psytrak

October 10th if all goes as planned I’ll be competing in another submission grappling tournament, the only thing I worry about is cutting weight. It’s one of those things that I need to do, but don’t know how. I’ve never been a sports person growing up, and until I started getting serious it was about showing up at my walking wait then finding out where I’d fight. On the plus side getting mentally into the game is great, but that comes with a lot of questions. Questions like, how do I cut 20+ lbs and not lose strength? Most recently my heaviest was 181.4 and I’m looking to get in the 159 bracket–last nights weight is 174.2. My goal is to be in the 160’s by mid September. At that point I’m going to see if I need to start my low rep high weight workouts to build muscle for sustained burn, or hit the cardio harder…. Or should it be the other way around???????

I know I’m ready to compete when I’m scared. The whole build up to the moment of weigh in is the first and possibly the fiercest for me. I’m competing with myself mentally, fighting the desire to lie on the couch, not push on cardio, or just eat whatever I want. That is what causes my initial anxiety, then I remember what I’m doing it for, that’s when the excitement kicks in. The longer I compete the more I learn what I need to do prior to stepping on the mats, the more confident I get. I know I need to cut weight, I know that I have to fight people in the gym who are aggressive, and I know I have to curb my aggression so that I can be put into can positions and figure my way out of them. All of this scars that pants off of me, but it’s the fear that drives me as well. No I’ve got to stay consistent, stay focused and keep disciplined!

That’s the latest book I’m reading, and although I’m not able to read as much as I’d like I’m hooked! If you’re serious about how your body works this is a great book to get. Here’s a paragraph from the book.

"When our daily temperature peeks,  for example, so does our tolerance of pain and our muscle flexibility, speed of reflexes, eye-hand coordination, and proofreading accuracy."

my job here is done…. lol

Well it’s official! I’m back on my training, the eating is not going to be easy at all. I’ve since made a !!!!!!!HUGE!!!!! career change from Network Operations Engineering to Cooking… The cooking is going to throw the eating times off, not the eating. Oddly enough there is not a lot of time to eat. Of course there is the taste here taste there, but that’s a spoon at best. I eat when things slow down and that’s never routine–which was the only thing that I liked about working behind a computer screen; regular eating. So, with the exception of making 60% less money I love what I’m doing!

Back to the me being back to training. I was stressed and borderline depressed about being out of work so health took an unfortunate back seat to finding a new job, then when I found one, I had to get accustom to working again, and now I’m still not fully adjusted to being back in the workforce, but I need to become motivated to get lean and dense again. That’s where mashing around on here helps a lot. Thanks Well the long and the short of it is, my kettlebells have been dusted off, the road bike has great pressure in the tires, and soon I’ll have a new pull-up bar, man its about to get serious! Just picked up my Animal Pak, and the Protein shaker, so excited! The only thing now is coming up with a new pose for my progress pix….. lol

Hello all! I know that it’s been a while since I’ve posted a new blog, but I’ve been a bit out of the loop. There have been a lot of personal changes going on and I have not had the time to come on here and write; trust me I’ve been wanting to. Not looking for a awwwwe sorry to hear that but this bit of information is part of why. I lost my job in May and have been having one hell of a time finding a new one, so I’m a stay at home father until I start working again. Most of my limited time on the computer is spent looking for a new job, but I’ve run away from the kids for a little…. Now on the reason of this blog.

My training has hit an all time low! No more five days a week–three for BJJ and two for CF / kettleballs, The eating has been crap, and over all I’ve slipped back into my bad habits… I do still get my random 100 push ups in, but nothing as routine as before. I find it a testament to my Ectomorph metabolism that I have not gone past my limit of 175lbs, but the abs are not as tight as I would like them… My plan is to get the money for my last two helmets drive to the bike shop, pick up my single gear road bike, take a symbolic 20 mile ride home and start back on my track to full body fitness again! There are some other things in the works, namely a great personal challenge if some things turn out a certain way but I’m keeping those under wraps until I start making the moves that need to be made.
It’s not about getting the body to look the way it was in the photo, because that can be done in a week, sorry if that came off big headed, but it’s the ecto-curse, fast fat burn, slow muscle build. It’s about getting that all day energy, the jump around because you have so much and you don’t know what to do with it that I want back. The only way that I can do that is diet, diet, diet! Thanks to the few of you that kept in touch, and it’s because of your contact that I’m still driven to get back on that horse!

I know that people say, I’m doing this tomorrow, blah blah blah…. For me it’s the truth, I’ve been slacking for way too long, and now I have the drive to say enough!I only have breakfast planned for now, but that’s enough to start with. Here’s the plan for the morning.

