'Why fight Gina, why fight?'

So I need to get this off my chest because as the weeks pass by, more people are asking, 'why do you fight Gina? You're a nice girl with so much going for you, so why do you need to fight?'

As if I'm doing it to compensate for some sort of shortfall in my life. Huh. I've always been a tomboy, I always climbed trees and played with my brother's toys instead of my own, I've only owned one doll and I hated it, I've always preferred trousers to skirts, boots to high heels, etc, etc. I wore Doc Martins under my sodding wedding dress.

So, now I'm an adult, it hardly seems unnatural for me to lift heavy, sweat lots, and ultimately train really damn hard, and bollocks to my 'feminine mystique'. I love it and I don't see why I should justify that to anyone.

I'm not out drinking my health away, or eating crap and moaning when I get fat (not often anyway!), or popping pills for whatever reason. In fact, the last time I was on antibiotics was pre-teens, how many people can say that? And, I sleep like a baby. Every night.

I'm not invincible or even close to being happy with myself, but at least I'm trying. If I'm going to bust my hump in the gym 5 or 6 days a week and eat sugar free jelly while my friends eat popcorn and Haribo, then I want to be seeing results. Right now, while I'm fighting, I'm doing something I thoroughly enjoy, which requires skill, discipline and patience, and as a consequence am also getting in shape doing it. Why waste your time doing classes that you hate in the pursuit of what you want? Doesn't that fundamentally contradict itself? It would take you twice as many aerobics or boxercise classes to get the results of my classes, and I guarantee it wouldn't be as much fun.

At the end of the day I'm not 'out scrappin', I'm fighting in a safe environment with all the protective gear on, with a referee who, surprisingly enough, doesn't want to see me unconscious. I know people are entitled to their opinion, and that's not what this is about. If people ask me, 'why fight?' and are genuinely interested in the answer then I'm happy to discuss it.

I just don't need the sanctimonious judgement.