Coach Kirstin

Almost 3 years ago to the date I'm in Vegas with the 3 people that got me watching my first MMA and UFC fight. I had no idea what it even was. I'd been training in Krav for all of about 3 months, listening to people talk all about the ultimate fighter and not knowing what it was. I went to Eve and J's house for the flippy cup tournament....a trophy was on the line and we all know I can't loose. BTW I did and had to wear a Lobo shirt because of it. I just don't know how to back down from a challenge, even at flippy cup. And here I am, 3 years later at a fight in Vegas. Getting ready for my first fight. Rocking a pull up challenge. Deciding on which gym I'll fight for. Owning my own gym.

Its always about winning. If I said it any other way, Id be lying. To myself and you. There was a time in my life I tried to convince myself that I wasnt competitive. Im not really sure who I was fooling. I really just don't like to loose. Some how I found a way to make everything competitive, maybe thats part of having a little sister whos better at every sport than you. So I found things I was better than her at. But I find a way to make the dumbest stuff competitive. Skee ball. I kept challenging my coworker at a company party last week (hes really my employee but I dont feel like his boss, more like his friend) to skee ball, even though I was terrible at it. Because I really just didnt want to loose. Words with friends. Simplest game. But I keep re-chalenging people because I dont want to loose. And then it comes to training. I get so irritated with people not doing technique right but they think they are beating or better than me. If I did a broad jump like th...

Eggs are like the perfect food.  They have a great balance of protein and fat.  And I couldn't eat them.  I would eat a boiled egg white but that's all I could handle.  I had food poisoning my first Thanksgiving home after starting college and the food of association was eggs.  In 1998.  So for the last 13 years I avoided eggs.  Id try them and my stomach would turn.  And brunch/ breakfast was getting really boring.  So many fun things done with eggs but I couldn't eat them.  And if your from New Mexico like me, you only eat eggs as a conduit to eating salsa or green chile (and yes that is the correct spelling).  Last winter, as I helped my then boyfriend prepare for his fight, the reality of eggs for breakfast became all to clear.  So I started with egg whites, adding bacon and adding cheese.  It worked out pretty well.  And then last weekend I went to Belga with two good friends.  And they raved about the stea...

To say there has been a lot going on in my life in the last week, is an understatement. On par, I wasn't getting a whole lot of sleep and in typical fashion I found some trouble to get myself into last night which didn't get me much sleep.  So the one day I usually have to catch up on sleep and relax was pretty busy with brunch with a dear friend and then my usual yoga and dinner with my best friend.  I pondered for a bit of bailing on brunch, but its only taken this friend and I about 3 months to find a day for brunch that we were both free and I really miss him since we don't see each other at work anymore, so that seemed like a bad idea.  Then I thought about yoga.  And having skipped it a bit lately, I was a little intimidated by going yoga.  On a good day, my practice at Down Dog is pretty intense but here I was short on sleep and energy....and I was letting my yoga practice intimidate me.  I thought "I'll just use the broken toe as my excuse."  ...

It takes a special friend to pick up on the little things you say.  Sometimes you may not even realize what you are talking about is that big of a deal to you, but someone else notices. And that's how I got the best Christmas gift.... So there is this thing called cauliflower ear .  To grapplers its some strange badge of honor.  I find it rather gross.  And I find it even less attractive on myself.  Hence the reason why I got my very own ear guards when my dear friend Holly had to have her ear drained.  I was pretty good about wearing them, despite feeling like the biggest dork ever.  And then someone borrowed them and never returned them.  Not world ending until the last 3 weeks when I kept getting cracked in the ear and waking up with swollen ears that hurt, leaving me with even more irritation about the jackass I lent mine to.  And I love my friends, because one said "well if you need me to, I can drain your ears, I do it for Peter (her ...

So Jen and I were doing our meal planning last week, and the new Green Grocer list came out and it had Portobellos.  Needing to make good use of this fantastic fungus the plan changed and we decided on a recipie from Everyday Paleo for Giant Stuffed Mushrooms .  Only things I changed about the recipie was I only used half an onion (had half left over from previous meal and didnt want another half sitting around that I probably wont use), I used bread crumbs instead of coconut flour (because Im not hard core paleo) and I didnt run it through a food processor.  Moslty because I didnt have one but secondly I like my food in a form most like what it started off as.  Relative I know when Im using ground meat but the chunks of all the other stuff was what I really cared about. I was little concerned because I have texture issues with celery and onions but it went just fine.  I actually made this on Monday night, knowing I would get back late Tuesday.  ...

