13.2 Game Face!
With our girls, it’s really rare for my wife and I to be at the gym at the same time. Sucks during the Open because I would love to be yelling and cheering for my wife. Last night was exceptional because despite not being able to be in the gym, I ended up getting a flood of texts with photos and video from fellow members as my wife took on 13.2.
She went in with a certain number in mind and blew that out of the water. I watched the video sent to me and wanted to yell at the phone to cheer her on. With what she thought was 5lbs under a PR, she banged out reps of 5 with 75# like a freaking boss. In the video I watched her reach a breaking point with the press in the front rack. She had trouble getting a the weight overhead and a trainer got in her face. She dipped and drove and repped it out. Made me wanna go lift some weight right then and there!
Ladies, maybe it is just me running my mouth here because of my own tastes, but strength is just damn attractive. I would much rather my wife be throwing weight around in the gym than trying to be size 0 runway model. Watching her find a limit and break beyond that is attractive. Seeing the expression of confidence and triumph on her face when she came home last night was attractive.
She scored 180 reps and I couldn’t have been more proud of her.
If you get tired of hearing about my wife, there is an option at the top right that says “unfollow”. Click that.
I was looking at photos from our box and came across this one of my wife. Took me totally off guard. It was a combination of many feelings, but mostly being so proud of her hard work because I see it in this photo. Last week she did 4 rounds of the WOD with the 53lb KB. We have dudes in our box that don’t swing that thing. She looks awesome and feels awesome and carries with her a new confidence as a result.
Good stuff
I knew the WOD this morning would be tough for me. Running and burpees with very little barbell work. But these are the type of WODs I am learning to love. Just like yesterday, which contained a lot of pull-ups. Normally I would have skipped but decided to go. Only way to get better.
This morning was a 1200m run, 30 snatches (75lbs), and 50 burpees. I felt better on the run than I have in a while. Walked over to the bar to catch my breath and was thinking either 30 unbroken or 2 sets of 15 if I was too tired. I ended with 2 sets of 15 and then did my best to go through the burpees with as minimal rest as possible and with a steady pace as I could maintain. Got done, caught my breath, and saw one of our guys still pushing through.
I went over to cheer him on and ended up a few of us guys doing the last 15 or so burpees with him. When it was all said and done, I had a really great talk with him. He shared with me how he has been out of shape and wanting to get things together. He smiled when he said “I never thought I would be able to do 50 burpees.” I told him, “Not only did you do 50 burpees, but you did them after a 1200m run and then 30 snatches.” I enjoyed talking with him and getting to hear more of his story.
It changed up the morning for me. It isn’t, and shouldn’t, always be about getting a fast time just for the sake of looking cool on the whiteboard. Sometimes it is staying 5 minutes later to help someone push through. I think we got a lot accomplished in those last 15 burpees.
Things
These things:
- Eating has been going great. In fact, really great. I don’t feel locked down to a “diet”. I don’t feel locked down at all. I think for the first time I am eating healthy AND enjoying what I am eating.
- Wifey is doing the Whole Life Challenge at our box. Excited about what that will do for her as well as both of us. We have been picking out some good recipes and trying them out. Makes a world of difference with both of us on board.
- Saw some new muscle definition today. I think Mandy is beating me in the race to abs, I was taken off guard by what I saw. Not magazine cover material stuff but enough for me to notice. Hooray for clean eating.
- Clothes fitting great. Don’t know if I am losing weight. Don’t care. I like how I feel and have zero reason to get on a scale.
- Swimming is good. The distance I was doing today is 4 times what I was doing when I started. Progress is good.
- Body image and self confidence, or whatever all that is called, is totally changing. I used to think I would have to weigh a certain amount and be in a certain size clothes in order to feel healthy. That is changing and I like it. I am getting more comfortable with who I am and my goals. I had lost track of that for a while and its good to have it back.
Let’s keep going, shall we?
