Does not feel like November

I was thinking about this for the last few days. On Thanksgiving we were sitting out side in the sun waiting for the turkey to be done. It just feels like another day out here. I was invited by Fabio an Gini to join them for dinner at Professor Raul's( also a Gracie Barra instructor ) house for turkey day. Jen was at work and I had no plans so I went with them and had a blast. Before I left I cooked Jen a turkey dinner so she would have something to eat when she got home. I'm good like that!!!

Dinner was fun lots of conversation about training both kettlebells and jiu-jitsu. Then the topic of Brazil came up because Fabio and Gini are gong back for Christmas. Through the course of the conversation Fabio told me that he wants to set up a kettlebell seminar in Brazil and was going to work out the details. Sweet, Jen would love this trip for sure, I guess I will have to fly Bones out to watch the dogs for a week or so. I will keep you informed on the Brazil front.

Training has been really good. Jiu-jitsu at noon and 7:30pm on both Tuesday and Thursdays plus kettlebell training. I have been working lots of heavy presses lately, I want all the kettlebells that Dragon Door make to feel light when I press them. I was at a clients house today and I made him use the beast for his swings. Then it popped into my head that I haven't pressed it for a few months so I had to try. My first attempt was crap! I didn't grip it hard enough which made my clean crap and the press worse. Waited a few minutes and tried again and right up it went no problem. I will be buying a beast in San Jose this Feb. so I can play with it more.

Favorite Warrior Diet dessert

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/ 2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/ 4 teaspoon ground cloves
• Pinch of salt (optional)
• 1/ 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 whole eggs
• 4 egg whites
• 1/ 4 to 1/ 2 cup of maple syrup (adjust sweetness according to taste)
• 1 15-oz. can of organic pumpkin
• 15 oz. nonfat ricotta cheese (or farmer cheese)
• 4 oz. fat-free cream cheese

You can substitute these cheeses with organic, low-fat cottage cheese. However, this will change the texture of the cake slightly.

Preparation:

Combine cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt (optional) in a small bowl. Set aside. Lightly beat vanilla, eggs and maple syrup in a small bowl. Set aside. In a food processor, combine pumpkin and cheese until smooth. Add, alternating egg mixture and spice mixture, to the pumpkin and cheese mixture. (If you don't have a food processor, a blender will work, but mix eggs first, then gradually add pumpkin mixture.) Mix well, approximately three minutes.

Bake in a preheated 425° F. oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool and rack for about two hours. Serve room temperature or chilled. Do not freeze; freezing causes the filling to separate. Pumpkin cheesecake tastes so good that, unfortunately, it disappears too quickly. It's like an open invitation for a binge. The sweetness can be adjusted according to your taste. It goes very well with organic yogurt or low-fat sour cream. As you can see, this dessert is high in protein, low in fat, relatively low in carbs and highly nutritious.

It might really rain

It looks like we are going to get a proper rain this afternoon and evening. There is a 90% chance of rain and it feels like it is going to rain. Now keep in mind they are only talking about rain today and in the morning, not an Ohio week of rain.

One Jiu-jitsu class down today and one more to go tonight. I was given my first strip today, baby steps. There are so many things that need to be done right for each movement and there are of course counters to all movements. When I wrestled I tended to be defensive and wait for the other person to make a move and catch them with a counter. Having a great time with the classes and I am looking forward to many more.

Always worth it

Hit the road with four friends and headed to Sacramento to attend a stretching and abs workshop by Pavel. The five ( me, Rusty, Tim, Laura, and Sean)of us shared a car and hotel room and had the best time. True to form Pavel delivered wit a much softer fist. Since a good portion of the people there had no idea what the kettlebell or the RKC are all about they were treated with kids gloves. They did get a small taste of what we are all about, just enough to peak their interests in our other workshops.

I don't think any of us will be forgetting this trip any time in the near future. We learned more than stretching and abs in the last two days. I have a feeling there will be more road trips for the five of us soon.

November Really???

I can't believe it is November 19th, still feels like a good summer day in Ohio. I have had several good observation in the last week.

Driving to Santa Barbara on Saturday I could see the smoke hovering over the ridge from the fires, I could also smell them. Which give you a strange feeling because you know that people have lost everything they own in a matter of minutes. One of those people is Dr. Rusty Smith one of the two owners of the gym where I teach in Santa Barbara. I felt helpless when I found out because I could only offer him a place to stay and that was it. If anybody can fight through this it will be Rusty!

On a better note on the way to class Monday night in Santa Barbara the sun was setting over the ocean as I drove. Ten minutes later the sky was a deep purple red and there were 10-15 dolphins just swimming along. How cool is that!!!

Jen and I took the bulldogs to the beach and Peanut got over her fear of the waves and was all in it. She did however learn a lesson. If you drink enough salt water it WILL come out of both ends of your body. Today at the beach she didn't drink a single drop.


Talked to both my parents and brother yesterday. Yeah 4" of snow and ice with more on the way. Can't say I really miss that. It didn't really bother me when I live in Ohio but it is real nice not having to deal with it now.

New classes coming soon

I will be starting a new group of classes at the Gracie Barra Ventura academy starting Dec 1st. I will be posting the schedule as soon we work out all the details.

Installed rings yesterday

At our new place I installed some power rings for pull up, push ups and all things in between. I put up some eye bolts in the carport and ran the straps through them. The neighbors looked at me like I was nuts as I pumped out pull ups in the car port. I have had these for three years but I never had a place to put them until now. I will take a picture tomorrow.

My training has been good, lots of everything. Once a week I have been doing the snatch test just to keep my skills up.

Forever and a day since I have posted.

Life is starting to get really busy again. I have been doing the jiu jitsu thing 4 days a week plus training those guys 4 days a week. Today I stared with two more of their guys. These guys really get what kettlebells are all about. On top of that they are going to open a ton of doors in their world. It's really great to train some of the meanest fighters and jiu jitsu guys that walk the planet.

The weather is great as always and eveything else is good. I can't believe that it is November 12th. 75 today with 80's coming this weekend really tough out here.

Here is just one of my new clients Fabio Leopoldo



My training has been going really great all the basics. Swings, get ups, MP, snatches, squats and pull ups.

New style snatch test.

Today I had a busy morning class, my workout, Brazilians and Jiu-jitsu. My workout was simple I did some active straight leg raise, single leg dead lifts,ans swings to warm up. Then planted myself in front of clock with a 24kg and on the top of the minute 10/10 snatches for 5 minutes. The first two minutes were slow it took me about 45 seconds to get twenty done. The last three my pace was much better taking about 35 seconds to get through the 20 reps. 100 reps done without a problem it makes me wonder how the first round of new tests will go in San Jose. I think it might be easy but I'm not sure. After that I did some long distance overhead walks followed by armbars and called it a day.

Classes have been slowly but surely picking up and I have been getting more contacts from potential kettlebellers.