Normally I train quite a bit every day, after putting in a full days work as a project manager.  Ill define quite a bit as 3-4 hours every night at the gym and at least that on Saturdays.  Usually I can squeeze in 90 minutes of heated yoga on the weekend with my girlfriend also.  Add that to getting a new business off the ground and my sleep is scheduled in so that I get 7 hours every night.  It rarely happens because I seem to always find something else to occupy myself with and don't get to bed on time.  So I average about 5-6 a night.  Yes I know how bad this is for me.  So needless to say, when I lay down, I pass out like a dead person.  Except Sunday night.  Because on Sundays I prepare for the week with laundry, cooking, cleaning, business stuff, phone call to dad and pretty much anything else I can cram in.  Except those 3 hours in the gym.  And I just don't get tired. I kind of feel like the girl I saw on Intervention, excep...

For those that dont know....my life revolves around food.  I have gone to New York for less than 30 hours, spending way too much money just to eat my way through the San Gennaro Festival .  All because I heard thats where you get the best cannoli's.  And any one knows, Italian in DC is terrible.  I mean like Olive Garden terrible.  Ok maybe not that bad, but its nothing I would waste my calories on.  And I have wasted calories on many things.  Irony is that I will somehow be losing ~18 pounds to hit 135 for my fight.  The trick will be to do it while still enjoying food. On my previous attempt at cutting weight, food became merely energy.  I actually got vitamin K poisoning because my food ratio was so off for the amount of spinach I was eating.  9 months later, I still gag when eating spinach.  For me, its a very sad day when food isn't enjoyable.  On the path to making that possible, I had redo of a previous recipe I tried. ...

So I’m just loving my new roomie.  She’s fun, independent and outgoing.  Says the funniest things and we have a good time hanging out.  When I came home last night she tells me “Just seeing you makes me want to eat protein.”  I actually might start posts just about the funny things she says.  She’s been a great friend and super supportive of everything I do.  Even from Afghanistan, she was a huge supporter of getting my business off the ground.  Add to that she has agreed to diet with me for my fight, which makes our living situation 10 times easier.  She is a part of this great thing called Green Grocer .  Though despite her nudges, it still intimidates me.  Apparently I have some abnormal fear of preparing fresh vegetables, hence the reason I alternate between bags frozen broccoli and frozen green beans.  Yet I continue to experiment and try different meats. Sometimes I get a little crazy and add Old Bay or Season Salt. For my...

It's a funny thing when someone can manipulate you into something. When they can hold something over you. When they have leverage over you. They can treat you badly. Force you to do something you don't agree with. All because they have leverage over you. We always try and keep those things that are our leverage points to ourselves. But sometimes we wear them on our sleeves like I do. It's what this blog is all about. My training. The only thing you could hold over me. You can try. But it's a fantastic feeling when you come up with a plan and have the ability to say fuck off.

So I was washing my face tonight and notices a pretty sizeable abrasion on my forehead. I believe it came from burning myself with the curling iron, yes a whole other story of how one can still burn them selves after 24 or 25 years of using a curling iron. I say believe because I don't remember getting hit on the head or running into anything. Of course fighters also say they weren't knocked out when their head was being dribbled off the mat like a basketball. And I say it's sizeable because it's about a quarter but more so because no one mentioned anything to me. Which I can only decipher means one of two things. First, I regularly hurt myself so much so that it's become the norm. Or second is that I come out of training with so many scrapes and bruises that this is just par for the course. The funny thing is, I think I burned myself Wednesday, so I didn't notice either.

Even before today I was looking at my life and taking stock of what it is, actually as I was getting tattooed. Seems like a strange time to take stock but my tattoo artist said something that made me realize that even he is a good addition to my life (outside of doing amazing tattoos). I like to make sure my life is on track with what makes me happy. No secret my life got turned upside down a few months ago. But on the other side, I have the most wonderful people in my life that make my days even better than I imagine. I have a wonderful family who enables and supports me. I have the best friends anyone could ask for. From acquaintances to best friends, they are all much better in line with me and what I value. I have a fantastic roommate, who I also value immensely as a friend. I have the best boss and employee, who make my day job easy and enjoyable. I am lucky enough to call my self a small business owner and have at least one good business partner. And I have the cutest little cat...

