Laser Focus

[Plateauplower]

Great training and staying on point with diet. Adjust as needed so you feel and perform best. Being low on fat won’t matter unless it’s chronic. I ran fat low for a cut a few years ago and it seemed to screw me up a little hormonally, but that was months of pretty low fat. I think as long as you hit the minimum on an average you will be just fine.

Believe it or not I think you learn a lot helping others with moves. It gives you a different perspective. I’ve helped others with some of our basic Yawara stuff and it made me really think about it differently than when someone is leading me.

Feel ya on the tired. I’m on 4hrs sleep last night and a high stress work day today. Getting ready for bed though, and plan to be asleep by 7pm tonight .

Have fun tonight and GL on the upcoming smaller tourney.

[shesprints]

Great training and staying on point with diet. Adjust as needed so you feel and perform best. Being low on fat won’t matter unless it’s chronic. I ran fat low for a cut a few years ago and it seemed to screw me up a little hormonally, but that was months of pretty low fat. I think as long as you hit the minimum on an average you will be just fine.

Believe it or not I think you learn a lot helping others with moves. It gives you a different perspective. I’ve helped others with some of our basic Yawara stuff and it made me really think about it differently than when someone is leading me.

Feel ya on the tired. I’m on 4hrs sleep last night and a high stress work day today. Getting ready for bed though, and plan to be asleep by 7pm tonight .

Have fun tonight and GL on the upcoming smaller tourney.

The tournament schedule I'd like to set up for (I want to do Grappling Industries sub-only in January and then their regular tournament in February) is definitely keeping me on track with my diet. Right now, I'm weighing in, in light clothes, at 147 before breakfast, 149.5 after breakfast + coffee, and 151.8 wearing gi pants and having drunk more water. I need to be under 150 for the tournament in January without the gi. After that, I need to stay under 152.5 in the gi for IBJJF tournaments. So, I figure if I lose about 5 more pounds I'll be comfortably able to make weight and can focus on fueling for training.

Yeah, I think .3 grams/lb of fat is OK. For me that would be about 45-50 grams, and I'm typically just above 50, which is fine. I feel much more energetic and good on higher carbs/lower fat, pretty much the opposite of you. But whole food sources for carbs.

Thanks for the good luck wishes!

BTW if you're curious, AWESOME interview with one of my favorite instructors at the gym https://grapplingcentral.com/episode...AcBb8FFayCH9gA Marcos Tinoco

Training today was tough. I was just more physically burnt out. Then a bunch of Gracie guys invaded our gym and they played really rough, I tapped to one of them twice just because he was yanking on stuff and I was scared. But the rest was good, rolled with some of my usual partners and some not usual and it went decently well. Then I practiced takedowns for just a little bit. Our wrestling coach told me that I can shoot for either leg for the low single and don't have to actually change my shot, just aim for the other leg. Also, I don't need to have my head against their knee and can use my shoulder instead as it's a bigger target. Gonna go watch some videos on it shortly as well. He told me that if I'm going to shoot the low single I have to do it FAST, within 5 seconds of the match starting, after I slap down their hands going for grips.

Level 2 gi
Breaking closed guard from standing
Key: hold their sleeve and prop elbow inside their knee at your waist to extebd them up. Then break guard and leg drag pass.

4 x 5 start from guard pull 2 x 5 from closed guard
Did pretty well retaining guard against one tough purple belt, worked on backstepping into side control. Came close to some subs but not quite.

Advanced 1 nogi
Same wrist pull to single or fall back abd kick over
5 x 5 min roll
Some good rolls, scrambling, got into dogfight position and fought up.


Food....

Breakfast 8:50am
1 egg, 3 egg whites
3.1 oz onion
7 oz broc****
5.3 oz pineapple
2.8 oz starfruit
1/4 c oats, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 T cocoa
3 oz fat free Greek yogurt
3 oz almond milk
2 x fish oil
1 x multi

Intra/postworkout 12:30am-2:30pm
12 oz potato

Lunch 3:00pm
2 cups vegetable soup
6 oz steak

Dinner 7:30pm
16 oz cauliflower
5.3 oz 99% lean turkey
4 oz avocado
1/4 c bulgur
400mg magnesium


1970 cal, 235C/155P/54F

Almost exactly the same as yesterday. Tomorrow, back to codfish as protein.

[thehobbes]

Your protein amounts are impressive especially for doing it on 2k cals. I'm hitting 3k to get into the 150s usually, carbs of peace. And yep, some fat is good, would definitely feel crappy if you cut it low. I think you will actually turn into a stalk of broc**** if you cut it too low, lol.

[shesprints]

Your protein amounts are impressive especially for doing it on 2k cals. I'm hitting 3k to get into the 150s usually, carbs of peace. And yep, some fat is good, would definitely feel crappy if you cut it low. I think you will actually turn into a stalk of broc**** if you cut it too low, lol.

Eating whole foods and taking protein servings of 6 oz at a time helps. I try to keep protein high while I cut to maintain muscle and it seems to help a lot with satiety as well. I get ragingly hungry if I drop protein and up carbs instead. I seem able to deal with higher carbs only if I have higher protein. Something I've noticed over the years.

Oh, and I ate a bunch more fat than usual today since it was day off training pre-competition. I also figure hey, I'll weigh in a bit lighter. Not that I need to, I'm already more than 3 pounds light. But it's nice to be safe.

Food today...

Breakfast 9:00am
1 egg, 3 egg whites
4.5 oz onion
6 oz green beans
5.7 oz pineapple
1/4 c oats, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 T cocoa
3 oz fat free Greek yogurt
3 oz almond milk
2 x fish oil
1 x multi

Lunch 1:20pm
2 cups vegetable soup
6 oz steak

Snack 4:45pm
1 oz mixed nuts, unsalted

Dinner 8:00pm
15 oz cauliflower
6 oz cod
4.5 oz avocado
1/4 c bulgur
400mg magnesium

1980 cal, 210C/152P/70F (!)

So yeah, more fat. Don't feel particularly better eating it, but the nuts were very tasty. Particularly craved walnuts today, so had some of those and some Brazil nuts, then some almonds and cashews mixed in to make 1 ounce.

I took a nap this afternoon before my student, as well, which was nice. I plan to sleep tonight and be far better-rested for the tournament than I was for the last one. Then I can have lots of energy to psych out my opponents with my intense warmup. I like to do tuck jumps. I can jump quite high and I think it scares people.

[LunaLifts]

I can do well with higher or lower fat, but like to keep it at least 45g for health. I've never noticed a big different when it's closer to 30g, or when it's much higher. Nuts are an easy way to get it high though, I can eat so many of them. I hate that this time of year is the only time you can find a lot of walnuts, and nuts in general (outside of small overpriced bags, or over salted containers of them other times of year).
I need to get me some walnuts, they're so good, and are a great source of omega 3s.

Protein I definitely notice, if I favor carbs over protein I'm a hungry sob, lol. Like you said, it's good for maintaining muscle while cutting too, so I keep an eye on that macro.

If you've mentioned what a Gracie guy is, I must have missed it. >.<

[shesprints]

I can do well with higher or lower fat, but like to keep it at least 45g for health. I've never noticed a big different when it's closer to 30g, or when it's much higher. Nuts are an easy way to get it high though, I can eat so many of them. I hate that this time of year is the only time you can find a lot of walnuts, and nuts in general (outside of small overpriced bags, or over salted containers of them other times of year).
I need to get me some walnuts, they're so good, and are a great source of omega 3s.

Protein I definitely notice, if I favor carbs over protein I'm a hungry sob, lol. Like you said, it's good for maintaining muscle while cutting too, so I keep an eye on that macro.

