CrossFit: "Kelly" Five rounds of 400 m run, 30-box jumps, 30-wall ball shots.
Warm-up: JA's, 800 run, 20 knee to chest jumps, 20-bar thrusters.
Level-2 & 3: M20, W16, 24"
Level-1: M16, W10, 18"
Moms2B and injured: 500 row, 10lbs, 20-18" step ups each leg.
CrossFit Kids:
Leap Frogs: 12lbs, 24".
Tree Frogs: 20 reps of 4-6lbs, 18", 200 runs.
Tadpoles: Three rounds, 20-soccer ball reps, 12", stairs.
Strength: 5 x 5 shoulder press
Endurance: 3000 meter row
Pre-BUD/S: 0900 – yesterdays wod, 10 rds of 15 pull-ups, 20 sit-ups. 1600 – WOD, Endurance, 10 rds of 1-rope climb and 30 leg levers.
Hi Dan and Leilani, this month I celebrated my CFBV 6-month anniversary…I took some time to step back and take a look at how I was doing relative to my original goals….
I came to you last fall with some restless middle-aged bones, having recently hit that 40-year milestone, and with a singular goal of improving my overall fitness and health. You’ve clearly exceeded those goals. Thank You. Not only have I found improved health, but also a tremendous community and a whole lot of good-hearted fun.
Below you’ll see a chart showing my body weight and fat decreases over the past six months. I figured the weight would drop off eventually…indeed it took awhile since evidently I was building muscle mass along the way. It’s hard to recognize gradual changes in one’s own body. And while I knew I was a bit (ok, a lot) de-conditioned, I didn’t think a 40-year old, 130+ pound squat frame could make this type of leap in six months time. For reasons unknown I tracked this stuff from the beginning with a journal you provided, every few weeks I have taken measurements, and I am still surprised that I have now lost 10 inches combined around my mid-section (waist, hips, chest), along with a modest 10 pound weight lost. But the 10 inches turn out to be a loss of almost 25% of my body fat based on the calculations.
What the numbers don’t tell is the change in the shape of my body, like there are newfound muscles in my legs and arms, and I’ve actually gotten bigger here, I can really feel it in the fit of my clothing. It reminds me a teensy weensy bit of Mr. Incredible who tightens up his mid-section while etching out muscles in his shoulders, legs, and arms (ok, well at least in my dreams), and except that I am the Misses. Truthfully, I really had no idea my 40-year old body could go through this type of transformation in such little time, I thought it just happened in Hollywood mags with botox and airbrushing and artificial stunts like that. This was sheer CrossFit sweat equity.
Here’s another thing. Asthma has been a growing pest in my life over the past ten years. This winter was the first in many where I have required no medication to manage it. I find it remarkable. Additionally, I have had very few seasonal bugs – no more than two brief colds over this winter, and nothing compared to the past five years. Pinching myself.
OK, so you probably already guessed which pieces of CrossFit drove these results. Eventually worked all of them, most of the time. I came to you three days a week initially, and six days a week with multiple wods per day leading up to the Sectionals. In January, I embraced a 12-block Zone diet, plus a few additional rations of healthy fats. My Zone portions were of earthly meals – wild fish or roaming animals, hearty nuts and seeds, fresh veggies and fruits, minimal refined carbs, and no sugars or spirits. I felt sufficiently full most of the time. It appears the workouts combined with the diet delivered exponential returns, and that turning point can be seen in the sharp slide below. No rocketry here… just a solid bout of focus, prioritization, and sweat equity.
Additional components included a workout journal, food log, daily fish oil supplement, and getting adequate rest (8 hours sleep nightly and 1-2 days per week rest). It wasn’t really until January that I was able to ignite all the levers simultaneously (and frankly it would have overwhelmed me to have done so back in September), but the results show that the efforts combined seemed to deliver more than the sum of their parts. And by the way, I did say “most of the time”: While certainly dedicated, I avoided being too oppressive about all this… and cheated a tiny bit when the situation was warranted.
I hope to prove myself wrong when I say this, but I suspect the most significant progress may be behind me. And yet I am super optimistic about life ahead, how the past lifestyle changes will be accrued well into the future, and am certain that continued focus will deliver ongoing health and joy, including keeping up with my kids, enjoying windsurfing and skiing, and feeling very much alive and well with your daily CrossFit challenges.
Thank you again –
Kym
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