In my other life, I actually dress quite professionally...most days. Other days, like today, I have decided that I can wear very nice dress slacks with a pocket v neck T. I never said this had to make sense to you. And Tuesdays are my short days in the office, I have three standing appointments stacked and don't usually make it in until 11:45/50. Back to the original subject. I used to always wear heels at the office, regardless of it being a 15 or 16 hour day, I was in heels for almost all of it. And then I started training more and more. And heels became more and more of pain in my ass. And so the height got shorter. I used to wear 4 inch heels most days and then I quickly migrated to 1 and now Im at flats. And more than half of the pants in my closet only work with 4 inch heels. So instead of taking the time to get them hemmed, I wore the other 15 or so pairs on regular rotation. But those 15 pairs are a size 10 and seriously do not fit. So I finally got my act toge...

For all of my life I had skinny arms, even riding horses and roping didn’t change that.  About 4 years ago my dad had me start lifting.  I had been running for the previous 4 years I’d been living in DC but was a very naïve runner and didn’t understand how important lifting/ building and maintaining the rest of your body was.  I told you, this whole fitness thing has been an evolution for me.  He took me to the gym and got me started with a few basics, but stressed the importance of the push up.  Of course if you’ve met my dad, you also know this was followed by a long talk about osteoporosis, women’s health, etc, etc.  And let’s be honest, I sucked at them.  But I kept trying, getting advice and help from friends and trainers on building up.  Eventually got the point where I was doing 3 sets of 20 at the end of each gym session.  And then I met the elbows tucked in, hands under your shoulders push up a...

So this was supposed to be my week where I got myself together, got regular sleep and took better care of me. Couldn’t be farther from the truth.  Evidence being, burning the tip my nose with the curling iron this morning…a first in the 20 some years I have been curling my hair.  It started off with my taking care of a crying dog all night Sunday night, not part of the plan.  Tattoo Monday which has limited my training because I can’t wrap my wrists or have any one touch them.  Then having the A&D ointment on them but not being able to wrap them in plastic (I’m allergic), causing me to try and sleep really still so as much ointment stays on my wrists as possible. Again didn’t happen but made me wake up a lot at night.  A college friend coming to town that I just had to have a few beers with and of course needed a ride back to his hotel.  And last night despite being exhausted, having a great intentions of early sleep I d...

My hair.  May seem like a totally irrelevant topic for this blog. But for those that have seen me after a class of neck wrestling, pummeling or Thai clench work, my hair is a disaster.  Half in and half out of a pony tail with a big chunk or two on the floor.  I’m ok with that that.  But for those that may know me socially or from my day job, this couldn’t be farther from normal.  I love my hair.  We have a pretty good relationship and have learned to work together much better as time has progressed.  We still fight but it’s a purely loving relationship.  I deep condition it once a week to keep it extra soft, reduce the amount of blow drying time so it stays as healthy as possible.  I have been working for the last year to get the timing of my hair cuts just perfect around my birthday, Christmas (because I can’t go visit my parents looking like a hot mess that can’t take care of hair), etc.  So I finally...

So the date for training camp has officially been set, December 1.  And it just got real.  Its 3 weeks away and I couldn't be more excited.  Or more nervous.  It's a commitment.  Not just the eating, or the training but taking care of me.  I'm good at this in most ways but I'm pretty bad about getting enough sleep.  Which is crucial to good training.  To keep your head right.  To not getting hurt.  For good recovery.  So as the days count down, I'm making adjustments so that I stay right.  But the other reality is my diet. Compared to most people my diet is really good.  But that's not what this is about, it's about being the best I can be not just better than most.  I perform at my best when I stick to low carb, mostly protein and more fat.  What that translates to: lots of meat with moderate amounts of fat, veggies (my carbs) and dairy (and not the low fat bs).  It's pretty easy for me to maintain, of ...

