Adventures, Armored Combat, Arthritis, bariathlete, bariatric surgery, Battle of the Nations, BotN, Dragon Con, Extreme Athlete, Full Contact Medieval Combat, gastric bypass, HMB, HMBIA, IMCF, Jeet Kune Do, Kali, Medieval Fighting, Mixed Medieval Martial Arts, Running Streak, SCA Fighting, Sword Fighter, Travel, Uncategorized, weightloss success, WMFC

Time in a bottle…

But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you want to do

Once you find them…

All too often, time slips away from us and even though the best-laid plans are made, you still have missed opportunities.

I have been keeping up on my “50 Firsts before my 51st” birthday challenge to myself and it has gone really well. I am actually surprised I have so many, 42 to be exact, and I still have 120 days until my 51st birthday!

So I thought today I would update everyone on what “firsts” I have managed to accomplish in the 245 days I have been 50 years old. My last update was in March so the list has grown quite a bit.

My 50 Firsts before my 51st Updated List!

Climbed the Teotihuacan Pyramids, Mexico City
Ate Crickets & Ant Larva, Mexico City
Fought professional MMA Fighter, Josh Tyler
Did my first Facebook Live Feed, in conjunction with Readyman.com
Started Crossfit @Brickwall Crossfit
Did my first official Crossfit WoD Competiton
Drove thru Donner Pass
Camped out in my new car
A 17 Year promise finally fulfilled
1st Cortisone shot in my knuckle ever (ouch)
1st credit card strictly for flight benefits
Traveled to Barcelona, Spain
Tried Calimocho in Barcelona
Had coffee & Cake at Satan’s Cafe
Fought in an actual Bull Fighting Ring
Missed my first flight ever!
Tried PODS from Australia (so damn good)
“Acquired” my first BOTN banner
First punch in the face without a helmet
First pour-over in Europe
Tried Kumbacha (and liked it)
Ran my first International Conference
First A-Line bob haircut
Ran the Spartan Sprint (and survived)
Received my first package from Japan
Got my first Hobonichi Planner
Started Kali
Started my first Happiness Journal
Purchased a Paipur Journal
Started my first Bucket List
Bought my first set of Kali Sticks
Started Jeet Kune Do
FIKA
First Long Black
First Shakerato
First Gibralter
First time demonstrating positions for Kali
Tried Baba Ganoush
Bought my first Espresso Machine!
Purchased our first Dyson
First Colonoscopy (and 2nd the next day!)
First Affogato

So as you can see, things are moving along nicely and I am quite sure I will go above the 50 firsts before my 51st birthday but I decided to write down EVERY first, no matter what, because I wanted to be sure I had a complete list, and it’s been nice going back over them actually. Mostly all good memories really…

Now, I know some have asked what I plan to do NEXT year. Well, again, TIME is always fleeting and I want to experience so much more. So the idea I have been thinking about is setting goals and trying to reach those goals (big and little ones) within a set period of time.

I know that “101 in 1001” is popular, which is to try to accomplish 101 goals within 1001 days, which is 2.75 years and would go from 12/13/2017 to 09/09/2020 (which is a very cool finish date). But I may end up with “51 in 501” instead which would end on 04/28/2019 instead.

I don’t know for sure what I may end up doing, but I have started thinking about some of my short term & long term goals already and getting them down on paper, just in case. If you have suggestions, please feel free to let me know!

Interestingly enough, when I was researching the dates above, I found out that as of today I am 18,508 days old. If you look at that number and think about 1001 days, it doesn’t really seem like a long time. But when you consider I am 50 years, 8 months and 2 days old, and 1001 days is 2.75 years, it seems much longer. I guess it’s all in how you look at time and even how you measure time.

I want my life to be measured in moments, adventures, experiences and explorations, so the minutes, hours, days aren’t soooo important. But I do want to keep track, because days, especially now, go by so quickly. And while I can’t slow down time, I can slow myself down and enjoy all those wonderful things within the constraints of time. I just have to be more aware of it passing I think.

Too many people in my life have suddenly been taken out of the time loop we all enjoy, and many of them were unprepared. When I stand at the gates of Valhalla, I want to know that I spent my time well, that I left nothing out, and that I made a difference to someone, somewhere. But most importantly, that I got the most out of life, without having too many regrets. Live. Love. Laugh. Fight. I want all of those things and more. So while some may

Live.

Love.

Laugh.

Fight.

I want all of those things and more. So while some may think all my list making and idea processing is silly, it helps to keep me on the path that I want to end on.

Death will come for us all eventually, and I am perfectly fine with that, although I would like to live well beyond this century and I think I will, if it’s possible soon enough.

But I also know the Nornir have woven my destiny long ago, and while I still have some time left in my bottle, I want to be the one who spreads it around the way I want to…

a little here, a little there…

pouring a bit of it over those who keep me wild…

just for good measure.

Becoming Water…

“Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water.” – Bruce Lee

In 1993 I went to a movie premiere with friends. It was “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story”. I became enamored with his teachings, and wanted to learn Jeet Kune Do so badly, but at that time, 24 years ago, I was upwards of 300 pounds, and had no real aspirations of ever being anything different.

But I wanted to be. I dreamed of becoming water. Of figuring out what that meant. Of transforming myself, in some way, so that I could be this lithe martial artist.

Fast forward to the early 2000’s. I first heard of Bernales Institute (BIMA) because my SCA Knight at the time had his son enrolled there. I knew about BIMA and had even attended a couple of competitions to watch my friend’s son compete. I still felt the desire to become water, and it was even an analogy in my SCA training at the time, but still, it only managed to tingle the desire again. I even bought the book “Tao of Jeet Kune Do” and started reading it. I was fascinated but having no martial arts background it was more a study on the influence of Bruce Lee on the world than anything I could apply personally, even though I truly wanted to gain more insight.

I took a few classes at the University, Krav Maga and Aikido, but both times never stuck with either one. At the time, they weren’t what I was looking for and were even, to a point, teaching me things that were counter to the fighting I was doing at the time.

Still, I wanted to be a fighter. That desire has never left me. I grew up fighting, literally, due to an abusive household, but I was always the victim, I never fought back, although I wanted to. I just never felt I could.

Fast forward to May of this year. I had just returned from the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain. I had competed for my 4th year as an International athlete. I had spent the past year trying to put the best female USA Team together, which was stressful, crazy and chaotic, even in the best of times.

I was tired. I was drained. I wasn’t sure I had anything left.

I’d achieved my long term goal from when I started this whole adventure, I had brought a world class women’s team to Battle of the Nations.

So now what…

I was kind of at a loss. I’d done what I had set out to do. We ended up 5th in the world, due to a technicality, that none of us knew anything about, but we were happy in our choices and the decisions we made that inevitably took us out of the competition sadly.

But that was it.

I came home, happily exhausted. But exhausted none the less. Then as the new season was “traditionally” starting, which is usually in June, I was trying to decide, was 2017 my last year? Was I ready to push for a whole new year, put my body through everything yet again, just so I could do the one thing I still hadn’t been able to do…go through another year of hell, just to fight Russia?

I thought a very long time about it. I talked it over with Greg, my husband, who has been my number one support since the moment he met me. Was I ready? Was he willing? Could I even do it one more year? Every year I get older, my training becomes exponentially harder and the competition becomes more fierce.

In May I saw a complete 180 degree change in the way Women’s Teams were fighting. I have been doing this from the beginning and am the only USA woman to compete consistently from the beginning. I could see & feel the smallest changes on the field, even when I was simply a walk on fighter for the Unified team and again when I was fighting with the Netherlands. Simple things were changing; from gear, to holds, to strategy. But mostly, it was the experience these women were gaining. All of us were “test cases” and we were beginning to shatter the learning curve.

For those of you who watched the fights this year, you saw a completely different fight than what you saw even 2 years ago and its only going to get harder to compete. This year the USA couldn’t take everyone that initially wanted to make the team. Choices had to be made, and those choices will only become harder as the year(s) progress.

So, do I end my fighting career on a high note with achieving my initial goal?

I didn’t want to, but was I ready to change how I had trained up til now, so that I could be competitive and viable for the team? That was really the question that I had to answer.

Certain things led up to my decision to continue for 2018. One huge opportunity pushed me over the edge. A fellow fighter was selling his titanium kit (that I had admired already) and I had the funds available to get it. It cut the weight of my kit by almost half and I knew that would help me train easier. I also knew I could sell my red kit to someone else and it would still be a huge upgrade for them as well, so the eternal cycle of armor was a beneficial push.

Enter Bernales Institute of Martial Arts…

“Flow in the living moment. – We are always in a process of becoming and nothing is fixed. Have no rigid system in you, and you’ll be flexible to change with the ever changing. Open yourself and flow, my friend. Flow in the total openness of the living moment. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.” – Bruce Lee

I had options to attend training at Jeremy Horn’s Gym. I knew MMA fighters like Josh Tyler and even had the opportunity to fight him this year (best day ever). But it wasn’t quite what I needed. I have very little foundation for my fighting, something I have blogged (albeit painfully) about in the past, so I knew I wanted to find basics that would transfer to what I am doing now and have it be training my body could tolerate over time.

