About 10 years ago I was in the worst shape of my life. I wasn’t doing any exercise. I’m 6’1″ and was pushing almost 300 lbs on a standard American diet. I was severely sick with high blood pressure and high cholesterol on a low fat diet. At that point I decided I needed to do something different, so I did some research and ended up starting a ketogenic diet that relies on me eating a lot of meat and animal fats in general. Completely different that how I was told to eat to be healthy growing up. Thru the keto diet I was able to get my weight down to around 245 lbs and correct many of my health issues however I needed to find a way to exercise and and not get bored. I’m not one to hang out in a gym for hours at a time and lift weights, so in 2014 I looked into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu since I enjoyed wrestling as a teenager in highschool. I instantly feel in love with the sport! BJJ is a very endurance heavy sport as you must grapple, in some cases in access of 30 mins to possibly hours with other humans that train in the art. I have been training BJJ since 2014 and I recently received my Brown Belt and now I teach at my gym Florida Combat academy. I also train with my wife who has a blue belt and my son and who has Tourette Syndrome…recently earned his Purple belt. Me and my family are very committed to eating healthy. On average I eat 3 to 6 large steaks a week as part of my diet. I weigh in at 195lbs and I eat keto as a lifestyle not a diet. I consume large amounts of beef, chicken eggs, some veggies and mostly fermented dairy products like cheese, yogurt and heavy cream. I throw some veggies in there but I eat mostly meat and healthy fats.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu isn’t a race or a marathon but I feel it’s just as challenging if not more as an endurance sport. I have the ability to compete in grappling events and I could easily represent Team Beef in those. We have high level athletes that come to my gym and try to train BJJ and they can’t handle the cardio requirements for grapple if they don’t train in the sport. It’s a different level of cardio to use your entire body to make another human submit. Even cross fit people find what I do nearly impossible unless they start training BJJ and get used to the level of fitness it takes to grapple with me for even just 5 minutes. You guys should consider this fast growing sport as part of your team.