I love my training.  Part of the fun, is the random injuries.  I thought I had hurt myself in every way possible.  Broken bones, stress fractures, chipped bones, bloody noses, split lips, ligament and muscle tears, burst veins, spinal shock, ribs out of place, nerve spasming and I could probably keep going.  But I got fish hooked last night rolling and I have a bruise on the inside of my cheek.  And its bruising from the inside out.  I had no idea you could bruise the inside of your mouth.  I had 4 wisdom teeth out at once and it never bruised, how did a fish hook do that?  Either way, eating is not fun and this is not going to look so cute for my party Friday.  And it's only a matter of time before the ladies at my allergists office talk to me about getting out of an abusive relationship…

I kept this mostly about my workouts, training, eating, etc but now there is a huge part of my life that is impacting all of that.  Owning a business.  We officially opened on the 28 th of October.  It’s been hectic and stressful pretty much ever since we found out the lease was executed.  I’m enjoying every minute of it but it’s a lot of work.  The hard part is finding an end to my day.  My schedule is tight as it is (I have it planned out in 15 minute increments starting at 5:30 all the way to 11:30 pm to ensure I get 6 hours sleep) and am finding it extremely hard to say “enough for today” finish eating, get in the shower and go to bed.   Or the other, I’m so tired from working at my day job, working the desk, squeezing a workout in, that I get really sleepy once I get home and my pace slows down to turtle speed.  I’m learning and every day is an adventure.  I love it.  Otherwise thi...

Our intentions can get lost in our actions. Or maybe we just don't know the root of what we do. I find myself surrounded by people that feel the need to deceive me. That some how find my actions bad. I find this so strange. That I have somehow been in the wrong in my actions, feelings or behaviors in the last few months. I do nothing but right by these people and most people, unless you have wronged me. I'm just tired of the lying. I'm tired of not trusting people.  I guess I need friends that aren't into my ex. And with that, I'm sending a big "go fuck yourself and stay out of my business"

In the 16 years since my car accident that caused my knee injury I have learned the most important thing to keeping my knee healthy is regular exercise and strength training. I normally don't have much trouble with this but that last 4 weeks have been completely out of the norm. I spent a week sick, the next week recovering and training a bit but the two weeks after that I have no good real excuse. I quit teaching at KMDC and thus lost my usual place to train. Sounds like a valid reason except I have an entire gym worth of equipment sitting in my living room. Mats, kick shield, tombstones, heavy bag, hurdles, I have my own Thai pads and focus mitts, there's even a timer if I wanted to use it. But I haven't. I've been trying to rectify the situation which has caused there to be an entire gym in my living room. The lease for my school. We had been hung out to dry by our leasing company for the last 5 weeks. But the stars aligned and they signed the lease last Thursday. S...

For those that don't know I'm a creature of habit. I actually love them. It's what keeps me on time and with everything I need when I get there. It's also the reason I leave the house with my teeth brushed every day. Yes, I have been brushing my teeth all my life but I have a lot going on in my head and if I don't stick with my routine, I forget to do things like brush my teeth. And I know this because there have been too many Saturday classes when I go to teach and realize I should grab a mint because I didn't stick with my routine and forgot to brush my teeth. Part of it is all the things going on in my life but the bigger part is a brain injury I had. I was in a pretty severe car accident and hit my head, damaging my short term memory. So habits became my way of dealing with it. But this week, I realized my habits might be getting the best of me. After training at night, I shower and then head to bed with wet hair, by morning it's dry and I can curl it in...

I have a confession, I know your not supposed to do it but without fail I get on the scale every morning. After I pee of course to ensure I'm measuring the same thing every day. I know this isn't a good habit. I know daily weights mean very little. Which I can attest to because regardless of eating the same thing (yes I can say I eat the same thing several days in a row, which is a whole other post already in the works) with the same workout, I'd have a different weight each day. Sometimes a lot. Some times a little but it always varies. So post phase I was feeling a little thinner so tested it out but no change in weight. This actually doesn't ever bother me because I'm more at a point of trying to change my body composition than loosing weight, yeah I know that's about as contrary as it gets to weighing yourself everyday. But then I got sick. Which for me usually means the scale ticks up just a bit because while I may not really understand taking it easy I do ...

I can honestly say that I am glad its September 12, 2011.  10 years and 1 day past the anniversary of one of the worst things to happen on American soil.  I don’t mean to sound glad that is gone so that we will never remember it or that we will put it in our past.  We never will.  The people that lost their lives that day will never be forgotten.  They paid a debt for America that we can never begin to repay.  There was a commercial that ran not long after and it showed a row of houses then the next screen was plain text that said “With the attacks of Sept 11, terrorists hoped to change America forever” and the next screen is that same row of houses with US flags everywhere and the caption says “ They did”.  I believe that still rings true today.  But living in DC, you just accept your kind of a target or at least more so than say Fargo, North Dakota.  But as the anniversary approached, the city became very tense...

