Competition. What if you looked at it another way?

One thing many people love about CrossFit is the competition.  For the people who were competitive athletes in high school or college, Crossfit is a great way to reconnect with that competitive environment.
What about for the rest of us?

• Those of us who were really never athletes? 
• Those of us perhaps even completely inactive up until starting Crossfit? 
• Those of us who rarely if ever get to do a work out at prescribed weights or standards?  
• For those of us who will never have the fasts times or highest scores or heaviest weights written on the board? 
• For those of us who worry "Am I going to be the last one again?"

In pondering this over the past week, I want offer a different perspective on competition.  For me, I know I some times get caught up with feeling like doing the workout as prescribed as the end goal or that if I don't put up times close to the top athletes at our gym that some how I am failing.  This focus this can leave me feeling frustrated and depressed when there is really no need for that.

I have been practicing looking at it another way.  If I complete against myself what does that look like? Because I track all my workouts, its easy for me to compare performance on a particular lift or workout.  If I have done a workout more than once, was I able to do it in less time this time? or with more weight? For any given lift, did I do it better, more efficiently this week?  Even beyond the actual metrics: Did I show up more times this week? Did I relax more and manage my self talk more during the work out rather than berating myself or complaining endlessly? Did I check the website, groan as it is stuff I hate or things that scare me and show up anyway? :)

Take some time and make sure your standards of success aren't so high that you are in a state of constant not feeling good enough. There are so many ways to look at competition, growth and success. This isn't about lowering the standards so that every one gets a ribbon kind of thing but rather shifting perspective to way that you can appreciate how you are stacking up against the you that was yesterday, last week, last year.

Ask yourself "How can I be better today?"

"Competition is not about winning or losing, its about putting yourself out there, doing things that might scare you a bit, and coming out the other side a better version of yourself"  - Ben Bergeron CFNE

Glad to Be Here

I was taking my typical long Saturday morning walk in a nearby park when I saw a young woman putting on her head phones and take off for a run. A few years ago I would have been me - same park, slipping on my head phones and running. In observing her, I breathed a sigh of relief that it was no longer me.

I spent so many years toiling away. Looking to be fitter, healthier and feeling so frustrated.
I convinced myself that I just needed to push more, work harder even though I was working out more consistently and harder than most people I knew. I ran a half dozen half marathons and two full marathons. Of course accomplishing the goal of a those distances is a reward in and of its self.  However, part of the reason I was logging all of those miles was I thought that is what I needed to be doing to be thinner, fitter.  I created some great friendships, conquered some goals but as each training season ended I was typically injured (stress fractured femur, constantly painful knees) and always flabbier.  Even my weight lifting didn't bring me the results I wanted for various reasons. I was following advice from mainstream fitness sources (magazines, tv) and honestly they just miss the mark. The really good trainers in the industry know this and don't train their clients that way. Not ever having been a high school or collegiate athlete or having exposure to a trainer who knows what the hell they are doing, I didn't know any differently.

I am not knocking things like Shape or Women's health. Every program out there will bring results from some one - this goes for both fitness and diet plans.  Some one will get in better shape from following a workout plan from a monthly women's magazine, from eating vegetarian, from marathoning, from following the South Beach plan (or insert any of the 10,000 different diet books out there) but none of it worked well enough for me and it left me feeling lazy and stupid.

And then I found Crossfit.  It set every thing that I thought I knew about fitness on its head.  You don't need hours of cardio that make you miserable to be leaner? You can do something other than 3x10 for every body part and still build muscle?  You can do a workout that is only 4 minutes long and that is all you need for that day? Tell me more. :)

There are so many lessons I have learned from Crossfit but the point of this blog post is this one:
Question what you are doing. Have you been doing the same thing for years in hopes of being fitter but not really seeing any changes? Seek out experts and test their advice. Run experiments on yourself. Are you happy with how you look, feel and perform? If you are, then super! If you are not, then change something....not a BUNCH of somethings... but something so that you can observe and learn from.  I spent years thinking I just needed to be working harder but what I needed to do was to work smarter.  Find out what works for you. Demand it for yourself.


