When we made the decision on January 1st, 2010 to "get healthy", we never imagined what a long and windy road that journey would be. For those first two years, it meant eating lots of whole grains, fruit, some veggies, counting calories and trying to "be good". It also meant that we started working out - a combination of running on a treadmill, and doing Wii Fit workouts. Honestly, none of that was really all that enjoyable. Its hard to huff and puff on a treadmill for an hour (gotta burn those calories!) when you don't have great lung capacity, and while the Wii was great for a while, eventually you burn out because your doing the same thing over and over again. Boooring. The food wasn't ideal either - we definitely weren't eating enough veggies, and still relied heavily on sugar filled foods. Even though we didn't think so at the time. Did you know that a slice of bread will raise your blood sugar more than a snickers bar? Yeah...we didn't either. But, its all a progression, and as we continued to learn and research more about the ideal human diet, and the dangers of processed, sugar filled, grain laden foods....we slowly made different choices. Eventually leading us to adopt the Paleo diet, and I know with 100% certainty that we will eat this way for the rest of our lives. At least Matthew and I will, and I really hope that the kids do too!
So we figured out what we think is the best way to fuel our body, but one thing we hadn't given much thought to was the best way to MOVE our bodies. Endless cardio? All those moves I see recommended in women's magazines, with little 5 pound weights? Continue doing the same thing over and over on the Wii? We realized that none of that was what we, or our bodies really wanted. And once again, my friend Angie inspired us to go in a totally new direction. Crossfit. Heard of it? Angie had started going in August of last year, and between that and eating Paleo, she was dropping weight and adding muscle, and more importantly, she said she felt amazing! But I had heard some scary things about Crossfit - how incredibly hard it was, how it would push you to your limits and then ask you to do more, WODS (workout of the day) that would last for an hour, people who got injured doing it...the list went on and on. Plus, it is incredibly expensive - usually between $150-175 for just one months dues. Per person. Ouch. We are a single income family, so as much as I wanted to try it out, I just couldn't justify it.
But then, as I am prone to do, I started researching. Looking into the effects on the body of chronic cardio, and why people generally really struggle with losing weight, even when they are counting calories and running for miles each day. Could it possibly be because we as human beings aren't MEANT to run for miles each day? Think about it - going back to the times of cavemen, when would it make sense for them to have run all out for hours each day? Short sprints to hunt down that Mammoth? Yes? Running miles across the savannah for the fun of it? Um. Probably not. Did they sit around lifting small rocks over and over to build muscle, or did they lift enormously heavy things when they needed to, letting the muscles build themselves? You see where I am going with this! Most, if not all, of the traditional ideas for today's exercise are completely against what our bodies are meant to do. Sprint hard for short distances, lift our body weight and much heavier weights for short amounts of time, and spend the rest of the time recovering. And eating meat and fat. But I will save that topic for another post!
The more I researched, the more I realized that a Crossfit style workout is how I think our bodies are meant to be moved. I decided that we may not think we have the money for it, but that we would just have to find the money for it - because it is that important to me. But because I have some health issues (namely trying to recover from adrenal fatigue) I had to be careful about what Crossfit gym I joined. Some have taken the idea of Crossfit to an extreme, and have these insane WODS with metcons (the amount of time that you physically go as hard as you can) that last over 45 minutes or more. That is NOT good for your body! Its much more effective to go hard for shorter periods of time, and then let your body rest and recover. I also wanted to find a place that was as into Paleo as we are, because nutrition and health and working out are all interconnected. So armed with information on what I was looking for, I called around and interviewed the 5 gyms that are in our area. And I found the right one! It's a bit of a drive (20 minutes) and I actually pass by two other Crossfit gyms on the way, but after talking to the owner, I know this one is going to be the very best fit. They have shorter metcons, really focus on form (Crossfit includes a lot of Olympic Weightlifting moves, and they are extremely technical so you need a great coach to help you learn) and they are huge advocates of Paleo - the owner follows it and so do a lot of the members.
