Experiment with 18/6 IF and 'bulletproof coffee'

So I'm not training this week. I'm fighting a wicked little head cold and on some meds. So I can't report on the training I'm doing. However, I'm when I'm not training, my mind is still mulling over how to become better. I don't seem to be able to help it. Probably a personal problem.

Instead, I'm going to try a month long experiment. I've been reading this guy's blog. www.bulletproofexec.com He basically is a body-hacker guy who is ripping off paleo dieting, leangains IF, and some other biofeedback stuff to try to squeeze more performance out of his body. I have no issue with the ripping off other than he's trying really hard to monetize it. He has some pretty far-out hippy shit that he talks about too. 'Earthing Mats' and stuff... Not sure what to think about that stuff.

One of the most captivating things is his 'bulletproof coffee' which basically amounts to butter, coconut oil, and 16 oz of coffee in the A.M. His logic is that the short/medium chain triglycerides are brain fuel, filling, and allow you to make it through to your first meal more easily and with more energy. He talks about how sluggish you can feel doing an IF and grumpy, etc. I have experienced this with my 2x a week 24 hour fasts that I've been doing for several months. I'm intrigued enough to try this method.

In conjunction with this, he uses a 18 hours fasted, 6 hours fed IF protocol. This is done daily. So you just don't eat till 2pm, then you eat the foods on this diagram in the 'green section' until 8pm. I don't expect that I'll be eating only grass-fed beef/butter/ and broccoli, but I will comply to the feeding window.

Another weird thing he recommends is taking salt immediately upon waking. 1/2 Tsp with 16oz of water. He argues that it helps in the AM when your body needs sodium to help 'wake you up'. I haven't dug into this at all, but salt is good so I'll try it.

He also talks about myotoxins and fungi on coffee beans. I'm going to go ahead and disregard that as well. The crux is that you feel fed and energized during those crucial waking hours when you feel like having a bite.

I am a little concerned with the extra calories that 2 Tbl of butter and 1 Tbl of coco oil adds. I'll see how it affects me. I'm going to attempt to not change anything else to see if the daily fasts mixed with calories from butter change anything for the better.

The greatest reason I expect it to work is that my fasted state goes PAST my jobs standard lunch hour. I'll miss out on a LOT of lunches at restaurants. More savings, less crap food, more fat loss. If the coffee keeps me sated for those first hours until 2pm, then even better.

His main gripe with non grassfed butter is that it has lower amounts of D, CLA, and assorted other vitamins. I supplement Vitamin D, take a multi, and have Conjugated linoleic acid, so I'm not sweating that too much. Also... come at me myotoxins.

My current weight is 190.4lbs.

Daily supplements (when I remember):

multi, D3, fish oil, ZMA before bed

Will report back.

week of 10/15/12

Monday: feeling sick rest

Tuesday: not too back, jumped rope for 30:00

Wednesday: MT, ropes, leg check to knees
sparring was legit. I sparred Will. He made me feel like a little kid. "glad you're feeling better, spar will" jesus.
It was great

Thursday:
Armbars from mount:
go to S mount. If you can trap both arms, attack the main arm by posting off hand, and swing leg around. Try to finish without falling from top position. If he breaks free, swing around and attack the other arm.

Kimura stomp thing.
Usually comes from guy w/ hands on hips trying to break guard. Pry elbow away and lift that side foot onto hop to keep arm away from body. Get kimura grip. Sling that leg across back once grip is established. Finish if possible. If he posts his leg, grabs pants and traps his hand, you can use that top leg to stomp away while you rip the grip on the pants. Must have explosive movement.

KesaGatame and side control and N/S:
Side. Really sink hips, knee by his hips, other leg sprawled trying to bury that hip on the ground. preventing him from getting his near arm under your sprawled leg to make space. arm near head should try to cradle the head. other arm should be either by his far hip, under his arm, cradling the shoulder. If the near arm exposes itself, push it across, and work for an arm triangle. use body weight to keep that arm trapped while the grips change around.

switching to kesa:
over hook near arm and yank up. step lowest leg under. Try to keep butt on ground. now that switched hips, keep lowest leg bent and on foot, other leg sprawled high above his head, try to tuck your head against his chest to pin. The overhooked arm and hips are the primary method of control. Your other hand can either scoop the far arm or the head.

going N/S. keeping chest contact, use bottom arm to weave under near arm and to opposite side of his head, pinning the arm and amking him look away. your weight will sometimes trap that arm on his face or chest. This can be used to set up the arm triangle, so you can either mount to finish, or go all the way around and start walking around.