While I wish I would have known better about training earlier in my life, I am so glad to be where I am.

Check In and Start Again

This past month for me has been interesting. It turned out differently than I thought when I started on my little experiment to lean out joyfully.

Here are the new habits I worked on over the past month:

• 15-30 minute slow paced, stress reducing walks daily
• 1-4 Snatches and overhead squats daily starting at 65lbs and increasing weight each 1 or 2 weeks
• Start taking CLA supplement (supposedly good for fat metabolism)

Here are the results of those actions:

• I was successful in keeping daily walks which I just loved and connected with in ways that I didn't expect.  I used this time to connect with nature a bit more, breathe deep and be present and having some extra peaceful times with my husband when ever he joined me. 

• I didn't end up snatching with weight every day. That plan changed rapidly when I realized my squat/overhead squat form was pretty poor.  I needed to take a step back.  I spent the month doing 5-10 squats daily as close to the wall as I can, really working on keeping my torso up right. It was hard. I also spent some time hanging out in the bottom of the squat - increasing my hip flexibility.  It all felt worth while when  demonstrating air squats today in class I could feel that I have gotten better.  My torso just stayed straight up!! I want to keep this up!

• I did take CLA. I am not sure it has changed anything other than killing my appetite and making me feel sick to my stomach some times.  Not sure I am going to continue this but not sure 4 weeks is enough time to see if a supplement is working.

My measurements changed slightly but nothing worth giving the details on here.  That is almost beside the point for me. I got more out of this past month than what the numbers reflect.

The biggest gifts over the past month:


1) Finding the Perfect blog post from Zen Habits. I read it every day. I have made "I am already good enough. I am already have more than enough. I am already perfect" a mantra for myself that I turn to often. I'm focusing on doing things...anything really... because I love it and I am passionate about it, not because I have to be better. Its changing things and that is exciting.

2) I put an infrastructure in place for me to be successful in implementing the habits I wanted to work on over the past month. I set up my calendar so I knew daily and weekly what I wanted to do and had regular check ins scheduled for myself. That proved to be HUGE in keeping me on track.  I often start experiments and new habits only to have them peter out after a few days or a week.  I will definitely continue to this!! Love it.

Spending time in the next few days figuring out what I want to focus on next. Pretty pumped about it all!

My Latest Experiment - Update week 4

Week 4 updates of my leaning out joyfully (possible, right?)

Four weeks ago,  I wrote about a plan I had put together to lean up a bit for an upcoming photo shoot and some other events happening later on this year.  In that I had promised weekly check-ins, more for my accountability than your interest but here it is anyway.

Thoughts for this week:

I have been in a battle with myself this week.  The photo shoot is getting closer and I waiver between leaning out joyfully and trying to convince myself to log all my food, track my macro ratios and start taking fat burners to get to this photo shoot as lean as I can possibly get.  The struggle between wanting a super lean beautiful body and feeling the unhappiness of it to dedicate all my time and energies getting to that place. At the end of the day washboard abs, although beautiful, are not what is meaningful to me. What really makes me happy is connecting with joy through doing things that I love: good, open conversations with people, lifting heavy weights, helping people connect with health and happiness, being a cheerleader and a source of positive encouragement for others, make sure those closest to me feel loved and taken care of, being present in what ever I am doing and working to accept that I am enough exactly as I am. 

Its funny that I feel like I have to explain that even though I am not chasing 13% body fat, I am not slacking off. I am still healthy and want to be.  Just because I am not counting calories or know what my macro ratios are on a given day doesn't mean that I am busy stuffing junk down my gullet or that I have given up.  

I have been reading this Zen Habits blog post every day so far in the month of May and spending time internally processing it:  http://zenhabits.net/perfect/   Take time to read that post. Its amazing and powerful beyond measure. 

There is a paragraph in there that makes my heart sing: 

"You are now free to do things, not because you want to be better, but because you love it. Because you're passionate about it, and it give you joy. Because it's a miracle that you even can do it"

THAT is how I want to be spending my time on things that I am passionate about and because I love it.

