New Year's Resolutions and Coconut Eggs

The semester is over!! Finally, I can quit worrying about homework. Sort of. I have to start studying (again) for my personal training certification, because I plan to get certified by the end of Spring semester, if all goes as planned. That's one of my goals for 2013. It's kind of like a New Year's Resolution, but what's really the point of starting on January 1? I can start now and be ahead later. BOOM. Success.

I've been think a lot about my 2013 goals/New Year's Resolutions lately, because it is getting so close to the end of the year. I've also thought about the things I've accomplished so far this year, and I'm pretty proud of what I've done:

1. I lost 30 pounds, putting me back in a healthy weight range, helping me feel more energetic, confident, and happy.

2. I started fighting again. I joined a new team that I love and have helped me improve my game a lot. I won all four fights I had this year.

3. I went back to school. College has been really frustrating for me, and almost feels pointless at times. I was tempted to stop going altogether at times. But I enrolled again because I know I'll be better off with a degree to fall back on if I need to.

I want 2013 to be even better though. I'm going to continue to progress in my fight game, fitness/health, and education. I also have some financial, career, and volunteer goal ideas that I'd like to put into action, but don't quite have a solid plan for yet.

Another one of my goals is to put more time and heart into this blog. My hope is that this blog will at some point, now or in the future, inspire and motivate someone to make healthy changes in their life. One way I hope to do that is to start sharing some recipes with you! Some will be recipes I've made up myself, others might be gems I've found on another site that I love. So, here goes nothin'.

My first recipe, created by me:

Coconut Scrambled Eggs

Ingredients-
3 whole eggs
2 T canned coconut milk (the thick part at the top of the can)
1-2 T fat (I usually cook bacon first, then use the leftover fat to cook my eggs)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat a skillet on medium heat, add fat of choice (bacon fat and coconut oil are my favorites).

2. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, coconut milk, salt and pepper. The coconut milk will probably be lumpy, but that's okay.

3. Pour your egg mixture into you skillet and scramble. If you don't know how to scramble eggs, I feel bad for you son. I got 99 problems but an egg ain't one. Bad joke.

4. If you seriously don't know how to scramble eggs, here you go: once your eggs are in the skillet, take a spatula or wooden spoon and mix the eggs around while they cook, making sure to scrape all sides of the pan so the eggs don't stick. Cook until they're not liquid-y looking anymore (I'm so technical).

No veggies. Lame. Bacon. Mmmm...

Eat 'em up! I seriously love these eggs. Don't knock 'em 'til you try 'em. I love them with veggies in them too. I like to saute onion, green pepper, garlic, and spinach in the skillet before I add the eggs. Yum. Also, if you need to feed more people, just multiply the ingredients by the number of people. This isn't rocket science people! Just guess on the veggies, there's no such thing as a wrong amount of veggies in this case. Now quit reading and go try the stinkin' recipe, and comment here to tell me what you think!

21 Day Sugar Detox: Days 1-3

I'm in love with cashews. I'm even more in love with the cashew butter I made today. I think I love it as much as peanut butter, which I've been avoiding since it's a legume which is not a paleo food.

I've been eating paleo for almost a month now, with a few cheats here and there, and I like it a lot. I just feel better. Plus I get to eat bacon. Mmmmm bacon. Even though I love the paleo lifestyle, I was still having a hard time saying no to chocolatey processed sugary carby nonsense. Like the bag of cookies and cream chex mix and mocha frappacino I consumed Sunday night. That is when I decided I needed to crack down, and decided to start the 21 Day Sugar Detox the next day.

For my personal detox, I've chosen to eliminate all sugar, natural and artificial, including fruit. Since I've already been eating paleo the simple carbs like bread are a given. I am thinking that I will probably cheat with the carbs once, because I have a fight in 11 days, and will need to refuel, but I'm not going to eat chocolate and drink sugary sports drinks or have pancakes and syrup like I often do.

I'm currently on my third day. Days 1 and 2 weren't bad at all, I just had a few cravings that were easy to ignore. Today is Halloween, so of course it's been a little more difficult, but I haven't strayed. I feel like I may be eating a little bit more fat, mostly in the form of nuts, but I think that I can level that out as much cravings subside.

Here's an example of what I ate today:

Breakfast:
3 whole eggs
2 slices bacon
Water with lemon (I'm not counting the small squirt of lemon as sugar. That's just ridiculous.)

Morning Snack:
3-4 Tablespoons roasted pumpkin seeds (I haven't been measuring much lately, so that's a guess)
Water

Lunch:
Roasted chicken (some white and some dark meat)
Coconut almond cauliflower "couscous"
A couple tablespoons of cashews
Water

Afternoon Snack:
A few tastes of the cashew and almond butter I made
Baked sweet potato fries (probably about 3-4 ounces)
Water with lemon

Dinner:
2 Bacon meatloaf muffins ( adapted from a recipe on paleomg.com-seriously check this site out, the recipes are awesome and the writer is hilarious!)

