chocolaty mint tea.
Snack (10am): 10 walnut halves
Lunch (12:20 ): pan fried steak (rowe farm skinny ones) and some pan fried veggies in olive oil and dave's veggie rub). Very Berry tea
HEADACHE!!!!!!
Afternoon Snack (2:15pm) Clementine, big glass of water
Afternoon Snack (3:30pm) 1/2 pint of raspberries
Dinner(8:15pm) la luna express large fatoush, no tomatoes or pita chips. plain chicken
The F.F.C. Autism Charity event
Yesterday, Alasdair and I made our way up to Montreal one last time for the year. We thought we were done with the 401 East for the year back in early November, but then this event came up and I was happy to make the drive one more time.
A little background in case you don't know about this event. It was organized by Glen MacKenzie, known as Glen MM on Facebook. He seems like a pretty cool cat. There were nine super fights: three purple, four brown, and two black (I think that's the right break down). All of the money from ticket sales and raffle sales went to two autism foundations. I think one was a research program, and the other a martial arts program for kids with autism.
I wasn't originally on the card, but when her scheduled opponant Elsa Sery injured her back training, Alison suggested me as a replacement and I was happy to help! I think fighting for a cool event like this is a much more worthwhile cause then competing in a tournament for a medal or whatever. I shuffled some plans around, got the day off work and I was in!
The event was nice enough to put us up in a room for the night, pay for our parking and get us coupons for a continental breakfast in the morning. Gringo is such a nice guy, he refused to let them even do that, so more money could go to the charities! I would love to have the financial freedom to do that, but this road trip probably will end up costing three or four hundred dollars when you take in time off work, gas, food and whatnot. I was happy to be there even with those expenses, but to have to pay for a room and parking on top of those would have probably broken the bank.
So how were the fights you ask?
I missed the first two because I was warming up. Up first was Mike Trembley and a local guy. Mike won on points, and from what I heard it was a great match, Mike had a triangle at one point and it looked like it would be over, but then later in the match the other guy got Mike in a tight kimura and they went out of bounds.
Second fight was a no gi purple belt match, I have no idea what happened in it.
3rd fight was Alison and I! I think we gave the crowd a great show. If you looked at the score board at the end it looked like a slaughtering: I lost 22-0, but I felt like it was a pretty competitive match. I stuck pretty well to my game plan at the beginning, but once again, when I didn't get my pass points it threw me off and it went a bit downhill from there. I did defend the kimura (thanks everyone at Pura for trying to take my arm off on Wednesday) and also one or two other attempts, but I kept reguarding a terrible half guard and getting it passed, so Alison raked up the points. I managed to create some decent opportunities, but I was sloppy and wasted them. I've got a few things to work on before we fight again!
I missed the 4th fight because I was helping my friend Dainis warm up for his fight which was 5th. Dainis fought Ryan Keller, a local brown belt who was ridiculously strong. It was a really great match. They did quite a bit of standup and Dainis got a throw straight into an arm bar. The crowd went crazy and Ryan managed to power out of it. They spent a lot of time in Dainis's guard and near the end Ryan got a nice half guard sweep and almost pass to tie it up. The ref decided to do a 5 minute overtime instead of a decision. Dainis really picked up the pace and laid it on in the over time, passing to mount twice and winning 16-2.
Next was a nogi fight between the 10th planet guy (Louis Ho) and another local guy (Ord Millar). The local guy started strong with a nice takedown, but the 10th planet guy quickly set up a nice deep half guard and worked a banana split sub! Yes, you read that right, he did a banana split sub in real life! I've never seen it work and this guy wad actually pretty flexible, I was insanely impressed! He got sub of the night for it, and it was well deserved.
The last brown belt fight was Jimmy Tat, from Revolution BJJ vs David Guigui. It was a pretty fun fight to watch, Jimmy worked a lot of guard stuff and in the end caught the other guy in a slick arm bar.
The first black belt fight was a tight game of attempted guard passes and sweeps with the guy with the mustache and tattoo winning by a single advantage. There probably could have been one or two more advantages scored on the match, but I think the right guy won.