If you've mentioned what a Gracie guy is, I must have missed it. >.<

Oh yeah no I definitely did not. Gracie is a big name in jiu jitsu, and when I referred to Gracie guys I meant guys from a neighboring academy in the Gracie school, which is technically our rival. (Marcelo doesn't really care, but I guess those guys do). They came in and went really aggressive on some of us.


Those of you who follow my instagram already know how my tournament went!

First of all, I was entered in the 155 division and weighed in at 149.6 after breakfast, 2 coffees, and wearing street clothing. A bit light but not too much really. Happily, I believe this means that I'm probably a middleweight already. In addition, there is a sub-only nogi fight in January that only requires me to be under 150, and guess what? I'm there. Hooray.

I had just 1 fight in the under 155 white belt division and I won it, so I got the gold there. I hit my low single, albeit after an initial scramble and back up to the feet situation, and then gradually turned mount into taking the back and collar choke from the back. It took me way too long to finish and I used too much arm strength rather than contracting my back in order to lock the sub in, but now I know what to practice with that. I also missed a lot of arm bar opportunities which I got the chance to correct later in the tournament.

Then they told us that there weren't enough women for a blue belt bracket. There was one blue belt who was in the 170 division and weighed 163 pounds. Then there was me, and then there was the white belt I had already beaten. (She was tough, by the way--strong, young--21! ah--and had a tough, good guard with pretty decent guard recovery and retention--it took me some time and triangle threats to pass it). So, we decided we'd do a round robin with BLUE BELT rules. That was a surprise, but I was OK with it. That meant that straight foot locks and knee bars were legal, and I've honestly just not practiced them as they aren't in play at white belt! Ah well. So, what would happen was I would fight the blue belt woman, then fight the white belt woman again, and then the white and blue belt women would fight each other--only they came from the same academy so they really would just flip a coin to decide it, instead of fighting.

My match against the blue belt started off quite promisingly. I was surprised that she wasn't particularly strong given her weight, and fought her grips easily, turned her takedown attempt into a snapdown, scramble, and wound up in side control and then mount again. Tried some subs and didn't get them, she got me off and into half guard, and as I was trying to pass out of half guard I unfortunately fell into a kimura. Argh. So I tapped on that after making an attempt at re-kimura--but it's just too new a technique and I didn't quite manage it. So she won, but it was close. Whew.

Then I fought the white belt lady again. This time, I pulled guard and swept her from double leg x, passed guard, got on top again, and finally this time took my teammates' advice and was able to secure the arm bar. (My teammates had coached me on this between the rounds).


My team as a whole--there were five of us there--did really well. Most of us got gold medals with a mix of bronze in there, and actually, Marcelo Garcia won the entire tournament by points. That's despite the fact that other gyms had many more people in attendance. I'm SO, SO proud to be a member of such a fantastic and supportive team.

I also loved how after the tournament the opposing fighters' coaches came up to me and told me how well they thought I'd done and complimented various aspects of my game. And a purple belt from my gym, who was there refereeing, saw the match and told me afterwards that I should be a blue belt. that was nice to hear I suppose, even though I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch. I'm happy to stay at white and keep killing it in competitions, as i love competing so much. And the nerves this time were much less.

My fights were not easy, but I'm pleased I won and so pleased I met my goal of hitting the low single leg takedown after all that practice. If I can do a nogi fight I think I'll do even better.


Food was... ha, pretty usual except for dinner at my mom's holiday party in the evening [the reason Ic ouldn't do nogi].


Breakfast 9:00am
1 egg, 3 egg whites
6 oz green beans
6 oz pineapple
1/4 c oats, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 T cocoa
3 oz fat free Greek yogurt
4.5 oz almond milk
2 x fish oil
1 x multi

Prefight 12:00pm
7.7 oz potato w/ salt

Lunch 4:00pm
5.6 oz turkey
3 oz tomato
3 oz avocado
3 oz whole wheat sourdough bread

Dinner 8:00pm
2 cups salad greens w/ homemade oil and vinegar dressing (about 1 T)
1/2 cup chickpea vegetable stew
1 cup chicken and squash stew
3/4 cup broc****
1 x magnesium

Approx 1980 cal, 238C/147P/57F


Pics and maybe a vid of one of my fights to come as soon as I get myself settled in. Long day.

[shesprints]

Whew. Back to the grind the day after fighting... decided to lift some weights, as I can see how much of an advantage being strong and lean can be in fights and the upper belts get more and more serious about strength and conditioning. I have to be results-oriented now and I kept thinking to myself "my opponents might not dig for this last rep, but I will." LOL. I sound like a meme. Whatever.

Weights--90 min
Warmup:
5 min jog (down to 6:40 pace for last minute)
Stick overpass, alter overpass, frog stretch, overhead squat on upside down bosu x 10

Pulldown (wide) 55, 70, 85, 95 x 10
Back squat 115 x 3, 135 x 4, 145 5 x 5

Bent over row 45, 55, 65, 75 x 10
Romanian deadlift 85, 105, 125, 145, 160 x 4

DB lateral raise 8lb 4 x 10
DB step up 25, 27.5, 30, 35 x 8

Prehab:
1-leg calf raises 3 x 10
IYT 3 x 10
TKE 3 x 20

Abs:
Toe touch 3 x 20
Reverse crunch 3 x 20
Plank 3 x 45

Handstand walkouts 3 x 3
Headstand 15 seconds (abs were dead)

Stretch


Food... super hungry day, I guess because lifting felt so hard?

Breakfast 8:30am
1 egg, 3 egg whites
8 oz asparagus
6 oz pineapple
1/4 c oats, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 T cocoa
3 oz fat free Greek yogurt
4.6 oz unsweetened almond milk
2 x fish oil
1 x multi

Preworkout 11:10am
4 oz 2% cottage cheese
9 oz potato

Postworkout/lunch 2:30pm
2 cups vegetable soup
6 oz cod
2 oz avocado
2 x wasa crackers

Dinner 7:30pm
15.7 oz cauliflower
4 oz avocado
1 cup chickpea vegetable stew leftover
4.75 oz cod
7 oz apple
400mg magnesium

1995 cal, 257C/146P/56F

AND! Here are videos of my first and probably most exciting/longest match. The second one was shorter and the third one was a quicker finish as I got the arm bar after not too much positional battling. This one, though... wow. She was a strong opponent!

[HomeGymChains]

I kept thinking to myself "my opponents might not dig for this last rep, but I will." LOL. I sound like a meme.

Congratulations again!

(and great meme you created!)

[LunaLifts]

Ahh, ok, gotta keep the BJJ rivalries in mind then.

Again, way to go on the tournament, I assume there's going to be more coming as it sounds like you had a great time. You sound like a very hardcore lifting meme, though I don't imagine you've ever given workouts less than your all.

[Plateauplower]

Very Nice! Also was that like 14 minutes of actual live fight time? WTF I would be puking. You have some serious stamina, no doubt from all the live wrestling, there is no other way to get into that kind of shape. Watched all three vids my comments are pretty much all in regard to the first one.

Your energy starting off was better than last meet, likely just from being more comfortable.

When she shot on you and you caught her, that would be an ideal time to use a crossface. Basically use your R forearm (preferable the boney area in your wrist below your thumb) and work it across her face (on her nose) to turn her head away from you (to her left/your right) and toward her legs. Then you can drive into her and roll her right over to her guard position. Where the head goes, the body follows.

You had a great shot on that single, it was FAST and effective, plan on using it more. That looked pretty close to not being defensible unless you telegraph it in advance, it was about perfect.

