Some Days I Kill CrossFit - Other Days It Kills Me!

Many of you have asked for updates regarding my CrossFit training. First – let me say thank-you SO much for you continued support and encouragement. It makes me smile everytime one of you send a thoughtful message or uplifting word my way. You are the best!

I cannot even begin to explain my love affair with CrossFit. Like most relationships in my life, it’s a love/hate situation. Primarily, I’m in love. In love with the feeling of accomplishment I get after completing an intense workout. In love with weight loss I have seen. In love with the friends/workout buddies I have found at our local box. In love with the feeling of discipline I have gained in my everyday life. In love with the way my butt feels just a little bit tighter each and every week. This program is truly changing my life – and I’m loving it.

But again – there are a few things I don’t love so much. Like the way my pretty little feminine hands have turned into hard, calloused “man hands”. Or how I’m cautious to wear a skirt because my knees/chins constantly have bruises from lunges, deadlifts, etc. Or the fact that I slept on the couch four out of seven nights last week because my shoulders were SO sore that I couldn’t sleep in our bed. And I definitely don’t love the occasional “What the heck are you doing!?!?” speech I get from Coach when I make a complete and total newbie mistake.

But the good completely outweighs the bad. I promise. I’ve never seen results like this in such a short amount of time.

After six full weeks of CrossFit I have many great things to report:
~I’ve dropped ten pounds!
~I’ve pushed myself further physically than I have my entire life.
~I’ve started to gain control over my eating habits and have drastically improved the healthiness of my diet.
~I’ve learned how to do a double under.
~I’m beginning to perform Olympic Lift exercises with confidence and I am adding more weight to my lifts.
~I am sleeping better than I have in years (minus last week’s nights on the couch!)
~My waist is making a comeback – oh how I have missed her!

I think the thing that I love most about CrossFit is the encouragement I have found from fellow CrossFitters. See, I’m horrible at these workouts. *Seriously* Week one was one of most challenging weeks of my life because I truly had no idea what I was doing and felt like a complete idiot during every workout. But every time I feel self conscious or want to tap out during a tough exercise, a fellow CrossFitter is right there offer words of encouragement to see me through.

Last Wednesday our workout was a 400 yard lunge. Sounds easy enough right? Wrong!!! We are talking about lunging the length of four football fields here! You had the option to either lunge the 400 yards or run a 5K. Now I know I could have run the 5K easily. But I decided to take the challenge and lunge the 400 yards. It took me 23 minutes. 23 minutes of grueling, nonstop lunging on an absurdly hot September evening. Out of the seven people in my class, I was the last to finish by about a minute and a half (which is a long time in a CrossFit workout). My class members could have left and gone home. They could have left me outside in the dark to finish the workout on my own – but instead they stayed offering various words of encouragement as I finished my final 50 yards.

And that’s how it is with CrossFit. Sometimes you finish a workout pretty quickly and you offer words of encouragement to your classmates. Other times, you struggle through and finish last – depending desperately on others to keep you going. Sometimes you kill CrossFit – other times it kills you.

I received an encouraging email from a reader yesterday who also does CrossFit. When I asked about her journey and her progress she shared some words of wisdom from her trainer that I think are perfect. During the first month of CrossFit, you will feel different. During the second month of CrossFit, you will look different. After the third month of CrossFit, you are different.

I’m so ready to be different!! I already feel different, and I’m starting to see the difference over the past two weeks. I’m seriously committed to making this a lifestyle – to being a truly different person because of my commitment to CrossFit.

Thanks again for all the kind words you have offered over the past six weeks! If you’re looking for a gym or new workout routine, I would strongly suggest you find a CrossFit box near you. Believe me, if I can make it through these workouts, then so can you!