More of the same

HA! In your face, Jason! Today I weighed 143 and a half. Okay, it's not under 140, which is where I need to be (maybe 137 or 138), but it's better than 146. I need to be a couple pounds under 141, which is the cutoff weight for the division, because you weigh in with the gi on right before you step on the mat to compete, and the gi weighs at least a couple pounds. So I have a ways to go. But I'm just eating less and working out more, and that's the formula. To my parents: No worries. I'm not starving myself. Not by a long shot. And if I don't lose the weight, I don't lose the weight. So stop worrying. :)

I found these really good, dense whole grain bagels at Trader Joe's; in addition to probably enough fiber to regulate the evacuation habits of the entire academy, they also have a bunch of protein. So I've been eating a lot of those, Odwalla bars, lots of fruit, and lots of tea. Also drinking lots of water, and walking to the Starbucks (2 mile round trip) instead of driving there, to burn off extra calories here and there. It helps to not be eating every meal out at Norm's or IHOP, where you can easily take in a thousand calories in a sitting, I'm betting. Pancakes or one of those big sandwiches. It's a delicious thousand calories, but it's a thousand calories.

Today I did not hear from the rental place. So tomorrow it might be time to call them and say something like, "Oh, I'm just calling to make sure I gave you the right number" or some such thing. Or I can just be direct about it and say that I really want the place and want to see it when it's ready. The direct approach is good too. We'll see.

I trained with Eric today at his Newport Top Team. His poor wife is about ready to pop with their second child, so I wasn't sure they were gonna train today. But baby-to-be is on his own timetable. Speaking of babies, I meant to welcome Jay into the world! Jay is my friends Jen and Todd's newborn, who came a couple days ago. Jen is 5'9" and Todd is 6'5". So Jay is going to be enormous.

So since there was no baby, we got to train. It was great fun, as usual. It's Eric, Wen, and a handful of guys including some from Kauai, where Eric's from. So they have the island connection. Eric had great suggestions about how to keep my opponent from sitting up when I'm putting on the omo plata, and we did some gi and some no gi sparring. Later in the day I did some laundry, chatted with Chrissy, Jen Williams, Rachel, and Adamarie, and then this evening was gi class and wrestling class.

I was tired in gi class so I sat out for most of the sparring. But then I got a second wind and joined in the wrestling class, because it was mostly all takedowns. Charlie Valencia, an amazing wrestler and an MMA fighter, taught the class. I know I wrote about his King of the Cage match back in the fall, and I was happy to be able to take a class with him and Sheldon (whom I've also written about) despite the fact that my quads and hamstrings were screaming before the class was halfway over.

Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it. I wished for more opportunities to work on takedowns, and boy did I get them. Single and double leg takedown drills up and down the mat. Shoot for single legs through the legs of your partner, then turn around and leapfrog over his back. Square off with your partner and clinch--grab the neck, grab the wrist and triceps to try to take the back, defend the above, then take them down and follow them to the ground.

I got to work with Sheldon a little bit, and he gave me some really helpful details to for the single and double legs.

This weekend there's gonna be a tournament in honor of Grandmaster Carlson Gracie, who you may recall was my instructor. Rodrigo Medeiros, a black belt under Carlson as well as Johnny and John's teacher, is running the tournament. It's a white and blue belt thing, but there are going to be purple and brown belt superfights, including one for me, apparently. I get a superfight. Whoa.

So, I'm trying not to feel lots of pressure because it's a SUPERFIGHT, or because it's a tournament in honor of my teacher. I'm just gonna go in there and enjoy myself, because fortunately, competing has become fun for me. I'll keep you posted.