This is me now, I'm a fighter!

Summary

Combat Confidential #004 - S1E4 - Ariana Dunne She is a fellow podcaster, a life coach, a lecturer, solo traveler, aspiring mother, and a contestant on season 10 of Train Alta. She is the powerful Ariana Dunne. Ariana opens up about her recent solo journey across Europe, her…

Transcript (youtube_captions)

foreign [Music] welcome to combat confidential today's episode is very good I had a wonderful chat with very interesting and wonderful person her name is Ariana Dunn She's currently a contestant with season 10 of train Alta at sbghq she is a life and business coach she hosts the solo-powered podcast she's a lecturer she is a columnist for Irish Country magazine so she just came back from a solo trip across Europe where she traveled herself and her dog visited several different countries and we get to hear about that experience we get to hear about her experience with Ulta and what it has done for her and what she's planning on using that for in the future we hear about our podcast which I really like it's a fantastic podcast very well produced I highly recommend it it'll be linked below again it's called civil powered Ariana Dunn it's on Spotify it's pretty much anywhere you can get a podcast check it out very good so without further Ado thanks for sticking around thanks for tuning in again please be sure to like subscribe follow to stay up to date with what's going on with combat confidential so without wasting any more time here we go three two one you are in go [Music] [Music] welcome everyone back to the podcast uh today I have a fantastic cast she is currently training in the train altar program at spghq uh season 10. is it yep uh Miss Ariana Dunn hello thank you for having me yeah no problem thank you for coming I appreciate it uh how you doing today good good yeah nice bank holiday weekend looking forward to getting back to training in the morning yeah I keep waking up at like 5 00 a.m every morning even at the weekend so do they have a training tomorrow or we are training tomorrow we've got a class with Nate at nine so yeah a little bit of a lion yeah a little bit a little bit of me so speaking of Alton um what do you think yeah I love it I mean it's it's we are uh sort of fourth week going into week 14 now so we've got six weeks left till fight night um I unfortunately broke my toe in training um about three weeks ago so I haven't been um really on the mats for the last three weeks I've been training um with Sean who is the strength and conditioning coach so he's been doing some one-on-one coaching with me um but I yeah I I broke my tail and I missed one day so I've been back training and just trying to work on upper body and trying to stay fit as much as I could that's good you're still in there because you know a lot of people for something difficult we might find that as an excuse to either you know kind of stop or yeah you know just just an excuse to quit all together um yeah well I mean I think so on Instagram I've been chronicling the the journey and I've been putting pictures up every week and week one I kind of put this thing up where I said this is me now I'm a fighter um and so when I broke my toe I posted and I said this is me now maybe I'm not a fighter and Coach Kavanagh actually commented on my picture and he said not a fighter no no no not on my watch he's like I won't hear of it he's like you've already proven you are a fighter so you're just gonna have to do some upper body work for the next week few weeks so I thought okay Coach if you say so that's what I'll do so it was really good encouragement to have that and you know the the the guys in SVG you know you really do feel like you've become part of the family you do feel like you become part of part of the fight Community um from from day one and you know everybody is so encouraging and so you know it's it's not a big deal they're like you're fine you'll be fine you know we'll figure it out we'll work around the injury um so I think you know when I made the decision to do a wish I really made that decision and so dropping out wasn't an option even with them even with the broken toe so yeah I unofficially broke my toe about three weeks saw a doctor but it was clearly broke because my entire foot was just swollen and black and blue and yeah yeah so I actually I technically fought with a broken foot that's encouraging yeah so uh it was a top and it definitely hurt and I couldn't kick okay um you know kicking was it wasn't really my storm suit anyway nice but um yeah it was it was it was sore but you can it can definitely be done is my point yeah so anyway tell us how did you come about finding train alter what what was it that led you to the door I may probably since really Conor mcgregorithm uh you know famous and you know his whole kind of like 60gs baby around that time I have my of a big family but I've got three younger brothers um and you know they they would have been like kind of brawlers back in the day my brothers you know and uh they're from Dublin we're from Lucan which is where Connor was was from so you know his rise I think was something that was just you know really big in in the community and you know amongst my brothers and all their friends so I really got into them I liked I liked his attitude at the start you know things have changed a little bit but for certainly at the start you know he putting um Ireland on the MMA map was very exciting so I would have been uh you know a fan at the beginning and would have gotten up for all of his fights and you know but um I guess my brother sort of introduced me to that MMA World um but I was never really someone who was like into the gym I was never really kind of into fitness um I come from a very fit family my brother my nephew plays for LA Galaxy my niece was like Varsity champion soccer my brother's a PT your brother plays right like Alex my nephew or your nephew yeah no way yeah so my father was like a snooker coach you know we were very involved in like this the sporting world I suppose but um I was in an accident when I was 13 and I was in a go-karting accident um and I crashed into like a concrete wall like at 40 miles an hour and I broke my foot in my hand and I got whiplash and lower back injury um right at that Pinnacle time where you sort of you