Usually you have to go through an OnRamps class - a 6 class program that teaches you all the basic moves. But since we are going out of town in a couple weeks, I wasn't going to be able to join the next class series. So I decided to do private training with the owner instead, and cram in my 6 classes individually with her over the course of a week and a half. I had my first one today, and oh my gosh. This is going to be even harder than I ever imagined it would be. But strangely enough, after I walked out that door today, I was already looking forward to returning. Change is coming, I can feel it. I think I am about ready to test every limit that I have ever places on myself...and smash each one of them to pieces. I am ready for this. And I can't wait to get started.
What is Crossfit? THIS is Crossfit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzD9BkXGJ1M&feature=player_embedded
So we figured out what we think is the best way to fuel our body, but one thing we hadn't given much thought to was the best way to MOVE our bodies. Endless cardio? All those moves I see recommended in women's magazines, with little 5 pound weights? Continue doing the same thing over and over on the Wii? We realized that none of that was what we, or our bodies really wanted. And once again, my friend Angie inspired us to go in a totally new direction. Crossfit. Heard of it? Angie had started going in August of last year, and between that and eating Paleo, she was dropping weight and adding muscle, and more importantly, she said she felt amazing! But I had heard some scary things about Crossfit - how incredibly hard it was, how it would push you to your limits and then ask you to do more, WODS (workout of the day) that would last for an hour, people who got injured doing it...the list went on and on. Plus, it is incredibly expensive - usually between $150-175 for just one months dues. Per person. Ouch. We are a single income family, so as much as I wanted to try it out, I just couldn't justify it.
But then, as I am prone to do, I started researching. Looking into the effects on the body of chronic cardio, and why people generally really struggle with losing weight, even when they are counting calories and running for miles each day. Could it possibly be because we as human beings aren't MEANT to run for miles each day? Think about it - going back to the times of cavemen, when would it make sense for them to have run all out for hours each day? Short sprints to hunt down that Mammoth? Yes? Running miles across the savannah for the fun of it? Um. Probably not. Did they sit around lifting small rocks over and over to build muscle, or did they lift enormously heavy things when they needed to, letting the muscles build themselves? You see where I am going with this! Most, if not all, of the traditional ideas for today's exercise are completely against what our bodies are meant to do. Sprint hard for short distances, lift our body weight and much heavier weights for short amounts of time, and spend the rest of the time recovering. And eating meat and fat. But I will save that topic for another post!
The more I researched, the more I realized that a Crossfit style workout is how I think our bodies are meant to be moved. I decided that we may not think we have the money for it, but that we would just have to find the money for it - because it is that important to me. But because I have some health issues (namely trying to recover from adrenal fatigue) I had to be careful about what Crossfit gym I joined. Some have taken the idea of Crossfit to an extreme, and have these insane WODS with metcons (the amount of time that you physically go as hard as you can) that last over 45 minutes or more. That is NOT good for your body! Its much more effective to go hard for shorter periods of time, and then let your body rest and recover. I also wanted to find a place that was as into Paleo as we are, because nutrition and health and working out are all interconnected. So armed with information on what I was looking for, I called around and interviewed the 5 gyms that are in our area. And I found the right one! It's a bit of a drive (20 minutes) and I actually pass by two other Crossfit gyms on the way, but after talking to the owner, I know this one is going to be the very best fit. They have shorter metcons, really focus on form (Crossfit includes a lot of Olympic Weightlifting moves, and they are extremely technical so you need a great coach to help you learn) and they are huge advocates of Paleo - the owner follows it and so do a lot of the members.
Usually you have to go through an OnRamps class - a 6 class program that teaches you all the basic moves. But since we are going out of town in a couple weeks, I wasn't going to be able to join the next class series. So I decided to do private training with the owner instead, and cram in my 6 classes individually with her over the course of a week and a half. I had my first one today, and oh my gosh. This is going to be even harder than I ever imagined it would be. But strangely enough, after I walked out that door today, I was already looking forward to returning. Change is coming, I can feel it. I think I am about ready to test every limit that I have ever places on myself...and smash each one of them to pieces. I am ready for this. And I can't wait to get started.
What is Crossfit? THIS is Crossfit: