Handstand Push-Ups

Oh yeah, that was in our WOD today. (WOD? Workout of the Day) I'm slowly catching onto the lingo at CrossFit but I have to give credit to Google and YouTube for allowing me to look up "CrossFit terms" and check out all of our workouts before I get to class the next day. Maybe I should back up...

Wednesday afternoon I received a text from my trainer at LA Fitness telling me he had just quit his job there. More power to him because he had every right to walk away from a toxic environment but it really worried me because he was the main reason I went up there. We worked out once a week together but I was so pumped for summer to get here so we could do more workouts and I could FINALLY start my road back to being in-shape. I immediately jumped on the computer and ended my membership both to train and to LAF. Call me compulsory but I knew if I didn't do it right then, it would linger on until I decided what to do and I did not want to be charged with fees when I wasn't using the gym.

I posted a status on facebook asking for advice on gyms that wouldn't break the bank. I was completely overwhelmed with the responses. (I have great FB friends!) "Come here, Go there, DON'T go to that place" and they all sounded great. With the purchase of a new car on the horizon, I wanted something close to home to save gas money and was definitely looking for a teacher discount. I am not ashamed of using a good discount! My friend Ashley asked me to go to a CrossFit class with her on Thursday. A little background knowledge - I am terrified of cardio. In high school, I went through a spell of having heart issues and long story short, my heart has a pretty significant murmur and doesn't seem to pump blood fast enough resulting in dizzy spells and shortness of breath. WHEW! Good side - remedy without medication is a salty snack and lots of water! Mmmm...goldfish!

I went back and forth on joining another gym or trying CrossFit. A good friend of mine from school has been going for a while now and she's in great shape. Granted, she's a good bit taller than me and naturally slender, but she just beams "healthy." I texted her and low-and-behold, she went to the same place. So I dug down deep for some courage and said, "here we go!"

I won't lie and say the first day wasn't intimidating. There were true athletes taking on the WOD like it was a warm-up. I thought the warm-up was the entire workout!! We started with an ab warm-up and let's just say I was rolling out of bed instead of sitting up the next morning. That was to be followed by the WOD - 2 mile run and 45 box jumps. (Box jumps - jumping up onto a box, various heights available, and standing in a full extension.) I made it the 1 mile mark, walking, and decided I should go try the box jumps. More like box "steps" for me but I did all 45 of them! I was very disappointed with the fact that I made it one mile and was dying. Mom and I walk 3 miles when we go through the neighborhood but I think I was mentally shutting down at this point so maybe it's a good thing I didn't go much farther.

I really liked the whole "setting" of the facility. Everyone was nice and helpful and just as stressed as I was about LAF being such a pain to cancel. They explained their month-to-month policy (you want to cancel, just say so!) and explained their teacher discount. I was a little shocked at the amount but had been warned that it was expensive. (Thanks Billy&Debbie/Matt!) I told the trainer I would think on it. As Ash and I were walking to the car, I felt the breakdown coming on. I held it together until I was safely seated in Tina and then let it out. It's really tough being in the greatest shape of your life just by doing what you love and what you're good at for 20 years. I never truly understood what changed when I stopped dancing. I still ate the same things, I joined a gym and stayed fairly active, went through a rough relationship that I"m pretty sure added more stress than happiness, but over-all, I never felt the weight being added. I noticed clothes were a little snug here and there, blah, blah, blah...and then one day it hit me! I jumped on the scale and saw 160lbs and said, "whhaaaaat!?" I had never been a scale owner because I had weighed 140 for the last how many years!? It took me a long time to come to terms with 140 but I knew I had a lot of muscle mass from ballet (I would take on anyone in a leg wrestling contest!) but now I was just floored. 160 turned into 165 which turned into 170 and here we are today! I'll never forget eating dinner with our best friends one night and us talking about weight gain/loss. She commented that her brother was down to 170 (he's had a battle with cancer the past year) and not thinking said, "OMG -that's how much I weigh!" I"m pretty sure that's the first time I've ever admitted that! She kind of stared at me and laughed, did her best friend job of "OMG, shut up! No you don't!" and changed the subject. That's what best friends are for! :)

I think spring this year was a huge turning point for me. Teaching middle school can be quite enlightening. They are brutally honest and I would hear them make jokes about other teachers and friends and their weight issues and I would constantly think, "Dang, what do they say about me?" I think I had a favoritism vote from them being young. I was a step higher on the "cool scale" for still being in my 20's but I still worried what they were really thinking. Especially my cheerleaders. I stressed to them big time that they needed to stay in shape and we did some conditioning here and there, but I always wondered if they were thinking, "Who are you to tell us to stay in shape!?" Painting my toes one day, I realized I was out of breath. No, not out of breath...HOLDING my breath. "Really? You're that much bigger that you can't reach your toes to paint them!? Holy geez..." I knew it was time.

But where was the time? If you have children in school or friends who have children in school or know anyone who is a teacher, you will understand that from Spring Break until Summer, life flies about 100 mph and you barely have time to breath, let alone hold your breath to paint your toes! Between CRCT, Cheerleading tryouts, Model UN, Field Day, Honor's Day, End-of-the-year Parties, Final Exam Projects, and a whole list of other things, where in the world am I supposed to find time to exercise? Sure, I probably should have skipped all of those softball games but that was my only time to see the boyfriend since he's working two jobs now. I kept saying, "Just give me until summer! I will have two months to get myself together!" Then, day one of returning to the gym, I get that fateful text from my trainer. Who knows? Maybe this was God's plan all along. I've said before I want to honor the body he gave me by keeping it in the best shape it can be in. Is this my best shape? I don't think so...I think there is much more for me and I want to set a good example for others. I remember being in middle school and having kids joke with me about being so skinny. Hello!? Beanpole was more like it! I remember wanting a cute booty like the other girls. Oh I got a booty all right...just not quite the "cute" I was looking for. This booty came with matching hips and a not-so-flat-anymore tummy! Thank you female hormones! :)

So here I am! 2 days into CrossFit and I love it. Hoping that the next two months will give me good results. This is my goal:

Official Starting weight : 174.2
Goal Weight : 145
Run 2 miles and not be winded/feel like I'm going to die
Complete 3 rounds at CrossFit under 30 minutes
Attempt/Complete the Beast at CrossFit

If you're interested in joining a CrossFit gym, I highly recommend CrossFit Pulse in McDonough. Click the white link to check out their website.