also had a growth spurt yeah your body still developed totally so I had really bad back problems for a long time growing growing up so it kind of made me not able to do sport um and I kind of not use it as an excuse but it was like oh it's not for me yeah um yeah exactly pretty traumatic especially when you're that young yeah exactly but a couple of years ago I decided that I wanted to sort of get a bit fit so I did some CrossFit so I joined CrossFit Community which I really loved I liked that variety of like doing something different and challenging yourself um and then last year I decided to go traveling with my dog Molly um we went traveling all across Europe and it took me out of CrossFit took me out of that routine and I spent the last four months living in Italy and I was eating all the pasta and eating all the pizza and having a great time but feeling a bit guilty about it and feeling worried that I was getting out of shape and I was putting on weight and so rather than beat myself up about it I said look enjoy your time this is once in a lifetime opportunity for you to be traveling across Europe just enjoy your time and when you get back to Ireland you know you'll make a decision that you'll get back into fitness and so while I was there in Italy making that decision I listened to the top bollocks podcasts with um coach cabinet and Coach challenge teren's power to do this train altar program yes and I remember him talking about how you have to get up at like you know five o'clock in the morning at 20 weeks and it's intense and I remember just thinking what crazy bastards gonna do something like that um and I remember thinking God it sounded so amazing but how I probably would never be able to do something like that but it just kept niggling at me and niggling at me and so I sort of made the decision okay that's what I'm gonna do I wanted to do something intense that I could commit to that was going to be a challenge really challenging um and yeah I signed up when I came back and I've been doing it ever since January 23rd so it's been amazing that's awesome that's uh yeah that's what everyone kind of says is it's been amazing I mean I've you know I've had the same outcome or the same experience you know it was certainly one of the uh the better things I've done in my life and you know pretty much I don't think there's anyone who's came out of it at the end and said otherwise you know yeah yeah um that's fantastic so you know just how how are you finding the training every day yeah I mean you know look it's also I suppose it's it's interesting so I turned 40 last year and um I'm I'm single I've got no kids I work for myself I that's dirty talk thank you so you know like because I I'm what 30 I'll be 34 this year and I have two kids okay you know so oh man I just I always think about all that free time I used to have well it's interesting because I'm actually at that point now where I'm trying to make a decision about whether I have a baby on my own so I also have a podcast called solo powered which is all celebrating doing things solo and and I've done a lot of things so I live in my life and one of the things now I'm thinking of I just haven't met the right person and maybe my biological clock has taken away and so I'm thinking you know all last year while I was traveling a lot of that travel was just sort of you know you know be free and experience new things and have all this but with the attention probably of maybe you know coming home and maybe having a baby so I bet no one has ever signed up to train out at MMA fight training thing with the intention of having a baby at the end of it but for me the idea of um getting my body fit and healthy you know um really working on my my staff both externally and internally to get myself to that place but also experiencing speak deprivation so you know getting up early really really early in the morning five days a week doing the training I I know that having a baby on my own is probably going to be the most challenging thing that I'll ever do but I thought up to that point maybe that altar would be but actually I have not found it challenging I've no loved it I have not found it challenging like I'm I guess I'm from my work I'm a coach I'm a life coach and a career coach among other things but I teach coaching and it's all about mindset it's all about the power of your decision is enormous it's all about uh you know committing to a plan and sticking to it and achieving your goals so I think I went into this train arts program with that mindset that this is do you find yourself using the tools that you would give to other people yeah after absolutely like I think struggle with it at all I mean I literally at that that first morning where coach cabinet said you know if you can swing your bags at your bed at the morning you can you can do it and he's like if you don't negotiate with terrorists you know um and so when that alarm goes off I literally I get up I have my gym gear ready I come in I'm excited every morning coming into the gym I mean I think I've missed a total of nine days out of the whole program so far so I'm like if I didn't I'll have a bed at 90 attendance and that was only because I was sick so um so yeah it's it's not it's actually not being challenging which is kind of exciting for me because people say it's one of the most challenging things you mean challenging in the aspect of like your mindset because it's certainly difficult challenging physically yeah no no and I don't know whether CrossFit has prepared me for that either find I think I find CrossFit harder than this it's just because I enjoy it immensely so I'm not finding it challenging in the sense that like I'm really enjoying the learning the the variety of learning every day the boxing the Jujitsu wrestling the combinations you know the strength and conditioning I'm I'm really enjoying it like you find yourself picking those things up quickly yeah yeah I I have and um you know it's uh what I love about it is that it's so physical but yet you don't realize how physical you're being because you're so in the moment yeah um it's very what I suppose I I was also doing a mindfulness course while I started doing the training and I actually stopped doing it because I find it more mindful doing the fighting yeah than any