Never get discouraged...

Today was my weigh in, which I do every Friday.  The scale indicated that I gained a little more than a pound since last week. I was really pushing and hoping to be 20 pounds down by now (2 months + 1 week later), but it simply didn't happen.  I now weigh 205.8 which is a 17.4 pound difference in 2+ months.  Yet, the numbers on the scale have not disappointed or discouraged me.  There are many reasons why:

1. Today we did wall climbs. For a big girl like myself, it seems very scary.  But I still did 7 (5 during the workout and 2 before just to see if I could do it.)  My stamina during burpees has also greatly improved, thanks to some advice from my crossfit family. 
2. I am finally able to fit in a pair of jeans that I haven't been able to get around my waist for the past 7 months.  
3. For the past 5 weeks, I have maintained my goal of 5 WODs per week.  Even adding an additional cardio class or 2, boosting me up to 7+ total workouts in a single week.
4. I quit smoking! 
5. I haven't had a drink of alcohol in 5 weeks.  (I would drink with friends on the weekends, but I wanted to give it up for a few months to see how much my body changed in doing so.)

My journey reaches a lot further than numbers on a scale.  I am beaming with pride with how far I have come.  I have 3 more weeks left before I am measured again and I don't plan on slowing down or allowing anything to distract me.  I love what I am becoming and I am so proud of where I am now.  Scale or no scale, I feel great!

"Ain't nothing' gonan break my stride

I'm running and I won't touch ground

Oh-no, I got to keep on movin'"

Anna Dubya

http://knockout-crossfit.com/

Battle of the bad habits

I love crossfit but there are times where I am just not in the mood.  Well, today was one of those days. Not because I had to do burpees, but there have been days where I just don't feel it.  On those days when my alarm wakes me up for my early AM workout I want to hit snooze and give myself an excuse as to why I shouldn't go.  Back hurts, muscles are sore, got a lot of work to do, too tired, and the list goes on and on.  The challenge for me in those moments is ignoring those excuses and remembering how how incredibly guilty/bad I will feel all day if I don't go.  Not wanting to play that guilty battle today, I got up and hit the AM workout.  On the sweaty drive home, feeling much better, I got to thinking why I struggle so hard some mornings when I love crossfit so much.  

I think I am so focused on where I am going/who I am becoming....that I am forgetting who I was/where I came from.  In a matter of months since I started crossfit, my lifestyle is dramatically different.  Before crossfit, I was fully equipped with a ton of bad habits that took years to perfect; smoking cigarettes, drinking excessively, making excuses not to workout, overeating then going days without eating, and so on.  When I recall where I was in life just a few months ago, it reminds me how I felt; depressed, tired, angry, hungover, unable to breathe and embarrassed.  

Recalling my history in such a brutal way was a big awakening for me.  I will never succeed at changing myself for the better if I don't remember what it was like when I was at my worse.  It is sort of the same theory we overweight folks face when confronted with a mirror.  "If I don't see it, it doesn't exist."  Well, if I am to be successful, I need to face the mirror.  While I will continue to focus on what I am accomplishing, I will also reflect on my past as a reminder to help push me towards my goal.

Even writing this I am amazed to realize that in just a matter of a few months of crossfit, I have already changed so much.  I don't drink, I don't smoke and my diet has much improved to a healthier lifestyle (paleo).  Without crossfit, I don't think I would even be this far. Just something about it finally made me want to change.

Paving a new road, but remember what the old looked like,
Anna Dubya

http://knockout-crossfit.com/

Burpees everywhere

I saw the WOD for today and seriously thought, "ok, simple and quick enough."  33 bear complexes and you are finished, but every minute drop and give 3 burpees.  I seriously underestimated the workout, even doing a little math in my head prior to starting.  I thought if I do 5 bear complexes a minute, I could be done in roughly 7 minutes.  Heck, I might even be able to do more each minute.  Sounds easy enough. Yay for a quick and easy WOD on this lovely Wednesday!  Oh how wrong I was.