I love filling my body with healthy food, I don't love obsessing over calories

I love lifting heavy and going to my crossfit classes, I don't love stressing if I should be doing more to be leaner

I love being present in the moment, I don't love beating the crap out of myself for not being leaner or where I "should" be.

Also from the Zen Habits post:  "A powerful realization that has helped me is simply this: You're already good enough, you already have more than enough, and you're already perfect"

Breathe and take that thought in.  :)

My Latest Experiment - Update week 3

Week 3 updates of my leaning out joyfully (possible, right?)

Three weeks ago,  I wrote about a plan I had put together to lean up a bit for an upcoming photo shoot and some other events happening later on this year.  In that I had promised weekly check-ins, more for my accountability than your interest but here it is anyway.

Thoughts for this week:

• Measurements and scale were down a bit - although waist measurements stayed about the same, which bummed me a bit. Oh well. They were down in other spots.
• These updates have been harder to post than I thought. I am putting myself out there and feel like people might think I am silly for not just bucking up and being as tight and disciplined for the next 8 weeks as I can be just to get it done.  My favorite strength coach Dan John has said "fat loss is a war" where I as I am trying to make it a joyful journey. Maybe I am delusional. Even if I am delusional, I know I am not  keeping so tight reign on myself that I break and binge.  Feeling good about what I am doing daily is really where I want to be. I guess I am realizing that for me finding balance feels more important to me than being leaner. I am taking the slow winding path to fat loss and not the war path. 

I think that is all for this week.... will provide at least one more weekly update next week.

Peace out!

My Latest Experiment - Update week 2

Week 2 updates of my leaning out joyfully (possible, right?)

Two weeks ago,  I wrote about a plan I had put together to lean up a bit for an upcoming photo shoot and some other events happening later on this year.  In that I had promised weekly check-ins, more for my accountability than your interest but here it is anyway.

I have been consistent with my walks and logging daily thoughts in my "food, mood and gratitude" journal.  I need to check back over the past few months since I have been logging that to see if there are things I notice or if there are trends to my energy.  I recently added the "gratitude" part of those journal entries and I love it.

I have been working daily on my overhead and front squat form. Doing this through reading about squats from various sources and practicing daily with the PVC pipe...facing a wall.  Some times just a few reps, some times set to a tabata timer.  Its good work. It is not with weights but I know it is good foundational work that will bring strength and growth eventually.  Below is a picture from Greg  Everett's book Olympic Weighlifiting. I hope to squat like this some day. Beautiful.

My food has been ok. There are times where I feel like I should be pushing more, tracking every calorie and depriving more but that doesn't align with my goal of doing this with balance and joy. Running down the crazy train track of depravation will cause me to crack, break and binge. I know. I have been there.

I started this week on a deliberate strength training plan to supplement my Crossfit workouts.  Happy to be under way with that.  Also this month I am giving myself a little space. I am taking a break from training clients one on one to focus on coaching on Crossfit and spend some time on some other projects.

Measurements won't be done again until Monday so I am looking forward to seeing the results. Will report in next week's blog update.

Have a great week!!

Kara

My Latest Experiment - Update week 1

Last week I wrote about what plan I had put together to lean up a bit for an upcoming photo shoot and some other events happening later on this year.  In that I had promised weekly check-ins, more for my accountability than your interest but here it is anyway.

 - Realized trying to overhead squat and snatch daily with weights requires more warming up than I thought it might.  Have been doing it mostly with PVC pipe or empty bar.  Realizing my form for both is poor. Keeping up the practice all the same.

 - Eating feels really stable and healthy right now and that makes me happy.  Although I did manage to eat my body weight in spiced nuts at a friend's bridal shower on Sunday. Oh well, back on the wagon the next day.

 - Did measurements on Monday.  Things are down from the previous month which is great.

 - Have been enjoying my morning walk - loving the early in the day exposure to sun and nature.

Pretty happy with things at the moment.  Only struggle is getting organized around a more deliberate strength program to pair with my Crossfit. I am not detail oriented like I feel like I should be for tracking what I do every week and some times I am a little low on extra energy. Oh well, buck up and do it anyway!  I know I will be glad I did.