Help Sticking With It, and in one case, “Making a better Mama”

Jeez Louize CrossFit is hard work.  There are the days when the moment of my workout is what I am most looking forward to on the day’s to-do list.  I can’t wait for it.  But there are a lot of other days when I get out on the rubber mats and poke around and sigh and wonder if it would be better to take another rest day.  There are even a fair amount of days when I dread doing my workout and the only reason I do it is because I know Dave or Andres or Bryon will ask me how it went. I have a distinct advantage in staying motivated, ummm, I own a CF Affiliate and am here surrounded by all of this every day.  It would be pretty obviously a bad thing if I threw in the towel and gave up on CrossFit.  It also keeps me very accountable for what I eat.  I love chips and salsa like no one else and my kid eats them nearly every day.  How can I sit at the table with chips and salsa in front of me and not eat them?  Because of the work I do every day.  What about all of you?

Many of you are surrounded by people who would love it if you stopped talking about CrossFit and stopped making them feel guilty because you aren’t eating sh** and they are.  Although you would get some phone calls from us if we didn’t see you for a week, it would be pretty easy for you all to stop doing this really really hard work.  You might even have some pretty good reasons (although people who don’t give up have just as challenging a life as you do I would bet money on it).  Off and on I like to wax philosophical, get emotional and remind myself why I do not give up with this sometimes wonderful and often times very hard work.  Here I go:

My number one priority in life is to be the best mother I can be.  I won’t bore you with the details of how that looks for me, but a big part of it is not having to say “no” to something my kids want to do because I don’t have the energy.  When I got divorced, one of my biggest worries was “How will I still take my kids into the wilderness?”  Getting kids active and outdoors requires a wagon load of energy and physical strength and stamina.  I have also had enough wilderness first aid training and witnessed plenty of damn fools out in the back country to know that being responsible for someone’s safety in the wilderness is serious business.  As any of you know who have ever gone on a hike, the person carrying the kid who got tired or the giant pack full of snacks is nearly always the Dad.  Even in urbanized Sabino Canyon, most small kids are accompanied by two parents or maybe only the Dad.  So, when my life, as it was then, fell apart (I am allowing myself a certain amount of dramatic effect here) and I turned into a single mother I had a choice.  What with all the stress and change and financial issues I could’ve given up working out and eating well.  Certainly, a lot of people use these sort of situations to explain why they aren’t taking care of themselves.  Instead I decided that it had to turn into a priority.  I no longer had a Dad in my house to do the baseball playing and the carrying tired kids on hikes, or even to help unload the 5 gallon water bottles late at night.  I didn’t want my kids to wish they had someone more physically capable around.  CrossFit and Paleo became very serious business for me.  I allowed nothing to interfere.  The photos in this post are of a hike I did with my kids, my sister, her man and their daughter a few weeks ago.  We hiked to Arethusa Waterfall-the highest waterfall in New Hampshire’s presidential range.  I let my kids play under the water on the slippery rocks.  I know, if either one of them gets hurt I am capable of dealing with it physically.  When the littlest needed a break on the way home, I carried him.  Being strong -very strong- is non-negotiable for me now.

Carl and I have been talking about what we can do to support some of you who are having trouble sticking with it.  Just as we wanted those of you that had plateaued in your workouts to get special attention (from Dave) we want those of you who are struggling to “stick with it” to get special attention.  In the next week or two I will be contacting those of you who are inconsistent with your workouts and nutrition changes, so you can get some extra support.  Hopefully, you all won’t need the same kind of life change that was required to get me to stick with it!!  You are all so much more sensible than I am.  Let’s get you regular…and Carl says, I should tell you I’m not talking about your digestion!