Avant Guard

Great match! Another gem from Buchecha vs. Leo Nogueira in the open weight finals: What a finish!

Hi, Sambalina! I expect to see improvements via diet. Until recently, I ate out a lot. I now have a kitchen all to myself and have been cooking a lot more. I've been minimizing the amount of processed food I have in my cabinets and refrigerator and stocking more fruits and nuts to snack on. My cooking also features vegetables and good fat. I'm not too familiar with paleo, but I assume I don't follow that diet: I don't eat a lot of meat and I eat beans, bread, grains (mostly quinoa), and yogurt. I do, however, feel lighter and have lost a few pounds. I'll give it a few weeks to see what happens.

Yup, I'm looking for my 1up! I've been lurking around this board for awhile now and reading NF even longer. As an enginerd who's interested in fitness, I love NF! I'm even more stoked that this forum exists for fellow nerds to help each other out. As a youth, I was hardly active until high school. There, I played A LOT of basketball and ran a bit, but I didn't think I was good enough for any teams. Instead, I wrestled (very poorly) for three years before going off to college where I hardly did anything physical and ate very poorly. I continued to do nothing and eat very poorly after graduation until about four years ago, when I started playing organized pickup flag football and realized how out of shape I was. To supplement my newfound hobby, I joined my first gym, an LA Fitness. I ran a bit and lifted a bit (even using *gasp* weight machines!), but often found myself getting bored and discouraged from a lack of direction. I wanted to get in shape so I could do well in my flag football games, but didn't know how to achieve it. Though I achieved my goal of running a 5K during this two-year period of my "fitness life", I was quickly losing motivation. I had to change things up, and I did so by leaving LA Fitness for a boxing gym. What I liked about this boxing gym were its group fitness classes, which included A LOT of bodyweight exercises and A LOT of bag hitting. They had great instructors, peers who push me, and often left me feeling exhausted but accomplished. And I got results: I lost 10 lbs that I kept off, learned more about proper exercise from the instructors, and felt better overall. Eventually, I felt confident enough to tackle my lifetime goal of running a marathon. With the help of an awesome running group, I ran three half marathons and a full marathon in 2010! This boxing gym also had Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes, which I, as an ex-wrestler, was interested in but never took until some encouragement from the instructor. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a fit nerd's dream: it's a very cerebral martial art that can be practiced at varying intensity levels and places a high premium on overall fitness, i.e. cardio, strength, flexibility (I often call it weaponized yoga). Again, I was hooked. Fast forward to today. I still work out regularly, feeling like I "get" what Steve preaches: a lot of small stuff, lots of bodyweight workouts, enjoying the nice weather by running outside, some yoga when I'm feeling stiff, and occasionally (ok, often) going nuts on mud runs. I'm eating better than I used to, though I'm far from perfect. As of recently, I have a kitchen all to myself so I've been cutting out processed food from my diet, increasing my water intake, and cooking more, emphasizing vegetables. I've since left the boxing gym, following my jiu jitsu instructor to his new academy. I'm in the latter half of my third year as a BJJ practitioner and in the latter half of my second year as a blue belt. I'm 28, 5'5", 152 lbs, 17% BF. Even though I feel good these days, I think I can get my body fat percentage and weight down further. I'm hoping that my new dietary environment helps. Wish me luck!