Life is a Rolling Session

Here’s the thought for the morning…

When someone is in the center of God’s will… When someone is on the path that God has intended for them what happens? Is it going to be an easy road to go down? Not usually… Why? Because, Satan is going to do everything in his will power to stop it from happening.

When God has great plans satan is going to try to destroy them and he’s going to use whatever resources necessary to block that path or take you down the wrong path.

If satan can use suicide, he’ll plant that thought, if he can use issues between spouses, family or friends, he’ll use it. If he can use financial troubles, trust me… He’ll break everything that is important to you… Costing you several thousands of dollars in vehicle repairs… For MONTHS! Or maybe that’s just me… Anyway, those thoughts of doubt, lack of confidence, frustration… If you are in God’s will you are going to go through it without a doubt and you’re job is to come out on top…

You know, when we do Jiu-Jitsu, yes, I’m relating a God thing to Jiu-Jitsu… But when we do Jiu-Jitsu the first thing in learning it is to stay on top. Stay in a dominant position. You get kids in there that are rag dolls and will essentially let you do whatever, you get others that will fight like their life depends on it, and you get others that give it everything they’ve got, but due to their lack of knowledge they know they are essentially along for the ride and when they get stuck they start asking questions in which their partner gives them the basic tips. The latter is my favorite newbies to roll with…

But you see, that first roll, the first several rolls, you aren’t going to catch any submissions… You are going to get crushed, choked, armbarred, get caught in shoulder locks, leg locks, ankle/wrist locks, it’s unavoidable until you start learning to hold your own through a roll. When you are first starting Jiu-Jitsu there really is really no feeling that is better than when you make your first roll without getting submitted, did you win? Yeah, I consider it so, because you didn’t lose either. You held your ground and you didn’t give in and you didn’t open an opportunity to be submitted.

Eventually as time goes on your rolls become more fluid, more functional, more purposeful and you can start processing what is going on during a roll and you can start landing submissions and it starts making you feel better about your rolls.

I guess looking at life, looking at being where God needs us to be and satan doing his best to stop it I can easily look at it as a live rolling session, stay on top, stay dominant, fight for the submission… Yeah, you’re going to have bad times, you’re going to feel like you aren’t getting anywhere because you are frequently being submitted, but the test comes with are you going to get over yourself bump fists and go again?

And the thing is, that even before you can get to the finished product of a good roll, there’s a crap load of conditioning to help you get through that roll, cardio, strength… It’s not fun… It’s a challenge, but it’s important to keep you on the mat without injury and preforming at your best. The roll is not all there is to it… Where in life, the trial is not all there is to it. You can still prepare to a degree, you can still condition yourself to handle it better.

Keep sight of why you are going through what you are going through, know that there’s a purpose and a reason and know that it’s our job to not let satan ruin it. Because again, being on God’s path is the last thing he wants.

God has a plan for greatness… and has had them since the beginning of time. Sometimes we see it, sometimes we don’t.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

 

God Bless,

Jessica

To Quit or Not to Quit

There aren’t many things that make me feel like I’ve failed myself… Well… I say that… But here’s the thing… As of late my dietary habits aren’t pleasing me. I’ve tried for the last three years to change my diet to something healthier with little to no success… I’ve cut out a few unnecessary things, carbonated beverages, chips… on occasion I’ll eat tortilla chips or potato chips. But turns out kicking the habit of spending maybe a minute to get a bowl of cereal in the morning and another ten seconds rinsing the bowl out instead of scrambling a few eggs and dirtying a pan too, or making smoothies or what have you. Is a whole lot harder than it sounds. Then you try to add in removing the sugar?!

Do you know that sugar actually can cause, and FEED cancer and tumors? Did you know that Sugar is just as addictive and causes the brain to light up very similarly to cocaine? Did you know that sugar causes fatigue, Weight gain, Digestive problems, heart disease, and a plethora of other problems?

People ask if I know what it’s like to quit smoking upon occasion… No, I don’t know what it’s like. But between watching loved ones struggle with it, and my own struggles to kick the sugar habit, I can surely sympathize…

Now, all that said to get here… I started MMA, mostly focusing on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, then boxing and Muay Thai. About two months into this, I learned of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, the Gracie Academy, and Gracie University. I fell in love with their philosophies because everything could be turned into a life lesson to help you in everyday life. Honestly, if it weren’t for them, I think Jiu-Jitsu would have been burned out a while ago. Though I love my gym, it’s rough being integrated as a newbie.

That’s another struggle I have where I go through days of feeling like I’m failing myself, simply because I’ll go through periods where I’m tapped frequently, or I’m constantly being smothered and I’m barely lucky to survive the round. But here again, through Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, I learned that being a newbie, being a white belt, our whole goal is to survive. Generally, that means learning to protect ourselves. Learning to keep our necks and our limbs safe, and sometimes just hanging out underneath someone and becoming comfortable just defending attacks. For us, it’s survive or die and so even if I am being smashed into the mat, generally I’m happy to have at least survived because that means, that I’m learning to protect myself. Anymore, I’m finding that I have the most fun and the best learning experience if I can partner myself with a higher belt rank that is actually willing to NOT try to kill me. However, the days that I’m barely surviving and/or being tapped, I get frustrated with myself because I feel like I’m failing, not only myself, but also my coaches. The important thing is though, is thanks to the Gracie’s I am still actively pursuing, and enjoying my Jiu-Jitsu classes!

