Town vs Gown

Here’s a playlist of the night’s events.
I ended up losing on points. Had a great afterparty experience with all my friends, and it was the best feeling in the world being in the ring.

My First Loss + Relapse

Losing my first match was the nail in the coffin for a lot of things last week. My studies, which were already waning because of boxing in the first place, became non-existent in the days following Town v Gown.

I skipped classes, ate ridiculously (I’ve gained 5kg!), and just generally let myself down last week. I turned up to boxing but my head wasn’t in it.

It was easy for me to give up and slide down the spiral of guilt, depression, and hopelessness that the loss created. I felt like any effort was futile. The fatter I became the more I ate to make myself feel comfortable. I smoked and I drank.

The shame culminated in me skipping training on Monday, and eating ridiculous amounts of forbidden foods.

Countdown to Varsity

So varsity is 27 days away. That’s 4 calendar weeks to lose 5.5kg, to get my fitness up, and even less time to be an incredible boxer that the coaches can’t ignore.

The week I spent nursing my wounds and being a little b**** last week will be rectified. I am ready to start working hard again. All I need is a little structure, and to rediscover my determination.

I lost that night because I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready because I wasn’t fit enough, and because I hadn’t worked on my in-fighting game enough.

I will, through sheer dedication, and hard work, break through all my barriers. I will stick to my diet, and I will be the boxer, and the student, that I am supposed to be.

You heard it here first.

I’m so scared.

Fighting this time tomorrow.

I’m 1kg overweight, but that should come off through dehydration. I’ve got about 4 hours between weigh in and my actual fight which is enough to rehydrate a bit and get my head straight.

I’ll post all about it on Wednesday. The long and the short of it, though, is that I’m prepared physically, just not stylistically, and I’m sure my nerves will be fucking crazy on the day.

I can’t wait to cheat on my diet afterwards though!

I am so scared for next Tuesday.

Here is a nutrition report for the previous five days: nutritionreport.

Some points of note:

• I need more potassium in my diet.
• I need less carbohydrates in my diet.
• I need more fats in my diet.

I’ve started intermittent fasting (8 hour eating periods) in order to maximise fat oxidation. I figure even if fasting is bad for you and forces catabolism; that’s not too bad because I would like to lose muscle mass anyway.

Sugar free jelly, by the way, is the best discovery, ever.

I’m physically so close, yet mentally I’m so far.

So I ate 22oo kcal today.

Which is 1000 more than I said I would, and in theory is 200 kcal over my sedentary body weight. That is unacceptable. My net intake is apparently 1717, which makes my deficit today only 200 or so. Again, unacceptable.

Tomorrow I will rectify this through following a strict plan and holding myself accountable for it. The error today came from allowing myself to eat Pret straight after Breakfast. Lumping all my meals together did not do me any favours.

Wake Up.
Go Straight to Gym, Walk on treadmill for 30 mins, jump rope for 10 mins. Abs.
Breakfast: Oats + Milk + Lepicol
Lunch: USN Diet Fuel
Training.
PWO: Protein Shake.
Dinner: Tuna Wrap w/ Side Salad.

I BETTER FUCKING STICK TO THIS.

So, a couple of things I want to talk about today, because I haven’t really kept this up.

1. I AM FIGHTING IN TOWN VS GOWN!
2. Another tenerife recap
3. Dieting
4. The Plan for the next 9 days and 21 hours (scary!)

Town VS Gown

• Literally the day after supposedly getting cut from the squad, I got told that I need to get to 75kg for Town v Gown. This may be because one of the other 75kg prospects (Zach Sammour) isn’t able to fight on the night [he is a LOT better than me at the moment, having a lot of experience]
• I’m very nervous, excited, and scared. I’ve got my mother and sister coming down from London to watch, and I’m going to be fighting in front of hundreds and hundreds of people!
• FB Event Details are here

Tenerife

• Religious running before Tenerife helped, as I could run, but I’m slacking at the moment, the last 2 weeks I haven’t done anything running related.
• On the first day I overtook the other 75kg prospect on the run, which made me feel great, but for the rest of the week I was trailing way behind everyone else despite improving my pace.
• We did 2 runs up Mt Teide, as the motivational post below illustrates. The route was about 12km, and was a nightmare. I beat my time second time round, but I was last place.
• I am proud of myself for never missing a session in tenerife, never giving excuses, and, despite getting beat up a lot in sparring, improving.
• We went to an all you can eat buffet twice, which was both awesome and stressful, as the coaches were there watching!
• There were bits in Tenerife where I felt like giving up boxing altogether. The blisters, the tiredness, the lack of free time, the failures in the ring. I’m glad I didn’t.
• My diet in Tenerife was pretty poor after the first couple of days or so. I was eating healthy stuff, but in large quantities. We trained 3 times a day, once at 7am (usually a run), once at 12-midday (Half of us doing technique, half of us doing bags, then we swapped over), then sparring at 7pm.
• I had a great time, and I feel like OUABC felt more like a family after the trip.