I sent video links of my fights, of my sport and of the USA team to Will Bernales. I also had another friend actually teaching at BIMA, so I knew the basis of what possibilities were there. I went in for an initial consultation and explained what MY limitations were.

I have arthritis in both hands. That factor will be the ending to my fighting career at some point. I know this. I’ve accepted this and its not a world-ending scenario, especially at my ripe old age of 50. But they haven’t taken me out yet, so I wanted to know what else I could do that would give me the foundations of that I want.

Kali was the answer. Even in that initial consult, I learned more that could help me in 30 minutes than I had learned in a year’s worth of sword training. I needed to learn how to move, how to strike, how to deflect and how to get out of holds. Up until now, I have relied on instinct, face-in-the-dirt experience and my size. After this past competition I knew that was never going to be enough for the coming year.

I had to be like water, and adapt to the changing shape of this sport, because my size, my experience and my ability to suck up damage wasn’t going to be enough any longer. If I am going to make the team in 2018, I am literally going to have to be like water, and flow. That’s all there is to it.

No more stationary ‘tank’.

Movement, skill and adaptability are the key. I am strong, I am solid and I can endure, but I am the turtle, not the hare. Time to get a little of both going…

So, what actually prompted this blog was the photo you see at the beginning. Its hanging in Bernales Institute. Its of Dan Inosanto and Bruce Lee. Guro Dan Inosanto was one of the only 3 instructors trained to teach by Bruce Lee. I knew the name. I knew that when I signed up for BIMA, I had JUST missed a seminar taught by Dan Inosanto there, and that made me so sad. But I hadn’t really thought about the connection to my past desires until last night, when I saw this photo as I sat down to wait for my Kali class.

Blame it on Fate, blame it on the prednisone making me wonky, blame it on whatever, but when it hit me, it hit me. Everything finally made sense to me, even the stupid delays of starting classes, etc.

The timing was finally right.

I was finally at the exact point that I could become water…and understand what that meant for me.

The fact that I am finally training in a place that I have had some sort of weird connection with for over 15 years and that it has led me to not only learning Jeet Kune Do, but learning it from someone in Bruce Lee’s lineage is pretty amazing, at least to me.

History, tradition and lineage mean a lot to me and I am very proud of my fighting line and always will be. The man that knighted me and those in that line have been instrumental in my continuing to fight, even to the point that I am now wearing his armor, so I feel a little of that blood, sweat and tears as I put my kit on every single time.

I think about those things. I think about my line, and those that I have Knighted now, and I pass on what I can to them. I think about what they will consider important enough to pass on when they Knight someone else of our line. So while some never take lineage into account, it means a great deal to me and to my own personal history.

Finally understanding what it means to be water is part of that. Its not as simple a concept as one would think, but it also is too. They say a picture is worth a thousand words…and I promise you that photo, hanging on that wall, at 8:15 p.m. on July 12th, 2017 was worth a lot more than a thousand words to me…

I start Jeet Kune Do on Saturday…

Be Like Water my Friends

Adventures, Armored Combat, bariathlete, bariatric surgery, Battle of the Nations, BotN, Dragon Con, Extreme Athlete, Full Contact Medieval Combat, gastric bypass, HMB, HMBIA, IMCF, Medieval Fighting, Mixed Medieval Martial Arts, SCA Fighting, Sword Fighter, Travel, Uncategorized, weightloss success, WMFC

Throwback Thursday…10 years in the making!!!

Yesterday, April 12, 2017 was my 10 year post-op anniversary of my Roux-en-y Gastric Bypass surgery.

Had that surgery not occurred, I would not be here today. I was told within minutes after coming out of anesthesia that I was lucky I had my surgery when I did. In two years max, I would have needed a liver transplant and at that time, I was so fat, I could not have even been considered for the wait list. I would have died before I could have lost enough weight on my own to even qualify to be put on a list…much less get a donor liver.

Yesterday, after going back over ALL my previous year’s blogs, looking at old photos, and remembering each year I took my comparison pictures, I felt thankful. I felt alive. I felt grateful.

But for the first time, in almost my entire life, I also felt “normal”.

I know I have expressed hate for this word, because I always felt like it put me into a category where I couldn’t be myself. I couldn’t stand out or feel like what I did mattered. Being “normal” always felt off to me. Hell I can barely type the damn word without using “quotation” marks to make it stand out lol.