My choice is to fight
I have been on a little high lately, feeling like things are falling back into place. I have been eating good, but not just the eating good that ends up on social media. I have had it all under control. While I never got so out of hand that I had to go up a size in any of my clothes, I think I will always have that in the back of my mind. So when my pants started to get snug, I had to do some self analysis as to what was going on. Lately, I have been really been getting back to the basics and feeling awesome. I have avoided poor food choices and felt great about it.
Then I go pick up my girls this afternoon and am handed this:
Now, I gotta come clean here. A month ago I would have eaten a few of these. Wouldn’t have posted about it, obviously. Probably would have posted some photo on Instagram of the healthy stuff and never mentioned the bad. Have to make the blog look good right? Can’t look like I have a weakness, right? Tonight was different, however. I am trying my best to be a rock. I immediately put them up (after all, they were made for our daughters who were expecting them after dinner so I did not want to throw them out). I “hid” them in the microwave.
Out of sight, out of mind.
The crazy thing here is that lately, I have not really been going and getting the bad stuff. For example (man, I hate admitting this crap!) I would always get some peanut butter when I went grocery shopping. While cooking dinner if I wanted a snack, it was nothing for me to get a few scoops. See, that right there is where it starts. To fight all this way, to drop the weight, to get to where I am now, only to start throwing it away on really small but stupid decisions like that. That is where it spirals out of control. It starts with pants getting snug, then too small, and it builds so much momentum that one day you wake up with stroke level blood pressure, gout, and a wife who has already picked out your heart doctor for when you have a heart attack. And you are left looking back at the “skinny days” wishing you could return.
Might sound extreme, but any of you that follow this blog that have lost any amount of weight can look back and see the mistakes that you made, and how each poor decision lead to another one. Funny thing is how the justification now is not much different than it was then.
“Well, I work out a lot now. I can handle it.”
“I’m a big guy so I need more calories.”
“I went to CrossFit this morning and then swam at lunch. A little treat won’t hurt.”
“I earned it.”
That garbage would repeat in my head enough to where I would believe it. And I would give in.
But not tonight.
I ate no cake. I ate nothing of the sort. Instead, I made some baked chicken (with Sriracha), grilled veggies, and unsweetened applesauce.
I worked WAY too hard to be where I am. I have too much riding on this. Too much to toss it down the drain and slip back to where I was. My choice is to fight. To fight each one of these small decisions. I have some new goals now and absolutely have to remain focused. So that is just what I am going to do.
Really good place
For the past 2 weeks I have made some adjustments to what I have been doing physically, and for the first time in a while I feel like I am where I need to be.
I have been quite fortunate to have some new inspiration and motivation as well as positive accountability. All of that coupled with a friend who has been pushing me not only physically but with regards to nutrition. I actually came home last night, made pizza for our daughters, and had none of it. None. I had chicken and veggies. The craziest part is that I was not even craving anything bad. I just wanted the good, clean stuff. I have a lot of little victories like that over the past 2 weeks.
I am seeing some changes that I want to see but have a ways to go. Just really digging this path that I am on at the moment.
Found this pretty motivating. I will always love stories of those succeeding after overcoming situations where the odds seems stacked against them. There is a poster for this which is equally inspiring.
Flattering
This morning I just didn’t feel like I had much energy. This head cold feels like it is sucking the life out of me. Felt sluggish during the WOD and like I was merely going through the motions this morning in general.
As I was cleaning up my stuff, a lady approached me and asked my name. She said that she had told her husband, who has been doing CrossFit for around 2 years now, about me and how well I have been doing. It really threw me for a loop. Not like our gym is a giant place, but she works out on the other side so I didn’t think she would even notice me. I told her thanks but that I am usually one of the back of the pack type of guys.
“Well, you are really strong!”
Put a smile on my face for sure. Sometimes comments like that from people that you would never think knew you existed make all the difference.
I mean, seriously, how could I not reblog this awesomeness?
Gotta love school pictures!
