When did exercise become exercise?

I have been very fortunate to be able to share many things I've learned over the past year with my friends and family.  Whether is was them trying out the Paleo lifestyle, reading my blog, supporting me at Crossfit events, or even trying CrossFit out themselves I've truly enjoyed sharing this huge part of my life with them.  My favorite moment by far occurred almost 2 months ago.  The very first class of CrossFit Route 1 Rebels was about to happen and I was pumped to bring my 6 year old nephew. 

Riley had cheered me on at the Garage Games at CrossFit Southie last November and we've even done some push up challenges at home.  He was ready for his own experience in the box!  With his excitement came his worries... he's a very cautious boy sometimes.  The morning of class, we had been talking about how I was going to do the adult class which he could watch, then after would be time for the kids' class.  Then he asked "What exercises are we going to do?"  I start listing the things I'm pretty sure they'll be doing... push-ups, jumping jax, sit ups, squats etc...  He laughs and goes "That's not exercise, that's fun!"

I smiled to myself thinking he's already "drinking the cool-aid" and he's totally right.  It IS fun.  At some point in life people stop looking at moving their bodies at play time and start looking at it like a chore.  My challenge to everyone reading this is to find what is fun for you.  Walking on the beach, playing ultimate frisbee, hopscotch with your kids, going shopping (malls are big, lots of places to walk!), riding a bike in the awesome whether we're having are all great things to do!  Don't limit yourself to what we've all grown up to define as exercise.  Find what you love doing and it won't be exercise any more, it will be a way of life.

For those of you wondering how Riley did in his first class... the answer is awesome of course!  He watched me complete a killer workout with Daniella first.  Then figured out modifications for the workout so he could do it.  Which he did.... Made him rest a bit before his class started, but he was off again.  When the class was over he was still running around with a ball having a great time.  When we were leaving he asked "Am I going to get to come back here?"  I was so happy and excited that he loved it as much as I do!  A big thanks to Queen Coach Emily for the awesome job she's done with the CrossFit Route 1 Rebells.

Paleo Challenge and the Magical Powers of Pizza

It's been all business since January 9, 2012 at Crossfit Route 1.  The 60 Day Paleo Challenge started with about 30ish participants.  This challenge involves an all or nothing points system.  Eat pure Paleo, earn 3 points... eat 1 thing not Paleo 0 points.  1 point for 8 hrs of sleep and 1 point for working out.  I was doing great for 3 weeks... almost completely perfect except for a couple missed work out days.  And then at the end of a very stressful week when I was pissed off and frustrated with everything... there sat Pizza.  It was calling my name.  Jenny, oh Jenny.  You love me remember, I'm so yummy.  Forget that you'll feel gross after, you'll be happy while you're eating me.  mmmm I'm so yummy.  and I was done.

Yes, the pizza was yummy while I ate it... but not as satisfying and definitely not worth the massive headache I had afterwards.  So why then have I been struggling to get myself back on track the past 2 weeks.  I'll have a good day, then a bad one, 2 good days and another bad one.  soooo frustrating. 

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately... If the frustration and anger got me eating crap... then continuing to be frustrated isn't going to help me.  My new goal is to wake up happy and feeling good.  Now when I'm looking at food the question isn't "do I care if I lose Paleo  points today" the question is "how will I feel tomorrow?"  Every morning that I wake up after a day of clean eating I feel amazing.  Ready to concur the world... If I tried to take a nap, I couldn't because I'm that rested and alert.  The days I wake up after eating non-paleo items... i feel awful.  My stomach isn't right.  I always want to take a nap halfway through the day and succeed very easily in my papazon chair (yes I have one in my cube and it's awesome). 

Bottom line.  I can't be worried about points and the challenge.  This is my life and I want to wake up happy :)

Strengths

Usually when I think of my strengths I'm instantly talking about crossfit.  I can definitely rock a pretty awesome Dead Lift and Kettle bell Swing.  I know what I'm good at and I know what are my weaknesses.  I love getting to crossfit early to stretch, socialize, and work on my "goats."  (Goats are the things that you struggle with the most).  You'll usually find me with a jump rope for double unders, doing handstands, or on the pull up bar swinging.  I think that if I had to make up my own work outs, I would be just focusing on the things I need to improve.  The good news is that crossfit tells you what to do :)  I work on my strengths just as much as I work on my weaknesses.  Without that, I would have never gone from a Dead Lift 1 rep max of 205# in January to a 3 rep max of 285# in December!

So what does this mean...

