My 1 Year of Crossfit

March 11th marked my 1 year Crossfit anniversary! Little did I know that first workout that I was terrified to even show up at would turn me on to something that would change my life. After that initial workout, I started going once a week, then twice a week and probably with in a month and a half I was going as much as my body would allow me. In that time too, Crossfit Midlo moved from the garage to its own location and continues to grow like wildfire.

What I have learned over the past year:

• You can squat below parallel- regularly. 
• I am a Tough Mudder.
• No matter what the duration of the workout...3 min to 60 minutes... It's going to be exhausting. 
• You are capable of more than you think you are. 
• Facing the scary stuff makes you grow. You will at a minimum survive the experience and more than likely thrive because of it. 
•  Never underestimate the power of a high five. 
•  There are amazing people in the crossfit community: from the women in my 8:30 class, my coaches, the other people at the box who I don't get to work out with often but will greet me warmly and cheer for me all the same, to the people and coaches at other boxes I have had the pleasure of visiting. I have felt welcome every where and work to make others feel the same. I always worked out a gym by myself and was ok with that so I was surprised by how much I enjoy the commune aspect of crossfit. 
• Lifting heavy makes me really happy. People talk about the flow when every thing else drops away and you have complete focus and joy. This is one of those activities for me. 
• Coming in to Crossfit, I thought I knew a good deal about working out. This changed how I think about everything which has benefitted me as well as my personal training clients. I like being reminded to keep a beginner's mind - always open to learning and questioning.
• As with anything you love, it is important to see the good and the bad and embrace all of it. Crossfit continues to be controversial. I do see its flaws and understand where the criticism comes from. I question. I read. I change things I need to change. All the same, I love it, I am working safely and continue to get better and stronger. 

Of course with all my lessons not only my brain has changed but my body too. I am finally building the body that I thought I could have that no other way of working out has been able to carve out for me. 

I would love to hear other people's experience and learnings from Crossfit! Please feel free to share or message me!  

My Highlights from the 2012 Arnold Sports Festival

I had been excited to go for months so I knew this past weekend at The Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus Ohio was going to be a good one. It ended up being amazing. If you have never been and have any interest in really almost any aspect of fitness, it is worth checking out.  I went last year for 1 day and knew this year I needed the whole weekend. This weekend was so full of amazing connections, people, lessons and experiences.
Here are a few of my highlights:

•  Meeting and getting to watch the work outs of some of the top of the top Crossfitters - amazing athletes and very nice people! 
•  Judging Crossfit for the first time - I was so nervous but so happy to have gotten this under my belt. I learned more every round I did and I didn't screwed up any one's score in the process.
•  Competing on Saturday for the Games 12.2 work out - Facing the scariness makes you grow. I grew this weekend.  Also it continued to reenforce for me the fabulous-ness of the Crossfit community.
•  Time with friends - I had some great conversations with friends I have had for a long time, some one I was just getting to know and one on one time with a person who continually inspires me. I felt honored to connect and get time with each of these people
•  Time with a mentor - Nick Tumminello was up at the Arnold this year teaching at the personal trainer conference. I have had the fortune to connect with Nick a few times but this was a cool chance to get some time in a more relaxed setting. He is so friggin' smart about this training stuff. It is hard for me not to feel completely stupid around him but I loved the time anyway! :) 
•  The Strikeforce Fights - We all went to the fights on Saturday and it was a great time to see a new woman champion take the belt and to see all the fun people at the fights. Amazing night! 
• Clarity - We went to the figure finals judging this year.  It was awesome to see all those women on stage showing off their hard work.  Competing in figure is something I have tried to convince myself I "should" do for several years now.  This year after seeing it again and having a year of Crossfit experience under my belt, I was able to just let that go completely. I want to be strong and I would love to be ripped but my goals are different than those that were up on stage. It was great to get clarity around that. 

There is more I could mention (cake batter vodka, anyone?) here but those are the big high lights!

I loved it. I am still on a high from it and I can't wait for next year!!

Show Up - Crossfit Open Games 2012

There is a quote I ran across this week that I can't stop thinking about:

"I don't care if you win, but I don't care if you come in last either. I only care that you don't make excuses...and that you suffer with me."