Does a great athlete make a good coach great? Or does the great coach make a good athlete great? Or do they make each other great? One of my little hidden obsessions is GSP. If you don't follow MMA that name may mean nothing to you, but google image search him and you too will fall in love (or lust). Better yet, pick up my second favorite hobby of YouTubing him, most specifically his Under Armour commercial . First of all, UA commercials make even the mildly motivated want to jump up and get some UA gear to be that person on the commercial. For me, they push me to be great and expect great things from myself. Yes I can be easily swayed by advertising but back to the original thought that crossed my mind as I watched the commercial. There is no doubt GSP is a good athlete. There is no doubt Firas Zahabi, GSPs cutie of coach, is a good coach. Side note: what I wouldn't do to just hang out in training camp and watch all the hoties, bonus they would be fighting! But who made who gr...

I like to think I have complete control over what i eat, how much and when. It's my body, who else would have control? Over the last week, I have realized the level of influence the person you live with can affect it. I have lived for a while with someone who has no self control and thus sees a package of cookies on the counter and eats the entire thing or eats an entire 1 lbs bag of PB M&m's in one sitting. So instead of eating just one of my favorite cookie, I would eat 3 or 4. Yes I know cookies will not be gone forever but in that instant I become territorial and eat more than I normally would. It makes me wonder about the strange behaviors those in large families must have about food. Clearly our parents define a lot about the relationship we have with food but this realization brings to light a whole new level of influence on my eating. There has been a package of cookies on the counter that's been there since Monday and is still half full.

About Sunday afternoon/ Monday my appetite started to come back. As I always do, i tried listening to my body on what it could handle. Things are pretty much back to normal, maybe just in smaller portions. Getting back to my previous level of training has been a bit more difficult. On Monday I did 7 rounds of Bas before teaching and felt good. I taught 3 hours that night and then had 3 hours to teach the next night. I attempted to do Bas again after teaching and was empty. The hard part for me is admitting its not best for me to train and I need to take a day off. I felt a bit defeated by that but recognize my limits. Last night was a good return though. I taught a class and then worked for an hour with a fellow instructor, reviewing the material for phase B. After that I wrapped up with 7 rounds of Bas and felt good. And I mean that in the best sense of sweat dripping but muscles feeling fresh. Now it's just a matter of monitoring my sleep and eating to stay on track and put muscl...

Yesterday I went to the baptism of the beautiful Miss Samantha Trent. Other than surviving setting foot into a church, I had a minor miracle of food sounding good. After the baptism we went to the parents house to celebrate. I was dreading it until just about when I pulled in the driveway when my stomach began to growl. After getting inside and helping set up, I couldn't help but grab a slice of turkey. I almost immediately went back and filled up a plate. I continued to snack for most of the next hours. I was actually hungry. But for having eaten so little the last few weeks my stomach shrank and couldn't hold much. So that was the last thing I ate. But I was also hungry for breakfast and lunch today. The irony of it all, is that I had planned on having this BBQ chicken I had made that didn't taste so good. I figured if I was forcing it down, I'd force something that didn't taste so great. Now I'm stuck eating it all week and I'm actually wanting to eat. Go...

I’ve thought a lot about if I should write this post or not and if I did write it what would I say.  This blog is about things that I see in life that interest or captivate me.  And I write my posts so that people can see that an average person, like myself, can tackle athletic endeavors of any kind.  My life revolves around my training, fitness and most importantly food.  And thus those topics are the focus of most of my posts.  And that’s why I was unsure about this post, it’s of very personal nature but impacts all of my usual topics.  Last week, I was blindsided by my boyfriend, whom I live with, breaking things off.  I was blindsided because despite the trouble he had been having with a monogamous relationship, I thought we were both working towards a better relationship.  But one of us was working his way out and the other was giving too much.  This situation has become exponentially difficult as we are planning to ope...