GET YOUR WEIGHT ON THEM! I know you were trying to work moves which requires having enough space to work, but early in the match, when you have someone on their back, I would personally focus on just keeping them on their back and fighting to escape with all of my weight on them. Let them wear themselves out a little fighting gravity rather than wasting your energy fighting them. I couldn't tell what you had on her when she finally tapped, but that was after you were on her wearing her down for a LONG time and she was probably physically exhausted and beat mentally from being on her back defending for so long. If you can get them tired sooner from fighting against your weight on them and not using much of your energy that will happen sooner, and they will be more likely to make mistakes where you could catch them in an easy submission move. Just my two cents...

Great job, you looked a lot more comfortable and confident compared to the first tournament!

[shesprints]

Congratulations again!

(and great meme you created!)

LMAO oh no, I'm way too ironic to be a source of inspirational memes bro. But thank youuuuu <3 <3 <3

Ahh, ok, gotta keep the BJJ rivalries in mind then.

Again, way to go on the tournament, I assume there's going to be more coming as it sounds like you had a great time. You sound like a very hardcore lifting meme, though I don't imagine you've ever given workouts less than your all.

Yeah I told the black belt instructor how one of the visitors from Gracie tried to knee bar me and he was like "lol of course he did." It's a tiny rivalry as our academy head doesn't care and nor does theirs, but you know how some dudes can be. I definitely have not given workouts my all at points! Especially if I am scared, like on heavy squats or deadlifts. I do not give stretching my all. Something to work on.

Very Nice! Also was that like 14 minutes of actual live fight time? WTF I would be puking. You have some serious stamina, no doubt from all the live wrestling, there is no other way to get into that kind of shape. Watched all three vids my comments are pretty much all in regard to the first one.

Your energy starting off was better than last meet, likely just from being more comfortable.

I was definitely more comfortable and I also had a plan (to get her to circle). The difference in nerves between my first tournament and this one was huge, and I think it will only improve from here. As for the length--it was the white belt final, so we had 30 minutes to finish if needed. I paced myself accordingly while I believe she tired herself out early. The cardio may also be a holdover from my many years of running, swimming, and other cardio activities. I can still run about a 6:30 mile (was 5:38 at my best). I believe the mitochondrial and other adaptations from years of cardio don't just disappear. Plus, yes, I go very hard in training for multiple hours pretty regularly, as you see here. I was tired by the end of this fight, but not exhausted.

When she shot on you and you caught her, that would be an ideal time to use a crossface. Basically use your R forearm (preferable the boney area in your wrist below your thumb) and work it across her face (on her nose) to turn her head away from you (to her left/your right) and toward her legs. Then you can drive into her and roll her right over to her guard position. Where the head goes, the body follows.

Hmmmm I'm going to have to try that out. I don't think I've ever seen a crossface from the front headlock position that I've been aware of. In BJJ we typically try to yank out one of the arms to create space and then take the back.

You had a great shot on that single, it was FAST and effective, plan on using it more. That looked pretty close to not being defensible unless you telegraph it in advance, it was about perfect.

OMG A WRESTLER TELLING ME MY TAKEDOWN WAS GOOD? I am thrilled. I mean I had been drilling it for a solid week, but I am fairly proud as I did only learn that takedown the week of the tournament (on Monday). But yeah, takedowns are always my #1 priority and goal as I tend to feel that once I have them on the ground with me on top I am OK. I'm going to continue drilling and drilling and... drilling... takedowns whenever I can, and will definitely prioritize the low single as well as the "treetop" to outside trip that is a go-to.

GET YOUR WEIGHT ON THEM! I know you were trying to work moves which requires having enough space to work, but early in the match, when you have someone on their back, I would personally focus on just keeping them on their back and fighting to escape with all of my weight on them. Let them wear themselves out a little fighting gravity rather than wasting your energy fighting them. I couldn't tell what you had on her when she finally tapped, but that was after you were on her wearing her down for a LONG time and she was probably physically exhausted and beat mentally from being on her back defending for so long. If you can get them tired sooner from fighting against your weight on them and not using much of your energy that will happen sooner, and they will be more likely to make mistakes where you could catch them in an easy submission move. Just my two cents...

Great job, you looked a lot more comfortable and confident compared to the first tournament!

No, you're totally right. Later on in the match and then in my next two fights, I was much more conscious of pressuring them from the top, but I agree I was too tentative at first. That's something I must work on. I don't begin with enough intensity but rather match my partner's. It may be a habit from academy rolls. Not sure.


Decent training today. I was very very sore and also had to grab some groceries and be on time for work, so I took a semiprivate with another girl and then took just the 1 class. I tried out a new gi in the private and it felt awesome. Very lightweight, brand is Hyperfly. I can not only move well in it, I can also weigh in solidly at middleweight for my next IBJJF tournament. Naturally, I am still watching my diet, but it seems that I have met the goal I wanted to meet by January already! I'm so happy.

BJJ--2 hours
Semiprivate lesson
Passing guard
Leg drag by throwing ankle past using the hips
Then you can come down on knee or with weight on OTHER knee but using knee between their legs to block; quickly pull their knee back and cover it with your armpit or forearm so they don't get the knee shield!
Torreando pass (straight line like in bullfighting--throw their legs and go straight past)
Over under pass (key is to stay on toes and pull gi pants of their trapped leg down low so they can't capture your arm. Keep weight low over their hips, chin tucked at their belt).
Free sparring from passing positions

Level 2 nogi
Open closed guard and kick leg free when they try to sweep. Step back and kick other leg out forward and grab their ankles. Push legs to one side and start passing pushing shoulder down then put head down on them and circle around the other way. If they turtle take the back.

4 x 45 seconds positional drill not getting tripped
5 x 2 min from closed guard
2 x 5 min regular training
Had fun coming out the back wrestling style, dogfight position, knee cut passing, some sweeps. Good rolls.


Food...

Breakfast 8:30am
1 egg, 3 egg whites
3.67 oz onion
6.6 oz brocc
4 oz pineapple
1/4 c oats, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 T cocoa
3 oz fat free Greek yogurt
3.77 oz almond milk
2 x fish oil
1 x multi

Intra/postworkout 11:30 and 12:30
11.3 oz potato w/ salt

Lunch 2:50pm
2 cups vegetable soup
6 oz steak

Dinner 9:30pm
5.15 oz turkey
3.25 oz whole wheat sourdough bread
4 oz avocado
3.1 oz tomato
7.75 oz celery
400mg magnesium

1985 cal, 227C/158P/55F

But yeah. It's cool... the instructors are paying a lot more attention to me in class since I've been competing. Apparently they do that when you're a competitor and also I am one of the few women who is serious about it as well. (I wish that weren't the case). Anyway, it's neat. And on Wednesday we have belt promotions. Still not sure how that'll go but we'll see.

[LunaLifts]

Yeah I told the black belt instructor how one of the visitors from Gracie tried to knee bar me and he was like "lol of course he did." It's a tiny rivalry as our academy head doesn't care and nor does theirs, but you know how some dudes can be. I definitely have not given workouts my all at points! Especially if I am scared, like on heavy squats or deadlifts. I do not give stretching my all. Something to work on.

Sounds kinda fun, enough to be competitive but without being so serious that people start getting bent out of shape about it.

I'm the same with heavy squats, and ditto on the stretching. Most days I do it, but I don't usually give stretching the effort I should.

[shesprints]

Sounds kinda fun, enough to be competitive but without being so serious that people start getting bent out of shape about it.

I'm the same with heavy squats, and ditto on the stretching. Most days I do it, but I don't usually give stretching the effort I should.