It was from a post from Crossfit Lisbeth talking about showing up for the Crossfit Open.

For those of you not familiar with it, Crossfit holds games each year to decide who is the fittest athlete (male and female). The coolest part (at least to me) is that to start EVERY one who wants to can participate and we are talking on a global scale. The first 6 weeks of the games are called The Open. All you have to do is pay your $20 to register and then complete the workout of the week and post your scores to see how you rank against all the other people competing.  This year 55,000 people world-wide have chose to participate.

I think it is beautiful and amazing. Yes, there are some astounding world class athletes with fitness levels that I cannot even wrap my head around that are participating. These are the ones that will make it to the regional rounds and then maybe to the Finals in LA. However, I am sure many are people like me. People who show up at their Crossfit box or their garage regularly working on getting better and stronger.  People who will try their best at a work out even if they cannot do the work out as it is prescribed.  People who love to be a part of the community that comes with Crossfit.  In the end, it doesn't matter if you are the fire-breather or the average Joe/Jane. We all get to show up, support each other, compete in a activity that we love - suffer together and grow from the experience of the 2012 Crossfit Open Games.

Self Talk: I got this!

I have been thinking a lot recently about self talk. I have come a long way in this area as I used to be pretty hard on myself.  However, it was a recent podcast from Leigh Peele that reminded me I could be doing better.  I am more than the number on the scale. There are more important things than the fact that I don't have wash board, magazine cover-worthy abs.  I had already decided that I would focus this month on not letting any negative comments about my body pass through my head - or I would quickly catch myself and counter them.

This morning reminded me that I needed to take this even further.  There was a Crossfit workout posted that scared me. My immediate thought was "I can't do that.  That is impossible." I was filled with fear and anxiety.

But you know what? There has not been one work out posted that I haven't managed to get through. It might not always be pretty but dammit I have done it.

So I am extending my positive self talk to my work out prep - No more "I can't do this".
Instead:
"I've got this!"
"I can do this!"
"I will conquer it!"
"The bar is light"
and what ever else I need I keep it positive.

How do you manage your self talk? How do you get yourself through the tough spots?

Focus....hey! what is that over there!!

Nutrition and working out are big areas of interest and passion in my life. I spend a good portion of my time reading about various exercises, workouts, food plans and as you know I crossfit so that gives me tons of different things to want to get better at.  I am constantly inundated with information on nutrition and fitness. My lesson recently has been around learning to reign in my work out and nutrition plan attention deficits.

Because of the constant nutrition and workout information flow, I am always discovering tons of exciting workout ideas and think I often think "Oh! I totally need to be doing that!!" So then I switch things up.  Same with food.  I have been mainly eating paleo style for the past 7 months (and then paleo plus sugar and wine over the holidays (oops!)). I see articles about intermittent fasting and meal timing and macro nutrient ratios and my head starts to spin.  Mid-January I made a commitment to myself to go back to a plan I received from Jillfit.com which brought me some great results previously.  One week into it and I find myself talking to a friend who is troubleshooting some issues with coritsol/adrenal fatigue which I am also working on. She has been advised to just eat 2 larger meals a day and she is loving it and feels better. So my head starts in "Oh!! I should try that too!!!"

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa! Hang on a second!!

What do I want to be accomplishing?
What am I working on?
Where am I headed?
How do I know what I am doing now is not working?

I do not believe that there is one plan that fits every one. You need to find out what works best for you personally. One way to do this is to run little experiments and then check in how you look, feel and perform.  However, you need to give workout programs and diet plans a chance to work and show results (or not!) before you can evaluate them. If you are changing every Monday or every other week it is going to make it hard to really assess how things are working.  Typically I advise giving changes a month to see how they are working out.. From here you can decide if you need to proceed forward with the same plan, make some tweaks or try something completely different.  It is important to note here that expectations on change need to be reasonable too. If you are looking to drop 30lbs of fat or add 15 lbs of muscle in 1 month that is not going to happen for many people on ANY plan.

For myself, I have set some fitness goals around increasing my max for deadlifts, backsquat and shoulder press as well as working on handstands.