Last match of the night was Gringo vs Mark. It was insanely close with no scores at all in the first 10 minutes, or maybe one advantage each, I forget. Either way, Gringo was working a nice closed guard almost the entire match setting up sweeps and stuff but Mark was defending well. Gringo almost got a really nice sweep -- he came up, but wasn't able to maintain enough to get the points. They ended up doing a 5 min overtime where Mark was able to get some points and a nice looking inverted triangle but was unable to finish. Mark won by five points or so I believe.
All in all it was a great night of fights to watch as a fan, and I learned a few things in my fight with Alison. So its win/win even though I lost.
The event was packed to the rafters with fan. It ended up being in a much smaller place because the hotel booked the original room for a paying customer and we got bumped to a smaller place, which is totally understandable. The hotel hosted the event for free and also donated 1000 points to each fight winner, which I think works out to a free night or two, very generous of them. SAU was also a sponsor of the event, donating free entry to their next tournament to the winner, which is pretty cool. I will probably check out their tournament next time. Popeyes nutrition donated a huge prize pack for the sub of the night as well.
Thanks to Alasdair for coming along and cornering me, I may not have listened to everything he yelled but I tried most of the time. Also, thanks to Clidan, who happened to be in town for the UFC, for coming out to watch and work the camera for me. It's amazing to have teammates like this who support me everywhere.
So that's that. Next weekend is provincials. I'm fighting for free, or I would probably skip it. I'm also refereeing which will be fun, and stressful.
The weekend after that is Grappler's Quest in London, once again fighting for free and refereeing. I've been hoarding away my referee and commission money to save up for Pans and Worlds. It's a slow process but hopefully I can save some other money as well and I'll be able to compete there.
A little background in case you don't know about this event. It was organized by Glen MacKenzie, known as Glen MM on Facebook. He seems like a pretty cool cat. There were nine super fights: three purple, four brown, and two black (I think that's the right break down). All of the money from ticket sales and raffle sales went to two autism foundations. I think one was a research program, and the other a martial arts program for kids with autism.
I wasn't originally on the card, but when her scheduled opponant Elsa Sery injured her back training, Alison suggested me as a replacement and I was happy to help! I think fighting for a cool event like this is a much more worthwhile cause then competing in a tournament for a medal or whatever. I shuffled some plans around, got the day off work and I was in!
The event was nice enough to put us up in a room for the night, pay for our parking and get us coupons for a continental breakfast in the morning. Gringo is such a nice guy, he refused to let them even do that, so more money could go to the charities! I would love to have the financial freedom to do that, but this road trip probably will end up costing three or four hundred dollars when you take in time off work, gas, food and whatnot. I was happy to be there even with those expenses, but to have to pay for a room and parking on top of those would have probably broken the bank.
So how were the fights you ask?
I missed the first two because I was warming up. Up first was Mike Trembley and a local guy. Mike won on points, and from what I heard it was a great match, Mike had a triangle at one point and it looked like it would be over, but then later in the match the other guy got Mike in a tight kimura and they went out of bounds.
Second fight was a no gi purple belt match, I have no idea what happened in it.
3rd fight was Alison and I! I think we gave the crowd a great show. If you looked at the score board at the end it looked like a slaughtering: I lost 22-0, but I felt like it was a pretty competitive match. I stuck pretty well to my game plan at the beginning, but once again, when I didn't get my pass points it threw me off and it went a bit downhill from there. I did defend the kimura (thanks everyone at Pura for trying to take my arm off on Wednesday) and also one or two other attempts, but I kept reguarding a terrible half guard and getting it passed, so Alison raked up the points. I managed to create some decent opportunities, but I was sloppy and wasted them. I've got a few things to work on before we fight again!