I've gotten better about it since I typically stretch before BJJ, at least, but I can always do more.


Really bad day today. I just felt exhausted and sore from Sunday's lifting, so I didn't lift this morning. I did go to what I thought would be wrestling class tonight, but the regular wrestling coach was out and we just had a random nogi class instead. If I had known, I wouldn't have gone, because I felt lousy and because I have this split-open callus underneath one of my toes. It's bothering me enough that moving fluidly on the mat is basically impossible, plus I'm afraid of infection (band-aids keep coming off). I don't know what to do. I will likely train tomorrow anyway and hope that it heals up some tonight, or keep putting bandaids? idk.

Anyway, because of the foot situation I just wasn't that focused during class and consequently when one girl asked me to roll I thoughtlessly said, "Ugh, I suck at this," thinking she'd then decide to find someone else. I should've said that it was because my foot was bothering me, but I guess I figured that would sound wimpy? Anyway, she then got really mad at me and said that my attitude was bad and I should always drill the things I suck at. I DO! I KNOW THAT. I was just in my head and already upset that the class wasn't the one I wanted it to be. It made me think that everyone hates my attitude and thinks I suck at the gym, and that I'll definitely not get my blue belt or even 4 stripes. I dunno. I also probably don't deserve the belt anyway; I have too many holes in my game around basic things still. I'm mad that I even care about a belt.

BJJ--1 hour
Level 2 nogi
Front headlock to back take
I'm awful at this and got really frustrated
I need to work on pinching elbows together while clearing their arm
Timing maybe?
* drill this!

4 x 2 min positional drill
2 x 5 min regular training
Got a triangle and a crucifix arm bar when a guy tried to roll out of front headlock

Anyway, I think my mood is also garbage because I have PMS or something--can't tell, haven't been super regular lately. I have that crazy awful feeling where I get persistent ideation of self-harm, anxiety, exhaustion, worse motor skills, just generally it sucks. Appetite was also crazy and I felt exhausted and starving all morning but still waited to eat lunch. IDK.

Breakfast 8:30am
1 egg, 3 egg whites
7.17 oz brocc
3.8 oz pineapple
1/4 c oats, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 T cocoa
3 oz fat free Greek yogurt
4 oz unsweetened almond milk
2 x fish oil
1 x multi

Lunch 1pm
2 cups vegetable soup
7 oz steak

Preworkout/snack 4pm
10.5 oz potato

Dinner 8:20pm
15.4 oz cauliflower
6 oz cod
4 oz avocado
1/4 c bulgur
400mg magnesium

1955 cal, 218C/164P/56F

Anyway I just feel terrible. My schedule got disrupted and I feel angry that today was such a waste. I hate training at night and ONLY ever do it for that takedowns class so I get mad when the instructor doesn't show up. Plus my foot. Plus thinking people hate my attitude. I dunno. At least I got some nice submissions on one guy, the crucifix arm bar is one I haven't hit in awhile and I don't think he expected it.

[HomeGymChains]

You’ve been getting a lot of great and supportive comments from people you’ve trained with. This one day was definitely non-representative. (And maybe use medical tape over your bandaids, instead of letting them bum you out. )

[shesprints]

You’ve been getting a lot of great and supportive comments from people you’ve trained with. This one day was definitely non-representative. (And maybe use medical tape over your bandaids, instead of letting them bum you out. )

Thanks, I did that today and it worked. I was able to train.

BJJ--2 hours
Advanced 1 gi
Top half guard pass if you lose the underhook
Underhook the other side, walk their knees over, hip back other way, step foot up under leg, pass to mount or side (using other foot to step down on their knee and free yours)
OR same thing but just throw your hip over, keeping them from rolling you by hooking their top leg w yours. Push their other foot down with yours and pass to mount.

Positional start 3 x 5, free roll 2 x 5

Advanced 1 nogi
Hard warm up and then just rolling
6 x 6 min rounds
Got a kimura on a big guy
Did well generally with some wrestly stuff came up on single, leg Turk, dogfight etc.


Food...

Breakfast 8:30am
1 egg, 3 egg whites
7.17 oz brocc
3.8 oz pineapple
1/4 c oats, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 T cocoa
3 oz fat free Greek yogurt
4 oz unsweetened almond milk
2 x fish oil
1 x multi

Postworkout 2:00pm
12 oz potato

Lunch 3:00pm
2 cups vegetable soup
4.8 oz cod
2 oz avocado
2 x wasa

Dinner 11:15pm
15 oz cauliflower
6 oz cod
5 oz avocado
1/4 c bulgur
400mg magnesium

1965 cal, 266C/134P/52F

The increased carbs were very necessary and give me a ton more energy. I dig myself into these glycogen-depletion holes sometimes.

We had belt promos today. I got 2 more stripes on my belt. They said blue belt is next time. So, I get to compete a lot more at white belt. My goal is to win gold as many times as I can. I'm planning on a tournament January 19 and another in February, and then IBJJF Open again in March. There's a lot I want to work on in terms of refining my passing to be more technical, sharpening takedowns, and working on submissions more.

[HomeGymChains]

We had belt promos today. I got 2 more stripes on my belt. They said blue belt is next time. So, I get to compete a lot more at white belt. My goal is to win gold as many times as I can. I'm planning on a tournament January 19 and another in February, and then IBJJF Open again in March. There's a lot I want to work on in terms of refining my passing to be more technical, sharpening takedowns, and working on submissions more.

Congratulations!!!

And I’m very impressed by your competition plans. Those opponents don’t stand a chance!

[shesprints]

Congratulations!!!

And I’m very impressed by your competition plans. Those opponents don’t stand a chance!

Oh, any competition is a challenge. I'm still new to the game and just want to get as comfortable with tournaments as I can, and face as many opponents as I can, before moving to the next level. One thing to note is that simply being fitter and stronger is a huge advantage to me as a white belt... but as I move up it will become less and less of one as technique becomes more important. I want to continue forcing myself back to trying new technical things every class now instead of just relying on what I already know. If that makes sense.

Training today...

BJJ--2 hours
Level 2 gi
Opening closed guard when they underhook your leg after you stand
First, put all of your weight on that leg so they can't sweep it. Then push down the other leg pant. Reach around the leg braced on your planted leg and get their far side collar (THUMB in grip). Switch your other hand from the knee of the pant to the strings of their pant waist, behind their leg (this avoids the triangle and helps you stack them). Pass the other leg with your head and go to side control.
OPTION TWO: Sometimes an opponent whose closed guard you've just opened will back roll and capture your foot (this is a cool move on its own and I tried it several times and want to drill more). To counter this, drop down into crucifix position, capturing their arm in your legs. Capture their other wrist with one hand. Get your other hand in under their chin and grab the material over their shoulder. Pull elbow back and up to finish the choke with the blade of your forearm.

Regular training 5 x 5
Practiced the roll part of the move from class and then my partner tried countering with the crucifix, but I escaped by stepping over his foot and coming up in dogfight position. I'm glad I tried the roll.

Advanced 1 nogi
Start in top half guard. They win the underhook and go to reverse you. Instead, push their knee and backstep (the knee push allows you to escape YOUR knee). Move to mount with underhook on the other side. Your foot is still trapped so THEN bring other foot back over to help escape the foot, and go to side control.
OPTION 2: If they keep rolling up onto knees when you backstep in order to push you down, guillotine them. Not arm-in! Regular guillotine. Scoot hips back to make room in order to do this.

5 x 6 min regular training
Don't remember enough of this but with one partner I did get to work several submissions, including guillotine, triangle, and arm bar that I let go of quite quickly. A visiting young purple belt woman took my back repeatedly, which was inspiring. She seemed to find many angles from which to continue attacking the back.