Last night while Greg and I were celebrating, we discussed the past 10 years and the changes we have made. Interestingly enough it was funny we were celebrating at our favorite BBQ place, having wings for dinner. I told him how odd it was to think back at the days after my surgery and knowing deep down in my heart I would never be able to enjoy a meal again, yet here we were, eating a “normal” meal like everyone else around us. We both got an order of 12 wings and we went home with half of them left. So technically, we couldn’t even eat a “normal” (see I can’t stop) portion between us!

I never have to worry about not fitting into a booth any more. Or if a chair will support me, or if I am too big to fit through a doorway, or to be able to pee in a regular bathroom stall. Trips that involve flying don’t terrify me any longer because I don’t have to ask for a seat belt extender and pray that it fits.

Most of all I don’t have to worry about what people think about the food sitting in front of me, or if I order a dessert, because I look “normal”.

To many of you, any or all of these worries probably seem insane, or at the very least silly, why would someone worry about going to the bathroom and fitting into a stall?!? Yet fat people worry about it ALL THE FUCKING TIME! If we don’t do it consciously, it happens subconsciously, trust me. You would be surprised the things I never thought I had to think about…until it stopped.

I can remember suddenly realizing I didn’t have to think about where to sit, or what to sit on, or be bothered with how far away I parked, or if someone would see me sitting in my car eating a hamburger. Because now I could pass for “normal”.

Pass for Normal…

Think about that for a moment.

Even when I have lost over half my body weight, even after I have spent the last 4 years of my life working my ASS off training, putting my body through hell to train for a sport that I love, I STILL worried that I had to ‘pass for normal’.

Last night was the first time I actually admitted to feeling normal out loud. That I could enjoy my meal, eat what I wanted and feel good about it. Thinking back to how I felt that first year, I wasn’t sure I would ever get to last night. But I am there. I still have panic that some day I will wake up and be 450 pounds again, literally overnight, but those moments are few and far between.

Have I lost/gained pounds over the past 10 years? Sure. You can see it even looking back the last 6 months. My face always shows when I am gaining or losing. Right now, I am more muscle than I have been in the past but I also have additional weight too. I am the heaviest I have been since my surgery. I am at 230 pounds. A lot of that IS muscle, but I am also 50 years old. I have some work to do to get back down to my 200-210 range but I am no longer willing to put my body through the adrenal fatigue, the excessive training and the obsessive worrying about my weight that I have done over the past 10 years.

I struggled this year, with learning how to train my body the correct way and not put myself through the trauma I have in the past. Its difficult when you are competing with 25 year old’s, and knowing that their bodies react so much differently than yours. But with age comes knowledge and I have to learn how my body needs to be trained and not over train because I feel the need to beat every 25 year old into submission.

Trust me. Its a daily struggle.

I also had a lot of stress this past 6 months. I’ve had to deal with an office reorganization on top of learning how to go from being the only woman on the team to leading 9 women on our own team.

Its been a rough ride. Its been well worth it, but believe me, my ulcer and hormones have needed a break for awhile now. And my weight shows it.

But when yesterday came and went, there wasn’t any guilt. There wasn’t any shame. There wasn’t any regret. There was just happy, joyful, “NORMAL” me.

I kept waiting for it all to sink in and throw me into the pit of despair I had always fought when I would gain or lose weight or when my numbers weren’t as good as I thought they would be…

but it never happened.

I’m alive. That’s pretty fucking amazing.

I’m an athlete. We go through plateaus and barriers and we figure it out.

All of this is…

NORMAL.

For the lack of a better word…I am normal.

And while it still rubs me the wrong way when I say it…its ok.

Just this once 😛

Adventures, Armored Combat, Arthritis, bariathlete, bariatric surgery, Battle of the Nations, BotN, Extreme Athlete, Full Contact Medieval Combat, gastric bypass, HMB, HMBIA, IMCF, Medieval Fighting, Mixed Medieval Martial Arts, SCA Fighting, Sword Fighter, Travel, Uncategorized, weightloss success, WMFC

My own shell…

Last night, after we saw “Ghost in the Shell”, I made an off handed comment about how I would pay ALL my money to have an ass like Scarlett Johansson, and I didn’t think any more about it.

This morning I woke up, got my coffee, stepped into the shower and started washing my hair first thing. I do this usually with quite a bit of pain in my hand, and during the hot shower, I press my fingers against the hot tile wall and pop my fingers to gain some relief after they have been submersed in hot water for a few minutes, so as to help with the flexibility. Its my normal morning routine.

