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Welcome to the Happy Grappler. The key to a consistent practice is joy. As an aging athlete, I continue to seek out methods that help to keep a smile on my face, relatively fit and pain free. This is my mental graffiti. Enjoy!

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

A long overdue update

Greetings tribe!

It has been a long, long time since I have written. Mainly due to the super business of work. I have debated over and over if I want to continue this blog, but you can pretty much assume with this post that I want to keep it going. But in all fairness, due to work, I cannot any more promise a regularity of posting. Whenever, I can, I will post. But it has certainly been an interesting summer. Here are some updates:

When we finished weight watchers, I had lost a total of 42# and have pretty much stalled there. I am not as ridiculously strict as I was, however, I have kept a majority of the weight (95%) off. We just returned from vacation, and I followed no diet while I was there, so it will feel good to return to disciplined eating. I have been IF'ing for about a month again, which is a great practice. I am playing around with some vegetarian eating after reading Scott Jurek's "Eat and Run" which is an incredible foray into Ultramarathoning and Vegan eating. The lion's share of sugar in my diet comes from fruit and I am greatly moderating my alcohol. I also feel better when I take a natural approach to low carbing, drink more water, and restrict things like bread and pasta.I am also going to play with the Gracie Diet idea of not mixing starches. I also like it when my pants fit.

Non-bjj training- I have got the running bug again and my wife got me some new minimalist shoes for father's day. I am settling upon the following split for my non-bjj training: A run day, a KB day, a run day, then a Calisthenics day in a split fashion. This will ensure an even spread of strength and cardio. I still do mobility work every single day. Currently, I am mixing the Big 5 pressing reset from "Original Strength", the 5 rites of Tibetan Yoga, the Founder and the prone decompression drill from "Foundation Training" and the Baker's dozen of mobility work from Steve Maxwell. I have also been playing around with the Bio-energetic "Charging and Grounding" routine from Eliott Hulse. For KB work, I am mixing it up with some Hardstyle Drills and some GS style work of LCCJ and OAS in timed sets. Circuits seem to work the best for me when it comes to bodyweight calisthenics and while I may get the occasional bug to deadlift (I have access to that stuff at school) for the most part, my barbell days are over. I have read Al Kavadlo's books and the Convict Conditioning, Jailhouse Strong, and Solitary Fitness as well. There is much wisdom in using your bodyweight as resistance.

BJJ- still training 2-3 times a week. Still working to be as smooth and efficient as possible. Marcos just gave me the fourth stripe on my brown belt and to say that I am slightly freaked out is an understatement. In 37 years of consistently training the martial arts, I have never achieved a black belt rank. It is so close, it is rather intimidating. It has been one hell of a journey, that isn't over yet!

My wife and I just returned from an amazing vacation. I am starting Nick Ortner's Tapping Solution, Timber Hawkeye's Buddhist Boot Camp and Jack Kornfield's "The Wise Heart."

That is all for now. I will write more soon.

Oss.

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