I want to make more of an effort to record the moves we do in class in this much detail and to reread them and drill them as well.


Food so far is the same as yesterday pretty much.

Breakfast 8:30am
1 egg, 3 egg whites
3.8 oz onion
6 oz green beans
3.4 oz pineapple
1/4 c oats, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 T cocoa
3 oz fat free Greek yogurt
4 oz unsweetened almond milk
2 x fish oil
1 x multi

Pre/postworkout 11:30am and 2:15pm
12 oz potato

Lunch 3:00pm
2 cups vegetable soup
6 oz cod
2 oz avocado
2 x wasa

ETA Dinner 8:15pm
10.4 oz asparagus
7.2 oz canned light albacore tuna
4.5 oz tomato
4 oz avocado
2.75 oz whole wheat sourdough bread
400mg magnesium

1975 cal, 247C/156P/48F

I was too tired to go out shopping for anything for dinner. Collapsed and took a nap and have such an awful headache. PMS is still murdering me. I feel angry and edgy, SO THIRSTY ALL THE TIME (waking up thirsty repeatedly at night) and have the usual flu-like symptoms (nasal congestion, etc.). Oh well.

Random... Erin Herle, who is a BJJ black belt transitioning to MMA, is about 5'6'' and 150 and just posted on social media that she wants to fight in the 125. I imagine that's with a substantial water cut, so she is trying to get to 135? I'm not sure why I am comparing myself to a black belt. Or to anyone really. I'm at my goal of competing under 150 and that's good. Under 140 is a possibility for next year but I don't know yet.

[Fiction2Fitness]

Ish on the headache. I seem to get those after work in particular and I do far less physically than you, so can imagine the struggle with the added hormonal factors.

It's crazy to me how low some athletes/competitors weigh. I struggle just to stick to the 132 weight class, so weighing less than 132, and I'm significantly shorter than many of them. Though I suppose a person's background has an effect on their experience and what they are capable of getting their body to do.

[shesprints]

Ish on the headache. I seem to get those after work in particular and I do far less physically than you, so can imagine the struggle with the added hormonal factors.

It's crazy to me how low some athletes/competitors weigh. I struggle just to stick to the 132 weight class, so weighing less than 132, and I'm significantly shorter than many of them. Though I suppose a person's background has an effect on their experience and what they are capable of getting their body to do.

Yeah, maybe it does. I think you grew up pretty overweight, right? From what I understand, that can affect you for life, making it very difficult to become lean. I feel lucky that my mom raised us on a healthy diet and that we grew up at low/normal weights, my later struggles with disordered eating aside. That's probably what gave me the most difficulty tbh. Rebound after anorexia is real. Anyway, my deal is that I need to find something a bit moderate, and not always aim to lose more as my body is not really built to weigh under at minimum 135, I would say. You can see it in my structure. I have a wide frame. It's fine--it's how I am built. I looked awful when I was a runner and weighed in closer to 120.

Today was another rough, very fatigued PMS day, but I got some things done and lifted.

Clean and jerk day

Warmup
5 min run to 6:00 pace
Stick overpass, alter overpass, frog, upside down bosu overhead squat x 10

Jerk practice up to 55 lb
Power clean x 2 to jerk x 1 up to 75 lb w bar on elevated box
Clean grip deadlift to knees w 4 second pause 120, 125, 135, 145 x 4 each

Front squat slow down explode up 95 x 5, 105 2 x 5
Bench 65, 75, 85, 95 x 6 each

Box jumps regular (30 inches) 3 x 3
Box jumps from seated (30 inches) 3 x 3

Chinups 2 x 2 regular, 2 x 5 with assistance

Stretch
so yeah I can do chinups now but they are rough on my shoulder. I think I have some sort of left shoulder injury from when I swam a lot but I'm scared to find out ahhh.
Pretty proud of those box jumps as well. They did not feel hard.

More fat today in the food. Not too much but making up for yesterday. Was craving nuts and an apple in the evening and rolled with that.

Breakfast 8:30am
1 egg, 3 egg whites
7.7 oz green beans
5 oz pineapple
1/4 c oats, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 T cocoa
4 oz fat free Greek yogurt
3.6 oz unsweetened almond milk
2 x fish oil
1 x multi

Postworkout 1:15pm
6.3 oz potato

Lunch 3:00pm
2 cups vegetable soup
6 oz cod
2.5 oz avocado
2 x wasa

Snack 5:20pm
26g unsalted mixed nuts
6 oz apple

Dinner 8:10pm
14.4 oz cauliflower
3 oz avocado
6 oz cod
1/4 c bulgur
400mg magnesium

1975 cal, 242C/144P/60F

I'm just so exhausted and ground down from PMS that I'm barely functioning, feel in a fog. I hope BJJ goes OK tomorrow.

[Fiction2Fitness]

Yeah, maybe it does. I think you grew up pretty overweight, right? From what I understand, that can affect you for life, making it very difficult to become lean. I feel lucky that my mom raised us on a healthy diet and that we grew up at low/normal weights, my later struggles with disordered eating aside. That's probably what gave me the most difficulty tbh. Rebound after anorexia is real. Anyway, my deal is that I need to find something a bit moderate, and not always aim to lose more as my body is not really built to weigh under at minimum 135, I would say. You can see it in my structure. I have a wide frame. It's fine--it's how I am built. I looked awful when I was a runner and weighed in closer to 120.

For the most part, yeah. As a kid I wasn't overweight but around pre-teen it creeped up. Even when I was in sports I was always a little overweight and not quite in good enough shape, then I stopped doing sports and ended up rather fluffy. Don't think I can get a flat stomach after all that without surgery. We all have our own struggles and experiences that bring about our journeys on here. Maybe I can get to 120 one of these days or maybe not. Hard to say.

Sucks on the hormonal struggles. Hope you get your energy back quick.

[shesprints]

For the most part, yeah. As a kid I wasn't overweight but around pre-teen it creeped up. Even when I was in sports I was always a little overweight and not quite in good enough shape, then I stopped doing sports and ended up rather fluffy. Don't think I can get a flat stomach after all that without surgery. We all have our own struggles and experiences that bring about our journeys on here. Maybe I can get to 120 one of these days or maybe not. Hard to say.

Sucks on the hormonal struggles. Hope you get your energy back quick.

I mean, you're still WAY stronger for your weight than I will probably ever be for mine. I think for you and for me, actually, our concerns about weight are not just aesthetic (anymore...). I know personally I'm looking at weight classes and going "eek, there's only a 138 and a 154, and I have to COMPETE against these women very directly!" Powerlifting is much the same, yeah? Where it's not really about how you look, but about how you calibrate your advantage in the field. It's tough because for me for example it doesn't matter if I feel and look the best at, say, 144... I still have to decide what to do. Likewise, you might feel and perform great at 132 but realize you'd win competitions at 120. That is a tough decision to make especially because with sports weight loss can impact performance so how do you even know what's optimal?

Anyway. I'm still tired today so I did basically nothing except, um, 3 hours of jiu jitsu, some teaching, and a celebration of my dad's bday at my mom's place. She cooked all healthy food for us as my brother is also into fitness and my dad doesn't much care.

BJJ--3 hours
Drilling--1 hour
Guard passes
1. Over under pass from breaking the de la Riva. Remember to straighten knee to pop off their hook.
2. Leg drag pass. Make sure to grab their pant to lever their hips further over and also keep your own knee on floor to secure bottom leg. Block w/ arm to pass.
3. Torreando. Try to get shin-to-shin and play with going either way to see when they overcommit, then pass the other side. DON'T grab their arm. Put your head down near theirs--target the head!
Random tip: A good pass is to go for collar tie then quickly swap to underhook for the pass.
Baseball bat choke. Get really deep in the collar with underhand grip, then dig elbow hard into their chest with all your weight to finish. Keep hands almost together.

