I have never achieved or felt the connection with anyone I have worked out with until I came across crossfit. Before crossfit I always kept a distance, did my thing and went home. Never sticking around to socialize or get to know anyone mainly because I felt self conscious, judged and embarrassed. So I put a wall up. From day 1 of crossfit I felt nothing of the sorts. Instead, I was welcomed with arms wide open. I know I have hit on this subject before, but I am bringing it up because someone said something today that made even my heart smile. "Your crossfit family".
This is the same person who after his workout took time to ask me how many push presses I had left. 20 left to go, he picked up a barbell and offered to do them with me. I gratefully accepted his offer, picked up my bar bell and we rocked out my remaining 20 push presses with a 45lb bar. A weight I thought I wouldn't be able to finish with because by round three my arms were feeling a little like jelly. Yet, I finished strong and felt great!
Have you ever done a workout where the person that finishes before you has stuck around to help you finish by doing it with you? Well, that never happened to me before. Sure, friends have stuck around to verbally encourage me but I never had anyone physically encourage me by doing extra just to help me along. I gotta admit, just that little extra has given me the biggest smile today that not even rising gas prices can take away.
Starting off like a community, crossfit has now become a new family for me. A family that hasn't turned their back on me no matter what. So folks, it is now day 4 of my new challenge and I am more energized then ever! I can't wait to see where I am tomorrow as I not only get weighed but measured as well. Tomorrow will be my "6 weeks later" marker. Yet, no matter the results, guess where I will be next week? ;-)
Ohana,
Anna Dubya
http://www.knockout-crossfit.com/
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
8 Week Challenge
I have decided to start an 8 week paleo/crossfit challenge. I made this decision over the weekend after not hitting my weight loss goal on Friday. Instead, I went the opposite route and gained weight. I have already been applying the paleo diet the previous 5 weeks, but I have decided to kick it up a notch; reduce portions to 4 oz (5 times a day), no alcohol and no cheat meals. Now that my cold is gone, I am going to kick crossfit back up to 5 times a week as well as add walking to my evening routine.
Today is day 1. Crossfit workout done, on top of the "bonus" WOD that was offered today. The cool thing about the WOD today was I was able to find out what my max deadlift is....195 lbs. I was kinda disappointed that I couldn't get over 200 lbs, but now I can't wait to see where my numbers go when it is time to test out the max deadlift again.
I will make this post short and sweet. If you want to join me in my 8 week journey, I would be honored. The more the merrier! :-)
Anna Dubya
Friday, August 24, 2012
To scale or not to scale...
Normally, I run and hide from the scale but I wanted to
share with you all my weight loss struggles, achievements and road blocks. Reason being, if you google weight loss, you
usually see the same thing; “6 months
later”, “1 year later”, “9 months later”.
Yet what actually happens in between those months is where I have failed
in the past. I think it’s where most of
us have failed, especially for those of us struggling with weight loss.
Every Friday I weigh in and tell you where I am at. Well, today didn’t produce the numbers I was
hoping to see. Last week I weighed in at
211, today…..215. Seeing a 4 lb gain
when you know your diet and exercise that week has been butt kicking is like
being hit by a truck filled with twinkies…..twinkies I didn’t flippin eat. This is the “in between” I am talking
about. The set back everyone faces. The point where I feel so defeated, confused
and upset that I might as well just eat what I want and stop working out since
I am going to gain weight anyway. At
times, I even took it a bit further and simply starved myself until I reached
the weight loss numbers I was hoping to achieve. Well, no more of that nonsense.
Seeing those numbers, I still couldn't help but to immediately start beating my brain
with the million dollar question. How did
this happen? My diet this week has been
clean. Breakfast, eggs and spinach. Lunch, can of tuna. Snacks, raw carrots and almonds. Dinner, eggs, spinach and beef. (I even ate grass fed beef.) Crossfit, worked out 4 days. (Hitting prescribed weight more than once.) I am even able to fit in my old jeans now. So where is this 4 lb gain coming from?
There could be a ton of reason as to why the scale is saying
what it is saying; recovering from bronchitis, muscle gain, change in diet for
higher iron intake, being a girl, stars weren’t in line, and so on. Point is, I know I did right by my body this
week. My diet, clean and healthy. Workout, 4 days with prescribed weights. Water intake, one gallon per day. Sounds pretty good, right?
