Deborah's Brazilian Jiu Jitsu & Arnis-Eskrima Training

 Let's talk meal prep.  I think many people start down the path of meal prep with excellent intentions of eating wildly healthy and saving bucketfuls of money. Unfortunately, the path of health is often laden with our good intentions that turn into our own worst enemy. To be blunt, if you go out of your way to shop, prepare a healthy meal, and take it to work, only to have it pushed aside because the steamed broccoli and skinless chicken you prepared is not appetizing so you run out and buy a hamburger, you are losing the battle and the war. I've successfully been doing meal prep for a few years now. Here are the secrets of my success in this venture: 1. Know what you like, prepare what you like, make it healthy.  Prepare food that you enjoy, that you know you will want to eat, even if it's "not healthy." A home-cooked meal with always be healthier than eating out, and anything can be made to have some nutritional qualities. Casseroles are a great meal prep item.

 It's raining in Alpine, CA.  Again. The back yard is starting to flood. Again. Dave and I are fortunate to live in an area that is well designed and near Cleveland National Forest. It means homes are not stacked like bricks upon one another and despite some minor flooding, we do not need to visit the sandbag store every 5 minutes. So, the rain means I am staring into space, watching the weather with a quiet, pondering mind...And considering writing about jiu jitsu again. I am officially INTO my 5th decade of living, I have obtained a 2nd degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the rank of Maestra in Babao Arnis, and am a newly minted black belt in Cacoy Doce Pares Eskrima. (The Arnis and the Eskrima are both Filipino martial arts.  I was questioning whether to stay here on Blogger, or do I go with the cool kids to Substack or Patreon?  Or Word Press? Medium? I've decided to stay here for now. At the end of the day, I can write, I can share the link, and interested parties ca

  https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-arnis-a-filipino-martial-art-keeps-a-cop-strong-11629540000

So, here's a thought..... (begat from a personal family story) I was talking to my husband tonight about family. I observed my older female relatives did not have the opportunities I have been given. When women were barely starting to be hired by police departments in the early 70's, my dad was telling a 5 year old Deborah "You could be a policewoman when you grow up!" I probably laughed as I pranced off to my dance class. The dance class I thrived in, because I was blessed with a flexible, able, strong body.  Many years after I left dance behind, I decided to take up dad's suggestion and I eventually became a policewoman. A process which revealed that dance ability did not translate to fighting ability, and thus the universe opened a door to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. And yet another door opened to Arnis-Eskrima (Filipino stick fighting). Over the years, several doors have flung open, hiking, running, jump roping, all things physical laying down before my fee

I thought a good follow-up post to my last one about cutting weight would be to go through my meal preparation.  A meme came across my FB feed a few weeks back, something like "Athletes train and eat, they don't diet and exercise..."  Good Lord YES.  Healthy eating should be satisfying and delicious and fuel for the ride, not a drudgery of steamed boredom. I have travelled through a few phases of meal prep styles, and I've boiled down my system to something that I know (nutritionally) works for me, is something I can afford, and is satisfying. #1. The Nutrition.  I'm not gluten intolerant and I don't have food allergies, but I know I function best when I restrict my carbohydrate intake to what is absolutely necessary, and consume copious amounts of greens.  For example, if I eat a full serving of hash browns and toast for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and pasta for dinner, on a regular basis, I know (based on experience) I'll become bloated, gain w

To cut or not to cut, that is the question. Here is my thought on cutting weight for a tournament:  if you can achieve your goal weight via reasonable meal preparation and modest calorie restriction, then go forth and conquer.  If a cut requires you to strip down to the skivvies of celery, canned tuna, water, a minimal at best personality, and no breakfast before stepping on the scale on game day, you may want to rethink your weight class. Game day requires your best, mentally and physically, not your lightest for the sake of being in a certain weight class.  If losing pounds means you are losing necessary muscle mass just to make the scale happy, you're walking up the downward moving escalator and getting in your own way.  Muscles keep you strong.  Muscles carry oxygen.  Love them.  Feed them and keep them happy. Game day has enough obstacles between staying healthy, the drive there, and remaining calm.  Adding yourself to that cauldron of challenges will give you a flat sou