Open mat 1 hour
10 x 3-5 min rounds
Tips from rolling partners: if they're bigger and trying to get on top, target their hips and always try to keep their hips on yours.
Also defended a baseball bat choke from the bottom simply by controlling partner's hips as he tried to finish it. If he can't move hips, he can't finish the choke.
Was able to nail the over-under pass several times yay! I still need to work on torreando and leg drag, at least from DLR. I seem to do leg drag accidentally from other positions.

Advanced 1 gi
Half guard sweeps with lapel feed.
1. Grab the collar high up and jam your fist into their neck to make a tough, uncomfortable frame. With the other hand, grab the lapel. Kick them forward and move arm behind them, grabbing lapel. Hook their leg with yours and come up to dogfight. Grab their far pant leg and drive them over.
2. If they keep that far pant leg away from you, switch to grabbing their near ankle from underneath and drive them the other way.
3. If they get a whizzer, grab the lapel with BOTH hands in a baseball bat grip. Then switch top hand to their waist instead. Escape leg and drive them forward. As they resist, quickly switch to pulling them over backwards.
**note: if you can't get the lapel, grab the other lapel OR grab BOTH pieces of the hanging belt (not one!).

4 x 5 min regular training
had a good roll with a blue belt where I was able to reverse him from dogfight position to side control using a very weird kind of pass whereby it started with him in Z guard and then I pinned his legs and rolled him onto his stomach. Not sure how I did that. Kind of like a Turk? Anyway, I think this demoralized him because he got up and left after our roll lmao. Also some other good rolls where I attempted to practice the position from class. I want to drill this more as well as I enjoy the position and find it natural.

I'm trying to drill a lot more to ingrain new movement patterns. Next I want to drill half guard. I really liked the sweep we worked on today and find it a natural position for me.

Food today... rough because I'm very very hungry. Probably could've gotten away with more cals today due to the 3 hours of activity but... I kind of decided not to go over the 2k calorie boundary so I'm like, 3 below just for my brain.

Breakfast 8:30am
1 egg, 3 egg whites
5.78 oz broc-col-i
3.28 oz onion
4.66 oz pineapple
1/4 c oats, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 T cocoa
3 oz fat free Greek yogurt
3.84 oz unsweetened almond milk
2 x fish oil
1 x multi

Intraworkout 11:30-2:00
12.3 oz potato

Lunch 3:30pm
2 cups vegetable soup
6 oz cod
3.14 oz avocado
15.8 oz cauliflower rice

Dinner 7:00pm
6.25 oz sea bass
1 T teriyaki
5 oz broc-co-li
7 oz cauliflower
3 oz peppers
2 oz avocado
8 oz polenta
5 oz unsweetened almond milk in decaf coffee
400mg magnesium

1997 cal, 254C/154P/51F

Super tired now so heading to sleep. Lift tomorrow and time with the gf.

[Fiction2Fitness]

I mean, you're still WAY stronger for your weight than I will probably ever be for mine. I think for you and for me, actually, our concerns about weight are not just aesthetic (anymore...). I know personally I'm looking at weight classes and going "eek, there's only a 138 and a 154, and I have to COMPETE against these women very directly!" Powerlifting is much the same, yeah? Where it's not really about how you look, but about how you calibrate your advantage in the field. It's tough because for me for example it doesn't matter if I feel and look the best at, say, 144... I still have to decide what to do. Likewise, you might feel and perform great at 132 but realize you'd win competitions at 120. That is a tough decision to make especially because with sports weight loss can impact performance so how do you even know what's optimal?

That is a good point. I competed once at the 148 weight class, weighing around 135 and it was tough to be competitive. You ideally want to come in at the top of the weight class for competition but I suck at water cuts so can't do the weigh above and get below in time for the meet. Plus, without much practice a water cut can be a disadvantage since it can affect strength too. Deadlift wise I'm okay at 132 but yeah, I'd probably be more competitive if getting down to the lower class, bench would be a bit closer to standing a chance. So, yeah, that is true in considering competition aspects for the weights and not just aesthetics.

[shesprints]

That is a good point. I competed once at the 148 weight class, weighing around 135 and it was tough to be competitive. You ideally want to come in at the top of the weight class for competition but I suck at water cuts so can't do the weigh above and get below in time for the meet. Plus, without much practice a water cut can be a disadvantage since it can affect strength too. Deadlift wise I'm okay at 132 but yeah, I'd probably be more competitive if getting down to the lower class, bench would be a bit closer to standing a chance. So, yeah, that is true in considering competition aspects for the weights and not just aesthetics.

Haha I thought of you today when I did deadlifts. I was like "dammit these are so hard I bet if i were shorter like f2f they'd be easier." LOL. I know it's because you've worked harder and longer than I have on the specific lifts you do, not because of your height.

Great workout today. I got a new plan from the trainer because he said I've "graduated." Now it's more like track-specific training which I quite enjoy, more explosive stuff. It leaves me feeling a lot less drained afterwards than traditional strength training.

Weights--1 hour
Jog 5 min
3 x sun salutations
Stick overpass, alter overpass, frog stretch, overhead squat
Hurdle hops 3 hurdles 3 x 3

Hang clean 45, 55, 65, 75 x 6
Push press 55, 65, 75, 80 x 6
Plank :45 x 4

Clean deadlift 105, 125, 155, 175 x 6
Front squat 65, 85, 95, 115 x 6

Bench press 65, 75, 85, 100 x 5
Box jump 4 x 3
Reverse crunch 4 x 20

Stretch
Foam roll



Food so far--

Breakfast 8:30am
1 egg, 3 egg whites
6.6 oz broc-col-i
3.1 oz onion
5.4 oz pineapple
1/4 c oats, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 T cocoa
3.5 oz fat free Greek yogurt
4.44 oz unsweetened almond milk
2 x fish oil
1 x multi

Preworkout 10:30am
8.5 oz potato

Lunch 1:20pm
2 cups vegetable soup
6 oz chicken thigh

Snack 4:45pm
7.5 oz apple

ETA Dinner 7:30pm
15.5 oz cauliflower
6 oz cod
3.5 oz avocado
1/4 c bulgur
400mg magnesium

1965 cal, 245C/145P/55F

Pretty spot on what I wanted so that's good, but it was one of those days when I never really felt full. Ah well. I may train 3 hours BJJ tomorrow and thus eat a bit over (gasp) 2000 calories. We'll see?

[LunaLifts]

If your moods get seriously, unreasonably bad during PMS, I'd talk to your doc/gyno to rule out PMDD. Symptoms include depression, anxiety, hopelessness, anger, loss of interest, lethargy, food cravings, insomnia or hypersomnia. Basically like PMS + clinical depression. It may be worth looking into just in case.

I'm glad I don't do any competing, honestly I'm still very aesthetics oriented (for now), so worrying about weight classes would be unpleasant. Like do I finish this cut and risk sucking, or put that off to compete at this range instead. There'd definitely be conflicting goals.

Ooo, and thanks for reminding me I have half an avocado in the freezer still.

[Plateauplower]

Explosive stuff will be more beneficial to BJJ. I think the weighing yourself regularly will be a good thing for staying on point of weight class etc. Don't sweat the fluctuations, just use the weekly rolling average. Will also allow you to determine your TDEE accurately, so when you get to a specific weight you will easily be able to maintain it (as long as you maintain about the same activity level).