As much as I would like an answer, I know I won't get one. The question, the numbers, the scale will simply drive me insane. So this time, I am letting it go. I'm not ready to give up. In fact, I am ready for the next WOD. That is how much I have come to love crossfit. Never thought I would love any workout, ever,
but this is different. The challenges,
the people, the signs of muscle definition, 5 weeks and pants are much looser,
old jeans can now be buttoned and the cherry on the cake…showing someone your
WOD and saying “I did that!”.
Regardless of what the scale said today and how deeply it cut me, I will continue to weigh in every Friday and share my
numbers with you. Who knows, I might be
a “9 months later” huge weight loss story. But even so, I really feel the events in between are just as important. It’s those in between moments where I feel
failure is created. Yet this time I won’t
let the scale throw me off track. No way! My love for crossfit simply won’t let
me.
Numbers shouldn't drive you, how you feel should inspire you.
Anna Dubya
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Won't you be my neighbor?
When I first started to crossfit, I found my eyes constantly wondering. Floor, ceiling, weights, ceiling, floor, neighbor, and so on. A few WODs in, I found if I stopped and stared at one spot while working out, my form was better and I was able to do more. I still try to focus on a single spot during my WOD, but lately I find myself watching my crossfit neighbors. Ok, that doesn't sound right. I'm not staring or approaching creepy girl levels or anything. I'm just seeing their movements out of the corner of my eye and using that as a pace guide. I figure now that my form is much improved and my stamina is getting better, increasing my pace will also help me get better and better. I admit, I take a lot of mini breaks which is a habit I need to start reducing. So what better way to focus on pace increase by trying keeping up with your crossfit neighbors? Tactics. It is all about tactics.
I said it before and I will say it again...the people at crossfit inspire me. I arrive before even the sun shows up and am greeted with big smiles and someone that always makes me laugh. I love the WODs, well, except burpees. I believe burpees were introduced by torture enthusiast. But even when burpees are a part of the WOD, I am still surprised as to how much I smile after and how excited/happy I feel. Yet, even without effort, my crossfit neighbors inspire me to keep up the pace. However, if you are just starting to crossfit I recommend you concentrate on form first.
You never know...I might be trying to keep up with you. In fact, if you are my crossfit neighbor during a WOD, the likelihood that I am side viewing your movements and trying to keep up with your pace is highly probable. So...thanks ahead of time! :-)
Anna Dubya
http://knockout-crossfit.com/
PS. I must say, I feel so much better today then I did yesterday. Yesterday, I struggled to get through the WOD. I felt weak, exhausted, overheated and nauseated and that was within the first 7 minutes of my workout. I pushed through it, but it was so frustrating and confusing feeling that way after doing crossfit for weeks now and feeling the complete opposite. Needless to say, I had an "off" day. For some reason, I felt I needed to increase my iron levels dramatically so I googled high iron foods and went to town; spinach, red meat, tuna and eggs. That seemed to do the trick because today I felt my performance was excellent! Prescribed weight, finishing in less than 25 minutes, very rare 2-3 second breaks, concentrating and awareness was high and stamina....I actually had stamina again. Needless to say, diet is vital!
I said it before and I will say it again...the people at crossfit inspire me. I arrive before even the sun shows up and am greeted with big smiles and someone that always makes me laugh. I love the WODs, well, except burpees. I believe burpees were introduced by torture enthusiast. But even when burpees are a part of the WOD, I am still surprised as to how much I smile after and how excited/happy I feel. Yet, even without effort, my crossfit neighbors inspire me to keep up the pace. However, if you are just starting to crossfit I recommend you concentrate on form first.
You never know...I might be trying to keep up with you. In fact, if you are my crossfit neighbor during a WOD, the likelihood that I am side viewing your movements and trying to keep up with your pace is highly probable. So...thanks ahead of time! :-)
Anna Dubya
http://knockout-crossfit.com/
PS. I must say, I feel so much better today then I did yesterday. Yesterday, I struggled to get through the WOD. I felt weak, exhausted, overheated and nauseated and that was within the first 7 minutes of my workout. I pushed through it, but it was so frustrating and confusing feeling that way after doing crossfit for weeks now and feeling the complete opposite. Needless to say, I had an "off" day. For some reason, I felt I needed to increase my iron levels dramatically so I googled high iron foods and went to town; spinach, red meat, tuna and eggs. That seemed to do the trick because today I felt my performance was excellent! Prescribed weight, finishing in less than 25 minutes, very rare 2-3 second breaks, concentrating and awareness was high and stamina....I actually had stamina again. Needless to say, diet is vital!