And that is part of what has me excited about getting my diet back on track again, working with the Gracie Diet I feel like I might finally be able to get it. I’ve tried and tried and tried, but it’s like a rolling session, or even almost comparable to working with horses… One thing doesn’t always work, so switching things up and trying different methods might give you the result you are searching for. But, you have to stay with it and not give up. I know I can do it. At this point, it may be like a rolling session, simply defending myself from the junk food, and doing my best to stay out of any of it’s traps. If I had the choice and could remove all processed foods, and sugars from the house, I would have my diet in a heartbeat. Unfortunately I live with a family who is not quite on board with the idea. So I’m constantly surrounded and have easy access to junk food and that is where my fall is. Here’s the thing though, I’m not allowed to blame my family if I slip on my diet. Because I need to have the control it takes, and they are not responsible nor are the forcing me to eat anything that is unhealthy… As much as I would love to say that it was an addiction and I was going crazy craving it, even that is not an excuse to have caved and allowed myself to eat something I shouldn’t have.

However, I think, if one can conquer themselves… One can conquer anything. Because if you think about, we really truly are our own worst enemy… Hear me out, there’s a quote out there, not sure who it is originally by, but,

 I will beat him.

I will train harder.

I will eat cleaner.

I know his weaknesses.

I know his strengths.

I’ve lost to him before.

But not this time.

He is going down.

I have the advantage.

Because I know him well.

He is the old me.

To me it is a very powerful statement, because this is it. If we can overcome ourselves, we can get anything. It goes with everything we do, whether it’s getting off our butts and doing something, or changing habits, or pushing ourselves to the finish. When you accomplish a change that you had to fix and only you had the power to change, you will feel a sense of accomplishment you wouldn’t get anywhere else.

The reasons, for changing my diet, for training Jiu-Jitsu/MMA, is for this I guess… I want to be the healthiest I can be. I don’t want to be tired all the time, I don’t want to have stomach problems or headaches, I want to develop more muscle mass and I want to be fit. But through all of this, I’m learning perseverance and self-control like never before.

Shoot, since starting MMA I’ve seen many jokes “Explaining BJJ to friends” and it has a picture of some guy swimming with a shark at his heels. Or a person flailing around in the water trying to stay above the surface… And I’ll agree, that’s how it feels… But we don’t quit. We succeed not by losing, not by failing, but accepting that someone is better than us, they could have seriously injured or killed us, and we go again and again and we make progress.

Anyway, I hope, maybe this will encourage someone who is on the verge of quitting… I don’t care what you are on the verge of quitting. If it’s important, it’s time to buckle down, change your mindset and get it done. If you can change the mindset, acknowledge the mistakes and learn from them. Always remember, if you get in a pinch, normally you should have the opportunity to try again. You’ll get a whole lot further in life and feel much more pleased with yourself.

Now, the Gracie’s seem to be everywhere… So just in case on the slight off chance… Rener Gracie, Ryron Gracie… Y’all have been incredible people who have brought me a long way in just a few months and taught me a lot through the Gracie University. Thank you all so very much.

And a thank you to my MMA Coach who has pushed me when I needed to be pushed and helped me when I needed help and is always keeping me encouraged on the days that I’m just not feeling it.

 

God Bless,

Jessica

TFL’s, enthusiasm, and what I have learned

So my TFL is jacked up. The Tensor Fascia Latae is an abductor muscle in the front side of the hip area. It is responsible for bringing your leg in front of you, extending your knee, and bringing your leg out to the side. Because of the chain reaction this muscle it could cause mild paralysis from the lower back down because it is causing my muscles not to work properly therefore causing muscle wasting. It is doing this because the muscle has been stressed and is tightened and injured from being so tight.

I have fought and fought with trying to get the strength back into my leg which has been unsuccessful. After the first several treatments I walked away in a lot more pain but being able to move my leg. Finally after a few more I am sore for the first 24-48 hours but I am almost able to move my leg to it’s full ability again!

Last week it got particularly bad and my knee was buckling a lot and I had lost most of my range of motion. I could bring my leg a little bit in front of me but that was it. Barely enough to get my foot off the ground.

I had another appointment and Mason had started doing work on my lower back and hips. First I was suppose to push against him and he could barely feel me pushing, he kept telling me to push harder and I couldn’t push. Then he wanted me to lay on my left side and extend my right leg up into the air. I got my leg off the table about 3″. Mason told me he wanted my leg higher and naturally my response was, “I can’t.” At that moment his whole approached changed and he grabbed my leg and pulled my leg up “look how good you are doing!” I laughed and passed it off as him being a goober because I had little hope of it getting better. He continued to hold my leg in the air and let me do what I could do and each time he wanted me to raise it he would tell me that we were making improvements and I was a champ for coming such a long way and just being all enthusiastic about the “progress” I was making.

Today I understand what he was doing. No matter what the outcome is, even if it starts to get worse, I must keep pushing on, stay enthusiastic, and keep trying. No matter how long it takes I must continue to get rid of what ever is stopping me. In this case my TFL but in life that is the attitude we should have all the time.

So all that to really say that last paragraph….