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Blue Belt Week 51, December 7, 2012

December 7, 2012 by Jason

On Monday, December 10, 2012, is the winter belt ceremony. For me, this will complete one year as a blue belt. Last year’s ceremony had some great speeches by Pedro and Gui, and appearances of special guests, Dr Pedro Valente, red belt, and Royce Gracie. I was impressed by the lives of the brown belt students that became black belts, a fireman, ex New York cop, and a guy that started out in the youth program. I am hoping to re-energize myself from the ceremony for my goal of obtaining Purple belt.
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Soon, I will put together a list of goals for 2013. I will go over last years list to see how I did.

On Sunday, I tried a 24 hour fast. I never did that before. I ate my normal breakfast and that was it until the next morning breakfast. It went well. I look forward to doing it again in January. I haven’t tried the two-week Gracie Diet as per the book yet. I am planning to re read the book to get what I may have missed the first time. So far, I have been good-by not snacking between meals. I have exchanged energy drinks for coconut water. I have given up desert unless it is a birthday.

As I stated in the last few posts, I am allowing my shoulder to fully heal. That requires rest and strengthening exercise. I will be good to go in January.

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Blue Belt Week 50, November 30, 2012

November 30, 2012 by Jason

I went to a grappling techniques class to test my shoulder.  The focus of the class was the guard position, something I have been wanting to work on.  From my time away, I was worried that I would start to forget but it was all their in my subconscious mind. Once again, same height; however,  I was miss matched 170 lbs to 210 lbs but that didn’t slow me down.  I am amazed at how much energy I have from my five banana and whey protein smoothie breakfast.  Over all, the grappling class went well; however, I did aggravate my shoulder, but not badly. I need a little bit more rehabilitation before I can go full force.  The only cure for my shoulder is rest.  I have bad health insurance so I have been using yoga as physical therapy.  I am not a fan of it.  I will be taking a break until next year then fully commit til June.

I will try a twenty four hour fast on Sunday. I am suppose to do a 24 hour fast once a month as per the Gracie Diet book. Let’s see how that goes.

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Blue Belt Week 49, November 23, 2012

November 23, 2012 by Jason

I am on the second week of the Gracie Diet, the second phase in week.  No snacking, four and half hours between meals, and food combination awareness.  The hard habit to break is the American wheat and potato combination.  example, fries with hamburger or chips with a sandwich.  I broke down one day, but tried to observe how I felt.  The next day, I got back to the plan.

One thing that I am enjoying is a five banana smoothie which is addictive and very healthy.  After consuming, I can go from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm, without snacking, no problem.  See you tube video on benefits of eating bananas.

Health Benefits of Bananas – Enjoy the World’s Most Popular Fruit

Note, you should brush your teeth or rinse your mouth after consuming. I know of a professor’s child, whose on the Gracie Diet, that had a cavity. Fruit has sugar.

Rotting bananas can be frozen but they have to be unpeeled first. I use bags from empty frozen vegetables to store them.  The frozen bananas need to be thawed so you can put them in the refrigerator the night before.

One thing I am thankful for is Iyengar yoga, yogarosa.com,  which has helped heal my shoulder. I can now reach above my head for an empty glass from the cabinet without any pain. Anyways, I am looking forward to getting back to training.

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Blue Belt Week 48, November 17, 2012

November 17, 2012 by Jason

The most bananas I ever bought.

I am experimenting with the Gracie diet. I will probably start the 14 day meal plan as in the book after Thanksgiving, November 24. The word diet in the catch phrase, Gracie Diet, is miss leading because I am not trying to lose weight at all but to increase my energy level and obtain better health.

All week, I have been drinking a banana drink for breakfast. During the week, I ran out of almond milk for a four banana smoothie which turned out to be a good thing because I used a quarter cup of filtered water instead in the blender. The almond milk may have stopped the feeling of complete fullness. So, I drank the banana drink at 7:30 am. On that day, I had an old habit of eating a big breakfast around 8:45 am at Wholefoods after dropping my kids off at school. To make this short, when I arrived at Wholefoods, while I sat in my car in the parking lot, the last thing I was thinking of was stuffing myself with scrambled eggs and bacon, I was there out of habit. Fortunately, I had the feeling of being full from the banana drink with water. Also, I didn’t eat any pork because pork is not part of the diet. All pork is off the menu. I realised I spend a lot of time eating when I don’t need to be, snacking and over eating, plus I saved some money.

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Blue Belt Week 47, November 10, 2012

November 11, 2012 by Jason

I need to stop over thinking and just do. I’m worried about getting injuried and stepping out of my comfort zone to push myself to a higher level. I felt that I needed time off to get my head straight and to heal. I went through something like this, taking time off to prepare myself mentally for tougher competition, because I moved to a higher weight class in judo. I left for a while but I learned that I missed judo competition and would have comeback but moved.

One thing that I remember about my judo training as a kid, many, many, many years ago, which kept me coming back, I used to train with my best friend who was stronger and smarter than I was. We were in tremendous competition against each other all the time. I rarely beat him. That was the best training for competition and for life.

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This week I started Iyengar yoga classes to try and fix my shoulder, old sports injury. I prefer yoga over physical therapy. I am doing it twice a week. I am not a fan of yoga. I find yoga painful and difficult. What exactly is Iyengar Yoga? Iyengar Yoga is a type of yoga that uses props to get you where you need to be. Because of Iyengar's frail health as a child, he created a special type of yoga that uses props. Today, he is one the most recognized yoga teachers in India.