Not perfect, but sugar free at least. I'm going to take progress pictures each friday, so we'll see about visual progress in a couple days :)

Caged Aggression 8

Shame. On. Me! I haven't posted in ages. If only I was getting a grade on this, I would be much better at sticking to it. But I'm not, so it gets pushed to the side. I'm a terrible blog owner. Anywho...I had a fight this past weekend, it was a ton of fun, and I'm still undefeated! Woo!

Since I've left you in the dark for such a long time, I'll rewind a bit, go through what I did to prepare for this fight and all that jazz. I did things a little differently this time around.

It's been two months since my August fight, and my diet for most of those two months was a freaking roller coaster. I'm a stress eater. *forehead slap* That's the main reason I decided to fight this fight at 145 pounds. I've had enough on my plate with work and school that I didn't want to have to crash diet for two weeks to get to fight weight. It was a good decision.

Around two and a half weeks out, my nutritionist/personal trainer Danny J made a new meal plan for me, and she wanted me to try paleo. I was excited because a lot of people I know have had success with it, and I get to eat bacon. And whole eggs. And BEEF. It's fantastic. I've been experimenting a little with some paleo recipes and ingredients, making my own almond butter (which did not turn out the first time by the way) and coconut flour, so I can have a treat now and then. And I bought a Ninja food processor. Best gadget EVER. Chops veggies in like 2 seconds flat. Anyway, paleo really seems to work for me. I only had to cut 8 pounds the entire week of the fight, and 4-5 pounds of that was water weight. I didn't have to sit in the sauna nearly as much as other fights, and that was awesome. The sauna is the devil.

My Dad and I after my fight

My opponent was unable to make it to weigh ins, so I didn't get to see her pretty much until the fight started. I was excited. I knew what I wanted and I knew I was going to get it. My coach told me ahead of time that she was going to come straight at me, fast and furious, throwing bombs, and that's exactly what she did. I could have stood and banged with her, but I was looking for a submission or ground n pound win. I went for a takedown right away, but it was kinda sloppy and she stuffed it. I got her in my guard and basically just waited...because I knew she was going to leave an arm open for me if I could catch it quickly. I took a lot of shots there on my back and was really worried the referee was going to stop it, but luckily he let it go on. I'm not sure exactly how long it to me to submit her, she almost got away when I first threw my leg up for the armbar, but i fought for it and secured it and cranked hard. I was going to get that armbar if I had to break her arm. Dead serious, I was thinking that to myself as I bent her elbow backwards. She tapped. My hand was raised. She was not a happy camper. I was pumped.

My totally non-paleo fight day french toast

Right to left: my Uncle Pat, Me, my Dad, cousin Patrick, and family friend Megan

Part of the reason I am excited about this win is because I learned something new about my abilities. There have been times where I've wondered if I was getting pounded on my back if I could fight through and win. I'd never really taken a beating on the ground, and I'd never submitted anyone of my back. I found out I can fight through it. I'm pretty proud of that.

Some of my battles scars-my eye is more purple today, I have a couple vicious scratches behing my ear and on my back, and some little bruises here and there. I like them :)

Now that the fight's over, I let myself eat what I wanted, paleo or not, I chilled, I finished my homework. Now it's Monday and I'm back to the paleo plan. Next weekend I have a couple family parties and I'm going to let myself have some treats there, but for the most part I'm gonna be good. I want to get back to fighting at 135. I'll be lifting tonight and back to training tomorrow. I can't wait for my next fight!

My training partner Courtney and I

Weigh Ins and FIGHT DAY!

Woohoooooo! Fight day is finally here! I'm pumped to get back in the cage!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but the last week or so leading up to the fight is always a hectic one. I recorded some video blogs during cut week that I'm working on editing for you all, so stay tuned for those!

This cut was a somewhat difficult one, it was my first time attempting to cut to 135 in over a year, and my body is much different now, plus my schedule is much different, so it was kind of a trial run if you will. After I hit 140 my body refused to sweat any more, and after no eating or drinking all day I weighed in at 138.4. My opponent was a last minute match-up and weighed in at 143, so I'm glad I didn't overwork myself trying to get to 135 for nothing.

We weighed in at Hooters, where the event will take place outdoors, and then it was time to drink and eat! I always start off with a Pedialyte to rehydrate quickly, then I had one thing I've been craving for WEEKS: peanut butter, banana, and honey on wheat toast =D It made me very happy. That was followed up by a smart water and some Hooters fries. They had free wings for the fighters, but my stomach is sensitive after crash dieting and dehydrating, so I stayed away from those. We went to an awesome Italian restaurant called Avanti's. I had spaghetti and meatballs, although after all the liquids, the sandwhich, and an appetizer and fresh baked bread, I had a lot leftover to take home :) We ended the night with a couple movies, including Warrior, and snacking and rehydrating more.

This morning started off with pancakes, eggs, and bacon with water and chocolate milk, then I went to get my hair braided and I'm ready for war. There will be more relaxing and eating until the fights tonight..and then it's time for action!

Make sure you come back and check out my first video blogs and results!