other thing like for that one hour that you're training Nothing Else Matters absolutely you forget everything else you're just right there in that moment focus on that focus on what you're doing focus on your opponent focus on yourself focus on your body focus on the training focus on the coaches it's um it's it's an incredibly mindful um one of the things I heard the other day and it makes perfect sense to me um Jiu Jitsu MMA boxing any of that it's it's really good for people who either need it's good for people who want to be comfortable failing or people who I don't understand want to fail but like they have to be okay with failure because if you're sparring you know and you get tapped you're gonna okay you're gonna everything's gonna stop you're gonna pause you know you're gonna you know shake hands and then you got three minutes left on the clock so you're gonna continue to go yeah you know so you have to be comfortable with you know with not doing well um and then just kind of getting over it and then just going moving on with it yeah you know but you see like I teach a confidence course as part of my various different things that I do one of the things I teach is confidence and one of the slides I have there is that in order to be confident you have to accept failure absolutely you know and you can't be confident without the acceptance of failure because without accepting that you're likely not to try something in the first place yeah and so it for me it's not a I don't see it as failing I don't think you know I think it's if you get tapped out it's like okay great this is an opportunity for you to learn for an opportunity for you to go again I don't know if you've played learning opportunity yeah exactly and like I play golf golf has 18 holes of a nightmare but you have you know if you have a bad hole you've got the next hole to try and be better make it up um so yeah so that's that's how I feel about the the kind of the fight game again I think it's just every I mean I got punched in the eye at one point um and I I got really bad floaters and I'm still having the floaters yeah so that's that's you know but like I said I'm 41 in June six days before the six days after fight night is my 41st birthday and uh you know week one I remember being there and afterwards thinking I I've never been hit before ever did you in my life a lot of people don't know that it is possible to get hit in the face and then continue on yes with something yeah you know yeah and then to actually get hit in the face and then have to continue on with whatever it is you're doing everyone should get in the face humility um yeah that's good thank you thank you yes um and humbleness yeah um it's it's it's good for that I mean I don't know if I agree with everybody needing to get hit in the face my parents never spanked us my I've never been in any fights physically you know like I I it was just something that I kind of had that realization that maybe I was I was lucky up to that point that I'd never been hit you know um but they assured us that like it's a gradual process when you're doing the training that you know the thing and it really is I mean now now we get hit you know what don't get hit all the time because I'm pretty good at ducking out of the way um but yeah you it's amazing how quick you get used to it absolutely how are you you know they're like okay this is normal now what um what would you find to be your kind of your favorite aspect of training do you like doing the boxing yeah to be honest I I enjoy all of it I do love the boxing but I mean I like the challenge of the of the Jiu jits and the um the the just sort of I what I suppose is what I was saying what I was saying is the difference between like a crossfit is that you know one of the one of the wads at a CrossFit might be you know you have to do um 100 burpees in seven minutes or something right whereas you're probably doing the equivalent of 100 burpees in like you know a 15-minute session on the thing because you're going up you're getting down you're going up you're getting down you're going up you're getting there and you're throwing someone over your shoulder but you don't realize that you're doing that so it's not mentally exhausting as doing you know 100 burpees one after the other yeah with this it's like it's all such a learning experience and it's fun and I you know I really really enjoy it yeah no I I love the Jets um I used to wear like a heart rate monitor and you know just do an hour class you know eight 900 calories would be burning and you're right you don't even notice it and like that's like that is quite a lot in just an hour yeah and yeah yeah no I've definitely there's been huge changes to my my body kind of physically um but I definitely kind of I you know I feel great yeah yeah I feel really good and confident and um you know I just love the I love the discipline I love the the discipline of of getting up every morning and um I'm really proud that I've actually been able to do this and love it and it's not been a chore I thought it would be oh my God I have to you know no like I I was committed to this but I really don't want to do it but I'm like I want to do more how was your first day you know kind of showing up you know I I've spoken to a lot of people and most people kind of they all say that you know they got there early yeah and then they just kind of contemplated yeah will I actually go in is this something I really want to do like what would you earn first thing I mean I suppose the first day really technically was the trial day that we had with Coach Kavanaugh and I think you know again I live 15 minutes away from my style I live in Lucan and I live 15 minutes away from the gym okay that's good yeah and I remember I remember just thinking in my head like you know going into it like how lucky I was that I had 15 minute access to one of the greatest MMA gyms in in the world right and access to one of the greatest MMA coaches in the world and one of the greatest teams in the world right so like how lucky I was that you know lots of people would love to be in my position that they can just get in their car and be 15 minutes um away and it felt to me like not a case of why would you do it but why wouldn't you do it right you know like why why like what an amazing