If your in South Florida area and your interested in learning yoga correctly, I recommend Iyengar yoga at Yoga Rosa of Hallendale, Fl. See web page. yogarosa.com. Most of the teachers have been to India and many years of experience. It is intense, or as intense as you want yoga to be. What I like about Yoga Rosa is that is all it is, yoga. No free weights. No spinning cycles. No aerobics. It's not a gym. That is something I like about Valente Brothers also. You go there to study Jiu Jitsu. It is not a gym either.

Getting back to the Gracie Diet, I am on chapter five of the Gracie Diet Book. I started the log book chart in that chapter. I would like to dive right in but I don’t have a firm grasp of the rules and they recommend doing a three phase in. Start with small changes. I learned that I snack all day long.

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Blue Belt Week 46, November 3, 2012

November 2, 2012 by Jason

This week I started reading, The Gracie Diet. Also, I have been taking it easy for the last two weeks with a shoulder muscle injury. Supraspinatus strain. Unfortunately, rest is the cure.  If I need more time to heal, I could go to class as an observer. I may do that.

Reference the Gracie Diet introduction, my daughter wanted M&Ms because she went to choir practice.  I told her she had to ok it with her mother.  She said okay. We went to Publix, a local Florida grocery store,  it is like Safeway, Winn Dixie, or Giant.   It was very crowded. I was hungry. I bought a candy bar and an energy drink while waiting in line.   We ate and drank the unhealthy snack food in the car.  I forced my self to eat dinner  because I had ruined my appetite.  Now that I think about it,  I would shop at Publix at least three times a week and I would buy something unhealthy.

After reading the introduction and doing some thinking,  I decided that I am not going to shop at Publix anymore.    I call it,  avoiding a dog’s death.  What do I mean?  I want to avoid my inner self by not engaging it in a losing battle, unhealthy junk food.     A samurai is dishonored if they die in battle without accomplishing the goal.  It is ok to retreat so that the battle can be fought another day for a better chance at victory.  In this case, I will avoid the unhealthy food all together.

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Blue Belt Week 45, October 27, 2012

October 26, 2012 by Jason

If I wasn’t out of town, near Annapolis, Maryland, I would have met a mentor and hero of Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, Rorion Gracie this weekend.

To make up for my missed attendence, I bought the Gracie Diet book on Amazon.com. Note, the electronic version was not available yet. After I have read the book, I will give the diet a try for six months. If the diet goes well, I will make the Gracie Diet a life long diet.

I will make comments upon the book and also keep you all advised about how the diet is going on. I don’t want to violate any copyrights. Etc. Since I started studying Gracie Jiu Jitsu, I have yet to meet a fellow student following the Gracie Diet. What I’m just learning is the Gracie Diet, healthy eatting, is equal to learning how to do self defense.

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Blue Belt Week 44, October 20, 2012

October 20, 2012 by Jason

This week, a guy asked me to stay for sparring class on Thursday. I didn’t. I have thought about it about twenty times since then. I know that is what I needed to do. The people there are looking for fresh blood. I put sparring and throwing off because of the Helio Gracie Tournament. I am slowly changing to a more advanced training program. Also, I have an ongoing shoulder injury, shoulder bursitis, but I know that ice and anti inflammatory drugs will get it back to no pain. I just need to rest. I found some strength exercises for rotator cup strengthening. I notice that it gets inflamed when I workout with heavy weight class, specially, the bear hug moves.   I could barely get my arms around the opponent. My arm lengths gets strained and causes damage to my shoulder.

I will be out-of-town during the Gracie Diet Seminar given by Rorian Gracie. It is open to the public on October 27. I would definitely be there if I could. Really, it is an honor that such great Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructors and role models come to the studio.

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Blue Belt Week 43, October 12, 2012

October 12, 2012 by Jason

After I heard a story of road rage from a fellow jiu jitsu student this week, I started thinking,   “How could this have been prevented? What are my own triggers for rage?”

Everyone gets rages for time to time.  The trick is recognize pre rage signals before it rises and disengage. Is this situation worthy of violence? Is this worth dying for?   I came up with a few examples that seem to get a lot of rage, a bad driver almost causes an accident, cutting in line, stealing a parking space.  I believe these events aren’t worth causing injury to someone.

I have been reviewing judo throws in preparation for Tuesday’s throwing class. I stopped many months ago so that I could focus on the self-defense  fundamental classes.   Some throws are safer than others in a street fight situation.

Recently, I am starting to see myself become a purple belt.  I didn’t have that vision before.

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Blue Belt Week 42, October 6, 2012

October 8, 2012 by Jason

A week has passed since the self-defense tournament. I am not the same. Well, that’s what I keep tell myself.  I have a higher understanding of the self-defense program because of my pre test preparations and also the knowledge from the event.  That was a great consequence of the tournament.  I believe or hope next years event will have a greater turnout.  So, I am promoting the event when ever I get a chance.

What needs to be done now is an over haul of my training.  For one,  I need to take the advanced techniques class every week.  I will alternate sparring and randori because its to harsh on my body.   I need to communicate with my sparring and randori partner that I am not going for the an olympic metal, nor am I an MMA fighter, and this is just a dojo.  The truth, I’m a middle age guy with a bum right shoulder.
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