I missed the 4th fight because I was helping my friend Dainis warm up for his fight which was 5th. Dainis fought Ryan Keller, a local brown belt who was ridiculously strong. It was a really great match. They did quite a bit of standup and Dainis got a throw straight into an arm bar. The crowd went crazy and Ryan managed to power out of it. They spent a lot of time in Dainis's guard and near the end Ryan got a nice half guard sweep and almost pass to tie it up. The ref decided to do a 5 minute overtime instead of a decision. Dainis really picked up the pace and laid it on in the over time, passing to mount twice and winning 16-2.
Next was a nogi fight between the 10th planet guy (Louis Ho) and another local guy (Ord Millar). The local guy started strong with a nice takedown, but the 10th planet guy quickly set up a nice deep half guard and worked a banana split sub! Yes, you read that right, he did a banana split sub in real life! I've never seen it work and this guy wad actually pretty flexible, I was insanely impressed! He got sub of the night for it, and it was well deserved.
The last brown belt fight was Jimmy Tat, from Revolution BJJ vs David Guigui. It was a pretty fun fight to watch, Jimmy worked a lot of guard stuff and in the end caught the other guy in a slick arm bar.
The first black belt fight was a tight game of attempted guard passes and sweeps with the guy with the mustache and tattoo winning by a single advantage. There probably could have been one or two more advantages scored on the match, but I think the right guy won.
Last match of the night was Gringo vs Mark. It was insanely close with no scores at all in the first 10 minutes, or maybe one advantage each, I forget. Either way, Gringo was working a nice closed guard almost the entire match setting up sweeps and stuff but Mark was defending well. Gringo almost got a really nice sweep -- he came up, but wasn't able to maintain enough to get the points. They ended up doing a 5 min overtime where Mark was able to get some points and a nice looking inverted triangle but was unable to finish. Mark won by five points or so I believe.
All in all it was a great night of fights to watch as a fan, and I learned a few things in my fight with Alison. So its win/win even though I lost.
The event was packed to the rafters with fan. It ended up being in a much smaller place because the hotel booked the original room for a paying customer and we got bumped to a smaller place, which is totally understandable. The hotel hosted the event for free and also donated 1000 points to each fight winner, which I think works out to a free night or two, very generous of them. SAU was also a sponsor of the event, donating free entry to their next tournament to the winner, which is pretty cool. I will probably check out their tournament next time. Popeyes nutrition donated a huge prize pack for the sub of the night as well.
Thanks to Alasdair for coming along and cornering me, I may not have listened to everything he yelled but I tried most of the time. Also, thanks to Clidan, who happened to be in town for the UFC, for coming out to watch and work the camera for me. It's amazing to have teammates like this who support me everywhere.
So that's that. Next weekend is provincials. I'm fighting for free, or I would probably skip it. I'm also refereeing which will be fun, and stressful.
The weekend after that is Grappler's Quest in London, once again fighting for free and refereeing. I've been hoarding away my referee and commission money to save up for Pans and Worlds. It's a slow process but hopefully I can save some other money as well and I'll be able to compete there.
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Faixa Roxa and other unrelated things
Yesterday was the big grading day at Pura BJJ! We had a huge group of guys testing and it was a great day all around. I have to thank my super awesome professors PJ and Riccardo, and all my excellent team mates who help me learn jiu jitsu every day!
Six team mates and I tested for purple belt. This brings the count of regularly attending purple belts to about ten or so. Eight people tested for blue as well, so we should have ten or so blue belts on the mat on a regular basis too! Everything is going to be so colourful, it's going to be amazing.
Among the guys testing for blue was my husband Jon! He's been doing BJJ for just over 2 years and has gotten pretty good at things. I'm ridiculously proud of him, it's kind of silly. He's going to have his hands full with the blue lightweight / featherweight division, but I think he'll fit in nicely.
For me, attaining purple belt is a cool milestone, on the way to a much more lofty goal of black belt. It's also quite inconvenient because there are so few purple belt women to compete against locally. The blue belt scene was sparse, purple is almost non-existent. There are about five girls in Ontario who compete sometimes. The only tournaments that had any purple belts compete in Ontario were the ones with blue and purple combined (if I recall correctly) -- even the Toronto IBJJF tournament didn't have any. The IBJJF tournament in Montreal had one purple belt division that actually had a fight and a 3 girl absolute. It looks like the OJA is going to separate blues and purples at all of their tournaments in 2013, so I won't be getting many fights locally that way.