opportunity that I have on my doorstep that I wouldn't have you know had the luxury of being a part of had I not made the decision to do it yeah that's a fantastic word uh yeah um like I said I know on my first day I was I was reconsidering things I'm like and I would I would always be good at kind of talking myself out of doing stuff you know especially when I'm nervous because you know like I I grew up I was an only child so I kind of had to always do things on my own um and then if I was ever really I always had to either I would either talk myself into doing it or I would talk myself out of it one or the other and this is something that I was really interested in and then you know just I I knew like I had a friend who competed in the program before me and I just kind of saw how it transformed him and I'm like at that point in time in my life I was kind of going through some stuff and you know I'd put out a bunch of weight and you know I wasn't happy with a lot of things and like I knew I needed to change and I'm like if if this works for other people then you know I'm no different so and I just I forced myself in I think you know look nobody signs up for a 20-week intensive MMA training program if you don't have a little bit of crazy inside you know and I mean you know like you know McGregor would have said it like you have to have that there is some sort of crazy mentality um and you know I I think everybody probably who walks through those doors is searching for something whether it's redemption or validation or they're searching for you know a a greater sense of happiness and and you know I'm I'm lucky in that in the sense that I had had an incredible year I'd had an incredible experience traveling um and up to this point in my life I've had a great life right so it wasn't it wasn't that but I guess when I talked about earlier about having the baby and that challenge that that intensity that kind of can I do this you know um when I told people that I was doing it I mean people were just like flabbergasted like you know why are you does anyone try to you know she was like I want to get you know you're 40 like you don't need to be doing this you know um my I thought my brothers would my brothers have tried to convince me not to do the fight with um like headshots like they try to convince me to just do the grappling or whatever but I'm I'm gonna do it but do you know who your opponent is not yet match up for next week yeah but um but I I guess you know I I guess just having that access to to coach Kavanagh like he I the next day after I started I was invited onto the Ryan tuberty Show as a guest um and I talked about my experiences of traveling and things like that but I also told Toby that I was doing the training with Coach Kavanagh and I also wrote about it I have a column in a magazine Irish Country magazine so I wrote about doing it in the magazine as well so I had kind of put it out there to the world that I was doing it um and you know I definitely committed it is committed yeah it was committed so um so that that kind of uh helped as well for sure yeah that's great look uh we'll we'll pivot here for a minute tell me about your solo trip across Europe that sounds fantastic yeah so um I suppose like uh my during covid when everything was locked down and we weren't let it go anywhere and our wings got clipped yeah I felt this overwhelming urge to just get in my car and drive like I just was like what like where can we're we're trapped you know and that really sort of rattled me and um and yeah like I said you know I'm I'm very I was gonna say I'm very fortunate that I'm not married and have no kid but what I meant was I was in a fortunate position that I was able to to do something like that like to go away that I didn't have like commitments in in that way and all of my work had gone remote during covid and it's sort of stayed remote more or less and I just thought like I have this opportunity to to to do this again why wouldn't I right that kind of mentality um so yeah so my little dog Molly and I we packed up my car and we left um in February 2022 spent a month in Paris living in Paris in Walmart which was amazing and then spent two months near Alicante Valencia in Spain then over to Portugal to like Lisbon alafara I spent my 40th birthday in maribea and had a month-long birthday with like friends and family coming out then one way to spend your 40th yeah right I know that's about four months in Italy and traveling all around Tuscany Como Garda where did you stay where would you stay airbnbs really okay yeah and then I made my camp anywhere or no it didn't work no made my way over to Croatia spent a couple of weeks in Croatia and then kind of came back through Austria Switzerland Liechtenstein um you know back up into um France and then back through the UK home so about 10 months all together and yeah absolutely loved them and resolved solo just met incredible people had incredible experiences and just you know really lived the dream I suppose did you learn anything um I learned that there's no place like home I suppose um you know it's like so many people were saying to me you're living the dream and I was kind of it's funny because I learned that there is no dream you know like where you are is where you are um and you know people talk about like you know traveling around and being and it and it is and it's great and I had an amazing time I can't complain about it at all but it gets tiring after a while you know moving around packing up it gets tiring after a while you know like being you know in new neighborhoods and new places and you know living out of a suitcase living out of a suitcase exactly so I've been back there for a month um back in my apartment and you know really loving being home and really loving that I had that experience but I also knew that I would probably be really depressed coming home because I had such a packed year and so that was another motivator for me to do the train altar program because it was something that I knew would keep me act sort of motivated and inspired um rather than just going into some deep hole of depression of being back in Ireland and not living by the Sea anymore you know and so it and it really has it really has helped me to to like feel those endorphins and those you know