All my life I have fought one thing, sugar.  For as long as I can remember, I have loved candy and pop.  Even as a little kid, it wrecked me.  I'd have a pop at a restaurant and fueled by the sugar, I would run the restaurant being that annoying kid.  My parents actually figured out how to "overload" me, they gave me coffee and I'd shut down and go right to sleep.  So my parents stopped giving me sugar in almost any form.  Plain cereals, no syrup on my pancakes or waffles, etc.  Once my diet became my own and I wasn't much better at controlling it.  I'd easily drink 3 litters of Mountain Dew in college, thank goodness for my Dads genetics'.  After moving to DC, I'd wake up and have 3 or 4 butterfingers mini's and go for a run.  All very fantastic habits, I know.  But the reality of diabetes set in as I watched my grandfather struggle with it.  His blood sugar spiking and dropping, having to go to the hospital via ambulance. ...

I love my grandparents dearly but in all reality, just like every other old person, they are pretty crazy.  Its just one of those things that you nod your head at and don't even notice.  Until this week.  I will do anything for my grandparents but this week has been a test of that.  On Sunday my grandfather was taken by ambulance to the hospital for gut pain, ultimately being a blockage, and was released today after 5 days in the hospital.  For quite some time our family has tried to convince them that they may not be what they used to and should consider a senior living community.  Of course if you ask them, they are fully capable.  Don't mind the fact that they have trouble with the 6 steps up out of their apartment more or less the 6 more to get to the laundry room or that they don't clean or cook.  They are perfectly capable.  And old people are crazy.  As trying as this week has been on the whole family, it made it quite clear to ev...

I try to keep my posts to the fitness, food and health realm and I suppose this is but not of maintaining and growing but of ending. Due to circumstances out of my control, I'm directly involved with the care of my grandparents. As their health continues to fail, it brings many things about my life into sharper focus and adds a lot of perspective. I have spent the past 52 hours watching my grandfather struggle. And not seeing the will to live in his eyes. I see the desire to not hurt and to not want to struggle but not to live. I see my grandmother struggling more than ever without him around. Together they function as a semi-capable person. Apart, they don't know what to do. Despite all of my love for them, I never want this for myself. And wonder if there becomes a time when you decide to give up. For me, I have no desire to live any way but under my own faculties. I have expressed this to my love but have yet to put it on paper. Shame on me but there are currently many ot...

I was all set to write my next post about my kryptonite when I walked past my coworkers desk and she was eating a jar of Gerber Graduates.  Not sure I believed my eyes, I sent my coworker on a drive by and I went by again, confirming she was eating baby food.  Honestly, I find the idea of eating baby food kind of logical for an on the go person who doesn’t have a kitchen or a fridge or a microwave and who doesn’t have regular access to a grocery store.  My biggest concern would be the nutritional make up of something that is formulated for a growing baby versus an adult female facing bone density loss, closely followed by how many you would have to eat.  But this particular coworker had come by my desk that same morning to  brag about her 5 lbs weight loss using weight watchers with only walking one time a week. Maybe I should have asked the secret to her success and I would have found out, its baby food, not actually managing your portions.  At...

Just finished up a fantastic lunch of lemon butter chicken with peas.  I had my usual egg whites with bacon and gouda cheese for breakfast but to aid my stomach healing, I had a small Greek yogurt with honey before I left the house.  Eggs and I have a very tumultuous relationship going back to Thanksgiving of 1998, when I got food poisoning.  It wasn’t the eggs that made me sick but it was the last thing I ate, hence being scarred for the better part of the last 13 years, dumb but the mind is very powerful thing to have a fight with.  I have tried many times eat eggs.  Usually they are smothered in green chile, like any good New Mexican, and I can get them down the first time but the second time is a no-go.  At the beginning of this year when I wanted to do a practice weight cut, I realized I had no choice but to eat eggs as granola or oatmeal weren’t going to help in weight loss.  Also after further research, they really aren’t the b...

To celebrate my boyfriends birthday we had a small BBQ and in typical Murphey fashion, I bought enough food for a football team.   In my brilliant plan to have everything prepared, I decided we should cook it all up and just eat it all week.   That’s probably been my worst decision in a while.   Currently the thought of a hot dog or hamburger makes me want to yak.   Hindsight 20/20, I should have put half the stuff in the fridge and or freezer right away, but I kept it out with all the other bbq stuff for a while.   Im not sure exactly what went wrong, but my stomach cant take it and thus I have felt like poo all week.   The worst part was my workouts.   With 4 days of rest, I expected to come back and feel full of energy but that couldn’t have been farther than what happened.   Every kick, every punch, I had to pull from the bottom of my toes.   And then try and not vomit, because my dizziness is getting worse.   So I already have a ...