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Working out the weakness
Today was a tough workout and I must be honest, I was highly
frustrated with myself. I feel this WOD
should have taken me around the 30 minute mark to complete, but instead it took
me 49 minutes. During the workout I felt
weak, overheated and nauseated. When I
got home after my WOD, I played it over and over in my head trying to figure
out why this WOD was so hard for me. Why
I felt the way I felt. Why it took me so
long to finish. As I dug through my mind,
I realized what I was doing. I wasn’t
searching for answers; I was searching for excuses…a bad habit that I am still
working on breaking.
In my professional life, when a problem arises, my first reaction
is to identify a resolution quickly and efficiently. Once the issue is resolved, I can then spare
the time to identify why it happened to ensure it doesn’t happen again. I am going to apply this same tactic with my
body as its performance today was seriously slackin. We all know our own bodies very well, and I
admit I don’t always listen to it. I
feel that my body is telling me more fish in my diet is vital right now. I truly believe this will help my muscles and
energy, all the while increasing my iron levels which I feel is really low
right now. Granted, I take fish oil and vitamins
every day, but I think I need more.
As frustrated as I was with myself and my performance today,
I am so thankful for my trainer who took the time to flutter kick with me. This helped push me my last round of the WOD
today. I was getting increasingly mad at
myself to the point that negative energy started to take over my workout. Yet, she jumped in and relit that motivation. For that I am thankful!
Another crossfitter noticed my struggle and said something
that I think is very true. I told him
how I felt and he said it was the weakness leaving the body. I like this! I think using this will help refocus my mind during my workouts. Working out the weakness for me applies both mentally
and physically, something I am eager to get rid of. Tomorrow WOD….me and you!
Weakness leaving the body,
Anna Dubya
Monday, August 20, 2012
4 Weeks Later...
Last Friday I finished my fourth week of tracking and blogging my progress. I completed the week with a weigh in of 211.9. That is an 11.1 lb loss in 4 weeks! Not too shabby. I am sure the fat loss is higher then what the scale is telling me as I am also building muscle and my pants are a lot looser. The loss is also visually obvious and I can't wait to share my progress in pictures, which I plan on doing week 6. So excited I might not even be able to wait that long! hahaha!
In my four weeks, my body has thrown multiple curve balls at me but I have still rocked out a regular workout schedule; old shoulder and foot injury flare up and bronchitis. Friday my plantar fasciitis decided to flare up while finishing up my jump ropes. I immediately stopped what I was doing, informed the instructor and we changed tactics. I still finished my WOD with an equally intense round of stepping onto a box instead of jump ropes. This stretched my calf, worked my legs, and somehow massaged out the flare up! I have to seriously thank my crossfit trainer, Carolyn, for showing me some great ways to respond to the flare up that prevented it from getting worse and relieved the pain from a level 7 to a 1 in less than 24 hours. Without her guidance and expertise, I probably wouldn't be able to walk right now. Instead, I was able to fully execute my WOD today pain/flare-up free!
I take full responsibility for these old injuries. I mistreated my body for YEARS and I am finally now trying hard to repair that damage. So it is understandable these minor issues will pop up every so often, but as long as I keep open communication with my trainer, they can be fixed. Hopefully to a point that I never have to deal with them again! In fact, I am learning better ways to deal with, prevent and repair these problems. I never would have imagined a crossfit class would have been the one thing to teach me all these things. Crossfit never fails to surprise me.
I would like to dedicate this blog entry to the team at Knockout Crossfit. I wouldn't be this far without the amazing leadership, knowledge and motivation they provide every day. I am not just referring to the instructors but to my fellow crossfitters who also inspire me to go beyond what I thought were my limits. A big congrats to the knockout team on their new location! Today was my first WOD at the new location and it is hands-down amazing! I can't wait to continue to attack more and more WODs there. Congrats you guys!
Starting my 5th week of crossfit and lovin it!
Anna Dubya
http://www.knockout-crossfit.com/
In my four weeks, my body has thrown multiple curve balls at me but I have still rocked out a regular workout schedule; old shoulder and foot injury flare up and bronchitis. Friday my plantar fasciitis decided to flare up while finishing up my jump ropes. I immediately stopped what I was doing, informed the instructor and we changed tactics. I still finished my WOD with an equally intense round of stepping onto a box instead of jump ropes. This stretched my calf, worked my legs, and somehow massaged out the flare up! I have to seriously thank my crossfit trainer, Carolyn, for showing me some great ways to respond to the flare up that prevented it from getting worse and relieved the pain from a level 7 to a 1 in less than 24 hours. Without her guidance and expertise, I probably wouldn't be able to walk right now. Instead, I was able to fully execute my WOD today pain/flare-up free!