Today, like every other day, I did this routine, only to find that my pain was not there. I popped my joints and nothing. I realized then that when I got my coffee, again, no pain in opening the reuseable K-cup or the coffee canister.

No.Pain.Whatsoever…

Its been well over a year since I could say that. In all honesty, I don’t know how long its actually been since my left index finger didn’t throb in pain constantly. Its just become part of the aches and pains that are my life.

The photo at the top shows how much I could bend my index finger before the shot, what the finger looked like after the shot with the X-ray and then finally, this morning, making a fist.

Today, I realized that I will endure more cortisone shots in my other two problem fingers when I need it, and not think twice. Its crazy how you can forget chronic pain, even when you are in the midst of it, because it just becomes your norm.

Just like always wishing I had someone else’s body.

We’ve all done it, I would love to have Angelina’s lips, Scarlett’s ass, someone else’s hair, tits and whatever else…yet when I stood in that hot shower, water cascading over me, shampoo sliding down my back, I was so happy. I kept making a fist because I could. That was something I couldn’t do yesterday and today I can, thanks to modern medicine and great insurance coverage.

In that moment I realized I honestly don’t want anyone else’s anything. I have worked so hard on the body that I have, wishing for something else doesn’t really pay due homage to my efforts. I work my ass off, literally, almost every day to achieve what I have right now. Is it perfect? No. And honestly, I could work out every minute of every day and I would still NOT look like Scarlett. Or Angelina, or anyone else but me. Even when I weighed 450+ pounds, I was still simply Amy. Good, bad, ugly or beautiful…its still just Me.

So the next time I see a perfect set of tits, or quads I would die for, I can absolutely appreciate them, and believe me, I do…but I also will give myself credit for what I have achieved…and that is perfectly OK.

Too many people think you’re conceited or vain when you post a selfie, or show off your muscles….or even post a workout. Its not any of that, its proving to yourself that your worth the effort, that the work you have put in is making a difference.

When I post comparison shots, it doesn’t matter who likes them and who doesn’t, because its for Me. So that I can see the difference, because believe me there were so many years I was too ashamed to even have my photo taken, that I wish I had now. Just the other day I was talking about the only cruise Greg and I have taken together…there’s one, maybe two photos of the entire trip. Period. Because we were too fat to enjoy our trip, or go on excursions or even wander the ports we visited, because we were so exhausted just moving our bodies. How horrible is it that we didn’t even want to take photos of the trip!

So never again will I wish I had someone else’s body, I put in enough work on mine as it is and for 50 years old, its pretty damn good, regardless of its little quirks. And I still have goals to reach. So until I can put little micro nano beasts inside me that fix everything that’s wrong, I think I will stay with the tried and true method of hard work, exercise and trying to be as healthy as I can be…

With the occasional sugar cookie…

Just remember, no matter how you look, how you feel or how life is treating you…there’s ALWAYS someone who would do anything to be in your shoes. Focus on how to make you a better you…and don’t worry so much about wishing you had someone else’s ass 😛

The Bad Ass Valkyrie

Adventures, Armored Combat, bariathlete, bariatric surgery, Battle of the Nations, BotN, Dragon Con, Full Contact Medieval Combat, gastric bypass, HMB, HMBIA, IMCF, Medieval Fighting, Mixed Medieval Martial Arts, Sword Fighter, Travel, Uncategorized, weightloss success, WMFC

Chaos Reigns…

I realize its been awhile since my last update here. I will try to update you with everything I can but just know that basically my life is Chaotic at best right now and life can sometimes hand you a curve ball…

In February, my office went through a big change. We hired a new Executive Director and while he is great, he has changed a lot about the way our office works. We also had a couple of key folks leave, thus creating a shortage in workforce, so a complete restructure had to happen. In that, I actually came out very well, my job as Events Manager stayed pretty much the same, just a much more intensified schedule. Where I would have had some downtime, I now have other duties, so work is pretty packed.

On top of that, I am also the Captain of the USA Womens Team for Battle of the Nations 2017 and that, combined with my personal training schedule and work is consuming most of my day. What little free time I have I spend trying to clean my house, get my gear ready, spend time with my husband & fur kids and yes even play a little World of Warcraft.

While I do tend to thrive on Chaos…I do prefer to have ups and downs in that craziness. It keeps me a bit more grounded and usually its only the last month before Worlds that I get a bit lost…this year, it happened a few months early. So I do apologize for not getting an update out there sooner. Just know everything is running much smoother than I could have imagined at first and after a minor breakdown or two, I am back on track. Mostly. I still have 6 weeks before Worlds, so who knows what will happen lol.