By minute 2, reality hit me like homey the clown slapping me with a sock full of rocks.  My goal of 5 bear complexes a minute quickly dwindled down to 2 per minute.  At one point I was lucky to get 1 per minute.  But the threat of more burpees was just too frightening to allow my body to stop.  If I had to slow it down to 1 or 2 bear complexes a minute, so be it.  But I knew the consequences of stopping....more burpees.  No matter how much I wanted to stop, the burpee threat pushed me to keep moving.  If you have ever seen or played Silent Hill, you know the tornado siren was the frightening sound that warned you what torture was about to occur.  Well, every minute I heard "3 burpees!" was like hearing that siren.  I guess you can see I have a deep seeded "love" for burpees.  Nope.

33 burpees and 33 bear complexes later, I finished right at 12 minutes.  What were once my strong and weight hungry arms were now dreading the weight of my car keys.  I have learned my lesson and will never underestimate a WOD ever again.  

Seeing burpees everywhere,
Anna Dubya

http://knockout-crossfit.com/

PS.  After a warm shower, the power in my arms returned but I still feel the effects of the WOD. 

WODda ya know?

Weigh in today baby!  Today the scale displayed 205.3, giving me a total weight loss of 17.9 pounds in 8 weeks.  Giddiup!

Even with work being so nutso lately and me having to skip Wednesday all together, I was still able to do 5 WODs this week on top of trying out the Hardcore class (which was awesome btw!).  How did I accomplish that by Friday on top of skipping a day this week?  Well, Tuesday I did Harcore followed by a WOD and Thursday I did two WODs.  I didn't like that I had to skip Wednesday so I stayed after to make up for lost WOD time.  Basically I did Monday = WOD, Tuesday = Hardcore then WOD, Thursday = 2 days of WODs and Friday = WOD.  (5 WODs + 1 Hardcore class)

I feel great too!  Sure, I have a little "tenderness" in my arms and legs, but not enough to slow my weekend down even slightly.  I know our lives are constantly busy, some weeks more than others, but I remind myself that all I really need is one hour a day for me.  I am so proud of what I accomplished this week.  It beats sitting at home, watching TV, eating fast food and feeling depressed about what I look like.  Instead, I am focusing on something so much better...that feeling of "I did that".  No words to describe how great it feels when you are able to look back and see what you have accomplished instead of wishing what you could accomplish.  

Watching my fellow crossfitters beam with pride when finding out their max back squats says it all.  Finding out I can do more than I ever thought possible fills me with a smile from head to toe.  I was so proud that I was able to hit a 145lb max back squat.  When I first started, I could barely squat with a PVC pipe.  I highly recommend you track your progress because when you look back you will be amazed at how quickly your body changes gears, increases in stamina, weightloss, strength, sense of accomplishment, etc.  I am so grateful to have given crossfit a try, no matter how scary the crossfit games made it look.  Love it!

Well, WODda ya know....I DID THAT!  ;)
Anna Dubya

http://knockout-crossfit.com/

The WODINATOR

I promised to do crossfit 5-days a week for the next 8 weeks and I intend to keep that promise.  Well, seeing that Monday was a holiday, that meant a Saturday WOD was in order.  Usually I never post the actual WOD but this was so epic that I had to share it:

Start with 75 wall balls

50 air squats

bear crawl for distance

40 jumping jacks

crab walk for distance

120 count flutter kicks

army crawl for distance

20 burpees

broad jump for distance

120 count mountain climbers

army crawl for distance

40 hollow rocks

crab walk for distance

50 push ups

bear crawl for distance

Finish with 75 wall balls 

When the instructor (who I now proclaim The WODINATOR) went over the WOD for which HE created, I laughed nervously just to keep from crying.  But alas, buzzard rang and we were off.  Lately I have been able to lift all the weights prescribed in each WOD, but my own body weight truly humbled me during this workout.