From left to right: March 2010, March 2011 (had lost about 20 lbs), March 2012 (down 114 lbs from weight in Feb 2011)
It is incredible to hear people (colleagues) say that they do not remember me looking like the first or second me. Boy, do I remember what it felt like, though. My goal is to not forget, as to not return.
“Mental strength outweighs the physical by far. There are people who are a lot more physically gifted than myself, but you have to be able to push past that point when you want to quit, when you think you can only do so much, when you think you can’t do anymore. The mental aspect is huge.”
- Rich Froning, Jr.
Sweat RX Magazine, Spring 2012
20 lbs. lost as of today! April 5, 2012
I love seeing stuff like this. I have followed my homie B and watched as he has started running and exercising. Despite the fact that sometimes running and exercising isn’t always fun, especially when starting off, he has kept it up. And check it out: He dropped 20 pounds. Anyone who has lost weight knows that going from losing 19 to 20 feels like a lot more than just a pound. I think that is a great accomplishment and salute him for the hard work! Keep it up brother, we are in your corner cheering you on.
GPOY. Showing the support edition.
While I am much more comfortable looking at my photos than I used to, I still focus on the areas that I am working on rather than focusing on what has improved. This photo is a perfect illustration of that and one that I was not going to post.
But I read this post by Katy and thought otherwise. First, this lady kicks all kind of butt. And no, I am nowhere close to kidding. I’d love to move through a CrossFit WOD the way that she does. She is a fighter and has worked tirelessly to get where she is now. I related so much to her posting of her photo, however. She sees flaws, not always progress. But for those of us looking at her photo, we just see someone who is a real BA. Period. In all honesty, I never would have pointed out your flaws. I just thought of you going through that course, being on the news, and doing it in the all-out manner that you attack life. Never would I have looked at your photo and said “there is the fat girl”. Primarily because that is the furthest thing from the truth and second because you are more than capable of beating me up.
Anyway, I didn’t want to post this photo of me because all I see is my gut, which is what I really want to work on and which is hanging around like an unpaid bill. It is easy to forget that I am able to RX workouts now when over a year ago I had never even lifted weights, much less have it overhead. Regardless of the progress, there is a part of me that only sees the old 300lb me. And like Katy stated, people that have never struggled with weight will never know that feeling.
So yea, I got more I want to work on, but it isn’t anything compared to what it once was. Every day is better than the day before. Here is my deal for you Katy, if you work on it, so will I. Deal?
Need more days like today
Today was the end of the Shauna Hicks I Am CrossFit 3 Challenge at our box. I have written about Shauna before and what a warrior she is and how much of my growth at CrossFit is because of her. She left some big shoes to fill. A little over a month ago our box kicked off a fitness challenge and the benchmark workout was Cindy. That workout really tore me a new one. So I was pretty nervous about going into it again. But it really turned out to be more than just a workout.
Another one of my long winded posts, so I will save your dashboard and put the rest behind the jump.
When there are seconds left on the clock, it doesn’t matter if the guy next to you is 10 reps ahead or 10 reps behind your score, you cheer and yell and scream for the other guy. What matters the most is being there to push that person to their limit, to see them nail that one last rep.
If you are one of the ones yelling, you know how great it is to see someone push themselves and achieve. That is all that matters at that moment. If you are the one hitting the WOD looking at a wall of screaming support right in front of you, you too know the importance of that, and feed off of the energy level to move that bar one more time off the ground.
Nobody in our gym doing the 12.2 Open WOD had expectations of qualifying for Regionals. We were all there to make ourselves better, test ourselves, and to be there for the guy right next to us and cheer them on. Sure, the Games is a competition and we are all there to do that, however, when it comes down to the last minute of the AMRAP, the intensity gets jacked through the roof. Everything is turned up about 12 notches. Yelling. Sweat. Determination. Fighting. That is where it counts the most, the home stretch.
I took this photo of one of our guys doing the 12.2 WOD. He had about 30 seconds on the clock and all everyone wanted in those few seconds was for him to do only his best, and then some.
This is what the Games is all about.