I did manage to add a few things to my “50 Firsts before my 51st” list and I did an updated video on my drive home from the Sonora Celtic Faire Tournament this past weekend. So I can at least update you with that!

My 50 Firsts before my 51st Updated List!

Climbed the Teotihuacan Pyramids, Mexico City
Ate Crickets & Ant Larva, Mexico City
Fought professional MMA Fighter, Josh Tyler
Did my first Facebook Live Feed, in conjunction with Readyman.com
Started Crossfit @Brickwall Crossfit
Did my first official Crossfit WoD Competiton
Drove thru Donner Pass
Camped out in my new car
A 17 Year promise finally fulfilled

So the list is growing and I am sure over the next 9 months it will grow exponentially and I am looking forward to sharing those moments with you when I can. As I said, there will be some firsts that are a little too personal to share but I will at least denote them in some way 😛

Otherwise, I am currently deep into my training for the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain. The competition runs from April 29 to May 1, but I will be doing some traveling before that and many of my firsts will come into play then.

On a side note, I did manage to read (listen) to Neil Gaiman’s new book “Norse Mythology” and I must say, it is extremely well done. If you have ever had interest in the Sagas or the Poetic Eddas you should give this great book a chance. I have gone through it twice now and I love it. It’s very well written, it follows the most logical paths to the stories that I have heard and he bases his versions partially on Snorri Sturluson’s writings, which I have enjoyed.

Hopefully sometime within this year I can break away from my chaotic schedule and get to Iceland, it is on my list of places to see and right now tickets to Reykjavik have never been cheaper. So, here’s hoping.

The USA Broad Swords are doing great, the USA Team as a whole will be announced soon and we are all preparing for our jaunt overseas. After that I have DragonCon and ITOC to look forward to as well as a few other tournaments, in country and out. So while the World Championships are first and foremost on my mind right now, there’s a lot of things coming up after that as well.

Hopefully you enjoy my little video as I am driving through the beautiful Donner Pass on my way home yesterday. It was a glorious day and I couldn’t help but be filled with happiness and joy simply for being alive.

I think the full moon the night before set everything right again…

Here’s hoping…

The Bad Ass Valkyrie

Adventures, Armored Combat, bariathlete, Battle of the Nations, BotN, Dragon Con, Full Contact Medieval Combat, gastric bypass, HMB, HMBIA, Medieval Fighting, Mixed Medieval Martial Arts, Running Streak, SCA Fighting, Sword Fighter, Travel, Uncategorized, weightloss success, WMFC

2017…Balance and Gratitude

2017 is finally here. I have been embracing it for a full 5 days now, pondering where my focus might be this year. Balance. Along with gratitude, satisfaction and appreciation. These are what I plan to focus on.

Gratitude: the quality of being thankful; rediness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.
Satisfaction: fulfillment of one’s wishes, expectations or needs, or the pleasure derived from this.
Appreciation: the recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something.

I am a woman who loves extremes. Extreme sports, extreme lust, adrenaline, fear…anything that gives me that rush that drives me. My highs are pretty high but my lows can get pretty low. When you find something that drives you, there comes a point where you exhaust your input and you seek more. I will be the first person to tell you that “I want what I want when I want it”. Period. End of story. When I don’t get what I want, or things don’t go the way I think they should go, I get pissy. I know this about myself and I try very hard to NOT be this way, but, again, I am a balls to the wall kind of girl.

I won the husband lottery when I met Greg. He understands the way I am, he navigates it VERY well and is pretty much the one person who can tell me NO and I listen. Mostly. And he knows this about me, and we have yet to have an actual fight. Some of you more alpha males out there might think that he doesn’t have “control” in our relationship…and you would be wrong. We have balance. In my own life, I may be wild and chaotic, at best, but in my relationship with Greg, we actually have a very balanced lifestyle and it works very well for us.

A lot of folks who meet me first, or hell, have known me for years, and finally actually MEET Greg face to face are quite surprised at how we are together, as a couple. I am very much the person I am when I am on my own, but I am also a wife and a lover and a partner when I am with him. Thus our dynamic is very different, for each of us, when we are out together. He has never felt the need to “control” me, nor does he need to. When we are together we are balanced. That actually happened very early on in our relationship and I think its one of the many reasons he and I clicked so well, because we just fit. We knew it from the moment we sat next to each other in his tiny little apartment and talked about getting married the night we met; and we know it now, 21 years later.