happy hormones every day that exercise gives um so it's been really good as well okay so yeah you return from your trip uh and you said you didn't um want to go and take a deep depression from all the adventures and everything that you had um that usually happens to me when I go on vacation yes I usually try to think of anything to stay on vacation like everything it'll run in my head is like how can I I quit my job I have this one for savings I can find another you know like yeah my honeymoon that was the best uh probably one of the best vacations I've ever been on I went on uh I was a two-week cruise out of Miami and around the Caribbean um and then like as we're sailing back I'm like on Craigslist looking up boats I could buy this boat I can live on it uh you know I was I was really trying to because I didn't want to come back I had so much fun down there yeah um so definitely uh there's probably a great idea to jump into something uh like trying to alter to try and you know keep yourself from but then again that's the thing as well you know about a two-week holiday it's great because it is a two-week holiday like that's what's good about it right and like this is what I mean you know I had a year-long holiday eventually I mean I was working I was still working I was working remotely and everything but I was being very selective with the work that I did and I definitely was it was quite free um but you know like that it started to get to getting to a point where I wasn't and not not that I wasn't enjoying but I wasn't finding the joy that you would find when you're on holiday right so you know there was places that I was going to and I was going wow this isn't this was amazing and then I go to the next amazing City and I'm like yeah okay there's another Cathedral yeah well here's another gorgeous plate of food great you know like you're yeah it comes you lose you lose that sense of awe that you get from being on a holiday and that is what is awesome about it right so you you definitely lose that which is what I was kind of saying about that whole living the dream thing the dream really quickly becomes reality right yeah absolutely it is just living life you know um but I like very lucky and very appreciative of the time that I had so yeah yeah tell me about your dog I love dogs my name is Molly yeah Molly yeah Molly Bloom from Ulysses my birthday it's the 16th of June so I'm a Bloomsday baby okay um so she's Molly boom and she is a chocolate Cockapoo um and she is just my best little friend she's just actually fun traveling she loved traveling she loved it yeah um she loves the water she loves to see she loves the ocean she loves the Lakes so we were she I took her kayaking and like Como we went to the beach you know every day whenever we live by the beach or the you know the the sea she's she's she can speak you know dog in four languages now so you speak any other languages I speak a little bit of French um and then I mean did you find the language barrier to be a bit difficult it's funny because I specifically chose places that weren't tourist traps because I wanted to have the most like authentic experiences I possibly could but I had only ever really been to touristy places previously tonight so I remember like rocking up to Spain and you know places I've been before like Ibiza Barcelona like Lanzarote everyone spoke English and here I was in this small little town called Denia and no one spoke I was like oh okay because that's because I'm in Spain yeah like that makes sense um but I mean you can communicate with hands and gestures and you know pick up little words here and there um and so you know like one of the funniest times in in France and I was trying to buy a fly swatter it was like 40 degrees and there was like flies and I was in this huge supermarket and I was trying to explain to the guy and you know he was French and I was like I'm looking for fly swatter he was like it's like he was like brings me straight to the fly swatter phase yeah having to mime quite a bit which was which was fun that's great um sorry so you had mentioned earlier about wanting to take on after Alta here potentially having a kid yeah what um what am I trying to say um how do you plan on going about that route you want to earn and because I I know a lot of men in the train yeah I have a we have a my wife and I we have a family friend who went the IVF route yeah and you know she has a child now yeah um so is that what year yeah so it would be the donor sperm route it would basically be I literally had an appointment last week it would be the donut sperm rude it would be um yeah IUI probably in the first instance um you know I have no reason to leave then I can't get pregnant other than the fact that my enemies sperm right so there's no as far as I'm concerned fertility issues other than the fact that I am 40 and you know it starts to decline from there on in so um so but I would probably just just try that and um try that maybe a couple of times if I needed to and then maybe if I had to progress but I'm still wavering I'm still not 100 so I've signed up to some um you know therapy sessions to kind of talk about it I feel like I want to do it due diligence and a duty of Care on myself to really talk about all of the different options that I have before me because I have a great life right now I've got a lot of freedom as you said you know you you question where you know where you had your time um and I have 15 nieces and nephews I have a bunch of God children um and you know I have Molly who's just adore her but I'm also in a good position I own my own place I've got a good job I've got you know good income and so you know there's a lot of pluses and to to the situation that I'm in and I think you know I don't really want to go through the rest of my life without having the experience of being a mother and having a child but I just you know having one on my own is a big decision and it's um in for so many different reasons it's a big decision and so I have to make that decision probably within the next 12 months so um so definitely not before my fight night so I've been up for June um but yeah it's something that is you know I thought also was going to be a big deal but I will say I I say two things one usually when I meet someone and they say they