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I started this blog a little more than a year ago to chronicle my journey from couch potato to professional MMA fighter. That path delivered me to a lot of great, knowledgeable people who helped me greatly improve my fighting skill set as well as my physical and mental health. I may have been naive but I wasn't expecting to veer so far off course, to get so far from my original goal, but the project took on a life of it's own. Trainers became friends, my dream of a book deal became the reality of being a staff writer on the best MMA magazine on the market, and MMA training went from being a novel year-long pursuit to a fully integrated aspect of my life.

So in order to fully embrace life as I experience it now and commit to the work that I need to do, I am shutting this blog down. I know that will disappoint both of my readers, but not all is lost. Rather than spread myself over multiple sites, all of my online commentary about MMA, MMA training, and martial arts philosophy, culture, etc, will live on my blog at FIGHT! Magazine dot com.

If you want to get at me there, cool. You can also find me on Neal Taflinger dot com, Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, and Twitter.

I kicked my house's ass.

Boosted from Natalie Dee dot com.

Worked today, went to the gym, grappled for a while, and then out-wrestled a dishwasher for a unanimous decision. It took Amanda's dad and I four hours and one trip to Lowe's to return stuff we bought last week but we totally kicked my house's ass.

Diet 8 a.m. Banana, slice of Danish. Noon Indian buffet, water. 3 p.m. Turkey sandwich, chips, cookies, water. 9 p.m. Frozen pizza, minestrone, water.

Strength & Conditioning Nada.

Skills Worked on positioning, passing the guard, keeping my position, regaining it if I lost it, scrambling, etc.

Single legs suck.

Ah...back on the wagon. Cooking real food again, going on one month as an ex-smoker, and finding ways to get into the gym more often.

Diet 8 a.m.Half of a small bowl of cereal. 10 a.m. Small bowl of leftover jambalaya. 2 p.m. Turkey sandwich, chips, cookies. 7 p.m. Three homemade tamales in lettuce wraps, corn on the cob, stir fried green beans.

Strength & Conditioning 255# daedlift, ring dips, knees to elbows, hand stand push ups. Seven reps, seven rounds for time. 20:18.

Skills Single leg takedowns and a couple rounds of grappling. The gym was boiling hot and my technique was sloppier than a roofied sorority sister. I lasted a little more than a hour and a half.

Working all weekend.

Catch up on Monday.

Finally, a night off...OH WAIT

So I get home at 6:30 p.m. tonight with nothing to do for the first time in weeks. I am looking forward to making soup and setting up my office before turning in and getting a good night's sleep before my day off. I have to work all weekend so I wanted to take Friday off to hit the gym, CrossFit and MMA, hang out with my lady and our dogs, cook good food, and get some work done around the house. Then we find out that Amanda's grandpa had been hospitalized. That would have been manageable if her Mom's van hadn't broken down in Avon (20 miles from our house?) at 10:30 p.m. Grandpa Collier is under observation with a minor infection in his leg and will be released tomorrow. There goes catching up on sleep. I honestly don't give a fuck about summarizing what I ate today. Pissed off.