Greg is someone I am grateful for. Some one I appreciate and someone I am satisfied with. There is not another person on this planet that I can say that about. He is my anchor in this crazy world and he is always my happy place. Its funny, when I call him my anchor, he always thinks of it as a big weight that gets tossed overboard from a boat. When I say it, I mean that he is what holds me in place and lets me bounce back to my home, my life and my happiness when I am stretched too far beyond my limits.

Which brings me back to BALANCE.

I have spent the last few years going to extremes and last year I entered 2016 with 2 major injuries, my ripped IT band and a tendon release on my left wrist. I had a rough time recovering from both of those and I am very thankful I entered 2017 injury free. But with the injuries I learned a very important lesson, one my body has been trying to tell me since I started training for this sport in 2013, I am NOT young any more lol. I am 50 years old and I can’t train like a 25 year old and expect the same results. My body is physically and metabolically different. I don’t perform the same, I don’t recover the same, and finally I have realized I can not train the same as a 25 year old.

Thus balance is key.

Now, before we all start getting crazy ideas that I am hanging up my kit and walking away from fighting, remember…I am still that balls to the wall girl who THINKS she can do it all. So, what I have come to realize is that in order for me to still be able to do this craziness, I have to find my balance, in my eating, in my training, in my running, in basically everything. Even gaming!

After my big 50th Birthday celebration I needed down time. And in typical Amy fashion, I went to the extreme and pretty much just gave in to everything. I drank Coke, I ate sugar cookies, I played WoW all day long, and I sat on my ass. It was the holidays…and the end of the year…and I needed to reset. So I sort of just sat in my study, played video games and snuggled my furbabies all day long.

Did I need it? Yes. Did it feel good? Yes. Did I throw out most of my good habits for two and a half weeks? Yes.

I don’t regret doing it…but I do wish I’d had a little more balance (and so does my scale). But I do feel more clear about facing the new year and working on my 2017 goals. I don’t really do resolutions as they are firm decisions to do or not to do something and the only place I like rigidity is in men and weapons, thus I prefer goals.

I had my first test of balance today actually.

I went into my running app to get my 2016 numbers. I was not a happy girl (injuries be damned). So I did what any self respecting data tracker does (yes, I might be a little OCD when it comes to my body stats), I pulled ALL the numbers, all the way back to Jan 2013. I started this sport in June, 2013 so this is even before then!

Instinctively, I started freaking out. Running is the one place I have hard, solid numbers. Numbers don’t lie. Numbers are how we win. Winning is important…right?

(insert rabbit hole here)

I immediately wanted to top whatever the highest number was, because I had to be better than myself this time last year and I failed. Then I started comparing this year’s numbers to last year’s numbers, then I broke it down by month. Then I went a little more crazy and went back 2 years. Then 3 years. How am I supposed to WIN when I can’t prove it with numbers…write down ALL the numbers…figure it out…make it work!!!

and that’s when I finally stopped myself.

What I ended up with, finally, was a way to “balance” my insanity…because not even getting HALF as many miles this year as I did last year was wigging me the fuck out.

I wrote down my monthly miles for the past 4 years. I averaged them by month and decided to make a goal of the highest monthly average, which is 33.85 miles/month, which will put my mileage for the year at 406.20. My highest monthly mileage was in August,2015 and I ran 90.13 miles that month(wtf was I thinking). My knee jerk reaction was to run 91 miles every month…and I realized I was going way too extreme and reigned myself in. So instead, I set a stretch goal of 41.66 miles/month which will put my mileage at 500+ miles at the end of the year if I meet it.

Yes, there’s a little part of me that says “round up the numbers it’ll be better” but again, I am trying to find balance, even in my ocd-edness.

After actually typing all this out, I wondered what my actual average mileage was, overall. Its 23.18 miles/month. I went back and looked at my stats. I met it once in 2016. 4 times in 2015, once in 2014 and 4 times in 2013.

I kind of see a pattern.

Go to an extreme, body forces rest. Go to an extreme, body forces rest.

Balance. I need it. Numbers prove it. Time to do it.

So folks…there’s a little peak into what my brain goes through in setting goals. Yes, I know it STILL sounds a little insane, but that part is just Me. I have other fitness goals for the year that I will not bore you with, but I am also going to focus more on gratitude and being grateful. Satisfaction, even when I don’t meet my goal for a month or I miss something that could have been added to my “50 firsts by my 51st” list. I am still so much more satisfied with my life, than I have ever been and that gives me an appreciation for this beautiful world that we live in and the people I choose to have in my life.