they would like to have kids I usually say uh do you have siblings and they say yes and I say being Aunt be an uncle because you get all the benefits of children without all the well without most of the drawbacks but that being said uh you you're doing you're doing putting in all the work in order to uh you know for a kid um you know you're doing all the pre-planning most kids don't happen that way exactly you know and then we have to kind of figure it out whereas like you're you're certainly thinking about it I think you just based off that thing could be a fantastic mom so much thank you yeah that is the thing as it was a lot of people get pregnant and they just roll with it you know and then and um so yeah so there is I I think a lot of people's on you know on my podcast like I said solo parrot it's all about doing things on your own so I have had a guest on there who who had a kid on her own three years ago and talking to her about it was really interesting and one of the things that we discussed was you know the hardest decision the hardest thing about having a baby on your own is making the decision right that's it like and you know I suppose for me it's just a lot of questions of like you know as an older mom there's a lot more complications that could potentially happen you know what if this what if that what if I die like who looks after the kid you know it's like you know also you know that the child's not knowing their father you know like I had a great relationship with my my dad I know you know my brothers are great fathers and things like that my brother so it's you know it's it's a lot of of you know things to consider I suppose but I do think I'd be a good mum and I think I could make it work but um do you have family nearby like would you have a I do I do have a family nearby but at the same time I'm not going into it with the mindset of that I will have family you have to go into it with the mindset that I'm doing this on my own and you know yes it takes a village and things like that but as much as I have support no one's going to be there at four o'clock in the morning when that baby's screaming crying you know you have to know that it's something that you have to be able to to do on your own no no there's one thing to do it on your own but then it's another to know that you're doing it on your own but you have you know a good family to kind of just you know give you the nice whole pep talk if you need to or something absolutely absolutely and you know you need to ask for help and you need to you know especially doing it on your own you need to be accomplices top the fact that like you know there's all kinds of emotions and hormones and things like that that happen after a baby is born and um you know I've I've already sort of said to family me that if I you know I want you to if I do do this I want you to check in on me maybe a little bit more than than you would any new mom because I am so pig-headed that I'm probably gonna be like I'm fine I'm fine where I can do this like you know dying inside but that's the thing as well you know so many people talk about what a nightmare is to have kids so I'm going into it with that mindset as well and anything else is a bonus you know if it's if it's good it'll be good so yeah it's not that I don't know I always tell people it's terrible but like look I love my kids and it's like the best thing ever yeah you know um I seldom to meet any parent who's really felt other than that you know though they might tell you it's from academic terms of show which it really is but like it's it's if it's fun it's a friendship show you know um every day is chaos yeah but it's great um and you'll find your groove and next thing you know they're my oldest is four yeah you know they're gonna be four you're gonna forget yeah you're gonna you're gonna forget where all that time went yeah you know it just it does shoot by it really does everyone told me that I didn't really comprehend it at first but like so with my first one um that just shot by and which if you took that in isolation everything that you just said there you could actually think that you were talking about advice yeah it's chaos it's a show it goes by really fast you don't know what's happening you forget everything you know same same deal right that's what I've been hearing about what it's like to be in the in the cage so yeah uh you know when I was in the cage it was weird because like it was very loud but like I didn't like I knew it was loud I could feel that it was loud but I didn't really hear that it was loud you know um and none of it seemed real to me until like I got in there and the door shut and then it was like oh like this is this is happening I didn't actually know who my opponent was until like I didn't see him face to face until we were at the back of the cage getting ready to walk here um because like it had changed so many times so even like I was sorry I meant to mention this earlier when you get your match up don't be surprised if that changes right okay and then they'll I'll tell you that as well um but yeah there's more it'll more than likely change um I think I had like at least three different opponents before I actually got my and did you go full three Reds no uh it was stopped a minute like minute and a half minute 40 in the beginning I will I will say that I won and I'll link that video here I love I watched that video a lot um oh great but to be like I did a couple other uh what was it stopped like what did you do yeah it was just ground up on grandparents yeah um again right there um I I did a couple other finales uh I did another one that was it was no it was just a grappling match okay and to be honest with you I'm very like I remember going into it um I was bummed because it was supposed to be full contact and then I got the phone call saying that like you know it's just grappling you still want to do it and I'm like yeah absolutely and I'm very happy that it was because that guy would have killed me yeah he was very I remember we are together uh we were in the we were in the ring together and um I came up to him and I went to kind of just kind of push him and just grab them just to kind of gauge how things are going to be and I grabbed it all right you know I pushed him I'm like oh like oh like he was