As this is written, it is competition day, a few hours before I’m scheduled to compete. It has been over a year since I last competed, and although I know what to expect, I already see my body going in “fight or flight mode”. How? I see my self constantly pacing, looking for things to do, can’t seem to sit still. I’m pretty excited. Also, a bit nervous, but that’s just a part of it.
Big fears seem to be, losing within a couple seconds and injuring myself. Otherwise, I’m just in it to be in it. It’s fun to do it with a couple of friends and see how well you fare against others.
I’m naturally pretty ripped. (Not just by doing nothing, but I constantly lift, train Jiu Jitsu, and surf) But to maintain that, I eat a shit ton. I eat as much as I can. I don’t gorge on shit food, but I do eat a lot. I time my eating properly too. My eating schedule somewhat follows the framework for an intermittent fasting schedule. I normally skip breakfast and eat lunch (even when I go on surf sessions early morning, I normally won’t eat anything after until lunch unless I’m really needing the calories). I’ll eat a big lunch, make sure to get my lean meat, leafy greens, and some fruit in, then I’m good till post training which is dinner time, which becomes around 9 PM. I’ll stuff myself then too. To the point where I feel as if I can’t eat anymore. At the body fat % where even when I’m stuffed, you can see my six pack. I’ve gone a long way with figuring out how to get to where I am today and experimented with my diet, but I found what works for me.
Competition wise, I didn’t have the luxury of pigging out at dinner because I had to make weight. I fight at super feather which nabjjf standards call out to be 141 lbs. What I did was not pig out, limit myself on water retaining foods, and eat foods with a ton of fiber i.e kale, spinach, bananas, blueberries, and almonds. However, on competition day, to give myself an edge, I’m choosing to indulge in a Clif Bar – Mint Chocolate With Caffeine. I love these. They always give me a good pump before a surf, especially when I’m feeling sluggish in the morning. They’re both light and dense at the same time – you’ll know what I mean when you eat it.
I’m taking a break from writing this to go compete and writing back what happens after this break….
And an update, I lost my first match! I thought I’d be able to put up more of a fight, but damn, I got my guard passed real quick and ended up trying to defend the entire time… I felt completely jello like and weak. I don’t know what it was. I felt pretty calm coming in, however I noticed my body feeling weak. Maybe it was just the nerves that got to me. Oh well. Heres to the next one!
P.S. For those that struggle with anxiety, what I did was I plugged in my Powerbeats3 and listened to some pump up music really helps get my nerves out of the way. I am > I was by 21 Savage did the trick at the time to get the blood flowing during my warm up.