Since about mid-April I have had dizziness.  It started mild just a few times a day but then increased to almost every hour.  I saw a ENT who set me up for a “special test” for hearing and inner ear stuff but that took a while to get scheduled, so I saw my natropathic Dr Marie Rodriguez and she did two vertigo resets, each helping significantly but still not 100%.  The special test concluded no inner ear issues so before referring me on to a neurologist, I was put on a declining 14 day course of prednisone.  This stuff is awful.  The first week was ok but it upset my stomach quite a bit which is also part of the reason for putting together all my meals for the week.  But starting Monday, I began to reduce my dosage and its caused my heart to race, quite a common side effect of the drug in general from my what expert google skills can decipher.  So I am on day 10 of 14 and cant wait to be done.  The unfortunate part, my dizziness showed up again y...

So I have to admit, I’m kind of already looking forward to this week.  I have decided my life is just too hectic to even consider cooking when I get home at night, which at the earliest is 9:30 but usually later.  So I spent a couple hours Sunday cooking up food for this week.  On the menu for lunch is salmon with bacon Brussels sprouts.  Options for dinner are sausages with onion, peppers, zucchini and a “creamy” tomato sauce or ground turkey with beans and spicy tomatoes.  Neither are their original recipe, they are modified to suit my allergy issues and culinary ineptitude.  So the first recipe I got from Everyday Paleo.  Her recipe uses the zucchini like spaghetti.  It looks fabulous but I just didn’t have the patience or tools to cut mine that small.  So I have wedges.  And since I love zucchini so much, it’s actually better because I get big wonderful juicy bites of zucchini, yes I do love summer and f...

Yesterday was probably the toughest day I have had in a very long time, probably since May of last year. I try to look at things and reflect on them and what they mean about my life. There has been a theme throughout my life lately, a disappointment with people not showing up to their full potential. I've been watching it and hearing my instructors with the same message. I've looked at it as though I was fully committed but they weren't. Though I believe yesterday was a test to strip everything down and knock me off my high horse. My showing up may be more than most people's best but it's not my best and not my fullest potential. So as I head to the training center today, I bring with me a new commitment to my training and my nutrition. I have to push myself to the highest possible place, regardless of what I am surrounded by. My inspiration comes from within.

What a week!  Chris left town last Friday and I am definitely ready for him to come back.  I got almost all of my to do list done on Sunday.  Trader Joes, Target, Costco, laundry, cleaning, entire weeks cooking, food measured, reorganize storage closet and clean out filling cabinets.  Only thing missing was starting the taxes, though I suppose collecting all my info is considered starting.  We (puppies and cat) crashed into bed that night exhausted, which is the reason we try and get everything done on Saturdays now.  My weight loss this week has been good so far, starting at 148.2 to 143.4 this morning.  I ran on the treadmill on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Tuesday was spent trying to get Simba to run on the treadmill because he was more interested in chasing my feet.  I even ran in Vibrams last night.  The running has been hard, I really feel no energy to keep going.  But I keep in mind that if I keep this up and burn faste...

I had my first re-feed day on Saturday.  Its about the only thing that kept me going through this, that and milk.  I had it all laid out how I was going to eat my way through the day day.  Well I made it about half way on my planned stops.  Apparently my stomach shrunk a little.  It also had no tolerance for what I was eating.  I started off with 2 bowls of Lucky Charms and a Red Velvet cupcake, and then I went to yoga.  After yoga I had one more bowl and went to Krav.  By that point my stomach was already a little bubbly.  I taught and pretty much every thing ran through me for the rest of the day.  I met Jenn for Matchbox and we had cinnamon rolls and waffles.  I went back and taught the workshop.  I had the full intention of going out and getting a sandwich in the middle but I was still stuffed.  After the workshop I went home and showered and headed to 5 guys.  I was dying for a cheeseburger but I was still stuf...