For food, I need to find balance again and be comfortable with my body. I am committed to sticking on my current plan for a month - checking in with pictures and measurements and then assess if I need to make any changes.

Focus is helpful. I am liking having it again. It helps me know that I am heading in the direction that I want to be going.

There are a ton of great workout programs and nutrition plans out there. Pick something and try it. Give it some time and see how you look, feel and perform. Focus.

Some great starting points:
http://www.metaboliceffect.com/
http://whole9life.com/
http://www.crossfit.com/

Here Comes the Sun

Little darling
It's been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darling
It feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright


For months, I have been a deep pit. I was engaging in activities that were taking me further and further from where I am happy with myself.  Yes eating what ever you want when ever you feel like it can feel like "fun" but it comes at a price. Then pile on heavy fatigue and depression and you can kind of get the jist of the space I was in.  I knew I was there. No amount of cajoling, begging, pleading or beating the crap out of myself was going to make me move. 


And then it shifted. 


I am ready. 


I am ready to take care of my brain and body again.  I am ready to do the work.  To plan and prepare. To breathe deep. To sweat and lift heavy weights. To focus. To choose more often than not the steps that will get me to where I am going rather than the instant gratification. To nourish my body and my mind. To tap in to what I am passionate about. 


I am ready.

How Do you Know?

How do you know if you need to give up on a goal?

I have dubbed each of the last 3 years "The Year of the Abs".   I was sure in each of those years I would have abs worthy of showing off.  Those of you who see me in person can attest to the fact that I have never come close to meeting that goal. I am planning for another year ahead and wanting it to be big as I turn 40 in September.  I am desperately afraid of it being too late for me to be super fit.  I am also desperately afraid of failing again.

I have heard people say you have to want it bad enough.  I feel like I do. I dream about it.  Touching my stomach is the first thing I do in the morning - in case it has gotten flatter or to remind me where I am in relation to where I want to be. I feel like it is always at the top of what I want and what I am missing in my life.
But maybe I don't want it bad enough to pursue it to the detriment of other things that I want in my life. I am not one of those fiercely competitive, win at all costs people. As a matter of fact, I tend to feel bad when I win. In telling my husband about sprints we were running at CrossFit one day. I was like "yeah I felt bad I totally beat this girl on the first heat".  He asked me why in the world I would feel bad about that. I didn't know. I am also not one of those people who can sacrifice it all to meet a goal.  I like to be comfy. I don't do well with strict guidelines. I tend to crash and burn. But is not that I don't like putting in the hard work. I crossfit for pete's sake. I have run 2 marathons and 6 halfs and completed 'probably the world's toughest race' the Tough Mudder.  I can get the hard stuff done.

I work to be knowledgeable. I hired a nutrition coach for 6 months. I had very good success here and probably the best abs I have ever had but they were no where near  "working out in a sports bra only" worthy.  I read what ever I can get my hands out about working out and nutrition. I don't eat gluten and I am probably 85% paleo compliant (cream in my tea and a glass of wine are my last hold outs).

I have let the goals come and go. If there is no consequence for not meeting it then who cares if I miss it? If I continually disappoint myself, why does it matter if there is one more disappointment?

Am I sounding whiny yet?  Yeah - I am probably a bit in my pity pot.

In examining this particular area for goals this year I am wondering what I should do.  How do you know if a goal you set is not something you are really capable of? Maybe mentally I just don't have the grit to get it done.  How do I get peace around that?  In thinking about why this goal is important to me - what would it mean if I accomplished this? My sister asked me - what would it mean if I didn't have the beautiful ripped abs that I want? I don't know.

One of my goals for the year is to better hear the stories that I tell myself. You know those insidious messages that echo in our head telling us things we think are true about ourselves but really are just tenacious patterns that can be changed.

• Maybe there is a story here that I need to hear and to change.
• Maybe I need a date goal that really matters (stepping on stage, a CF competition, wearing a bikini on the beach on my 40th bday and having to take a pic to be shared on facebook - regardless of how it looks).  
• Maybe I just need to appreciate the strong healthy body that I have and stop wishing that it looked like something else. 

How do you know?