Operation Look Like A Goddess

[ledove]

I probably should wait 2 more weeks until I'm really finished, but just for fun I took progress pictures today, and now I see what everyone's talking about. (Sorry about the weird gravity thing, tan lines, and bruises ).

Measurements are pretty much still the same, but that's still probably operator error.

[Bytsi]

Wow!!!!!!!!

HUGE differences - everywhere. First thing that hit me was mid-section, but hips, thighs, butt - ABS... even arms. I see improvement all over. Awesome!

And MUST be operator error if your measurements are the same!

[ledove]

I'm hopeless with measuring tapes, apparently. I get different numbers every time I repeat... I know I am losing inches because my clothes are getting too big. I'll try measuring again in two weeks and see if I can be more consistent...

[ledove]

Monday: no workout. Dinner out with a friend. Ate too much! But all protein: duck, lamb, fish, and pork.

BJJ, last night
Those BJJ gis are so heavy and hot! I was sweating before class even started! The instructors actually prefer rolling gi to nogi and would really like to have more gi classes. Last night they were hinting, as we warmed up, that soon we could have an all-gi beginners' class. We had 12-14 last night, I think; most of us were in gis.

Warmup was light in terms of the amount that we actually did, except that the gi made it so much harder. Then we worked a sweep from half-guard and then worked "Plan B", if you don't get in fast enough for the first sweep. Then rolling. Even with all the muscling going on, I was defending well and kept the newer wrestling guys from submitting me. Couldn't get anything on them, though.

[ledove]

Too much eating today! Greek with Mom for lunch, then Mexican with the guys after class. Ugh. I don't think my body likes all this work on this little food, and I've been really sleepy lately. One. more. week. C'mon. (Please?)

Gym & TKD, yesterday
Bike: 5 min warmup, 10 min intervals (1 min/1min), 15 min cooldown
Some guy was hogging the pullup bar, so no pullups for me.

TKD: nothing. They sparred. Room is too tiny for the black belts to join, so we just watch. Was fine with me, though; I was tired.

MMA, tonight
I need more sparring work. Movement and speed especially. We worked pretty much everything tonight except kicks. I'm still having trouble transitioning from upright fighting to a takedown; if I'm upright, I'm thinking about staying upright, not about taking the fight to the ground.

I've already talked to the Krav Maga/kickboxing instructor, and I'll start with him in two weeks, after TKD summer classes finish. He already wants me to do a tournament in November!!!

[ledove]

Gym, yesterday
SS, 30 min, bike

Watched a guy on the incline elliptical--he nearly shot off a few times.

BJJ, today

Beat up a 14yo. So wrong to say. Nah, just made him work. Apparently he wasn't working hard with the other guys (they outweigh and can out muscle him), but with me he was going really hard.

So tired...

[ledove]

My mom's been doing the NROLFW Stage 1 workouts on and off since April (mostly off). She works out by herself in the basement, and she had never lifted before Stage 1. She hasn't really increased the weight on the lifts, and since there's no one to spot her I really don't want her going on to some of the more complicated movements. (She does, however, love the lat pulldown and seated row. The rest, eh, but she loves those two.)

So I decided that instead of putting her on Stage 2 that I'd move her over to Red Carpet Ready. Lower weights (I think the max is 10 or 15lbs), but it still uses lunges, Romanian DL, overhead press, planks, etc. Easier for my mom to do by herself. Each workout (A and B) has 3 circuits that you do 2-3 times; each takes about 1 hour. Cardio is intervals, 30 min, on non-weights days.

I'm also going to run all the calculations from FLTS for her. (She's probably a candidate for Repair. Eh, I'll have to read all that again and see what we can do.) Her biggest obstacle is food, especially not eating enough during the day and then too much at night and on the weekends. She doesn't stop to eat during the day because she's too busy at work; however, she works with my dad (just the two of them), so I'm going to recruit him to make sure she eats lunch at least. And she needs to sleep more.

This week is a sort of "break in" week while she works on going to bed earlier and getting up earlier, packing & eating lunch, and getting used to the movements in RCR. She did Workout A, one time through each circuit, this morning and said it was a lot harder than it looked: "I have to do that more than once through??" I'm still trying to talk her in to taking pictures, at least so she can see her progress.

She was excited, though, when I showed her the program; she liked the name, especially.

[Bytsi]

How wonderful that you can get your mom working out and help her be fitter and healthier!

My mom does senior exercise classes at the local community center... she LOVES using those 1# pink dumbbells

[ledove]

Originally Posted by Bytsi

How wonderful that you can get your mom working out and help her be fitter and healthier!

My mom does senior exercise classes at the local community center... she LOVES using those 1# pink dumbbells

Heh, well, we've been trying for years; she just doesn't usually stay on the wagon. This time, I'm gonna make it stick...

BJJ, last night
Someone must've sent a memo to the guys that I was tired of getting muscled around . One of the worst offenders (the "MMA instructor") was actually the best roll of the night; he didn't jerk into the armbar when I had it defended (actually let go!) and in general just kept sweeping me (and actually the sweep we learned in class!) and trying for technique. I was really surprised and didn't know what to do with him. Told him what I'd noticed after the roll, and he said thanks, that he was really trying to focus on technique over muscling. Rolled with two other guys who're usually good about technique over muscle anyway.

(Worst roll of the night was a newer, littler guy (maybe 140-150lbs) who tried to muscle through everything. Kept trying to armbar me without being anywhere near my arm; thought he could get his legs in place and then jerk my arm in. Um, no. Defend, sprawl, defend...)

I've been so frustrated most classes because the guys just yank me around, and I don't have the mass or the strength to do anything about it. Any technique I try they just force me to the floor, hold me down with one hand, and pass, and I'm done. But last night, when it was technique against technique, I was holding my own against them. Did actually work toward a few submissions, but the rounds ended on me.