solid like and he barely moved and I was like okay this is gonna be interesting um but I won that one as well and then I did a third one and that one did not go well for me at all ago I won't like any of the other two yeah but like it's it's an incredible experience I'm so happy I didn't and I think you're gonna really enjoy it as well yeah I do too I mean you know look at the end of the day uh we didn't they always say it's not about the winning or the losing it's you know it's just the the taking part the kids now but it is about the journey it's about you know showing up every day and and um and having that that it really is discipline yeah and I think so you know for me it's already been been a great winning experience but I do want to win and you know I've been putting down this is me now I'm a fighter I really want to put down this is me now I'm a winner and you know that's like being a big motivator for me and I you know I do a lot of visualization not even like not even like I'm purposely sitting down individualized but I'm just driving my car and I'm in the shower and I'm like just my mind is constantly just going there it's going to the moves it's going to the fights it's like it's this and then all this and then that'll happen and that you know yeah and I know everybody has a plan till they get in the face um and and you know that's totally fair enough and I know even just in the sparring that we do that you just forget everything you know but um like I'd love to just to just for some little bit of magic to happen and for it to be a to be a win I mean I I likely to get matched up with someone half my age because I'm down with the eldest person and probably the deal I don't know I'm the eldest person and I'm definitely the oldest woman in the in the program this year um and maybe I don't know ever no I'm sure I think they're having a lot of people um so so yeah so it's it's it's it's going to be interesting who the match-up is with um but I'm excited it doesn't matter I do have a lot of people gonna come to it right now yeah I have friends coming over from the UK and everyone it's a little bit of pressure but you know that that's good too though because that drive me you know um Sean Fitz has been training me the last few weeks and he did say that there's one thing that I won't lose on and that's Fitness so you know I'm happy about that yeah definitely it's certainly a good couple to come from yeah yeah so I've got good conditioning I can I can I can keep going I hope Jesus touchwood um so it really will just depend on what happens on that we just you just don't know you have no control over it really do you just have to go with it like so yeah have um have you found yourself kind of coaching any of the other athletes that you're competing with or training with yeah like well if you ever have reached out to me I mean I think I suppose I I am a bummer and I am a kind of a I I kind of I sort of know everybody in the group and you know and chat to everybody and I've definitely coached a lot of the girls and especially in the girls changing rooms like you know um one of them in particular had a really bad fear of needles um and so she obviously we have to do the medical and she was really terrified so I did a lot of sort of trying to talk with her and Coach with her about that um and you know there we we also did the flow recovery myself and and this girl we did it and so you know she was a great help to me then because she does a lot of sea swimming um and I don't and I don't cope very well with the cold so we but we the first time I went spent the full 10 minutes in the in there you know but I was like I wanted a guy after four and she was like no she was like breathe with me breathe with me so you're like breathing together um which was great but even even that like filled me with like confidence you know that I'm going to that I was thinking look if I could do a minute and a half I'll be happy so first go 10 minutes and I was like boom yeah that was tough I've been there before uh it's a great place I went through with my wife and um she was a champ because she was in there up to her shoulders and just not a bother um whereas me I'm over there yeah you know shaking and can barely uh get get any words out and meanwhile she's talking to Steve and just yeah normal regular tone yeah yeah so Steve's girlfriend Holly is training with us at the moment she's in the program and she's she's great so um I'm yeah she's I don't know if I might get matched up with her but um the girls are all tough like they're stronger are doing she's literally only about five of us I think so really not that much is that is that as many that had started or did we lose a few um there like there's there were some girls who were who were ex-competitors who had done the program before who kind of come and gone and kind of come and gone yeah but like after there's literally five of us who started fresh this year like fresh for season 10. um one of them isn't fighting so that leaves kind of four of us and Holly is only three days so we don't know if she can actually fight so it's you know it's we like and the girls were all very different weight passes the ones that we are there so we we literally have no idea who we're gonna get matched up with we don't know if there's going to be other people from the other gyms or like really how it's going to work we don't know so no I know that's usually the toughest part and they will they'll they do their best to match up as best they can and on occasion they will you know draw former contestants from you know other gems either like cork or yeah uh you know even former contestants from Charlestown there yeah and HQ yeah um the the contestant who isn't competing is she doesn't want to or she doesn't want to she's pacifist yeah no that that will I I reason I ask is because that's one of the things what I'm telling people about this uh the whole program in general what I'm telling people about it uh I do say it's like you don't have to fight at the end yeah and you're certainly not going to be pressured into it if you're not comfortable doing it that um and it's not even the fight is just like that's the icing on the cake you know and like that that's not even yes that's what it's about but that's not necessarily what you're