Sometimes we carry things while we move in crossfit workouts like kettlebells, weight vests, med balls, or bumperplates.  We might do a gym-length shuttle run or a 400m run while carrying something heavy.  We’ve done team workouts where we carry each other or carry a bigger item like the heavy bag. [...]]]>

Sometimes we carry things while we move in crossfit workouts like kettlebells, weight vests, med balls, or bumperplates.  We might do a gym-length shuttle run or a 400m run while carrying something heavy.  We’ve done team workouts where we carry each other or carry a bigger item like the heavy bag.  Sometimes we add weight to our in-place movements like when we do a step-up with a barbell on our shoulders or a weighted pull ups.  Carrying extra weight while moving is the quintessential functional movement that all humans have done since we started moving around.  These weight-carrying movements have initiated several conversations in the gym over the years regarding the impact of losing or gaining body weight.  Most recently, one of our master’s games athletes, Maureen (of the 100lb power clean!!!), mentioned that she has lost about 15lb since beginning crossfit.  This was on the day when we were doing a 3 round, 400m med ball run.  She said she was just thinking of it as what it was like to run 400m before she lost weight.  Summer and Midori and I have talked about the fact that the elusive weighted pullups sometimes are a wash when it is pretty easy to go up and down 5 or 7lbs of body weight in the course of a few months.  One month it is possible to do a 5lb weighted pullup, the next month it isn’t, but if you gained 5lbs then maybe you are really doing the same movement!  Crossfitters are so thoughtful about the effort their bodies are putting out.  I love that we all consider the nature of the work our body is doing.  And a special congratulations to the people who now use plates on a chain, med balls and weight vests to supply extra load to replace the body fat that they used to carry all the time!!

When you live the burden of carrying 60lbs extra of body fat every day, adventures where you voluntarily carry 60lbs in a pack aren’t so appealing.  In that backpack you could have warm socks, delicious drinks, maps of beautiful destinations and tasty snacks .  A lot of times in 60lbs of body fat, comes tiredness and poor health.  For an incredible story of one man’s experience of living day-to-day with obesity and his family’s return to health, read A Life Unburdened by Richard Morris.  Just read it.  He is working on changing the world, one real meal at a time.

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 [...]]]>

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!