Strength of Body & Mind

It’s weird but today…. Several times people told me how much I inspire them and how they look up to me as a female in jiu jitsu.

I never sought that title out.

In fact the reason I love Jiu Jitsu was because I love the aggression and I loved the challenge. I like to do things that are so physically demanding and hard. I like to fight lol and that’s why I love BJJ.

But I learned early on… that it is not why a lot of women join Jiu Jitsu.

I learned that it has this incredible power to make women feel empowered and strong.

I’ve always coached a lot of women. I have always loved and preferred that.

Now… we have a women’s team and every day I get to motivate them and also beat them up and that’s so much fun too.

Never thought about inspiring women through BJJ but man I am so glad that I get that honor.

It’s a way to give just back to this amazing art that has given me so much.

People mistakenly think lifting and being strong is about looks or appearance.

It is always about so much more than that. It’s about finding inner peace, discipline & strength from within.

It’s about longevity. It is about making our bodies whole. Making them able to withstand all that life will throw at you.

It’s about fighting back. Fighting pain. Fighting injuries. Fighting for a chance to feel alive.

How do you decide what type of person you want to run a business with?

For me it’s the same qualities I look for when choosing a partner in life.

Work ethic.
Discipline.
Dedication.
Ambition.
Willing to continuously work on growth.

Luckily I found both of those at the same time with someone who just so happened to be my best friend before we started dating.

Happy 2 years of running the school together! 🖤🖤🖤

I am invested. In you. In us. In our dream.

I love this lady! Do you know was one of my first ever clients. We use to train outside at Memorial Park. She use to be this tiny little thing and I watched her grow into this amazing bodybuilder, trainer, coach gym owner and wife. (She was already a great mom) the kind of friendship I have with her is just unimaginable. Her and Cody have seen me at my best and they have seen my absolute worst. They never stopped loving me and that kind of love is sooooo rare. I would take a bullet for this woman and I am so glad we got to catch up today. She is part of the reason I kept coaching!

Coaching people you see a lot of the worst of people but clients like Yesi make you feel like you CAN have a positive impact on this world.

They look like they didn’t just try to kill each other.

Anytime ladies want to come cross train, our door is always open.

This particular Friday we had people from 3 schools come to train.

We started the night off with some hand fighting drills.

Then into guard passing games, positional rounds and regular rounds.

Loved the energy and fierceness on the mats.

Thank you all for coming!

Y’all my bestest friend had knee surgery this week. ☹️☹️ she is my favorite training partner and she has to always drill with me. 😝 please go and show her some love as she is at home recovering.

She really loves nerd things, Jiu jitsu and healthy brownies.

Follow her because she is a straight bad ass and is gonna recover fast!

You can also tag her a message here!

🖤🩶🤍🖤🩶🤍🖤🩶🤍

Love to love.

Beautiful photo by

Coach: am I teaching my students all they need to succeed?

Competitor: do I know enough to succeed?

Athlete: will I keep learning enough to succeed?

Business owner: will my business succeed?

Mom: will my kids succeed?

Women’s Group of BJJ practitioners : will I inspire and make them want to succeed

Jiu jitsu is wild. It’s an endless amount of learning. I am here for it.

I haven’t competed in the gi tournament over 5 years. I’ve had so much fun wrestling and working leg locks and being fast…. 😁 alas, the start of the year I started doing more gi (even though I teach mostly gi classes) I am ready to test myself in both. I will be doing both. I am a littler scared but I am also excited.

One thing I never stopped doing… taping my fingers 😃 is a fashion statement and I’m making it.

This is one of the hardest jiu jitsu rooms in all of HTown. Nogi Thursday has quickly become a staple of hardcore training.

Black belts. MMA fighters and World Champions.

Come train every Thursday 11am!

So incredibly “manly” 😂😂😂😂

Something that we are incredibly proud of at is that many days we have an equal amount of women and men on the mats.

This provides a variety in training partners but it also allows our students to train with body types and different strength levels that they may not have been exposed to.

We value diversity in training partners! Come check us out!

Yesterday as I was driving all over the city to train clients and be at our monthly free women only open mat… I had this immense sense of gratitude.

This life that I have made with blood sweat and tears brings me so much joy: I raised these two little people who are shaping up to be amazing humans. My son will be 21 next week and I am proud that he has followed his music dreams and stayed consistent you can listen for yourself.

My daughter is running a little business she has a YouTube, a poshmark and excellent customer service.

(She also likes to hang out with me and workout with my clients which is so cute.)

She helps me teach and coach.

The school, our students, and the man by my side day in and day out.

He makes me a better human, lifts me up and calls me on my bs.