there for that makes sense yeah you know most people are there to either you know kind of learn something about themselves to push themselves to do something difficult and you know and like I said at the end like that's just kind of you know that's that's your present to yourself yeah absolutely so that's like you know I was saying along that you know there was a fight at the end and you don't have to do it but I think probably like at the end of week one I was like I'm gonna fight yeah yeah like and you know I I feel like it's it's um it's what it's what it's leading towards you know it is definitely you know all about the experience and the journey but the fight is you know I I can't wait to walk I I I'm very excited about that and have you picked yourself yeah I just you just about Unstoppable by SIA okay so yeah I know uh does it for me they didn't play my song the first time they just played any like I can't remember what it was just some like dance techno song and I was a bit I was a bit frustrated going in yeah Derek said the same his clothes and dirty yeah we'll see his wasn't playing either um so yeah but look here it is and if it doesn't play it doesn't play whatever you just have to kind of roll with it but uh but yeah no it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting look and you know like there's a there's a 50 50 chance that I I can absolutely lose and I haven't you know I haven't been on the mat in three weeks I the guys have been really up up the sparring over the last three weeks while I've been out injured as well even though I've still been training um so you know next week's going to be a real interesting test for me to kind of see how that is um like I've been watching them and trying to take in as much as I can but I'm gonna Dig Two one-on-one um sessions with Nate to try and catch up on what I missed and then I'm gonna probably do a one-on-one with one of the Striking coaches as well there's there's another um uh there's another coach there Aiden Fagan yes he's really good I love his wrestling okay um I I recommend him he does pts as well okay so um I can put your topic yeah no I know Aiden oh yeah okay yeah yeah so yeah maybe I'll do one one maybe I'll do one with Nate when Aiden and one with um the Striking coaches one his name I can't remember he's always training with Naomi oh um yeah I'm terrible with names uh I know what you're talking about yeah he seems like a nice guy so yeah I mean I've been doing a lot of boxing with with Fitz with Sean um so you know we've been adding that into the program and things like that so you know we'll see it's good yeah that's awesome all right um and then just last here real quick talk quickly about your podcast so you started a podcast recently yeah which I will say it's very good and very well produced um I like listening to it I think you're on what your third or fourth episode five actually five five right now yeah so um or four actually you know my first one at the episode four is was released on Friday so yeah so I stopped this podcast it's called solo powered with Ariana Dunn and um it is about doing celebrating doing things solo whether that be solo travel solo business solo journey to Parenthood single by choice solo Adventures it's it covers a whole range of different different things um and I think my tagline is that it's not about living the lonely life it's about living the most full life on your terms so for me you know I've been single for quite a quite a number of years I bought a house on my own I started businesses on my own I've traveled on my own I'm thinking about having a baby on my own and I just don't think solo Dome is celebrated enough I think we still very much live in a society that sees you know couples and marriage and all of that kind of stuff that's like the only way to go and yeah you know the idea that if people say you know they're still things what's wrong with you you know um so I wanted to try and celebrate the achievements of people who were doing things on their own it's not to say that everybody who comes on it is single because a lot of them are married but it's they've done you know I have so far I've had someone who's been on the phone directed and started his own movie that's the one I'm on now yeah so I thought a guy coming along from both soda across the Atlantic Damian Brown he's done the Sahara desert race on his own he's climbed Kilimanjaro and you know I have people who are child-free single someone who had a baby on their own it's really great in terms of like the vastness um and I have a girl who's still traveled in 60 countries around the world a solo cyclist so Walkers you know it's it's it's great and it's a wide range of uh material for you for sure material and it's inspiring and they've had a lot of really good feedback on it and from people who you know some people like for me I'm a coach and a lot of people will come to me saying that they're afraid to do things they want to go to the gym but they don't want to go to the gym on their own they want to go for a walk but they don't want to go for a walk on their own they want to go travel but they don't have anyone to go with my whole thing is like do it just do it on your own you know go even the restroom by yourself go cinema by yourself baby steps and don't waste your life because you don't have anyone to do it with just do it that's awesome I said I I really enjoy it and I said I have a long list of podcasts that I go through and um I'm trying to catch up on yours now oh thank you very much but yeah I'm looking forward to this one a couple weeks here I think yeah yeah excellent all right well thank you for coming thank you for having me absolutely it's been good I I uh will welcome you back um and I I wish you luck on Fight Night thank you but uh yeah no thanks so much I never in my life thought that I would be on a Combat Sports podcast talking about being an MMA cage fighter but here we are you know never you never know what life is gonna bring to you all right um again thank you here everyone uh follow me uh Wolverine fight wears we're gonna find everything combat confidential um and Ariana Ariana yeah Ariana Grande ariana.com and you can also find me sell the pirate with Ariana uh wherever you get your podcasts thank you excellent all right [Music]