Transitioning side/kesa/NS/KoB drilling. on a heavy bag (mma drill). Side, Kesa, side, reverse Kesa, mount, reverse Kesa, side, Kob, mount, Kob etc etc.

Guillotine drill: head on same side, practice hopping to other side to relieve pressure.

standing Guillotine defense: reach arm that is inside up and over his far shoulder. reach outside arm inside his outside leg, get hips in, posture up, slam and land in side control, out of danger.

Then you can work your escape by using shoulder to pressure and post up on his neck.

Week of 10/8/12

Monday: "flow yoga". I continue to be humbled and made tired by yoga. This was the last class of my 4class package. I had different instructors each time for this short yoga experiment. It was good to get varied approaches to teaching and to how to describe the positions. I'm going to visit paul soon and take a hot yoga class.

Tuesday: Gi:
arm bar practice.

Sweep off of this attempt:
flower sweep. The key is pulling his weight on top of you. If he's lighter, use your leg underhook to pull him on top. If he's heavier, bring yourself to him, and get under him to break his base. The leg that's across his back is used to off balance him. Attack for the arm bar a few times, if he defends or locks his arms up, then use the leg that would pass over to kick out, and go out and under with that free leg. Chopping his base while lifting his base on the underhook side. End up in mount. If you keep the arm, then go straight to the mounted arm bar.

Good rolls. I just got done listening to a Gracie talking about having fun and it really helped my mindset during the rolls. I'm debating doing NAGA, but it's coming December 1. Not sure if I'm going to sign up or not. That's $100 I don't have to spend.

Jamal did an awesome job coaching us tonight. Great details and explanation of WHY we were doing stuff. Framework stuff. This is a welcome refresher. Raph is in Brazil for 2 weeks. I'm stoked that Jamal is teaching.

I pulled off a few cool sweeps that I've been studying (tripod sweep), and a choke from the mount (sort of a neck crank front naked choke thing). As usual, G was aggressive and kept ending up on top. He was yanking his arms out of my attacks. I need to keep tighter when I'm attacking. I survived pretty well against Ron and Jamal, stalling their submissions. The arm bar stall works really well. basically you hide your arm behind your arm as if you were doing a RNC.

Wednesday: MT
Good workout, good sparring. evade technique

Thursday:
armbars from mount
variation 1: cross hands around arm, post on chest, swipe leg around head while falling back into arm bar.
variation 2: get high mount, trap arm, use other hand to post off of face, go to S-Mount, swing leg round
variation 3: get high mount, trap arm, post off face, shift weight back onto his ribs, swing leg around, then fall back into arm bar.

Friday:
Deadlifts 5x5
kb warmup, jump rope 3:00, dl 120x12
220,270,270,270,300 x 5 3 minutes rest minimum between sets

week of 10/3/12

monday:
10 mins of jump rope 40/40 pushups squats
50 left / rt kicks. low/high kicks
pads: 1,2,lk, check, evade teep, rk and opposite
mitts: 1,2,body block rt, rt uppercut, 3,2 step 2
1,2,3,body,bodylft, lt up, 2,3,2 step 2
1-10 bodybody,lt up, 2,3,2,step 2 step 2

tuesday:
bjj
double under pass: both arms in, open lapel, thumb in, pressure and pass

double under to back take, as you apply the pressure, grab the pants, left and start to take back, establish hooks and over/under grips. begin working chokes

if he weights his hips, and tightens up, just back away and pin one leg to the ground, get a knee through and pin that leg as you swing the other leg around behind and back to establish side control

Wednesday:
Yoga.
Good instructor there today. Very detailed. I guessed he was an engineer or a programmer. He is a programmer.

Thursday:
BJJ
working side control positions.
Practiced circling sides as the guy on bottom starts to shrimp out. Put head on side you're on, pin his top knee down, then swing legs around head and reestablish control on other side. You can either face his legs or his head for this, though the  legs seem easier.

You can also take full mount in this transition.

Guy on bottom's goal is to grip and make space to recompose. so guy on top must work to clear his knees and establish.

If guy get's 1/2 guard as you swing around, try to establish 1/2 mount, then take back, work chokes and arm locks.

Friday:
2 miles run

Saturday:
Gi: Simple sweeps and more of what we did thursday
No  Gi: good grappling day. Landed some good moves against people that used to tool me up. He took about 3 months off, and I caught him in a head and arm choke from guard.

week of 9/24/12

monday: Heavy bag workout, filmed it.

tuesday: jits, dont remember what we did

wednesday: yoga

Thursday: went on a run

Friday: off

Saturday: Jr and I rolled a bit.

