I actually brought my lunch to work today! Winning! Eating is very important for me in a day, I spend a lot of time preparing and working on my diet so I can get the best nutrition possible for my goals.  I do measure my food for the most part so I can get the proper amount of protein in a day.   I aim for about 1.2g of protein per lb of body weight so I make sure that I have some form of  protein with each snack I have.  At first measuring my food was confusing and tedious.  Now that I've been doing it for a while, I know what I need and how I like to break it all up.  I'm still learning and researching the best way to get optimal nutrition for my goals, and this been working well for me.  I'm very happy with my results thus far.  We've all heard the saying that muscles are fed in the kitchen, not at the gym; which from my experience is very true.  It wasn't until I started to make some real changes with my diet that I started to ...

I have been asked by a few people over the last while why I am doing this.  Why do I want to workout all the time? Why do I do my full time job, teach Ju Jitsu part time and workout in between?  Why do I have to eat healthy all the time?  Don't you want to take a break from it all? Why do you want to be muscular, are you wanting to be a body builder?  You're going to look like a man! Usually I'm thinking to myself, why do I need to justify it? Of course I have my reasons for eating healthy, training and working out all the time.  I want to be stronger, more powerful, faster and better.  I want to achieve more as a martial artist and compete better.  I am doing this for myself and myself only.  I'm not doing it for Ernie, I know he would love me no matter how active or inactive I am.  I do this to keep myself happy.  When I was inactive and out of shape, I wasn't very happy with myself.  I didn't like how I was performing as a fight...

I think its fair to say that martial arts and MMA don't really appeal to women very much. I have talked with girls who say they find it intimidating, which I umderstand.  A girl walks into a MMA gym and sees a bunch of guys punching heavy bags, sweating, grunting, wrestling.  They see guys being slammed to the ground and being choked out and getting slapped in an arm bar; its not always a pretty sight! I've said before that most people consider these sports to be a "mans" sport.  I disagree!  If you turn on the TV and watch the sports channel or Google UFC, the first fighters to be talked about are women! Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Cristiane Cyborg, are all over the news on a daily basis and taking over the main event lists.  Its safe to say that girls are taking over what was formerly known as a "mans sport", and I couldn't be happier about it! I firmly believe that women have a place in this sport, and why not? Women are usually more flexible, compac...

Growing up I was always a pretty healthy eater.  We were raised on a farm so a lot of the foods we ate were usually home grown.  We butchered our own beef and chickens for the most part, drank milk straight out of the tank, veggies and of course potatoes from our garden.  My family is big and we are big eaters too; in our house if you didn't eat quick, you probably didn't eat much! Therefore I have always had a big appetite for as long as I can remember. When I moved out on my own I had basic cooking skills and I decided that I did not want to eat Mr. Noodles all the time so I taught myself how to cook.  It was a lot of trial and error and Ernie being my guinea pig of course.  I ate a lot of pasta and rice and chicken.  As I said, we ate a lot of beef growing up so chicken was a novelty for me! I at least made sure that most of my pasta and rice was whole wheat for the fiber and nutrition content.  I also ate a lot of granola bars and of course splurg...

Over the last few years I have been doing more grappling then I ever have in my life.  It has me thinking about how I want to improve as a fighter.  I have been doing this for a long time, but I am far from being the best, but I always strive to do the best that I can.  I want to always be able to improve so I can be better.  I never want to walk around saying "I'm the best" because in martial arts you must have humility.  To me, saying "I am the best" means that I have reached the top of the mountain, but there is no top of the mountain, it only continues going up. I thought of a list tonight while I was grappling Ernie about things I want to improve on.  A lot of these things happened tonight while we were fighting, which is why I thought of them! 1.  I want to do more throws and work on my throwing skills.  In the past when I fought, if my opponent went for a throw or a take down I would go with it and start my plan on the ground.  In t...

The next part of my fitness journey is going to be an exciting one.  I'll give a bit of a background for my next chapter. Lately I have been thinking about the inspirational fitness women that I follow on Facebook, for example Pauline Nordin and Nicole Wilkins. I want to do more with the fitness and bring my message to more people. The message that I want to get across is that girls and women can do anything they want, especially in fitness. Writing this blog has me reflecting a lot lately and makes me think about the future of my journey. My goal for the future is to hopefully motivate others to find their own fitness and not be afraid to do "manly" things.  I was thinking about how many women and girls are told they shouldn't do stuff just because it's not feminine.  Women who weight lift are told they are manly; women who fight in MMA are told they are scary and not feminine. Even women  who are dancers or gymnists are told they are weak and "girly"...

In my years of Ju Jitsu thus far, I have seen a lot of people come and go.  A lot people who come into the sport for the wrong reasons and find out that its not all what they expected it to be.  To be honest, most of those people are men.  I'm not saying that women don't join and stick around, they are a small minority. The people who tend to not stick around are the ones who have the wrong attitude before they even get to the front door of the gym or dojo.  They come and are all excited because all they want to do is hit people or choke them out and are unwilling to start with basics.  These type of people watch the UFC and think, "I can do that, I've been in a fight before"; but they do not consider the amount of work, blood, sweat and tears it takes to get there.  They do not see the endless hours of training, hurting joints, and the lessons learned.  They just see people getting their heads bashed in and arms broken and think, "Awesome! I could do...