Train martial arts.

I trained in TaeKwonDo (like a lot of people) many years ago, and even got to the level of first degree black belt in my late teens, when I was in great physical shape for kickboxing. I admit the style has been commercialized for the Karens and Kaydens in America, and even back then it was to an extent, but I put in a lot of effort and was very good in comparison to my peers. I have not kept up with that training, but I have kept good flexibility and if I do say so myself, I have maintained a pretty mean side kick, a decent spinning back kick, and my roundhouse isn’t bad either.

In the Army I got to train in the Modern Army Combatives Program, and I got to level 3 out of 4. I feel lucky with that, since most soldiers don’t get the opportunity to even sign up for level 2. You get level 1 at basic training. I happened to be stationed in Korea, and we didn’t have much else to do. MACP including a little boxing, a few kicks, a few takedowns, and some of what I now recognize as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques.

About a year and a half ago I started training in wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It’s mostly BJJ with some wrestling moves thrown in. I highly recommend it. If you’ve got some kickboxing type of experience and some semblance of a ground game, you’re ahead of 95% of the population who are within 30 pounds of your weight or 20 years of your age.

I believe a full spectrum fight capability includes four elements: Boxing, kickboxing, wrestling and ground submissions. If you have some legitimate training in all of these four areas, you’re fairly well rounded, technique-wise.

We all pretty much know what boxing is. We’ve all seen it on TV so I don’t need to define it. You’re throwing jabs, straights (cross), lead hooks and rear hooks, lead and rear uppercuts, overhands, using footwork, head movement, coverups, etc. This is your ability to throw punches to the head and body of your opponents and avoid taking punches yourself.

Kickboxing has boxing in it, but obviously you’re adding kicks to the legs, body and head, you’re throwing elbows and knees, you’re fighting in the clinch and doing some basic trips. Karate and TaeKwonDo have great kickboxing elements to them, but the pinnacle of kickboxing really is Muay Thai style, or even Lethwei, if you want to headbutt folks. A headbutt can be very effective, especially if you’re wearing a helmet with a NVG mount. Ask me how I know.

Wrestling is extremely important to a well rounded fighter, because good wrestling means you get to choose where the fight takes place. On the feet or on the ground. Wrestling allows you to gain gain control of your opponent and take them to the ground. Or if your opponent tries to put you down, good wrestling will allow you to stuff that takedown, or if you are taken down, you can reverse the position and get yourself back to your feet.

The submission game is important for obvious reasons, and while you may not always be throwing Kimura arm locks and triangle chokes in a serious self-defense situation, learning these moves can be useful. You may very need to use a rear-naked choke or bulldog choke to defend yourself. If you’re interested in submissions, BJJ is the height of that game, though other styles like Sambo and Luta Livre do have submissions as well.

These submission styles paired with wrestling can get you into a good “ground and pound” position as well, although in a real world fight, you might want to use your ability to gain dominant positions as a way to make an escape. Obviously the best way to fight is to avoid a fight, or escape a fight. Having skills is important, but it only takes one bad punch or a bad fall to end someone’s life.

If you have to fight, be a fighter and win. If you have the chance to just get away at any point, take that option. And start training as soon as possible. No matter your age or physical ability, start training now and in six months, you’ll be better. And then in a year, you’ll be better than that, and so on. The goal is always to be better. Start now, and be glad later that you did instead of wishing that you did.

Can’t watch most sports anymore.

I love sports. I love games. I love watching and playing. I love the competitive aspect. I firmly believe competition is a great thing, especially physical competition for boys. I don’t expect to win everything, and while I don’t mind losing (learning), I always play to win. And I love to watch professionals and other high level participants play to win.

What I don’t want to see is politics in sport. The problem is that when you say “politics” in sports, they all expect us to pretend that it’s both sides of politics. It’s not though. Anyone with two active brain cells knows full well that right wing politics is not allowed in sports. Even NASCAR only ever had milquetoast right wing political messaging. Nothing to overt or offensive back then. Just American flags and country music. Now, there is only one sport you can turn on and see minimal political messaging.

Combat sports.

Aside from the rare “Hispanic heritage month” crap, combat sports has generally shunned left wing political messaging. And let’s be honest, left wing political messaging would be the only type of political messaging allowed on TV anyway.

I can’t watch my New Orleans Saints football or MLB anymore without having to see Black Lives Matter blasted all over the place. I can however watch the UFC or Bellator fights and be free from that insidious, anti-white garbage.

