Crossfit Family

It's been awhile since my last post... Sorry about that, but life has been nuts. I've really been struggling the past couple months to make my journey of health a priority. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has happened to. Sometimes it's easier to eat the chocolate outside your office, stop and grab pizza on the way home, or have one too many pudding shots ;). With that said, none of these things give me the results I want, make me feel good, or make me happy. So why have I and so many other people who struggle with nutrition give in? That's a great question, if you have the answer I would love to hear it.

The one thing that I do know is that I can make excuses all day long, but in the end it's up to me to change it. A part of me is scared that if I do get back on track, I won't have the results I want. Or if I do get down to the weight I want, I still won't feel like I've accomplished anything. Logically I realize this doesn't make sense, but emotionally I've been there. In 2003, I lost 45lbs and was the "skinniest" I've ever been at 144lbs. I was wearing a size 8 and was on top of the world. I even started to train for my first marathon. Yet, I still felt I had weight to lose and obsessed over WW points. I began to sabotage myself.  When I felt I was having a "bad day," I would eat every high point food I could find all while thinking "I'll start again tomorrow." I honestly believe my emotions of still feeling overweight, was what caused me to over eat to catch my body up with where I saw myself. Not healthy, I know.

Flash forward to today... I've finally found a lifestyle that has changed the way I look at food and understand what my body needs to perform at its best. But yet for the past few months, I haven't allowed myself to benefit from this lifestyle. The same habits have come back... Oh I already had chocolate today, so I can have some more and start over tomorrow. Or I had a crappy day at work and I need a piece of pizza to make me feel better. I actually caught myself thinking these things. The scary thing is that pizza doesn't make me feel better; it makes me feel like crap and then makes me mad that I couldn't say no.

At this point you must be thinking... "What does this have to do with Crossfit Family?" Well over this past year, even though my nutrition has faltered my new family has not. Three to four times a week I go to Crossfit Route 1 to give every last ounce of effort I have to that day's WOD (work out of the day). But that's not the only thing I get from my box. I have developed a second family. It's a place where you are instantly friends with everyone there whether you've meet them before or not.  After awhile, you begin to learn people's strengths, weaknesses, and goals.  You want them to succeed as much as you want yourself to succeed.  How many of you hug the people you work out with when leaving an event?  It's now a normal occurrence for me when leaving my new family.

I often forget that my fellow crossfitters have their own struggles as well. I've gotten so wrapped up in trying to succeed with my weight loss goal that I was missing the bigger picture. I forgot the feeling of "I can do anything" I had at the beginning of the year when I was on track with nutrition. The thing is I'm still improving even now when I'm not losing weight. I also forgot that not everyone's goal is to lose weight. They focus on nutrition just for better health and better results with their Crossfit performance. I forgot that not everyone event wants to eat Paleo. Some are fighting injuries, some are trying to break through plateaus, and some are brand new and learning they can do things they never thought possible.

The thing is if we were all the same, we would never grow. We need the weird people that attend 6am classes... We need the people who want to do competitions and those who want nothing to do with them. We need the people focused on nutrition and those who are focused on just surviving the WOD. People have good days and bad days, but there is always someone there to support you and cheer you on. I can always rely on my Crossfit Route 1 family to keep me motivated and bring things into prospective. For that, I am forever thankful.

So even though I seem to have started to repeat history, I do firmly believe my fate will be different. I now have my family, my friends, and my Crossfit Route 1 family to help me succeed!