Couple fun tricks to try that we were doing the other day. The first is freaky, if someone is grabbing your arms from the front, and you want them to hold on (we were doing this to pull the person into us) shake your open hands down once like you are shaking water off them as you bring your arms toward you. The person will automatically grab tighter and not let go for a split second its pretty freaky.

The other thing that was really fun, we were doing a "bum rush shove" move where if someone is running at you head on you spin them around. When you push them away get your hands under their shoulder blades and push up instead of forward. It is really freaky when someone does it to you. You can't defend against it, you just really light on your feet and can't stop yourself from going forward. We were running each other across the mat like that.

[shesprints]

If your moods get seriously, unreasonably bad during PMS, I'd talk to your doc/gyno to rule out PMDD. Symptoms include depression, anxiety, hopelessness, anger, loss of interest, lethargy, food cravings, insomnia or hypersomnia. Basically like PMS + clinical depression. It may be worth looking into just in case.

I'm glad I don't do any competing, honestly I'm still very aesthetics oriented (for now), so worrying about weight classes would be unpleasant. Like do I finish this cut and risk sucking, or put that off to compete at this range instead. There'd definitely be conflicting goals.

Ooo, and thanks for reminding me I have half an avocado in the freezer still.

Yeah, so, I definitely do have diagnosable PMDD. I did tell a gynecologist about my many odd symptoms, including feeling like I have the flu for a week before I get my period. She very abruptly said that my options were either an antidepressant or birth control or both. I'm not willing to take either of those, so she told me just to deal with it. I'm thinking of seeking a second opinion, but truthfully don't believe medical science has paid enough attention to PMDD or developed any adequate treatments because "women's problems," ya know? Who cares! So I doubt pursuing it will do anything at all. I find the suggestion that I take antidepressants, in particular, deeply offensive when the difficulty is very clearly hormonal. I'm also irked that she basically ignored the fact that my periods are extremely irregular in both length (up to 2 weeks) and how heavy they are (completely variable month to month). Basically, I got blown off despite radical recent changes in my hormones; before this year I had NONE of these symptoms.

Explosive stuff will be more beneficial to BJJ. I think the weighing yourself regularly will be a good thing for staying on point of weight class etc. Don't sweat the fluctuations, just use the weekly rolling average. Will also allow you to determine your TDEE accurately, so when you get to a specific weight you will easily be able to maintain it (as long as you maintain about the same activity level).

Couple fun tricks to try that we were doing the other day. The first is freaky, if someone is grabbing your arms from the front, and you want them to hold on (we were doing this to pull the person into us) shake your open hands down once like you are shaking water off them as you bring your arms toward you. The person will automatically grab tighter and not let go for a split second its pretty freaky.

The other thing that was really fun, we were doing a "bum rush shove" move where if someone is running at you head on you spin them around. When you push them away get your hands under their shoulder blades and push up instead of forward. It is really freaky when someone does it to you. You can't defend against it, you just really light on your feet and can't stop yourself from going forward. We were running each other across the mat like that.

Yeah, I think being more explosive and training that will really help. Plus, I find it a lot of fun to train plyos and other explosive-type things.

Those techniques sound like a lot of fun. I'm going to have to try that shoulderblade push thing. It seems like a wonderful way to work in a clinch but I'm not 100% sure I understand it.


Pretty decent training today. Took a very helpful private lesson with a great instructor I hadn't worked with before.

Private lesson
Arm bar from mount: grab the cross-collar with thumb in and grab their sleeve over the elbow. Weight on the foot and knee behind their head/shoulder. Keep arms crossed, don't try to pull back their wrist with your hands! Push on their bicep with the foot not over their throat/face to break their grip.
Arm bar from closed guard: foot on hip first. Other leg swing to break posture. KEY TRICK: ANGLE KNEES TOWARD THEIR HEAD so they can't posture up and escape! Also, same grips as if doing it from mount.
From back, grab their wrist with top hand and grab wrist with bottom. Either swing arm over head or disconnect then reconnect, and swing legs to side to arm bar.
Collar choke from back: FIRST open the collar with the hand that's under their armpit. THEN feed it to the other hand up close to throat. THEN grab the other collar and push/pull to finish choke. This is a great alternative/easier way to choke than RNC or bow-and-arrow.
From closed guard: First of all, keep your knees inside their arms and KEEP HOLD OF THEIR SLEEVES!!!!!!!! If their arms get inside it's bad. Then, you can put feet on hips. Put one foot on bicep and the other foot next to their knee. Pull sleeve and kick the bicep foot to sweep them and take mount.

General tip: stay on side and post with one arm, block with the other until you can escape. Don't just give up and fall back if a move does not work.

Level 2 nogi
Double under pass counter. They cross their arm over to your shoulder as they pass; BLOCK it and hold their wrist, escape away while holding the wrist and come back to feet on their hips.
Body lock counter: grab their near lat just under the shoulder, hook near leg then far leg under then scoot to butterfly hooks. Overhook arm just above elbow and lean to butterfly sweep. Pretty hard to do.

Positional training 6 x 2:30, regular training 5 min

Advanced 1 gi
Closed guard escape
Pull them UP holding lapel to prevent them from grabbing ankles. Hold them in the air. Not too near, not too far, or they can either bodylock you or drop back down. Keep elbow locked. Then use other hand to pry off their knee and pass.

6 x 2:30 positional training just breaking closed guard, 2 x 5 min regular training
Good training, got an arm bar that turned into inverted arm bar then back to regular arm bar. Worked a lot on creating and maintaining distance by turning, blocking, and posting hand.


Food...

Breakfast 8:30am
1 egg, 3 egg whites
8 oz green beans
5 oz pineapple
1/4 c oats, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 T cocoa
3 oz fat free Greek yogurt
3.28 oz unsweetened almond milk
2 x fish oil
1 x multi

Postworkout 2:00pm
12 oz potato

Lunch 3:00pm
2 cups vegetable soup
6 oz t-bone steak

Dinner 8:30pm
14.9 oz cauliflower
6 oz cod
4 oz avocado
11.9 oz cooked polenta
400mg magnesium

1960 cal, 236C/151P/53F

Pretty good, not too hungry day.
Weight lifting again tomorrow! I really look forward to it as sometimes BJJ can feel defeating. With lifting I can see visible progress in both my body and the weights I can handle. It's like an investment. Of course learning BJJ skills is an investment too, but it's not visible on my body. If that makes sense.

I need to think of a christmas present for my girlfriend. She gave me such nice Hannukkah gifts that I have a lot to live up to.

[LunaLifts]

Yeah, so, I definitely do have diagnosable PMDD. I did tell a gynecologist about my many odd symptoms, including feeling like I have the flu for a week before I get my period. She very abruptly said that my options were either an antidepressant or birth control or both. I'm not willing to take either of those, so she told me just to deal with it. I'm thinking of seeking a second opinion, but truthfully don't believe medical science has paid enough attention to PMDD or developed any adequate treatments because "women's problems," ya know? Who cares! So I doubt pursuing it will do anything at all. I find the suggestion that I take antidepressants, in particular, deeply offensive when the difficulty is very clearly hormonal. I'm also irked that she basically ignored the fact that my periods are extremely irregular in both length (up to 2 weeks) and how heavy they are (completely variable month to month). Basically, I got blown off despite radical recent changes in my hormones; before this year I had NONE of these symptoms.