Grappling Co does blue and up divisions AND because they give away trips, they tend to draw some higher level girls out, like a few weeks ago Nathalia came up from Boston to compete. So, locally in the GTA I'll pretty much just be competing at tournaments that give away trips and other prizes. I'm planning on heading out to California for Pans, and hopefully Worlds, if I can find the cash or win a trip. That's going to get really expensive so hopefully I can win a trip to one or the other. I'm also planning on hitting up IBJJF Chicago and Boston. They both had a few girls in a bunch of the purple belt divisions so will be worth the road trip out.
The other cool thing about being a purple belt is now my super fight with Alison next weekend won't look silly. People like to see fighters of the same belt fight, and even though Alison and I have fought many times in the past (as white vs blue, and blue vs purple), next weekend will be the first time we compete against each other as equal belts! I hope my new shiny purple belt is luckier then my white and blues were (jokes, I know it's not about luck)!
Does anyone have an recommendations for belts? I really like the colour of my new one, and don't mind the belt itself, but unfortunately, we washed and dried our belts and they both shrank significantly! I was expecting it to shrink a bit, but it probably shrank 4-6 inches! It's a lot softer and easier to tie of course, but I don't think it's IBJJF legal anymore! On a related note, I'm going to need a new ranked rash guard or two as well. What a pain in the ass being promoted is. I really like the look of the new scramble ones, but they are pretty expensive and shipping them in from the UK adds another 10 or 20 bucks on top of that!
On a mostly unrelated note. The Pura Kids were in action at the JCC Provincials on Saturday as well! I wasn't able to watch any of them compete, but I know they worked really hard to get ready for the competition and they all did great! I spent some time with them before the competition to help them with their take downs and it was a lot of fun working with them. I'm looking forward to helping them out again for future competitions.
On a completely unrelated note, tomorrow I start my Paleo(ish) diet. I'm going to try to stick with it for 4 weeks at first and see how it goes. The basics are no dairy, no grains, no soy, no sugar, no processed crap. Today we went grocery shopping and spent over 200 bucks!! Meat and real food is expensive! I cooked up a whole bunch of beef and chicken and veggies for my lunches. I'm quite looking forward to trying this out and seeing how my body adjusts and deals with it. I'm hoping for some great results, but I'll settle for decent ones. This weekend will be interesting, with the road trip to Montreal and everything.
Coming up to round out the year:
See you on the mats!
Six team mates and I tested for purple belt. This brings the count of regularly attending purple belts to about ten or so. Eight people tested for blue as well, so we should have ten or so blue belts on the mat on a regular basis too! Everything is going to be so colourful, it's going to be amazing.
 |
| Back Row: Steve, Matt, James, Vu, Joel, Rob, Jon, Greg Front Row: Chris, Alasdair, Andre, Riccardo, PJ, Kyle, Me, Rodney, Mark |
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| Jon and I with our new belts! |
Among the guys testing for blue was my husband Jon! He's been doing BJJ for just over 2 years and has gotten pretty good at things. I'm ridiculously proud of him, it's kind of silly. He's going to have his hands full with the blue lightweight / featherweight division, but I think he'll fit in nicely.
For me, attaining purple belt is a cool milestone, on the way to a much more lofty goal of black belt. It's also quite inconvenient because there are so few purple belt women to compete against locally. The blue belt scene was sparse, purple is almost non-existent. There are about five girls in Ontario who compete sometimes. The only tournaments that had any purple belts compete in Ontario were the ones with blue and purple combined (if I recall correctly) -- even the Toronto IBJJF tournament didn't have any. The IBJJF tournament in Montreal had one purple belt division that actually had a fight and a 3 girl absolute. It looks like the OJA is going to separate blues and purples at all of their tournaments in 2013, so I won't be getting many fights locally that way.