Stop focusing on just your weaknesses!  This is something that I've finally realized as the end of 2011 came around.  Last year came with lots of ups and downs for me.  Some have been written about on this blog and other things I've found other outlets to work through.  I can honestly say that this is the first year I've ever had the right to say "2011 sucked."  The good news is that I am very proud of myself in 2011 and you won't hear me complaining about it.  Yes, crappy things happened, but I managed to deal with them and grow as a person.  At the same time I was able to accomplish all kinds of great goals at crossfit and with nutrition.  I have learned that I am a strong person both physically and mentally.  I might not have the answers, but I know I can find them. 

The past couple of days I've seen a lot of facebook posts from people who have had a rough or an amazing 2011.  Both types of people are excited about the start of 2012.  The question I have to ask myself is "What is going to make this year so much better?"  If last year was bad, what are they changing to make this year better other than just the calendar number?

A few weeks ago I was given a great book called Strengths Finder 2.0.  I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn a little more about how they operate.  It gives you a code to go online and take a test like a Myers-Briggs type deal, but in the end you are presented with your top 5 strengths.  The results really put into words what I already knew about myself and gave me a starting place to evaluate my life.

My Top Five

Woo - Stands for winning others over.  The description basically says that I like walking into a room of strangers and making connections and friends.  That I see everyone as a potential friend. 
Positivity
Communication
Arranger - Being able to look at a situation and come up with the most efficient plan.  This type of people tend to be good a planning large events.
Includer

Okay... so those of you who know me well are now nodding in agreement that this was pretty accurate.  Basically I'm a people person who likes to be involved with planning events!  The next step I took was to see how my Strengths match up with my actions.

Crossfit - Group training atmosphere with competitions to participate in or cheer on friends.  Crossfit Route 1 has the best community and it matches up perfectly with my Woo and Positivity strengths.
Pampered Chef Consultant - Sales job where I'm constantly in front of strangers and setting up training events for my team.  I get to recognize my consultants for their efforts and be recognized for mine!  Doesn't get any more Woo or Includer than that.
Paleo Nutrition - At the beginning of 2011, I was a part of a 12 week program with other people learning about Paleo with my Mom at MVFC.  I learned a lot and love sharing my knowledge with others that want to know more.  Even have some of my awesome friends give it a try!  So this hit my Communication and Includer strengths... unfortunately none of my strengths are helping me keep to program myself.  I realized I needed help, so I started going to counseling.  I love counseling... I know it carries a negative vibe with it, but seriously... when else in life do you get to spend an hour just talking about yourself with no judgement.  It's amazing!  So now I'm honing back in on my Woo talent to expand my network and learn more about myself and why I'm sabotaging my Paleo efforts.  More to come :)
Engineering Job - Huh... this one doesn't seem to fit the whole working with people strength stuff I have going.  I love working on helicopter engines and working on teams to develop the best product possible.  I made a list of everything I love about my job and then broke the tasks down into why do I like doing them.  Everything has to do with working on teams, or fast pace environment, or collaborating with different groups.  Seeing a theme?  It amazes me how you adapt your situation to what you like the most or are the best at.  I've found lots of other ways to use my strengths as well. I am the engagement lead for my section. Which means I get to plan all the fun events throughout the year to make people feel loved (Positivity/Arranger/Includer). I'm also a part of the GE Women's Network, NU Recruiting team, Fairy Godmother Project, the list could go on (Woo/Communication/Arranger). 

I now feel like I have a great understanding of all parts of my life.  I can give myself credit my strengths and recognize the need to continue to grow them as much as my weaknesses.  As you can see above, you can use your strengths to improve your weaknesses.  This is my 2012 plan.  Find what plays to my strengths to accomplish my goals!  

Life is not a spectator sport.  You get out of it what you put in.

Focus

I realized the other day I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the things I need to stop doing.  After lunch I would think about not eating chocolate... but then I would.  Stopping in the grocery store, I would think about not buying something that would get me off track... but then I would.  I'd plan on not staying up too late... and in a blink of an eye I was going to bed 2 hours later than I wanted to.  These are the things that frustrate me and I couldn't figure out how to stop the trend.  The next day, I would do the exact same thing.  The more I repeated, the more focused I got to NOT do something.
It's amazing when you focus on something it tends to come true.  Whether you meant to do them or not.  I began to think back to January when I was starting my journey out.  Kendra empathized that I should focus on adding certain foods.  Slowly, I focused on making sure to get lots of proteins, healthy fats, and even more of the dreaded veggies.  I would plan out what I was eating for the week and have everything cooked on Sunday for the first half of the week and Wednesday for the second half.  I focused on journaling what and when I was eating and how I was feeling.  With all my focus on the positive changes I was successful!