Week of 9/17/12

Monday:
MT: Anthony worked us pretty hard.
3 jump rope rounds
some running
50 kicks, left and right
pads: 1,2,2xlkcheck evade, 2x rt kick
mitts: 1,2, roll 2,3, rt low, rt high
1,2, roll roll, 3, 2 lt low, lt high
sparring, 3 rounds or so
bicycle crunches 60
about 2 minutes of legs around bag, arms overhead, reach up and slap bag.

Tuesday:
BJJ:
Felt so much disdain from Raph today. probably all in my head. I didn't feel like training today at all.
We worked 1/2 guard stuff (SURPRISE!). I appreciate this since this is what failed me during the competition, but I also felt embarrassed since I knew it was for me.
1/2 guard, technical stand to takedown, switch the 1/2 guard to outside leg over his leg to free up inside leg, technical stand.
1/2 guard, sweep: underhook, and dive under, hiding the head.
1/2 guard, using under hook, bump and take back

Some tips for this. Don't be flat. Always have the underhook, and fight for it. Try to post on bottom arm.
when going for the sweep, once the leg is captured, and head is hidden, escape hips the OTHER way to bring his weight fully on top of you. If he is able to get your head from his chest, abandon the leg grip, and fight the crossface.

Wednesday:
3 sets of 3:00 jumprope, 20pushups, 20 bodyweight squats

about 20 kb swings to wake my hips up (this made a huge difference, by the way)
deadlifts
w/u sets
220 x 5, 270 x 3, 270 x 5

Superset:
overhead 35lb kb shoulder press and pullups
6, 10pu, 6, 6pu, 6, 6pu

Superset:
75lb T-bar swings w/ suspended rows
3 sets of 10swing, 8 rows

Thursday: Rest

Friday: run 3 miles w/ dogs. LSD training. 120-140 bpm for about 45 minutes. Also threw in some pushups and abs for fun

Saturday: No Gi, Gino and I just drilled a few Gi chokes, and rolled a few rounds. It was a low key day and one that I needed. No pressure, just play. I was able to pull off the sweeps I missed during my competition. One thing I realize I didn't do is hip escape BACK UNDER him once I dove under to grab the opposite leg. To life his weight on top of me. Then I could drive and push him over. No Gi is fun.

Sunday: All Level Yoga at Atlanta Yoga. This was a sore-maker last time I did it. I have to use up my coupon book that I purchased. Even though I don't really want to go, I should. I know I'll be more pliable and sore afterwards. Yoga is the truth.

IBJJF and my match, Sept. 15

I haven't posted for the last couple of weeks because I was concentrating so intently on my upcoming IBJJF match on the 15th. I wasn't doing MT during the week preceding and was only concentrating on bjj. Watching video, drilling, thinking about it, losing sleep.

My prep consisted primarily of some stand-up work, guard passes, and sweeps from open guard.

The IBJJF was a very cool event. They actually sold it out 2 days before the registration deadline. Weigh-ins are IN the gi, so I had to be at least 3-4 lbs lighter than 195. I am usually 183-186 so that was no big deal. I'm glad I read the rule book before registering, because it would have been nearly impossible to get under 181 with the gi in 2 weeks. Next year, I'll probably compete in the sub 181 class. This will require some more diet tweaking, which I have room to do.

A few of my teammates, my best good friend, and my wife came out. I was the only one from Madhouse that was able to enter. So everyone who came out was looking to me for a win. Well, I lost.



Here's how the fight went, as I remember it. I haven't watched the footage yet, but it's uploading now.
EDIT: Video below.

My cauliflower eared opponent (white belt, ehh?) snatched a single, I sprawled. He was able to turn the corner and finished the takedown.
I was able to get 1/2 guard, and in good posture. Underhook and posted on right arm, head against his chest.
I tried to use the underhook to take the back, but he settled his base, and whizzered that arm. I must have telegraphed it. I went under for a sweep, which he nullified with a sprawl. He used that time to get a crossface on me and flatten me out.
From there, he laid on me, combining choke and arm attacks with incrementally sneaking his knee past my 1/2 guard. I did my best to grab his lapel and used my forearm across his throat to keep him away. He eventually passed and continued from side to Knee-on-belly, then an easy mount. It was text book on his part. I could NOT move him. Time ran out, and that's that.

Discussions with my main man Cecil helped me with a game plan, as well as helping me re-frame my loss in my head to make it a learning experience.
Some things he recommended:
Make sure to get the collar grip first. This will help unbalance a wrestler, and it comes down to an attribute game. He was able to dictate range, and just took me down at will.

I had great position for a sweep in the first minute, but I relented and he was able to flatten me.

I'm really disappointed in my performance. I can either quit or keep going. I'll keep going.