I get that. Unfortunately there's a bad enough mindset around women having bad period problems ("it's just a period, women have them, get over it" "you're exaggerating" and general condescension around women just being emotional around that time). Doctors, even female doctors, tend to take women's pain less seriously in general as well. Combine that with an illness that's likely very under diagnosed because of the lack of awareness, and these attitudes, and it's not a productive mix.
And I agree on the antidepressants, that doesn't make a load of sense to me. Partially because it's hormonal, as you said, but I'm on a mood stabilizer, and have been on antidepressants, and I still always get worse moods and anxiety around my period. Birth control can make it better or worse depending on the method, but my mental health medications have not been a fix.

I do agree with getting another opinion though, even if you can't treat it these ways, there may be ways to manage the symptoms themselves. I'd also look around online, and see what others have said helps, and yes I realize this may lead to some whack ass methods, but there may be some helpful suggestions for making it less awful.

I need to think of a christmas present for my girlfriend. She gave me such nice Hannukkah gifts that I have a lot to live up to.

Are you Jewish? I didn't know that, Happy Hannukkah.

Jay's always out gifting me, as you can imagine, but I'm going to one up all of them. He's mentioned the arcade version of the game Battletoads a bunch of times, he loved that game so much, and the good version was never made for consoles. He even said recently when watching a commercial for arcade cabinets that it'd be the only game worth getting one for. Hoping by next holiday season I can make it happen.

[Plateauplower]

Just throwing this out there in regard to to PMDD (which I have no idea what it is BTW) anyway if it is triggered by fluctuations in hormones based on ovulation cycle, the birth control option would probably be worth a try. Some forms of the pill (if not all IDK) essentially regulate your hormones which would likely remove drastic hormonal changes that are very likely the reason for the dramatic mood changes. It would essentially "smooth out" the dramatic fluctuations. My wife can get a little moody (using the term loosely, and possibly an understatement ) but before we had kids, she was on the pill and we were both aware that it tremendous effects for her in regard to mood and PMS in general. She's not on the pill anymore, and she gets PMS (anger, sad, etc etc) again and her physical symptoms are worse too in regard to cramps than when on the pill (maybe that effects mood too IDK). I don't remember which pill she was on, she tried a couple before finding one that she "liked" (I guess?).

[shesprints]

I get that. Unfortunately there's a bad enough mindset around women having bad period problems ("it's just a period, women have them, get over it" "you're exaggerating" and general condescension around women just being emotional around that time). Doctors, even female doctors, tend to take women's pain less seriously in general as well. Combine that with an illness that's likely very under diagnosed because of the lack of awareness, and these attitudes, and it's not a productive mix.
And I agree on the antidepressants, that doesn't make a load of sense to me. Partially because it's hormonal, as you said, but I'm on a mood stabilizer, and have been on antidepressants, and I still always get worse moods and anxiety around my period. Birth control can make it better or worse depending on the method, but my mental health medications have not been a fix.

I do agree with getting another opinion though, even if you can't treat it these ways, there may be ways to manage the symptoms themselves. I'd also look around online, and see what others have said helps, and yes I realize this may lead to some whack ass methods, but there may be some helpful suggestions for making it less awful.


Are you Jewish? I didn't know that, Happy Hannukkah.

Jay's always out gifting me, as you can imagine, but I'm going to one up all of them. He's mentioned the arcade version of the game Battletoads a bunch of times, he loved that game so much, and the good version was never made for consoles. He even said recently when watching a commercial for arcade cabinets that it'd be the only game worth getting one for. Hoping by next holiday season I can make it happen.

That's an ambitious present goal, but I do hope you can figure out how to get him one. Of course, with how video games change year to year, by next year it might be something else... oh noes. Thank you for Hannukkah wishes! It's not really a big holiday for us Jews, we just celebrate it extra to fit in with Christmas. :P

I'll figure out the hormone thing. More on that below.

Just throwing this out there in regard to to PMDD (which I have no idea what it is BTW) anyway if it is triggered by fluctuations in hormones based on ovulation cycle, the birth control option would probably be worth a try. Some forms of the pill (if not all IDK) essentially regulate your hormones which would likely remove drastic hormonal changes that are very likely the reason for the dramatic mood changes. It would essentially "smooth out" the dramatic fluctuations. My wife can get a little moody (using the term loosely, and possibly an understatement ) but before we had kids, she was on the pill and we were both aware that it tremendous effects for her in regard to mood and PMS in general. She's not on the pill anymore, and she gets PMS (anger, sad, etc etc) again and her physical symptoms are worse too in regard to cramps than when on the pill (maybe that effects mood too IDK). I don't remember which pill she was on, she tried a couple before finding one that she "liked" (I guess?).

Yeah, your wife's experience sounds pretty typical tbh and I'm glad she found the right solution for her. She's not alone in finding symptoms worsen on the pill, because some studies show it CAN cause worse depression etc.... which is precisely why I'm so leery of it, among other reasons! I'd rather have the problem that is at least natural to my body's hormonal cycle. But today my girlfriend suggested something that's purely progesterone, or least low estrogen, so I'll look into it.


So--wrestling was canceled today as the coach is traveling, and I skipped BJJ in favor of lifting. Sometimes I need the mental break from it, and today I also felt very exhausted and needed a physical break. Weights went awesome, though. I keep improving at pullup-related moves. I feel 2019 may be my year for a real pullup. We'll see.

Weights--1 hour
Warmup:
5 min jog (to 7:30 pace)
stick overpass, alter overpass, frog stretch, overhead squat x 10
sun salutation x 3

Overhead squat 45, 55 3 x 5, 60 2 x 5
Extended arm oblique hold 4 x :45 each way
Power snatch 35lb 5 x 3

Push jerk in split 65 5 x 5
Halting snatch deadlift 105 x 3, 125 x 3 155 2 x 3, 165 x 3

Snatch balance 45 x 3, 55 2 x 3, 60 2 x 3
Assisted pullup -65 x 8, -55 3 x 8

Core:
Toe touches 3 x 20
Reverse crunch 3 x 20
Plank 3 x :45


That extended-arm oblique hold is wildly hard for something so simple (taking a band anchored on a rack and holding it with straight arms at a slight angle, not moving). I am improving at overhead stuff, which is great, as I can feel it engaging my whole back in a way I don't do enough. I also stretched. Yay me. People at the gym keep commenting on how much weight I've lost, too, which makes me kind of self-conscious. I'm also not sure what they will say when I stop? Though I guess it's good to stop before I go too low. I don't want to lose muscle. That's part of why I'm so focused on lifting.

Food...

Breakfast 7:60am
1 egg, 3 egg whites
7.5 oz green beans
6 oz pineapple
1/4 c oats, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 T cocoa
3 oz fat free Greek yogurt
4 oz unsweetened almond milk
2 x fish oil
1 x multi

Lunch 12:45pm
2 cups vegetable soup
4 oz chicken breast
2 oz avocado
2.79 oz tomato
1.9 oz whole wheat sourdough bread

Snack 4:45pm
9.3 oz potato
20g mixed nuts

Dinner 7:50pm
16.4 oz cauliflower
5.78 oz cod
3 oz avocado
1/4 c bulgur
400mg magnesium

1990 cal, 254C/142P/57F

Getting a little ragged-feeling on a deficit I think, but we'll see. My acute hunger is less but my chronic hunger is ramped up, if that makes sense.

[Fiction2Fitness]

Nice work on the overhead squat. Betting if you worked on the pull up for a bit you'd be able to do one though surprised you can't do one now. I don't try though for a short bit I could do a chin-up or two. It's hard to reach the bars set up for that and the "assisted" doesn't go far enough up so when I try using it the weights clank before my head gets over the handles.

The hunger issue sounds rough. Though lately I've been hungry far more than before. Need to get back to deficit and hope it will calm down.