There are hundreds of diets out there. There are diet regimens that require you to crash your weight. Others simply change the entire diet… their bodies’ diet.

So far, only a few diets work. But dieting is not all about losing weight and trimming down. It’s about getting the nutrients that your body needs to function all through out.

BJJ teaches us discipline through learning and hard work. We are not only working on our skills but also on our bodies. Our goal is to make it tougher, more resilient. My take on BJJ and dieting is this, “the goal is to become 10 feet tall and bulletproof.” I got this adage from one of the professors in Gracie Barra. At first I didn’t understand the importance of being disciplined and BJJ. It all says that we need to become so strong that no can break us. If the mind is strong, the body should be able to withstand the beating and the stress of training.  This is where dieting comes in.

Assess your diet

Do you wake up at night hankering for the last slice of pizza in the fridge? Do you indulge in too much carbs because it makes you feel comforted? Do you still eat meats with the fat? Do you still abuse your body with vices etc.? To start off, assess what you put in your body. What nutrients are you taking in.n? Is it enough, or too much?  Are you taking in too much unhealthy fat?

Find alternatives

Once you have figured out what’s not good, look for alternatives. The goal is  not to take away, but to switch. Switching to other types of foods can be tough. The trick is decide and ease in. Here is what I do: whenever I feel like putting something quite unhealthy in my body, I would imagine how it would affect my body, the length of time it will take for me to get rid of it, and the long term effects. P.S. I have stopped eating pork for over a month now. I have known that it’s unhealthy, but I have found alternatives to pork… veggie meats!

Go green.

Green is good. Loading up on greens not only provides you with high amounts of calcium, greens also help reduce bad cholesterol. Leafy greens that contain beta-carotene, such as collard greens, spinach, and Swiss chard contribute to the growth and repair of the body’s tissues. Beta-carotene may also protect your skin against sun damage. Beta-carotene is converted to vitamin A in the body, and food sources of beta-carotene are the best way to get your vitamin A fix, since extremely high doses of vitamin A in supplements can be toxic and lead to bone, liver, and neural disorders as well as birth defects. Food sources of beta-carotene are entirely safe, though, since the body regulates how much beta-carotene is converted into vitamin A.

Get Active

Outside of jiu-jitsu, try to stay active. Bike, run, swim, jog, box, grapple (yeah, I love BJJ,) row, jump rope, etc. Maintaining an active lifestyle can be a tough one. Like anything in BJJ, practice makes perfect. The only way that you can live an active life is to start living one. Get off that couch, shut down the computer. Grab that gi that has been in the closet for god knows how long. Make life worth living by enjoying every moment of it as an active individual.