My advice is to start watching combat sports. Yes, I understand that the UFC is broadcast by ESPN, which is owned by Disney. So then don’t pay for it. Go watch it at a venue like a sports bar or grille. Or if you have to pay for it, split it between a bunch of friends so that ESPN only gets a fraction from each person.

And while you’re at it, lose weight and get yourself into the MMA gym. Pick up Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing or wrestling. Or maybe all of them. Don’t just watch it. Do it.

And for now, stop watching mainstream sports like football, baseball and basketball. It sucks, but that’s America now. It sucks.

Basic pointers on getting healthy (that you should probably already know).

Originally posted by The Gray Man at American Partisan.

I think everyone is always looking for the easiest way to do things, and being healthier is no different. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to look for an easy way to do something, as it’s often effective and efficient. Here are a few pointers that you can probably figure out on your own, but if you had, you’d already be doing them, and if you are, keep it up.

 

-Stop smoking. That includes vaping and smoking weed. Your lungs are meant to inhale oxygen, and no matter how many ailments and diseases you think that weed is an absolute cure for, you’re not ever going to convince this RN that inhaling smoke of any type is healthy.

-Stop drinking soda. Soda is loaded with sugar and is the highest sugar intake item in the regular diet of many Americans. The first thing that many physicians will tell you when you ask “how do I lose a few pounds?” is going to be “cut the soda out.” That includes diet soda. If you’re looking to get healthy and you mean it, diet soda isn’t part of that either.

-No more fast food. This one should be as obvious as the last point. Fast food is way too high in sugar and sodium and is almost always fried. Avoid it, you don’t need it.

-Take a multivitamin. A lot of people don’t consider this but it really can be beneficial. Vitamins are cheap and easy to make and so you’re not going to be paying much for them, and they’re not being infused with unhealthy substances to get you addicted to them like fast food and soda are with sugars and caffeine.

-Avoid food and drink vices. You know those people who make jokes (but you know they’re being serious) about not being able to function without their morning coffee, or those people who “never” smoke UNLESS they’re having a couple of drinks? Don’t become one of them. Coffee is not a terrible thing to have but don’t become dependent on it. Don’t become one of those people who just HAVE to have a night out of heavy drinking every Friday to blow off steam. If you have to do something unhealthy just to unwind on a regular basis, then you need to make some life changes.

-Don’t drink regularly, or heavily. Studies are showing that occasional light alcohol use isn’t unhealthy, and of course some even say that a little red wine now and then is beneficial. But if you’re going through a case of beer per week, it’s too much to be healthy. If you’re polishing off a fifth of whiskey every four or five days, it’s too much to be healthy. If you’re getting off work and having a half a bottle of wine before bed, yeah, it’s too much to be healthy.

-Drink water. I know they say eight glasses a day is what you need, but who knows how much a “glass” is supposed to be? Try drinking between 1.5 and 2 liters of water per day. Better yet, REPLACE something unhealthy that you’re drinking with water instead. Your kidneys will be healthier for it.

-Eat at home. If you can replace restaurant meals outside of the home with meals planned out and shopped for at the grocery store and prepared and cooked at home, you’ll likely see some weight loss and increased energy. I’m not talking about package and processed meals. I mean meals that require cooking. You know, like actual RECIPES. You don’t have to be a chef and eat farm fresh every meal. Just don’t eat out all the time and don’t always settle for those overly-processed foods.

-Spend a little more time outside. However much time you spend outside, try to take a little more of your inside downtime and make it OUTSIDE downtime. Even if all you’re doing is sitting in your backyard or on your porch or balcony. Open the windows in your house, if it’s feasible.

-Start going on walks. A mile or two is really nothing as long as you’re not already injured or disabled. If you already go for walks, grab a light pack and make it a ruck. If you’re already rucking, then good for you. Grab a long gun to carry along if the laws and the local environment permits it, and if not, carry a 2×4 or something to simulate it.

-Start your day and/or end your evening with a set of crunches and a set of push-ups. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a hundred of each, but a small set, increasing a little over time will benefit you. Squats are easy to add to that routine. Stretching in the morning wakes you up and helps to prevent injury through the day’s activities.

See that? Simple stuff. Now get it done. If you do all or most of this, you’re likely to see positive results in just a couple of weeks.

Side note: Please do not let your kids drink soda, sweet tea or juices that are high in sugar. The pancreas of a young child is not mature enough to be repeatedly dumping insulin for large doses of sugar. Let them drink water so that when they become adults, their pancreas gets a head start and hasn’t been forced to compensate for a steady stream of added sugar when it’s not yet capable of it.

