Before Your Feet Hit the Ground

RPI's career fair was this past Friday and Saturday, so I've been applying to jobs like mad and going to employer information sessions.  Although in a dream world I'd be able to just wrestle or coach for a living, as the father of one of my teammates back home said, "wrestling ain't gonna pay the bills."  There are the select few college coaches who don't need a side job, but the majority of us need some sort of "insurance plan" to fall back on.  However, I still consider myself a "Wrestler for Life," (the title of one of the books I'm working on - watch for it in the future!) so I'm going to talk today about your wrestling career instead.

How's the weight control going?  I say control rather than cutting because hopefully you are either staying at your current weight to focus on technique, building yourself up into a higher weight class, or losing (not cutting) weight in a sound manner.  One of the hardest things about losing weight is finding the optimal amount of food to consume.  You obviously don't want to eat too much, but you don't want to eat too little either, as that could leave you with weak muscles, a slow metabolism, and low energy.  As I read in a recent issue of Muscle and Fitness magazine, one way to determine whether your metabolism has slowed down is to measure your body temperature first thing each morning "before your feet hit the ground."  If you're temperature is less than 97 degrees F for three days in a row, you need to eat more because your metabolism is too low.

If you're trying to lose weight, head to the store and buy a cheap underarm thermometer.  It will take less than a minute each morning to keep track of your temperature, and I'd say it's well worth it.  Remember, the season is coming up fast.  RPI's first tournament is at the SUNY Brockport Open in Brockport, NY on October 29th - in 27 days!

Keep it above 97 degrees,
Jeff