Last night I took a short 1 mile run on the treadmill at our condo.  It was hard but felt good all at the same time. I finished in 7:35, which I think is my best time yet.  Just strange that I haven't run in almost 6 months and I hop on and do my best time on a low calorie diet no less.  The balls of my feet hurt when I was done but I felt pretty good.  Today the outsides of my calves are a bit sore but otherwise good, I wore my compression socks to bed last night just to be careful.  I think part of it was making sure my neighbor looked like a jackass for trying to run at my same pace and then having to jump off, only to walk later.  I dipped below 148 for the first time, hitting 147.8.  This diet isn't a lot of fun but I'm making it work.  I'm trying extra hard to burn the fat faster so I can come off sooner.  Unfortunately I have to have someone else measure me this week, so I won't really know if the reading is accurate but it will give...

Yesterday was particularly rough. I was jittery and tired most of the day, I guess I forgot what it was like to wake up on 2 hours of sleep and try to function at a normal capacity. I had my planned breakfast and took the Hot Rox per the bottle this time, which kept my appetite at bay until well after 1. I ate about 1:45, knowing I was going to need some thing. Before I left for training I only had 1 Hot Rox , as I had the full intention of going to sleep last night. The remainder of the day went well, and we had Lamb patties with Feta. They were amazing! A little high in fat but just as good a protein source as beef or chicken. I had a little trouble falling asleep mostly due to my inability to regulate my temperature, so I snuggled up to the heating pad and nodded off. I woke at 2:30 to use the bathroom and when the alarm went off at 6 I felt rested though I still wish it would have just not gone off. Despite the rough start, yesterday ended overall well. And this morning I ...

Leave it up to my Grammy to ruin a diet, and she didn't even try. My Grammy passed away on the 14 th so I traveled back to Montana last Sunday and was there most of the week. Needless to say any time spent around my family has nothing to do with a diet or eating well. Or I should say healthy, we eat quite well. So I have officially started yesterday. I didn't do my body fat measurements so I might try tonight but I started at 153.8, as you can see what happens when you visit my family. Yesterday was a little rough. I took the fat burner with breakfast, 3 of them and I don't think I have ever been more productive on a Sunday morning but I felt like Jason Statham in that movie Crank. I cleaned my closet, got rid of some clothes and shoes, organized my necklaces, put on all the missing buttons from my pants, organized my button box and cleaned the house. Then we went to the movies so I packed up veggies and off we went. Not too bad, after Chris ate his hot dog. Too end o...

Good news, the scale has held steady at 150 or under for the last 2 days. I have now gotten back to the lowest point I got while on the elimination diet, before the holidays set in. Now I can make progress towards 140 and 10% body fat. The goals are to maintain around 140-143 lbs and to keep my body fat in the 13-14 % range for a maintenance stage, of course while maintaining muscle...none of that skinny fat nonsense

I thought I was dying for some candy (I have been eating mostly just dried fruit lately) so I went to the vending machine and bought a 3 musketeers . Gobbled the whole thing right up and then it made me sick, like my body was revolting to the yuck I had just put in it. Candy never has that effect on me. A new food leaf turning over?

So took my measurements tonight, actually Chris did, and surprisingly I'm at 18.4% body fat. This means a lot of things, mostly I need to get started on ordering the supplements and figuring out what I'm going to be eating. The other implication of this is that what I consider good shape for myself has significantly changed. I got tested at the gym with 3 points about 2 years ago and I was 24%. I am 6% less, yet feel like I am still flabby. I'm estimating it will take me about 2 weeks to get every thing here and an eating plan figured out, so it looks like I will be starting on the 23rd. Maybe this Sunday the 16 th if I can get everything here in time but I doubt it. And I should now say we will be starting it, as I have just received moral support from my boyfriend and he'll be doing it with me.

About a month ago I started researching options for ways for my boyfriend to healthily cut 30 pounds in about 7 weeks. In researching what other MMA fighters use, most GSP , I came across Precision Nutrition. It seemed to have a logical approach to fitness based nutrition. It was a lot of information I knew but a lot I didn't know. I joined the program and planned to implement it in our daily lives, not just in preparation for the fight. As I researched through the forums and many online resources, I cam across the "Get Shredded Plan" which through a combination of low calorie eating and supplements, you continue to train at a high intensity for 8-12 weeks. For women, you start off with our body fat around 20% arriving at around 10%. Knowing the affects of dropping your body fat that low, I didn't think it was a very good idea. After finishing reading the article I had changed my mind. Most notably was a study they cited that tested the fat of adults in their 50...