I have been MIA for quite some time now, as I was extremely busy planning my wedding, getting married, and then going on my Honeymoon, but I am happy to say that Vlad and I finally tied the knot!!!

We have decided to start trying to have a baby right away, and since this is what I want the most in life, and I don’t want to do anything that may jeopardize a pregnancy, I will be taking a break from jiu-jitsu until after we have a baby.  It has been a lot of fun, and I really hope to return to it at a later time.  If you read this blog, thanks so much.  I am not the best blogger and I know I should have updated more often.  Anyway, if you are interested in seeing what is going on in my life, take a look at my other blog at http://www.insertclevertitlehere.com Thanks!  Talk to you later!

It has been quite some time since I updated this page.  I have been so busy with wedding stuff, that I have not even had time to think about this blog.  I am still training.  I have been training for about 4.5 months.

Not a lot has changed.  I have lost about 15 lbs since I started training, bringing me to a total of approx. 50 lbs lost since I started my mission to health.  My stamina has also increased tremendously.  When I first started, I could not do the warm up.  Now, I can do it, and usually without feeling too taxed afterward.  I still feel like I suck daily.  I also am having a really hard time rolling with new people, as in people I haven’t rolled with before.  I am 100% comfortable rolling with Vlad, and if I only ever had to roll with him I would be a happy camper.  However, I realize that this is not beneficial to Vlad or myself.  So far, I have only rolled with him, and the 3 other females at the club, who are all substantially smaller than me (shorter and lighter).

I don’t know if other people have this problem, but the fear I have, this phobia of rolling with the guys at the club is over-powering.  I have a daily struggle of whether to go to class that day, because I fear the words “find another partner”.  I am usually the last one standing, all by myself.

I really enjoy doing this.  I really want to stick with it, so I push myself to go.  I just wish it would get easier.

Yesterday Helio Gracie passed away at the age of 95.

Helio Gracie was the inventor of the modern martial art of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.  My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

…keeping this blog updated.  Anytime I think about updating the “Things I know” page, I cringe.   I have learned so much in the past 2 months, that I don’t even know where to begin to update it.  I don’t even think I remember everything.    I will get to it one day.  But for now, I just have to try to get myself to post regularly.

I have been having pretty good classes as of late.  I have been trying to roll with different people, though I tend to stick with the couple of girls in the class.  I am still pretty intimidated by the guys.  Except for Vlad of course.  I am finally remembering things to try when rolling.  The panic that was there before is slowly subsiding and allowing my body and brain to work together and somehow I am able to try new things.  They don’t work most of the time, but that is expected.  However, I did manage to pull off a timber sweep the other day.  That made my day.

Yesterday we did MMA in class for the second time since I started.  The first time I was not feeling well and missed the class.  This time, I did not have MMA gloves.  I tried to buy some, but they did not have my size in stock.  So I ordered some, but was unable to participate in that part of the class.  I was pretty pissed, but what can you do.  After class, during open mat, nobody wanted to roll with me.  I felt like the unathletic kid in gym class.  The combination of me being too shy to ask the guys to roll, and them not wanting to roll with me, is making it kind of difficult to get some time on the mats.    I am hoping that as time goes by this will change.

Anyway,  I am down about 8 lbs since starting Jiu-jitsu.  This is good, as I had hit a plateau before I started.  I work out on the elliptical at home 4 days a week, but I hate doing it.  Soooo boring.  I am glad that I have found something that I really enjoy doing, and is an awesome workout as well.

No post in a while.  I had a good class yesterday.  I really needed that.  The two classes before were really bad, and I was feeling really down about my ability to do this.  I just could not get anything right.

Yesterday was the first time that the warm up did not kick my butt.  I was able to do the entire thing, without stopping once.  This made me very happy.  Finally making progress with my cardio.  I also increased my regular workouts from 45 minutes to an hour.  I think this will help as well.

I need to leave the proverbial nest so to speak.  I have rolled with a couple of the girls at the club, but mostly stick to rolling with Vlad, because this is in my comfort zone.  I need to break this habit and start to go with other people, so that I get over this fear of rolling with other guys, and so that poor Vlad is not stuck rolling with me all the time.