Once Upon a Time
For some time I have wanted to share with everyone my experiences in training with Aimee and CrossFit in general. A lot of you reading this have been with me since the beginning and may have noticed my personal changes first hand but I wanted to reach out to all of the newer members and show them what they can accomplish with some hard work. I have attached four really embarrassing pictures that were taken up to one year before I attempted my first CrossFit class. At my peak, I was an impressive 252 pounds and an even more massive 38.9% body fat. I remember these numbers very distinctly because in my mind, I tried to convince myself that they were average for someone my height (5 8 ). It was not until one of our members (Dave Z) made photography his career and started taking tons of pictures did I realize just how far I had declined and just how many chins I had developed. I became disgusted to look at myself in pictures and if possible, I tried to avoid the lens. For those of you getting to know Dave, you will soon learn how impossible that is. Before getting into everything, I think a small history lesson is appropriate as some of you may be able to relate to parts of it. Being overweight is something that just sneaks up on you. When I graduated high school, I weighed 165 pounds. I was always extremely active since I was training for soccer or volleyball year round. I was able to eat whatever I wanted and keep the weight off. When I went off to college, I decided to try out, as a walk on, for the D1 soccer team. Long story short, I didn t make the cut and with that, my physical activity plummeted to next to nothing. Eventually my horrific eating habits caught up to me and I managed to put on 30 pounds in one year. I had heard of the freshman 15 but 30 seemed a bit ridiculous, but none of that mattered because I had a girlfriend and she loved me for who I was, right? Throughout my 4 years I steadily fell into a comfort zone and the pounds just kept adding up. After college I decided to go to graduate school and the stress of the program combined with the stress of a 7-year relationship coming to an end pushed me to new heights. It really was a never-ending cycle I was stressed and sad so I ate and drank heavily and as the weight poured on, I became sadder, thus eating and drinking more. Luckily I still had a morsel of resolve. I had a number in my head and I vowed that if I ever weighed more than that, I would change. That number was 250 pounds. It was the first time I would reach that weight. I was lucky in the fact that I had a good support system (sound familiar?) my roommate at the time was one of my best friends and he said that he would like to improve his health since his mother and father were extremely obese and he did not want to end up like them. We did what everyone too embarrassed to go to the gym does buy a BowFlex. To their credit, I used their machine like it was the only thing that would keep me alive and I ate exactly what they told me to eat. In the first year, we both saw extreme improvements in our physical condition and I managed to drop 30 pounds. How much of that was just a result of eating healthier I will never know. My muscles were getting bigger but I still had very little endurance. Just when things were starting to pick up and people were starting to comment that they could tell I was losing weight, the unimaginable happened, my best friend was tragically taken away from us as a result of a genetic heart disorder. Not only had I lost my best friend, I lost the only person that was pushing me to improve myself. As you may imagine, working out after that was just not
the same because I was not pushing myself against someone else, so I took the easy way out I stopped working out and my BowFlex became a coat rack for many years to come. Not surprisingly, the weight immediately came back on as my exercise and diet quickly deteriorated. This was the second time I hit the 250 plateau and it brings us to 2007. I knew I needed to do something so I tried to stop eating fast food and I focused on Lean Cuisines because they have to be good for you, right? I am sad to admit that there were times when I had fast food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Miraculously, thanks to Lance Armstrong, I developed a love for biking and I rode around town and I enjoyed going to my complex s gym to ride the stationary. Again, as a result of doing something and eating less, I managed to drop 20 pounds and that is when I met Aimee. On our first date, I weighed in at around 230 pounds, which is roughly how much I weighed in our engagement pictures that you have seen and how much I weighed on my first CrossFit class in June of 2008. As embarrassing as it is, please note how much of a belly I have in the one engagement picture. My gut is actually hanging over my belt. How attractive! Enter CrossFit. My first class was Chelsea. For those of you that may not know, Chelsea is 5,10,15 (Pull-ups, Push-ups, Squats) on the minute for 30 minutes. Your score is how many minutes you can go completing each of the exercises and then how many rounds you finish in the remaining time. My score was 2/3. So I was able to complete the reps for the first two minutes and in the remaining 28 minutes, I only completed 3 rounds. That was where I was at in my physical state. When I came home, I could not raise my hands to touch my face. Some people may be thinking well at least it was Rx, well you would be extremely mistaken. When I first started CrossFit, I could not even do one pullup with the black band. The score that you see was achieved by performing jumping pull-ups, no-where near chest to deck push-ups, and some of the ugliest squats you have ever seen in your life. I only wish we had some of my earlier workouts on video for everyone to see. After a few workouts, I managed to move to the black band where I continued to struggle for many months. However, I watched Aimee practicing her kipping pull-ups and I was determined to learn as she learned. I not only studied how Aimee was teaching herself but I watched the videos on the main-site endlessly until I felt I was ready. On a weekend afternoon, I went to the FAC and practiced pull-ups until my hands bled and then I practiced some more. I was determined not to leave until I was able to do one. After a long and difficult day, I was able to do my first kipping pull-up and at that point in time, I did not even feel the tears in my hands. You do one and you only want to do more. They are initially addictive. Over the following months, I continued to CrossFit using the 3 on, 1 off technique and the results became evident. In the chart below, I have listed some of the benchmark girls and my improvements since I have been working with Aimee. As a scientist, I am pretty sure that the data is irrefutable.
Fran 7/30/08 9/15/08 11/3/08 12/6/08 7/?/09 8/6/09 8:43 21:35 9:39 8:30 5:40 6:06 Black/65# Rx Rx Nancy 7/22/08 9/24/08 3/23/09 6/1/09 23:55 20:15 17:56 17:26 30# 65# Rx Rx Grace 1/7/09 4/8/09 7/5/09 7:57 4:45 4:25 Helen 10/23/08 1/30/09 7/18/09 18:30 15:17 12:40 Karen 8/11/08 12/8/08 6/17/09 16:54 10:05 7:24 Chelsea 1st Workout Last Workout 2/3 6/12 The great thing about this and the main reason that I wanted to share with the group is that if I can do this, anyone can. I am fortunate enough to be married to Aimee so when she cooks, I get the benefit of eating healthy. Am I perfectly zoned, no but am I zonish at dinner, yes. Unfortunately, I love beer and I still eat cereal every morning (NOT Zonish) but that is something that I hope to change. I am also very human, meaning that I have urges to drink soda and eat Swedish Fish and at times I satisfy those urges. The great part is that every once in awhile, if you are CrossFitting, it is okay if you fall off the wagon, just make sure you pick yourself up and get back on. Words cannot possibly begin to describe how happy I am that Aimee walked into my life. Unselfishly and unknowingly, she easily added years to my life. Now I am on a path that I get to share with each and every one of you and again, unknowingly, many of you push me to achieve new heights. Thank you very, very much. Today, I weigh in at 197 pounds and my body fat on Saturday was 24.1%. I still have a LONG way to go but to date, I have lost over 30 pounds and I have decreased my body fat by 14%. I am also down 4 pants sizes and 5 belt loops. This weekend, I purchased a pair of shorts with a 34 waist for the first time in a decade. As we approach our second no sugar challenge, I am going to attempt to zone (weigh and measure) for the entire month. I am sure in doing so, I will see my performance skyrocket and I hope you will do the same while seeing the same results.
A work in progress