Get Moving and Control Your Diabetes

All of the experts say that in order to control the onslaught of type 2 diabetes three things are required:

1) Change of diet.
2) The loss of weight.
3) The addition of exercise.

Of these the most over looked in exercise. The reduction of abdominal mass is directly related to how we lower our A1C3 levels and control our rise and fall of glucose levels. Please check out this article.
(I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. I will leave the details to the experts)

Great info Diabetes and Exercise on click the link!

Two Weeks To Go

Today is the official two week left to go mark. In two weeks we fly out of New York arriving in Montreal Canada.

For the last six months I have put in long hours of training. I was blessed to be accepted under the tutelage of the best in the world. Sensei Jadi Tention has patiently, and I mean really patiently, helped me make the adjustments from the days of old to a new and modern application of the art that I learned from Grand Master Sam McGee. Sensei Jadi has reawakened my martial arts fire. Amazing brother. Amazing training concepts.

When I started training waaay back in 1976 the dominant fight game was one where opponents slowly stalked each other. At that time there was no movement. The game was slower with more of a one shot kill mentality. Now the game is fast and diverse.

If you are not training in multiple disciplines you are behind the times. BJJ, MMA, boxing, wrestling all play a part in developing your ability to defend yourself. That's not to say that you are going to become a pro at all of them. But they all play a roll. You will lean toward one or two disciplines but don't neglect the others.

I'm putting together  a small video package that I can take to chronicle the trip. We'll see how it comes together.

Almost there!

Ok. So, I am not the most prolific blogger. I have been shamefully absent from the blog. But I'm here to update everyone on the last year's events.

As I originally stated when I started the blog I planned to meet and overcome a number of challenges.

Challenge #1: Get control of the whole diabetes thing.

That has gone pretty well. I'm not on insulin. Though I am taking Janumet. It has helped keep things under control. My A1C wouldn't go down. But that may have been my stubbornness to take the meds. Doctor smacked me in the back of the head and told my wife I was only taking half the dosage each day. Needless to say I was in the dog house for weeks. It seems like taking the full dosage has brought things down a bit.


Challenge #2: Loose some weight.

At that time I was 205lbs. Unfortunately, I gained even more weight and ballooned up to 215lbs.
Ah ha, there is a good story to this saga.

In January of 2012 I decided to train to try and make the World Karate Council America National team. This would qualify me for a chance to go to the WKC World Championships. I put in a bit of work. Didn't get too crazy. Pushed a bit harder. Went to a qualifying tournament given by Kieth McKinnly in Philadelphia. Won 3rd place kata and 4th place fighting. Not my best performances, but good enough to qualify for the national team qualification tournament held in Detroit during the month of June. I trained a little harder.

I got to Detroit and surprised everyone there when I won second place in the 42+ kata division where the other guys were ten years younger than me. In fact the first, second and third place winners were all over the age of 50. When it came time to fight things quickly went down hill. I weighed in a 215lbs! Ouch. This meant that I was fighting guys who were 6 foot 2 inches and better. It felt like I was fighting giants in a bowl of oatmeal. The world was moving in slow-slow-slow motion. I fought a guy named Jerry Roberts. Jerry is an old school fighter with years of experience like me. Jerry seemed like he was 7 feet tall. He hit me with a punch that felt like he had a tree trunk strapped to his arm. When the fighting was all over I sat down to talk with Jerry and he told me how he lost a lot of weight. He tad me how he was diabetic like me and had heart surgery too.

After that I decided that enough was enough. Yes I qualified to go to the world championships this October. But I refuse to go there and properly represent myself, my dojo, and the brother (World Champion Jadi Tention) who has trained me for the last year. I won second place in kata and 3rd place in fighting. Off to the world championships I go:)

As soon as I got back I started the "Engine 2 Diet"(at Jerry's suggestion). It is a fully plant based life style. To say that was a drastic change would be an understatement. Surprisingly it has gone well. I started at 215lbs and have gotten down to 185lbs! 30lbs lost. I feel great. I'm moving better than I have in 20 years.

I fly to Montreal Canada on October 1st to compete for a week at the world championships. Trip is a bit expensive and I have had some fundraising challenges. Still looking for donations (hint, hint, hint!). I pray that I can get it all together in time. only have two weeks left to raise $1500. I'm about to start collecting cans to redeem pretty soon, just joking. But anyone who wants to help out give me a call at 646 456 7520. Anything would be tremendously appreciated.

I am going to chronicle the whole experience on Facebook. Send me a friend request and I'll add you to the dojo group. Remember to mention that you are friending me because of this blog post.

I'll keep everyone up to date.
Talk to you all soon!