Grappling Co does blue and up divisions AND because they give away trips, they tend to draw some higher level girls out, like a few weeks ago Nathalia came up from Boston to compete. So, locally in the GTA I'll pretty much just be competing at tournaments that give away trips and other prizes. I'm planning on heading out to California for Pans, and hopefully Worlds, if I can find the cash or win a trip. That's going to get really expensive so hopefully I can win a trip to one or the other. I'm also planning on hitting up IBJJF Chicago and Boston. They both had a few girls in a bunch of the purple belt divisions so will be worth the road trip out.
The other cool thing about being a purple belt is now my super fight with Alison next weekend won't look silly. People like to see fighters of the same belt fight, and even though Alison and I have fought many times in the past (as white vs blue, and blue vs purple), next weekend will be the first time we compete against each other as equal belts! I hope my new shiny purple belt is luckier then my white and blues were (jokes, I know it's not about luck)!
Does anyone have an recommendations for belts? I really like the colour of my new one, and don't mind the belt itself, but unfortunately, we washed and dried our belts and they both shrank significantly! I was expecting it to shrink a bit, but it probably shrank 4-6 inches! It's a lot softer and easier to tie of course, but I don't think it's IBJJF legal anymore! On a related note, I'm going to need a new ranked rash guard or two as well. What a pain in the ass being promoted is. I really like the look of the new scramble ones, but they are pretty expensive and shipping them in from the UK adds another 10 or 20 bucks on top of that!
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| Mike, Celine, Lucas, Brayden, Adrian, Diana, Cierra and Johnny |
On a mostly unrelated note. The Pura Kids were in action at the JCC Provincials on Saturday as well! I wasn't able to watch any of them compete, but I know they worked really hard to get ready for the competition and they all did great! I spent some time with them before the competition to help them with their take downs and it was a lot of fun working with them. I'm looking forward to helping them out again for future competitions.
On a completely unrelated note, tomorrow I start my Paleo(ish) diet. I'm going to try to stick with it for 4 weeks at first and see how it goes. The basics are no dairy, no grains, no soy, no sugar, no processed crap. Today we went grocery shopping and spent over 200 bucks!! Meat and real food is expensive! I cooked up a whole bunch of beef and chicken and veggies for my lunches. I'm quite looking forward to trying this out and seeing how my body adjusts and deals with it. I'm hoping for some great results, but I'll settle for decent ones. This weekend will be interesting, with the road trip to Montreal and everything.
Coming up to round out the year:
- This Friday: The super fight card in Montreal to raise money for autism: Facebook Event
- This Saturday and Sunday (I'm only attending Sunday) Hannette Staack Seminar in Toronto
- Nov 24th: OJA Provincials
- Dec 1st : Grapplers Quest in London
See you on the mats!
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Thinking about trying a little caveman dieting.
Also known as Paleo. It certainly isn't the most convenient diet I could test out, but from what I've read on the internet (and we all know everything on the internet is truth), it's a pretty healthy way of eating/living. Dieting/diet has such a negative connotation, when I say diet, I mean eating plan, or a list of the things I put in my belly -- not dieting in the calorie restricting lose weight kind of way. I'll be honest, I'd love to lose some weight while I'm at it, but for me the goal is to be healthier.
For those of you know are new to this diet. Basically it's eating like a caveman would. No processed food, and no highly farmed types of food. Lots of meat, vegetables, nuts, berries and some other fruits. Nothing that comes out of a package. No dairy, no grains, no soy. This is why I say it's not a very convenient diet. You can't just stop at McDonalds on the way to work and grab an "Egg McMuffin". While the egg and bacon are allowed, the muffin and butter not so much.
Why would I do this to myself you ask?