How I went from 235 pounds to 178 pounds with no added exercise.

When I was in high school I was always very thin. I was 5’10” and I weighed around 125 pounds when I graduated. I was lean, able to do almost 90 push-ups without stopping and could go over 100 in two minutes. Likewise, I could do sit-ups nonstop up into the 200’s and could get almost 130 in two minutes. I was running a 13:30 two-mile. Fast forward to joining the Army several years after graduating and I had put on weight. I am a half inch under 6′ according to the Army, and was almost 200 pounds when I started basic training. By graduation, I had dropped back down to 165.

Fast forward again to deployment in Afghanistan, and I weighed in at a healthy 185. I wasn’t overly bulky with muscle but we had been training for deployment for well over a year and a lot of it focused on heavy weight bearing ruck marches in anticipation of getting attached to our long range surveillance unit, 2-38 Cav. During that time I was carrying the M249 SAW at least as often as I was carrying the M4. I also had the M240B assigned to me in addition to some extra intelligence gathering gear that was heavier than it should have been.

Another fast forward. I leave the Army and over the next couple of years, I found myself at a whopping 230 pounds. I would touch 235 on a bad week. I was working night shift on a trauma-surgical floor and eating whatever we could get delivered at 2100 hours. That meant pizza, Chinese food, buffalo wings or burgers and fries. And that was at least three days a week. I was drinking mostly sweet tea or soda, ate fast food at least a couple of times a week when I wasn’t at work, and I was past the age of 30. Not the age where you want to start playing catch-up on your health. I could still move and I didn’t look as heavy as I was, which is probably why I let it get that way. I simply was not paying attention.

One last fast forward about 18-20 months, and here I am sitting at 178, with a goal of 175, or maybe 170. Admittedly, I am exercising a lot more often right now than I used to, but exercise has almost nothing at all to do with how I got back down in weight.

It was 99.9% dietary changes.

First, I cut out all soda and all fast food, and started eating ONLY what my wife cooked. She uses cast iron a lot. We cut our restaurant trips from twice a week, to about twice a month when other people invited us out. When we go to restaurants, we decline appetizers and drink water, and I usually look for seafood first. I love seafood anyway. I started drinking a ton of water, at least 1.5 liters per day. We got rid of our pantry full of snacks and only keep fruit instead (which my kids prefer anyway). Aside from seeing our bank account get bigger, I saw my weight drop from 230+ down to 212.

After that, we stopped frying foods at home. Nothing at home is fried anymore, which is also nice for cleaning up. We use the grill at least three times per week. We replaced all ground beef with low fat ground turkey (93% lean/7% fat), which tastes nearly the same to us, and has a lot less grease to it. I started eating fish for lunch. We started taking a standard multivitamin everyday.

Next step was to train ourselves in portion control. Fill your plate with 1-1.5 normal sized portions of every item, and then when you’re finished with it, wait 15-20 minutes before you get seconds. Often we find that we end up not wanting any more. We also have started eating bananas, apples or strawberries for snacks between meals. I find that the bananas do the best job of satisfying hunger at that time.

We switched to wheat bread instead of white. Low fat mayo. Fat free cheddar cheese. Low fat mozzarella. Wheat pasta. Fat free refried beans on Mexican night with wheat tortillas, and ground turkey instead of the ground beef.

If I had to condense it down, I would just call it a low carb, low sugar, low fat diet.

The diet plan we are on is non-intrusive, easy, quick, doesn’t leave you hungry, doesn’t eliminate any particular foods (even though we have personally chosen to eliminate some), which means you don’t have to give up your favorite stuff, and it has worked really well with me and my wife (who has lost over 40 pounds herself) over the last nine months. It has allowed me to start moving more, breathing easier and feeling and looking better. My blood pressure is back to normal and my heart rate is down from being irregular in the high 90’s to very steady in the low 60’s.

My email address is TheGrayMan314@protonmail.com and if you’re wondering what the plan is that we are using, please email me. I assure you that I am not selling anything and I am not going to direct you to any website or anything you’ll have to pay for. I am willing to just tell you what we are doing and give advice and answer questions. I am not a trainer or a dietitian, but I am an ER RN and I have gone from 235 pounds at my worst down to 178 pounds today, and I only added a little bit more new exercise about five months ago by starting at a MMA gym (and I’m not losing weight from that). That’s it. I plan to continue adding more exercise in the form of the Wednesday WODs you see over on American Partisan, but our weight loss up until now has been entirely diet based.