Quinoa breakfast bake

How amazing was 2014!!?? It certainly was this for me.

The year started for me in Melbourne Australia. I had been visiting my boyfriends parents for Christmas, and as the weeks went on, I met a lot of new friends. We travelled to Sydney and to Airlie beach and got caught in a Cyclone, but caught up with some friends from England which made the trip even lovelier.

Training Jiu Jitsu with Ben Hall, Maryanne Mullahy and the guys at Nemesis in Melbourne

We carried on our travels to Singapore for a couple of days, and then to Thailand, finishing our 2 month adventure on the Island of Koh Samui.

Training in Singapore

As soon as we got home, we got straight back in to things. Being away was great, but you get a lot of time to think, and to plan goals. My goal for 2014 was to work hard and make things happen, especially with Jiu Jitsu as I am getting on a little now, and plans for 2015 would be a lot different to this one.

Muay Thai training at Cobra Gym on Koh Phagnan

While being away, I did manage to get on average 2 training sessions in per week, and we kept our fitness levels up with some Muay Thai, running and conditioning. I'm sure a lot of my training partners thought that I would lose my jits and my fitness, but I think they were surprised when I came back to the class a lot eager and ready than before. Less is more I guess!

My first competition of the year was in March at the Southend Open. I had 2 fights with the same person weirdly, and won both. I took my first gold medal of 2014 away with me.

Southend BJJ Open with Rebecca Gu

Local competitions are great, they get your nerves in check for bigger competitions that you have planned. My plan was to get my IBJJF ranking up as much as possible for 2014, then go to the World Masters in Los Angeles later in the year to really test myself.

My next competitions were in Rome in April, the Rome Open and the European No Gi. I won both my division and the Absolute in Rome, and two days later I won the European No Gi. I came second in the Absolute, but taking 3 out of 4 gold medals home was a good result.

Winning the Master 1 feather weigh division

Winning the Master 1 blue belt Absolute

European No Gi Light weight Champion

Second place in the European No Gi absolute

Medals from Rome

By the time May had arrived, just a month after I competed in Rome, I was feeling tired of the training and constant dieting, and something wasn't sitting right with me. I've never felt like I didn't want to be in a competition before. I had dropped down to Adult division and felt a little out of my depth. I'm 37 years old and was competing against ladies 18-29. I made a mistake.
I came away from the whole weekend with a default Bronze medal and a lot to think about if I wanted to keep competing.

Copenhagen Open

Mid May was the British Open. I still wasn't feeling that strong, but I loved the fact that my team mate Kat Gibson said that we should aim for a domination of the Blue belt featherweight division. Edyta was also in our division, so we did just that, we got the Carlson Gracie Gold, Silver and I took the Bronze. It was a good day for Carlson Gracie, and I even read about our podium success in someones blog!

Carlson Gracie domination in the ladies blue belt feather weight division

There was about 6 weeks until I competed again. I spent 2 weeks relaxing my diet, but keeping my training up to the usual 6-7 sessions a week, plus strength and cardio gym sessions to make up another 4. At the end of June I competed in Paris for the Gi and No Gi competitions. Over the 2 days I had 7 fights and came away with a Bronze for the Gi and Silver for the No Gi, plus a Bonze for the No Gi absolute.

Bronze medalist in Paris

Silver in the Paris No Gi

Bronze in the No Gi Absolute

It was time to relax, have another kind of fun, go on holiday, work hard in my busy job and eat what I wanted. I did all this and enjoyed the summer. I also decided to cut down on my training. It was making me too tired, and within a week, I noticed a huge difference in my energy levels. I had much more energy.

I had entered for the Masters Worlds on 1st November, booked my flights and got my training and diet plan in check. Normally I would cut alcohol out 6-8 weeks before competing as it suppresses my cardio levels. This wasn't a problem as one of my goals for the year was to cut it out completely for the whole of 2014.
I had cut my training down to just 5 times per week, then one cardio and one strength class. My energy levels were feeling really good. Less was definitely showing to be more.

Before the Worlds I competed in London to get my nerves in check. The Gi comp was great and just what I needed. I came away with a Silver medal, the best I've ever done in London.
The No Gi comp was the next day, but I was in a funny mood and the day started off bad, and I lost my fight. I didn't stay for either of the absolutes, as these can often lead to injuries.
I licked my wounds and kept training for the Worlds.

Silver in the London International

Bronze in the London No Gi

Never before have I felt so calm, but seriously nervous than when I went to compete at the Worlds on 1st November. My head was clear and I let my jiu jitsu do the work. It didn't let me down. All the clean eating, cardio, strength, drilling, sparring and muscle memory helped me win my fights and become the Blue belt feather weight Master 2 World champion.

With Silver medalist and friend from the UK, Kirsty

Bronze in the Absolute at the World Masters

World Champion!!

I am biased with Carlson Gracie Team, but I truly believe that we have a brilliant team of competitors, instructors, coaches and supporters who believe in the sport. We all work so hard and put so much time in to our training, that we get brilliant results. I can't thank all of them enough for helping me on my journey.

The journey didn't end there, on 28th November 2014, I was promoted to Purple belt by my coach Alain. Who would have thought that a 37 year old woman who had a goal, worked hard, never gave up on a dream, met some obstacles along the journey, but kept believing in herself and used the hard work to get there.

Receiving my purple belt

2014 Medals

Never give up! Set a goal and do it, you will not regret it.

Here's to making 2015 slightly easier haha


Now for the food, and I know that from a photo I posted, there has been a lot of interest in this.
I eat a lot of eggs and now when I eat them, I get a sickening pain in my stomach. So I needed to find something else to eat for breakfast that wasn't full of oats and carbs.
Quinoa is plain, so can be used in breakfast, lunch or dinner dishes. Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day and I take my time making it right, and it usually keeps me full until 1 or 2pm.
This Quinoa breakfast bake does the same.

Here is how I made it......

Ingredients:

170g Uncooked Quinoa
1 1/2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon of nutmeg
1/8 Teaspoon of ground cloves (I ground the cloves myself and used 2)
2 Apples
Handful of Raisins
Handful of Cranberries
Tablespoon of honey
2 Eggs
2 Cups of Almond milk
Handful of chopped almonds
Coconut oil


Method

Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.
Grease a square baking tin (8x8 is good) with the coconut oil.
Place the Quinoa, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a bowl and mix evenly.
Peel, core and dice the apples.
Melt the honey so that it's warm and very runny.
Beat the eggs and add the almond milk and the honey, then add this to the quinoa and spices. Mix thoroughly, then transfer to the baking tin.
Add the diced apples to the top of the mixture in the tin, then add the raisins and cranberries, and make sure they get enough of the wet ingredients to cover them.
Add the chopped almonds, then place in the oven to bake for 1 hour.

Let the bake cool, then keep in the fridge ready for breakfast in the morning.
You can eat it cold or warm it in the microwave. Either is lovely.

Enjoy!
Jolie x