I do not think I have ever been happier.

Thankful and full of gratitude. 💜

I am so thankful. So very thankful.

I always reshare this because it is such a good reminder. I feel like the last two years we have had to do this more. It has been tough to hold each other to these standards but we constantly work on them.

My job is not to make you happy
My job is not to get you to understand me
My job is not to give you peace or happiness
My job is to understand me
My job is to make me happy
My job is give you the space to grow, thrive and learn to love yourself. To understand yourself and be your own peace. My job is to show you I support you and I love you and I do that while being true to who I am and speaking up and out when those things don’t line up. My job is to be the dedicated, passionate and driven person you fell in love with. Your job is to hold me accountable to being that person. Together if we stay true to our truths then there is nothing we cant overcome. The world is ours. ❤️ May this serve as a reminder to any two beings that only you can be the source of positivity in your mind and world.

Loving on these weights.

Jiu jitsu is an amazing thing. It brings so many amazing people into your life.

I am surrounded by some of the most dedicated and humble people.

I am lucky to be close to so many people who own and operate some of the best schools in the city! will be another one added to that list. So happy for my friend ❤️

Congrats

I wish you all the success!

Congrats! 🎊

Had a blast yesterday and looking forward to cross training here.

If I could go back….

I would tell my younger self.

Love yourself more.
Don’t put everyone above yourself.
You are incredible, as is.

There are definitely people who know a very selfish version of me… but that was a results over years of trying to make everyone happy. I would snap. I would become the absolute opposite.

If I could go back, I would say find a balance.
Learn to say no. Learn to rely on you and you alone.

🖤🖤🖤

When I was growing up I was not an athlete. I was a book nerd. Speech and Debate, AP classes and all kinds of scholastic awards.

When I turned 21, I had a kid and I was over 185lbs.

I turned to athletics.

Over the next 20 years I competed hard. I became an IFBB pro, I competed in CrossFit and jiujitsu.

Once I turned 40, I gained weight without any real changes to my life. Then to find out I’m in early stages of menopause.

See what nobody tells you is that being a female athlete can wreck havoc on your body in the long term.

It’s ok. I wouldn’t change my life for anything but as I face the next phase of my life (my athletic) life I must once again work harder.

I track my food again. I hired a coach. I prioritize sleep and I try to be understanding to my new body.

🖤💜🖤💜🖤

Let’s get it. 😃 100 cals at a time. 😅😅

That damn bike is gonna kill me.

😃😃😃😃

I am here for your snacks.

and simply magic!

Today I got my ass kicked.

I was the only woman in a class of big guys, brown belt and super athletic blue belts.

It was rough. I survived and I will do it all over again.

It’s good for the soul to get beat up!

Two years ago we took a small group to we didn’t have a school yet, we were displaced from our last place we coached and we had a handful of students that believed in us and stood by us in one of the darkest times we have had as coaches.

The community supported us more than we ever could have asked for. We are forever grateful.

2 years later we came back. Slightly larger team but the support system has grown. See it’s not just our competitors but the whole group that always shows up to yell and scream for them.

What we have is so special and we do not ever take it for granted.

Thank you Team! You are all incredible. 💜



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Comp
Competitors

When it is hard… show up.

When you don’t want to…. Show up.

When you could be napping, or watching tv or out drinking…. Show up.

Show up for the hard rolls. For the easy rolls. For the mentally exhausting rolls.

Keep showing up.

Then one day you will look up and you will be the inspiration for someone else to keep showing up.

“Words are my oxygen.”

When people ask me how I endure the negative comments online… it’s pretty simple, it boils down to the social concept.

Ask yourself what drives you? Ego or purpose

Ego vs Purpose
Ego is the need to be seen as important, to have status, to feel like you are somebody because others think you are something.

Purpose. Need for authenticity, the burning desire for the inside to closely resembles the outside because that’s who you are and what you are.

Life is governed by these two types of social purpose.

When your life is focused on truth and purpose you will care less what people think. You will not feel the need to manufacture an image. You will be true to who you are and whether people like it or not will not phase you.

People with purpose often have a strong sense of peace, the reason is because they spend the days always thinking about how to get closer to the mission. People with ego have stress, they constantly worry, try to control things and often act irrational. The more you can distance yourself from your ego the stronger and the happier you will become.

I’ve had the same therapist for over a decade. Yesterday we reminisced on how I use to sit in his office and cry. So many bad relationships with men and with women that made me question why it was me, always me that attracted me to people that hurt me, lied to me, cheated on me or abused me.

I stopped dating. I ask for his guidance to help me heal and it turned out I never felt I was worth any more than all those past partners gave me.