1/2 cream of wheat –using water not milk, sweetened with honey, and fax seeds for extra fiber. That will be served with a protein shake, and fruit.

Meal 2: Fruit, tuna on rice cake with water

lunch: If I’m home brown rice, protein shake, salad

Meal 4: Don’t know yet…..

Training: Jiu-Jitsu…

Any food / workout suggestions would be great!

Last night I went to the Royler Gracie seminar at the school I attend, and let me tell you that was an awesome experience. For two hours I was able to see how a sixth degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt thinks. Best of all the information that we got came from as close to the source of the art that I love as anyone can ever get. I mean aside from speaking with Helio or Carlos you cannot get a more direct source then that. I kept thinking, wow what was it like growing up a Gracie, how where the simple sibling fights? That must have been a sight to see, two five year olds going at it with more natural movement then grown men. That to me was the most awe inspiring part of it all. You could see that the moves where so second nature that the way he looked at the human body wasn’t the same as anyone else. All and all it was a great learning experience! I cannot wait to apply the thought processes I saw last night to me future fights!

Ok, the ugly ring worm is gone from my forehead and wrist, I could have trained last night, but didn’t want to chance it. This morning I wake up and BAM!!!!!!!!!!! All gone, just a little redness, but that’s not contagious! So happy! Two weeks off the mats and I felt like the biggest slacker, I didn’t want to go just to watch because I would have wanted to get in and mix it up, not to mention shaking hands, and risking a spread, but it’s full throttle from here on out! The best part of all of this is that the day I go back I’m partaking in a seminar with none-other then the great Royler Gracie! You want to talk about someone that you’d love to meet one in your life time, Royler, Rickson, and of coarse the man himself, the founder of BJJ Mr. Helio Gracie! He’s like 96years old, and I’d like to meet him before he passes, but who knows when that’s going to be, or if that’s going to be, I’ll make sure to take photos of the event! Man I’m excited!

I’ve been doing my K-Bell CF while off the mats this was last nights–I named it Natasha….

100 clean and Jerks each arm with me 16Kg bell

200 push ups

200 Swissball reverse crunches

200 curls with bell (double grip on one bell)

I got as far as 57 on the clean & Jerks before I felt it would be unsafe to do anymore.

OK, so aside from a stretch of not so good times I can deal, but not being able to train opens a box of badness. I don’t know where it came from, or if anyone else in class has it, but I’ve got ring worm on my wrist, but worst of all on my forehead! That tells me it’s not from my dirty Gi, but from someone else and their dirty butt! That pisses me off, I have to miss at least one week of training because of someone else. That’s one week of forgetting, one week of techniques, 8-10 hours of mat time, and at least one week away from my selfish time! I don’t know a lot about this thing so I’m even a bit scared to break a sweat while training with weight, call me scared, and I’ll agree.

If you’ve never had it before, do your best not to ever get it. Ring worm is a fungus, and highly contagious, wrestlers and bebe kids get it a lot. Wrestlers get it from dirty mats, people that don’t wash the gym gear then train, or from leaving old gear in a dark place then training with it. We ground fighters are very clean people for that reason alone. I’ll admit that when I’m sparring with someone and they comment on my Gi smelling fresh as a summers breeze or that it’s downy soft…. Like the old spice commercial… uhehg Your skin is soft…. Not manly….

I’m going to chance it and workout tonight, the best part of not having a job is the mid day nap… The worst part is loss of motivation, you have all day to do it, but you’re more focused on finding a job that you spend more energy looking for work then you do when you’re working… All and all, I’m getting positive feed back, now I just have to see which place I want to work for, then I might go cray and get a gym membership…

Ok, I know that it’s been long time since my last post–why does this feel like confession? How would I know what that feels like when I’m not even Catholic? Anyway, I’ve been going through a lot of that life stuff… Just as I was getting into the swing of things I lost my job, so, yeah, that sucks, but at least I get a months worth of pay out of the deal, some extra sleep, and a tad more stress with the whole looking for a new job thing. With all that said getting on here has been the last thing on my mind until today. I guess that the people at BB knew that we are some lazy folks, and given the opportunity we’d slack, being the good spot that they are they sent me an email; which is goos because I haven’t been on here in a while other then checking to see if I have mail. That’s the long a the short of it, my goal of six pack by June got side lined, and my clean eating has been fighting to stay with me, all and all I have to start from square one again! Didn’t gain any weight, but lost a lot of discipline…