Did I want to puke, yes...multiple times (but oddly only when I worked out my honey boo boo belly).  Did I sweat, puh-lease, even my eye balls were sweating.  Did it hit at a cardio level, come on now...I was breathing so hard I could have filled 5 king size mattresses.  Did I feel it in my muscles, at this point even lifting a toothbrush would be a challenge.  Did I finish...HECK YA I DID!  

It took me roughly 53 minutes to finish, but you wouldn't believe how proud I am that I finished period.  I admit, the wall ball ending nearly defeated me.  But with 25 left to go, even The WODINATOR picked up a wall ball and finished with me.  It is always humbling and inspiring that someone else is willing to do it with you just to give you that extra push.  Even the hardcore instructor dropped down to finish my crab walk with me.  Sometimes I feel ashamed when they stop to help me because even then I am struggling just to keep up with them.  But there they are, by my side and I incredibly grateful for that.

All in all, incredible workout.  The fact I finished gives me a powerful feeling of absolute victory!

BTW - I was so exhausted when I finished my workout that when the WODINATOR went in to fist bump me, I high-fived his fist.  Awkward on most days, but I was a level 10 honey badger in that moment so I took it to the next level and wrapped my high five around his fist. Not enough purell in the world to reverse that awkward move.  

Have a great weekend my friends!

Anna Dubya 

http://knockout-crossfit.com/

A 6 Week Progress Report

Last Friday marked the end of 6 full weeks since I have been tracking my progress with crossfit.  I was so excited to get measured and weighed that I could barely sleep the night before.  I must say, I was not disappointed when presented with the results.  

Date	Chest	Waist	Hips	Right Thigh	Right Arm	Weight
July 20, 2012	47.5	46.5	51.5	29.5	13.5	223.2
August 31, 2012	46	42.75	50	29.3	14	209.3
Total Loss in 6 weeks	1.5 in	3.75 in	1.5 in	0.2 in	-0.5 in	13.9 lbs

I was actually even more proud that I gained 1/2 inch in my arm.  Muscle definition is starting to show which means I can shake my arms and not look like I have wings flapping around.  Toning is so important for a girl like me because if I were to simply lose the weight, I would have loose skin flapping all over the place.  No one wants to see that, especially me!

Remember the pictures from my humble progress report?  Well, these are nearly a month later.  My pants are even a lot looser now to where I need a belt.  What a great feeling!  I wore the same shirt/pants as last time so you can see how even my shirt is a lot looser instead of hugging every lump, nook and cranny.  Whoot Whoot!

Awe, I am even smiling in these pictures. Haha!  So proud of how far I have come and where I am headed!
















Progressively happier and happier everyday,
Anna Dubya

http://www.knockout-crossfit.com/

Welcome back!

Happy to be back in crossfit after a great 3 day labor day weekend!  I admit waking up this morning was a true challenge.  For some reason, after a 3 day weekend I just want to sleep in. Yet during the weekend, I don't want to sleep in.  Go figure.  When the alarm went off this morning, I contemplated turning it off and staying in bed...skipping my morning workout just to get a few more Z's.  But I recalled that feeling I get after my workout which by far trumps the feeling I have about staying in bed and sleeping.  

Sure enough, I was right.  After the WOD today, I was energized, happy and ready to attack the day head on.  If I skipped the WOD to sleep in, I know I would have struggled just to even make it through the day.  It is even more difficult when I am super comfortable in bed and dreams are top notch.  But even then, that level of comfort cannot compare to how great I feel after my workout.  Most of the time for the simple fact that I completed it.  Today, I am proud to say I pushed real hard through my breaks.  As much as I wanted to stop for a long period of time, I kicked it back into gear...keeping those muscles warm.  Felt so good!

Last week I did my 6 week weigh in + measurements.  I plan on posting that information this week, but was holding off so I can take some updated pictures for you all in the new crossfit gear.  Needless to say, I was SUPER proud of where I am 6 weeks later.  Can't wait to share/show you all my progress.  I would love to hear your progress too if you are open to sharing!

Jumping out of bed to WOD it out,
Anna Dubya

http://knockout-crossfit.com/