And, talked to Perry, the Krav/kickboxing instructor last night. He said he talked to a girl (either Monday or yesterday, I think) who wants to do everything--kickboxing, BJJ, MMA, everything we've got--because she wants to fight. And, best part, he thinks she's about my size. It would be so much awesome to have someone my own size to work against. I love my guys, but they're all bigger and stronger. I really hope she does come.

[ledove]

TKD update

First, last night was the last full TKD class of the summer. Stripe testing class before their test on Saturday, and they all did much better than they've been doing all summer. Monday I'm back to full-time BJJ. Whoot!!

Second, our head instructor, a 4th-year vet student, has gotten all but possibly 1 of her remaining rotations scheduled for offices around here or for the vet school. So I won't be getting tossed in to head instructing quite as soon as we thought. (Whew!)

So we're back to our original plan, which is that I take over the beginners' class this fall and then add the intermediate class in the spring (and everything next year). (And sub for all classes when/if she's gone or on call.) Much less stress for me! I'll have to cut out fast after T/H BJJ/MMA, at least for the first few weeks, to make it in time to bow them in, but that's not too bad at all.

[ledove]

MMA, tonight

Lots of level-changing drills, and those just wear you plum out! Cool thing, though, was I finally got shots over my right foot. The big toe there, for whatever odd reason, hasn't wanted to bend properly for shooting, so I've always done it with my left foot forward; but then Karate College changed my stance to right foot forward, and my head's been messed up ever since. (Not that it was ever right to start with. )

We also did very light contact sparring, including kicks; you were barely hitting the guy. Working on movement. Didn't do so great on the movement part. But my kicks--wohoo. That right foot in front makes all the difference. I was sparring one of the instructors, and at one point he said, "Man, those are coming out of nowhere!" Hehe.

Rolled with spazzing new guy from Tuesday afterward. He just grabs a wrist and flings his legs up, hoping to land in either an armbar or triangle. He can sometimes force me in to it; sometimes I can defend it and get around. After he'd tried that same thing a few times, and I was tired of it, I said, "Okay, so you know that armbar and triangle. Try working something else." He said, "Oh, yeah, good idea... . I don't know anything from here, though." I said, "Sure you do: that sweep we learned on Tuesday." Oh yeah... So I walked him through the sweep and the armbar after for a few minutes. He actually loosened up and worked technique.

After class, one of my guys said he nearly stepped in and stopped our roll because the guy was pushing me around. I said no worries, I sorted him out.

Working my free form tomorrow; TKD testing on Saturday. Then back to BJJ Monday.

[ledove]

I wrote a little review of Red Carpet Ready, RCR, if anyone wanted to read more about it. Mom's already bought a small step stool for the step ups. She found the Valslides at Target and bought them, too.

[missjane]

Those "Moving Men" thingies work just like valslides, too.....so, if you have any laying around it might save you some $$$$$.

[ledove]

Originally Posted by missjane

Those "Moving Men" thingies work just like valslides, too.....so, if you have any laying around it might save you some $$$$$.

I mentioned those to my mom before she went shopping (I think I'd seen you or someone mention them in another thread), but she said when she compared the prices that there wasn't that much of a difference. *shrug* Mom's a bargain shopper & coupon-clipper, so I'm assuming she looked at everything.

TKD testing

The gold belt did not test because he did not have his own uniform and tried to borrow one from someone else the night before the test. (He has an aikido class right before TKD, so he's been allowed to stay in his aikido uniform for class. But he was told months ago to buy a TKD uniform, with club patches, for testing. He didn't do it.) He did find someone who let him borrow one, though it was at least 1 size too small, maybe 2. He showed up in the borrowed uniform, at which point he got reamed out by the head instructor, who then turned him over to the examiner. The examiner sent him back to sit down.

At the end of the test, I did my free form. (Someone named it for me last night: Slashing Streams. I couldn't think of anything else, so I went with it.) And it was acceptable. The examiner said I did three things well in making my free form: 1) included traditional elements, 2) included non-traditional elements, and 3) included stuff that I still haven't mastered. Awesome. So now I can move on with my 2nd degree curriculum.

[ledove]

BJJ, last night

Meh. Just meh. So sluggish last night. Annoying. Probably a result of crappy eating all weekend. (Hardly any food during testing--and mostly carbs--and then hungry/munchy the rest of the weekend. Pleh.)

Warmup, then a few rolls. I worked with one newer guy who kept trying to get an armbar from guard, only he didn't know how. So for drills, we worked armbar from guard. Then more rolling, which involved me tapping to lots of triangles. Meh.

Gonna have to ask about a triangle defense...

* * * * *

So I'm done for now with FLTS because I'm back to six days/week of martial arts (starting Kickboxing this Friday & Saturday). I should take pictures and measurements. Maybe tonight, if I can find the camera. Maybe I can swipe the scale tonight, too. Although, probably again because of eating this weekend, I'm feeling sluggish and bloated right now...

Overall, I'm happy with what I did. I'm back in my "goal" jeans (both pairs) and they fit comfortably. But I know I could have done better if I had tracked what I ate; I kept measuring everything, but never stuck with writing it down. The last two weeks, too, I haven't been stretching and foam-rolling consistently; started again this morning, though.

Trying to take this week as a rest week, as much as possible, though maybe only as far as food and sleep is concerned. (Maybe I can take one day and work from home...) Don't want to skip classes now that I can finally go back. I guess I should figure out maintenance calories so I can get back to it after this week...

[Bytsi]

One "off" week won't blow it all - you're in those jeans, so GOOD JOB!!! I'm bad about foam-rolling too - that's why I added it to my challenge goals.