Somewhere my focus shifted to the negative, but now I'm aware of the change.  I've already laid out of plan to get back on track by focusing on the positive changes.  :)

This past weekend I competed in my very first Crossfit competition.  It was the Northeast Garage Games hosted by Crossfit Southie.  It was a crazy weekend!  There were 6 Crossfit Route 1 athletes competing and I was pumped to be one of them.  The competition was a total of 5 workouts over 2 days.  Saturday's WODs kicked off with Snatchballs, followed by WhiteBulger, and finally Spiderman to wrap up the day.  I was excited for Snatchballs because it consisted of snatches and wall balls at a light weight for me.  I finished in 30th place out of 58! 

Heading into the last workout of the day I was nervous.  It involved 4 rounds of 20 reps of 20" box jumps, 15 pull ups, and 10 push ups.  Eleven months ago, I was barely jumping on a 12" box, couldn't even do 1 pull up with the thickest band, and I definitely couldn't do "real" push ups.  With the support of my family, friends, and CFRT1 family I worked hard for 15 minutes...  Took a major spill in my 4th round of box jumps... just got back up and continued.  Struggled getting my pull ups... I was lucky enough to have Kendra and Coach J there to push me talk me through them efficiently.  It was the hardest 15 minutes I've pushed myself through and it felt amazing... when I finished :)  I hit the 15 minute time cap with just 18 reps left.  I couldn't have asked for anything better!  In less then a year I focused on learning to do pull ups, getting my push ups strong, and building my mental strength for box jumps.  I never wavered on that focus and it paid off! 

Day 2 I knew I just had to complete the GI Joe WOD to finish up my first competition!  I was excited for this workout because it involved running.  The one thing I knew how to do before starting crossfit.  It turns out when you add a 25lb sandbag to running it's not easy!!!  I actually found the running to be harder than the overhead squats, situps, jump roping and then more situps and overhead squats.  I had a lot of fun doing it though and even had a great judge to make it fun :)

After an awesome weekend of seeing the positive results of staying crossfit focused, I'm excited to refocus my nutrition to get the same results!

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!

Ending the Vicious Cycle

For the past 7 years, I've considered myself a distance runner.  I completed 5 marathons, many half marathons, and countless 10K & 5K races.  Constant running lead to different injuries and frustration lead to poor nutrition.  The combination always leads to weight gain.  Every year I recovered and set my eyes on a new race thinking I would lose the weight while training.  Well... I trained and completed new races, but never lost the weight.  With each race completion a new injury would pop up starting the cycle all over again.

Last fall I found myself at my heaviest weight and starting to make excuses why not to work out that day.  IT WAS REALLY HARD!  I started making excuses not to run with my friends.  I just couldn't bring myself to move all that weight.  This plays a big toll on someone who thinks of themselves as an athlete who runs distances.  I did manage to get out and run a few 5Ks, but I wasn't comfortable (or happy) with the run.

October 2010

Fast forward to now.  With the combination of Crossift and the Paleo Lifestyle, I'm doing more than I ever thought I would.  Exploring new exercises, old ones, and definitely more intense combinations of those.  I've finally gotten back out running with my friends, but this weekend was the first real test of "Am I back?"  Sunday morning I completed the Run Gloucester 7 mile race.  Not only did I complete it, but I did it in an under 12 minute pace :)  Last October I struggled to keep a 13 minute pace in the 5K.  My friends were impressed (especially considering I haven't been doing a ton of running).  It felt great to be back on pace! 

August 2011

I have officially turned the tables on the vicious circle.  I know I'll continue to lose weight, gain speed, and feel confident.  Running races is becoming fun again and that's the whole point!

Exciting news!!!

In my last post about goals I mentioned I wanted to do a pull-up using the blue resistance band.  Wanted to give an update on that statement...

Last night a blue band was hanging from the bar, so I figured, why not try and see how I do.  I got my foot laced in and BAM, up I went!  I couldn't believe it.  With the suggestion of Emily... I moved on to the red band which is less resistance.  UP I WENT!!!

I skipped over a whole band of trying!  It's amazing the results you get when you focus on the steps to get there and not the outcome.  I would have never thought I'd be using a red band right now.

New goal.  Work towards the Purple band and build strength to start using the red band during WODs. :)