I am typically a positive person, I look at the world through the eyes of an optimist. I prefer seeing the good in all things, and I want us to all be happy. Yet I know things will be hard, especially for us as a nation, over the next 4 years. But I hope we all try and look at the world around us and figure out how to make it better, and how to find balance, even when most think we are surrounded by chaos.

Chaos isn’t a bad thing…you just have to be brave enough to face it and work through it. That’s it. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. So find your strength, find your happiness…

Find Balance and be Grateful

Here’s to a great 2017 – skål

Amy Graham – The Bad Ass Valkyrie

Adventures, Armored Combat, bariathlete, bariatric surgery, Battle of the Nations, BotN, Dragon Con, Full Contact Medieval Combat, gastric bypass, HMB, HMBIA, IMCF, Medieval Fighting, Mixed Medieval Martial Arts, SCA Fighting, Sword Fighter, Travel, Uncategorized, weightloss success, WMFC

50 Firsts before my 51st…

December 13, 2016 I started my 50th year on this planet.

I have made many different plans on what I wanted to do for my 50th birthday but none of them seemed ‘quite right’. Traditionally, I have started the first day of December with Amypalooza…its just a big count down to my birthday on the 13th…sort of my own version of the 12 Days of Amy so to speak.

Birthdays growing up were never a big deal in my family, thus as I grew older and was able to celebrate them as I choose, I like being able to have a big celebration if I want to. I know had Greg and I ever had kids, we had planned on big birthday parties every other year, and small dinners with one or two friends the off years. Greg always had huge parties and he got to a point he didn’t like them…so a balance of the two seemed like the best idea. I have always felt that celebrating the day of your birth is important…as are surprises, presents, flowers and hugs! But I’m just that kind of woman…

This year was the big Five-O for me. I wanted to do something special since I was never meant to see this birthday. I thought of photo shoots, coffee table books, calendars, tshirts, and every other crazy idea I could imagine. Then, I knew what I wanted to do.

50 Firsts before my 51st. (FYI Greg came up with the great title)

Over the course of this next year I will do 50 things I have never done before and hopefully document them in a way that I can put them into a coffee table book that I can have for the next 50 years. I asked a few of my older friends what they did to celebrate their 50th birthday and some had a party, some went to dinner, some didn’t acknowledge it and some…to my HUGE surprise…had no idea what they’d done. They couldn’t remember!!!

Those of you that have known me for more than 15 minutes realize I am not someone who will turn 50 quietly. FUCK THAT!!!

So yes, I will have several actual photo shoots, I will have a big damn party (thank you to the bestest friend on the planet for hosting it in Boise this weekend) and I will shout it from the top of the tallest pyramids I can find…literally!!!

I am 50. I am a fighter and I am MIGHTY!!!

In my short first video blog (vlog) I have attached, you will see me get a little emotional. I can tell you the energy, the power, the strength and the love that I felt on top of the Teotihuican Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico City was pretty amazing and I am glad this whole crazy adventure started there.

So the list stands as follows: 2 Down, 48 to go!

50 Firsts before my 51st

Climb an Ancient Pyramid (I climbed 3 actually)
Eat A Bug (I ate a cricket and Ant Larvae, those will count for something damn it!)

I have a few more that I know will happen like getting my first tattoo done out of the country, hopefully seeing a new country or two (Mexico didn’t count since I had been there in college technically). Running my first Spartan Race in June. Meeting some of my birth family this summer, and maybe even Harry Potter World for my 20th Wedding Anniversary.

We will see where this Adventure takes me…my life is pretty damn fantastic and honestly I am more blessed than I ever thought I would deserve but I know I am exactly where I should be, doing what I should be doing and that’s a very powerful feeling.

Even at just a few months ago I was pondering just how long I have left in the fighting arena, yet now, with new training methods and some possible breakthroughs in technology, I no longer dread the end, because I can see myself fighting longer than I ever have before. I don’t worry as much about fighting women half my age and half my size, I fight my own fight. I train my own body. I am the athlete I am supposed to be, and if that doesn’t fit into your views of who I should be, that’s your own opinion. I fight for myself, no one else. I lead a group of women fighters who train for themselves, who fight for themselves and who can stand alone against all odds. We all choose to come together and become a team who fights for our Country and will defend one another at all costs. That is a powerful thing and I am proud to be a part of it.

This grand adventure has no limits, no negatives and no boundaries. Celebration is the order of the day and I plan to embrace it ALL. If I can eat a cricket in a cave after climbing ancient ruins, surrounded by people I love…I can do pretty much anything!

So buckle up folks…its gonna be one hell of a ride!!!

badassvalkyrie

Always Fight Like A Girl

Category Archives: Travel