Dieting

Dieting.  It’s this crazy thing we are obsessed with.  I watch in stupefied fascination at what the people around me do.  But I’ve been there and done it.  I’ve cut my calories back to retarted levels.  Measuring and counting.  Skipped meals.  Candy bar for lunch.  Carb loaded.  Tried it all.  But as I have learned more about my body and my training has become the center of my life, I have developed an obsession with nutrition.  Minus my sugar addiction (which has been under control the last few weeks) I eat pretty well.  My dad tells this funny story that as a little kid I wouldn’t eat McDonalds.  He was always torn about this.  He never wanted me to eat McD’s but also wanted me to just stop being so stubborn and eat something while we were out and away from the house.  Fortunately for him I never relented on either, I still don’t eat McD’s and I am probably more stubborn than ever.  My parents helped me to develop pretty good eating habits and not be afraid to try any food. But Im not eating bugs, I don’t consider those food.  Ever. 

Training the amount I do, requires energy. And sleep.  But that energy comes from my food.  My nutrition education took a new level just under 2 years ago when my then boyfriend had to cut ~30 lbs for a fight.  Realistic in 2 months.  So I began researching about something I knew nothing about.  I did know that everything I had known before wouldn’t work.  I learned about fats, good fats, and how crucial they are to the diet. I learned about carb timing.  I learned nutritional composition was more important than calories.  But this was just the tip of ice berg.  One practice cut and a training cycle later, I have learned how I react to all of these things.  Where I suffer when I don’t have them, how much my performance improves when everything is on point.  I have also gotten over a few of my food issues like avocados and on occasion Im known to eat a bell pepper.

And now Im 3 weeks out from my next fight.  Feeling stronger than I ever have.  It shows in my strength workouts.  Im blowing away max’s from 4 months ago, while super setting with other exercises.  Mentally I can handle it better than ever.  When doing technical work, Im defending better than ever and pulling off techniques I couldn’t before.  As I sit on the train headed home from NYC, I am meal planning using the Dolce Diet.  Its like the next level in my nutritional knowledge.  Simple, realistic, logical and sustainable.  These next 3 weeks could be the toughest.  But I have a plan.  I know what Im going to eat.  I know when Im going to eat it.  And it makes the next 3 weeks seem just a little bit easier.  All I have to do is train.