I've read a lot and talked to a lot of people about gluten, and how it's not that great for you. For some people, it's fine, it doesn't affect them at all, for others, like my sister in law, it does very bad things to your digestive system, and entire body! I've read and heard all sorts of things about gluten affecting your bodies ability to heal itself and whatnot. It got me thinking, maybe that's the reason my scratches and things take so long to heal? Maybe the gluten I'm eating is affecting my body's immune system? I know, I know, I'm the first one to say that completely eliminating one thing is not usually a good idea, but this is going to be more of an experiment than anything. I'm not doing it as a quick and easy weight loss miracle diet, I'm trying it to see if I do indeed have a sensitivity to it. So, eliminating grains takes care of the gluten.
The other big thing I've been reading and hearing a lot about is dairy. The argument can be made that no other mammal drinks milk as adult. Also, the whole dairy industry is a little frightening. Did you know the PPPM measurement is "Pus Parts per Million"?. EWWW. That's how much infection is allowed in the milk. I know here in Canada the dairy industry is much more restricted than in the States. We don't allow the cows to be fed a lot of the fake shit and hormones that they allow in the US. But, let's be honest, does the fact that if you stop drinking milk for a while, you generally become quite intolerant not make you scratch your head and go "Hey, maybe we shouldn't be drinking this?" I think dairy will be harder for me then gluten. I love chocolate milk, I love cheese cake, I LOVE CHEESE! But, for an experiment, I think it'll be worthwhile. There are coconut and almond milk/iced cream replacements that may or may not meet the rest of the guidelines for the whole paleo thing... I'll have to look into that.
No soy is easy, I've never been a huge fan of the stuff. I don't like tofu, and while I used to drink soy milk, I've since replaced it with almond and coconut milk. I've read a bunch of stuff about soy and how it mimics estrogen, and how it's been connected to breast cancer and that alone is reason enough for me to avoid it. Even if it's the slightest barely connected link, I'm going to avoid that shit like it's the plague: I don't really need to increase my chances of that anymore than they already are.
Anything with sugar is out, although this mostly falls under the processed food category anyway. I'm going to miss iced cream so much. I think I can probably find a way to make some fake ice cream with plain almond milk, coconut oil, and some fruit or something. One thing that might be tricky is almost all salad dressing has sugar as an ingredient. It's weird, and seems completely unnecessary, but it's there! I suppose I can make my own, or just be careful which ones I buy. My favourites all have dairy in the form of feta in them anyway.
What about Pork? While pork is not on the list of things that aren't allowed with this diet, I think I will cut it out completely as well. One big reason is, I'm undecided if it should or shouldn't be eaten as a Christian: in the Old Testament it was a big no-no, but in the New Testament there are couple of verses that seem to indicate it's OK. The other reason being pork is just not a very clean meat. There is a reason you have to cook it a lot more than beef, and that is a bit concerning. I do love bacon, but I think I can live without it.
What about things from the water? Paleo allows for most things from the water, but like pork, I already don't eat a lot of it, and won't eat things like lobster, shrimp or other nasty sea insects. I do occasionally enjoy a nice battered and fried perch or cod, but the batter and frying will have to go. I'll probably eat some salmon and maybe tuna once in a while.
Other things I love that aren't allowed:
So, when am I going to dive in and do this? I'm thinking after this weekend. That will give me a chance to clean up my kitchen, get some proper groceries, and have some time left to enjoy the deliciousness that is everything that is bad for me. Also, Saturday is a big team dinner thing at an all-you-can-eat sushi place, and I don't eat raw fish, so that leaves me with tempura vegetables, which certainly aren't paleo.
Did I miss any of the big no-nos when it comes to this diet? Have you tried it? Got any tips? Please let me know here, on my Facebook fan page, or my fitness pal profile!
For those of you know are new to this diet. Basically it's eating like a caveman would. No processed food, and no highly farmed types of food. Lots of meat, vegetables, nuts, berries and some other fruits. Nothing that comes out of a package. No dairy, no grains, no soy. This is why I say it's not a very convenient diet. You can't just stop at McDonalds on the way to work and grab an "Egg McMuffin". While the egg and bacon are allowed, the muffin and butter not so much.
Why would I do this to myself you ask?
