On the Mat Day 263: Fasting and Training

So I got back from a health check earlier, my company pays for it and I do it every year. Last year apparently my cholesterol was high. This bothered me so I decided to not eat much 24 hours before the test to see if it was really my body or I just ate crap before the last test. Let me list what I ate yesterday.

• Scrambled egg on toast with mango juice for breakfast
• 1/4 apple, 1/4 orange for lunch
• 1 banana before heading to training

This morning I had no breakfast and went for the checkup. Beside the fun of being cheeky with the nurses and one of them hitting on me, I hate going to the hospital. When they take blood samples it doesn't bother me but when I have to drink a cup of barium that has the viscosity of emulsion paint - that bothers me. It is the most disgusting thing I will ever swallow at the insistence of another human being. My guts were churning up until about 2 pm.

So following this semi-fast I went to training last night. My energy was as you can imagine very low. I just could not focus on the techniques we were shown. It was like I had totally forgotten left from right. Sparring was ok. There were only 3 white belts along with F-sensei but my performance was really poor in the stamina department. Fasting and training do not go well together. On the plus side my weight dropped to 71.6 kg so if I wanted to I could easily fast and drop weight for a competition. The thought of dropping to a lower weight rank even went through my mind.

On another note I highly recommend the Open Mat Radio podcast episode with John Danaher. He has a lot of very interesting things to say about BJJ from quite a cerebral thinking viewpoint. I liked his description of what BJJ is:

"The prime object is to control a resisting human being and bend them to your will."

I could not put it better myself. Thank you Mr. Danaher.

Sparring time: 7 x 6 mins = 42 mins