Dieting

• Dieting’s getting pretty hard. I have 9 days to get another 2.9kg, and I’m struggling.
• Despite quitting my vices (alcohol, smoking, binge eating), the last few pounds aren’t coming off. I know they are there, because I’ve yet to achieve true definition in my abs, but they’re being stubborn!
• I came back from Tenerife a scary 81kg, but that was shredded back down to where I am at the moment fairly quickly.

The Plan

• I am keeping my caloric intake to around 1500-2000 kcal a day, depending on how much exercise I have done.
• I’m foregoing squad-based fitness sessions in the morning with religious substitution of my own fitness plan. Lifting on a Monday and on a Friday is pretty much useless for me considering that I (pretty desperately) need to lose mass, and I’ll get a lot of benefit out of doing my own fitness in the mornings.
• Walking on the treadmill is proving to be my best friend!
• I’ve started planning out my sleep/schedule a lot better. Last term I really struggled because I was not getting 8 hours a night. I hope to improve on that this time round.
• I’ve bought a Sauna Suit/Fibre Supplements and made a commitment to eating extremely clean for these last few days. I WILL GET TO 75kg.

LETS DO THIS.

• Woke up at 6:30AM.
• Missed morning conditioning in the gym.
• Went to LA Fitness instead, did some running to warm up and then lower body + chins.
• Didn’t do as much as I’d hoped, but it’s better than nothing.
• Training again tonight, and I’ve got my fire back.
• Dieted to a T yesterday.

Everybody wants to be a diamond, but nobody wants to get cut.

So I was dropped from the TvG squad today.

Got emotional, felt sorry for myself….

I realise, now, though, that it’s only me to blame. I smoked when I wasn’t supposed to. I caved to my cravings. I didn’t turn up to fitness. I let myself down, and I didn’t keep my motivation up.

But from this moment, NOBODY will out work me. I will diet harder than anyone else. I will run harder. I will research more. I will condition my body. You can be more talented than me, leaner than me, stronger than me, faster than me BUT YOU WILL NOT OUTWORK ME.

Got back on top of my diet/scheduling so I’m looking forward to a good week.

STOP CHEATING AT NIGHT RAI.

YOU DO SO WELL THEN YOU START EATING AS SOON AS THE DAY ENDS.

REMEMBER HOW HARD THE RUN UP THE MOUNTAINS WERE.

REMEMBER HOW HARD HILL SPRINTS ARE.

REMEMBER HOW DISAPPOINTED YOU ARE IN YOURSELF WHEN YOU MISS MORNING TRAINING.

SACRIFICES NEED TO BE MADE, AND YOU’RE NOT MAKING THEM.

Step up to the plate, boy. Remember why you’re doing all this.

You gotta give up to go up.

So, all in all, Tenerife was a success.

I seem to have gained weight, which is kinda distressing. I’m sitting at 80.5kg atm, but I’m confident I can shred 1kg or so this week through careful dieting so I’m not too worried.

I was really worried, as the week went by, about my chances of getting onto the team considering that my sparring did NOT go too well during the week. I don’t think I ‘won’ a single spar whilst out there.

Being extremely tired was not really an excuse.

Having come back from Tenerife, however, things are looking up. I sparred today, and I was miles ahead of where I was on the last day. Getting back into the swing of training/dieting is straightforward, and so long as this law work eases up a little, I stand a pretty good chance of improving at a steady rate.

I gotta learn my style.

Tenerife is SO GOOD.

Training 3 times a day. Waking up at 7am every day and running is hard, but I’m steadily improving.

The dieting is pretty much automatic at this point. Training all the times and thinking about digestion means that I’m not eating much; and all this training means I’m guaranteed a good deficit.

It’s great having abs in the mirror again too!

Yesterday I sparred for the first time since before Christmas. Did well against a much more experienced opponent, and I think I’m improving a lot. Got knocked out by a body blow though… got really frustrated. Left the gym and cried. Not my proudest moment, but I was really emotionally charged.

Some things to keep in mind:

• Hands by ears
• Think about what the opponent is doing. Cut their angles off.
• Controlled pressure rather than flat out aggression.
• Slip in smaller movements.
• Transition from longer punches to shorter. 1-2-3->lean->5-3-2 or short-long 5-3-2->shift->1-2-3
• Stand upright
• Always move right
• When up against the ropes, push back of head and get round and out.