I've read a lot and talked to a lot of people about gluten, and how it's not that great for you. For some people, it's fine, it doesn't affect them at all, for others, like my sister in law, it does very bad things to your digestive system, and entire body! I've read and heard all sorts of things about gluten affecting your bodies ability to heal itself and whatnot. It got me thinking, maybe that's the reason my scratches and things take so long to heal? Maybe the gluten I'm eating is affecting my body's immune system? I know, I know, I'm the first one to say that completely eliminating one thing is not usually a good idea, but this is going to be more of an experiment than anything. I'm not doing it as a quick and easy weight loss miracle diet, I'm trying it to see if I do indeed have a sensitivity to it. So, eliminating grains takes care of the gluten.
The other big thing I've been reading and hearing a lot about is dairy. The argument can be made that no other mammal drinks milk as adult. Also, the whole dairy industry is a little frightening. Did you know the PPPM measurement is "Pus Parts per Million"?. EWWW. That's how much infection is allowed in the milk. I know here in Canada the dairy industry is much more restricted than in the States. We don't allow the cows to be fed a lot of the fake shit and hormones that they allow in the US. But, let's be honest, does the fact that if you stop drinking milk for a while, you generally become quite intolerant not make you scratch your head and go "Hey, maybe we shouldn't be drinking this?" I think dairy will be harder for me then gluten. I love chocolate milk, I love cheese cake, I LOVE CHEESE! But, for an experiment, I think it'll be worthwhile. There are coconut and almond milk/iced cream replacements that may or may not meet the rest of the guidelines for the whole paleo thing... I'll have to look into that.
No soy is easy, I've never been a huge fan of the stuff. I don't like tofu, and while I used to drink soy milk, I've since replaced it with almond and coconut milk. I've read a bunch of stuff about soy and how it mimics estrogen, and how it's been connected to breast cancer and that alone is reason enough for me to avoid it. Even if it's the slightest barely connected link, I'm going to avoid that shit like it's the plague: I don't really need to increase my chances of that anymore than they already are.
Anything with sugar is out, although this mostly falls under the processed food category anyway. I'm going to miss iced cream so much. I think I can probably find a way to make some fake ice cream with plain almond milk, coconut oil, and some fruit or something. One thing that might be tricky is almost all salad dressing has sugar as an ingredient. It's weird, and seems completely unnecessary, but it's there! I suppose I can make my own, or just be careful which ones I buy. My favourites all have dairy in the form of feta in them anyway.
What about Pork? While pork is not on the list of things that aren't allowed with this diet, I think I will cut it out completely as well. One big reason is, I'm undecided if it should or shouldn't be eaten as a Christian: in the Old Testament it was a big no-no, but in the New Testament there are couple of verses that seem to indicate it's OK. The other reason being pork is just not a very clean meat. There is a reason you have to cook it a lot more than beef, and that is a bit concerning. I do love bacon, but I think I can live without it.
What about things from the water? Paleo allows for most things from the water, but like pork, I already don't eat a lot of it, and won't eat things like lobster, shrimp or other nasty sea insects. I do occasionally enjoy a nice battered and fried perch or cod, but the batter and frying will have to go. I'll probably eat some salmon and maybe tuna once in a while.
Other things I love that aren't allowed:
- Crystal Light and other things that make water taste good
- Cookies
- Protein shakes
- Dessert
- Cheese-- Oh wait, I already mentioned that. Cheese might be the worst part of this. Seriously.
- Gatorade
- Alcohol
So, when am I going to dive in and do this? I'm thinking after this weekend. That will give me a chance to clean up my kitchen, get some proper groceries, and have some time left to enjoy the deliciousness that is everything that is bad for me. Also, Saturday is a big team dinner thing at an all-you-can-eat sushi place, and I don't eat raw fish, so that leaves me with tempura vegetables, which certainly aren't paleo.
Did I miss any of the big no-nos when it comes to this diet? Have you tried it? Got any tips? Please let me know here, on my Facebook fan page, or my fitness pal profile!
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