I take full responsibility for these old injuries. I mistreated my body for YEARS and I am finally now trying hard to repair that damage. So it is understandable these minor issues will pop up every so often, but as long as I keep open communication with my trainer, they can be fixed. Hopefully to a point that I never have to deal with them again! In fact, I am learning better ways to deal with, prevent and repair these problems. I never would have imagined a crossfit class would have been the one thing to teach me all these things. Crossfit never fails to surprise me.
I would like to dedicate this blog entry to the team at Knockout Crossfit. I wouldn't be this far without the amazing leadership, knowledge and motivation they provide every day. I am not just referring to the instructors but to my fellow crossfitters who also inspire me to go beyond what I thought were my limits. A big congrats to the knockout team on their new location! Today was my first WOD at the new location and it is hands-down amazing! I can't wait to continue to attack more and more WODs there. Congrats you guys!
Starting my 5th week of crossfit and lovin it!
Anna Dubya
http://www.knockout-crossfit.com/
Thursday, August 16, 2012
WOD it out...
I have always had issues with charlie horses since I was a wee lass. This morning, alarm went off and the charlie horse of torture was full on flaring in my right leg. Usually I am stuck with it for the entire day, but I got up to do what I planned the night before....go to crossfit. Today's WOD consisted of a mile run. Took me 14:49 minutes, but I did it and guess what....no more charlie horse.
I was also finally able to do actual box jumps today! Box jumps create a lot of fear in my mind. "What if I miss it?", "What if I trip on the box corner?", "What if the box cuts me?", "What if I break something?", "What if I fall?". In nanoseconds, I am totally flipped out at the thought of jumping on the box. Today, I tried a few before the WOD started just to see if I could do it. Once I realized I could (VICTORY) the steps needed to execute a safe box jump were etched into my brain which really helped me get-er-done today. 20 fully executed box jumps today folks! I took it down a notch on my last 10 (stepping up) but 20 is a huge accomplishment for me. Ya!
I had a moment this morning as I am so proud of the biceps that are forming. I actually see definition! I was even flexing and checking my biceps out while sitting at a red light today, not realizing my brake wasn't fully pressed and I was slowly edging forward. Luckily I caught it before I went to far, successfully avoiding a bumper to bumper "how ya doin?". Phew! Note to self, admire biceps when you aren't driving.
Overall, today was a great day! Beat out my charlie horse, box jumped, completed a WOD, saw signs of an actual bicep, avoided bumper kisses and completed another WOD. Happy dance. Happy dance. Happy dance.
I would still be stuck with a charlie horse if it wasn't for WODing it out this morning. Diss those ailments, aches, pains or excuses and come WOD it out with me!
Anna Dubya
http://knockout-crossfit.com/
I was also finally able to do actual box jumps today! Box jumps create a lot of fear in my mind. "What if I miss it?", "What if I trip on the box corner?", "What if the box cuts me?", "What if I break something?", "What if I fall?". In nanoseconds, I am totally flipped out at the thought of jumping on the box. Today, I tried a few before the WOD started just to see if I could do it. Once I realized I could (VICTORY) the steps needed to execute a safe box jump were etched into my brain which really helped me get-er-done today. 20 fully executed box jumps today folks! I took it down a notch on my last 10 (stepping up) but 20 is a huge accomplishment for me. Ya!
I had a moment this morning as I am so proud of the biceps that are forming. I actually see definition! I was even flexing and checking my biceps out while sitting at a red light today, not realizing my brake wasn't fully pressed and I was slowly edging forward. Luckily I caught it before I went to far, successfully avoiding a bumper to bumper "how ya doin?". Phew! Note to self, admire biceps when you aren't driving.
Overall, today was a great day! Beat out my charlie horse, box jumped, completed a WOD, saw signs of an actual bicep, avoided bumper kisses and completed another WOD. Happy dance. Happy dance. Happy dance.
I would still be stuck with a charlie horse if it wasn't for WODing it out this morning. Diss those ailments, aches, pains or excuses and come WOD it out with me!
Anna Dubya
http://knockout-crossfit.com/
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