I stopped dating and you filled that void. You were already my best friend and the one I could really be myself with.

I never imagined (because we use to argue a lot) that our friendship would turn in to the most beautiful, secure and loving relationship I’ve ever had.

The constant desire to want to be better. To want to grow and want to succeed. We are going on our 6th year of dating and a decade of friendship and I cannot even believe that I fall deeper in love with you as the moments pass.

I so grateful for you. I am so grateful for this life we have built. How much fun it is, how much damn work it is. I am grateful that you have allowed me the time and energy I needed to heal.

In 1 more month it will be 2 years since we opened a school together. As if one adventure wasn’t enough.

Grateful. Love. Appreciated. 🥹🥹

I love to life with you

Some of us,

Work so hard because we feel useless if we aren’t. We care so much because we never want anyone to feel the way we feel about ourselves. We hurt so deeply because we do it alone, as to not burden others. We strive to be extraordinary because we don’t think we are worth much at all.

A life time of lessons and a lifetime of tears. A lifetime of waiting too long to realize that you didn’t need any of those “accomplishments” all you needed was to love yourself.

🤎
It really is you.
You are the problem but you are the solution. It is you. You. Only you.

made these beautiful rashguards. I was worried about the brown but this color is simply stunning! 🤎🤎🤎

Ranked Rashguards are in

I could not have asked for a better team. These women personify hard work and dedication. I can’t wait to scrap with them for some cash money. Cashing checking and snatching necks!

That face says it all.

Wrestle.

The last two comps were the first time I EVER. said “Shoot when you want, you know you can get the takedown whenever you want.”

Today our triad for was working together. Catch us August 5th!

Come learn to dance tonight at 6:15pm!
Women’s only Nogi Class.

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WTF was that?!??? That was some kind of crazy training…..but I love love it…. Thankful for my ladies and some tough ass brown belt rounds.

His and hers.

🤎🖤

Three men I am so thankful to have on this journey. Three men that I respect the heck out of.

Something I do not speak of often is that I have had some not so great experiences with men in my life. To the point that I have a very natural mistrust of them.

Many women who walk into a martial arts school have similar experiences or fear for their safety and want to learn how to defend themselves.

I am thankful for these three and so many others that prove to me everyday that women can be treated with respect on these mats.

Thank you for the photos I love you

Beyond thankful for the opportunity to compete.

To think this is only the beginning at age 40 is pretty surreal.

🫶🏽🫶🏽
Thank you
llanas


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She said “well at least you did better than last weekend.” 😅😅😅 true story baby girl. True story.

It’s been a long time since I competed and now back to back weekends.

I’m back though. I got a new wrestling game. I got a new leg game. Excited to be out there.

I got an all women bracket coming up August 5 and hey in case you didn’t hear…..I am a brown belt now. Let’s get these brown belt matches set up!

In it to win it.

This doesn’t even feel real.

When I was a blue belt all I wanted was my purple belt. Purple belt happened, then Covid and then ACL surgery. After all that I was just lucky to still be on the mats.

Purple belt has been so incredible that I cannot even imagine what my brown belt days will be like.

Now we are here. Academy owners. Coaches and it feels surreal.

Honestly I never imagined that jiu jitsu would become my whole life. I am thankful for all the people and places it’s taken me but the one thing I am most thankful for is that I met my best friend through jiu jitsu and we get to be on this journey together. I love you thank you for pushing me everyday.

Dookie Crew!

Thank you and .llanas for your guidance and support and truly making jiu jitsu a safe place for women. ❤️❤️



To everyone asking about my gi! go check them out

All weighed in and ready to get back on the big stage tomorrow for going to be a full day of BJJ!

My daughter said do the superhero pose. 😊

If you didn’t get your tickets you can still get them at the door or PPV!

See you all tomorrow.

Ps I am not mean it’s just my game face.

One more day to get tickets from me! If not catch me on stage Saturday for I am thankful for the opportunity to compete.

Was telling my client this morning about some of the awesome photoshoots I’ve tricked into doing with me.

These were some of my favorites. Completely unedited and so much fun to do. 🩷

is truly an artist.

over the past 6 months coaching you has been truly incredible. Watching you grow and blossom into a fierce athlete is beautiful.

Since day 1 you came for the kill.

Sharing some of my favorite guy comments about training with you.

“I never had a girl just come at me like that”

“Why is she so strong?”

“She just tries to kill me”

😅😅😅

I hope you know how much you inspire the other ladies. How this is the first step in a long and beautiful Jiu Jitsu career!

We are so proud of you!

Thanks to for sponsorship and let’s get ready for the next one!