The Perception of Inspiration

You are FAR more inspiring than you have ever perceived. I promise.  Let me explain…

I had the incredible privilege of going to the CrossFit Games this past summer, in Carson California.  To experience the CrossFit Games the way I did, as an employee, was truly an amazing experience that I am still on cloud 9 about.  Watching these athletes compete was incredible.  To see a human body reach the state they are at, and competing at such an intense level was… almost inhuman.  Their bodies had muscles I never even knew existed, they were moving weights I didn’t know a person could move, and they continued to compete all weekend through more fatigue then I have ever seen.  This was such an incredible thing to see with my own two eyes.  I give so much credit to these athletes and the commitment they give to get them where they are.  It takes immeasurable discipline with the food they eat, it takes huge expenses for supplements, gear and equipment, it takes a never failing mindset, and multiple training sessions, up to 8 hours a day of training to reach this level.  Admirable?  Yes. Realistic for all? No.

Many of us are in school full time, work a full time job, have families to care for, or expenses that have to go elsewhere.

When I packed up to go to the Games, I remember talking to my mom on the phone and saying “I feel like when I come back, all I am going to want to do is train train train”.  I was expecting to witness these athletes and return wanting to train so much, to get me to that level. I was a little taken off guard when I got back and my mind set was changed but in a completely different way. I got back and wanted to train (as always), but it wasn’t the Games that inspired me.

When I was there was when I realized, I didn’t need to see the highest level of CrossFit athletes in the world compete to get inspired.  All I have to do is simply walk into my CrossFit box everyday.  

THIS is where I am inspired.

Most people, when asked what the best part of CrossFit is, will respond “The people” or “The community”.  I could not agree more. 

When it comes to the aspect of the people or community, responses will vary person to person but mine is the inspiration they provide. 

Now, I am not taking anything away from the athletes training 8 hours a day to get to the CrossFit Games level.  This takes a special kind of person, and there is a reason you’re there and most are not. Rather, I am putting emphasis on what I find to be truly inspiring, which is what I see each day…

The parent at the CrossFit gym that just dropped their kids off at school and has an hour to spare before the next thing they need to do… filling the hour with fitness.

The injured athlete that can’t go past parallel in a squat but is still in the gym doing upper body work.

The people trying to lose weight and instead of starving themselves, are looking to improve their overall well being and become stronger.

The coach, that puts in significant time and energy to make the classes the best they can be, but also has to go home and provide dinner for the family.

The student athlete that’s putting all they have into practice but still has to go back and study for an exam after.

The person who HATES running, but is still at the gym doing the work out because… character.

The person whose running miles upon miles to fulfill a life goal of running a marathon whether they finish first or last.

These are the people that drive me each day. The people that hardly have time in their day but fill that small bit of time with fitness or the people who can’t afford supplements but will still work to choose healthy options to take care of their body.   

I walk into my CrossFit gym and take a good look around at everyone there.  Good day, bad day – busy day, slow day – able or rehabilitating – old or young, yet everyone is taking a part of their day to spend working on their health and wellness. 

I witness this on a daily bases.  Each day I walk into CrossFit 8035 in Des Moines, the members inspire me.  Each day I coach my fitness class at school, the students inspire me.  Each day I am in my apartment and one room mate is at rowing practice while the other is on a run, I am inspired. 

It is apparent each and everyday, but we never really consider that perhaps…

WE ARE THE INSPIRATION.

We are the ones that inspire others to get started on a healthy track, we are the ones that encourage people to go outside their comfort zones, we are the ones that keep them coming back. 

You may be looking up to the elite athletes, but there’s someone looking up to you.

We'll hate what we lost, but love what we found

Life is a series of gains and losses.  No, I am not necessarily talking about strength “gainz” as all my CrossFit friends know of. I am talking about the gains and losses that we go through that make up our journey.  The gains and losses that shape us, give us a story, and create what we now know of as the present. 

No matter who we are, we have all gone through these.  We have lost friends we thought we never would.  Whether it be through distance, situations, or death.  But we’ve gained.  We’ve gained relationships, family, soul mates, and appreciation for moments that go by too soon.  We’ve lost time that seems to slip through our fingers, just when we think we have enough, but we’ve gained a new outlook and a new vision for how we want to spend our time going forward.  We’ve lost innocence.  The thought that “there are no bad people in the world”, or “bad things won’t happen to good people”, but we’ve gained a new perception of the world that drives us to ask questions and seek answers. 

All of this seemed to come to my mind and surface, when I returned from San Diego.  On a whim, I signed myself up for a competition the weekend after I returned.  I figured, why the hell not? I’ll take this competition, put no pressure on myself, and see what I still have to determine what I will work on.  I completely surprised myself.  However, at the end of the competition on the drive home it wasn’t the ranking I held, the things I used to do that I couldn’t do that day, or even the exhaustion that I thought about.  Rather, I found myself reflecting over my series of gains and losses. 

Anxious before I left for San Diego, I mentally tried to prepare myself knowing that things may not be the same when I got there or even when I returned.  I wouldn’t have friends like I do here, I wouldn’t have the same independence I do here, I wouldn’t have as much space or room that I do here, I wouldn’t have the same strength (literal barbell strength) that I worked so hard to gain the months prior, and some of my ideas, perceptions, and outlooks may change.  And when I got there, and this all hit me as reality it was time to adjust and get comfy.  Yes, I lost things this summer.  Some were more difficult to cope with than others but on that drive home from the competition I couldn’t help but think…

Wow, what I found is pretty incredible.

Often, when we lose something I find that people reflect on what they lost, what is no longer with them, and what they once had, but not enough credit is given to the things we find!

Not enough pride is shown for being where we are because of that loss. 

I used to think that as I lost something, I was losing a part of me.  However, what was really happening was I was finding something that was creating the greatest version of myself. 

When I left for college my freshmen year, I went through a bit of a rough transition.  A transition of panic because of leaving home, having to meet friends, and basically having to press the restart button.  I panicked for months with this impression that when I left home, I left everything that made me who I was.  Coaches weren’t going to remember me or what I did, people at my local Starbucks weren’t going to remember my favorite drink, and people at my CrossFit box were going to forget how much I loved it.  Let me clarify… this was all a big ol’ illusion. What I thought was the end of many things, was just the beginning of so much more.

I started at Drake University and in my past 3 and a half years here, have had opportunities I truly do not believe I would have had anywhere else.  I found that here, I have been able to pursue my passions, be challenged, and take on experiences I never even knew were possible. 

I thought as though I was losing my community back home when I left for Drake, when, little did I know, three years later I can look around and see I was just finding another one. I realized that these things I had found began to shape me.  They challenged me to reach my greater potential. I realized each time I lost something; it brought on a different experience that would teach me something new and develop me into the person who I am today… of which I wouldn’t trade for the world.

It seemed as though just when I thought I was lost, and losing it all… I was truly found. The things I have found are more myself than ever and I often think it would not be that way had I not lost things along the way.

Through my experience in San Diego, going away to school, and so many other experiences, I reflected on just a few of the things I have found.

I have lost fear, and found confidence.

I have lost some CrossFit abilities, but I’ve found a deeper drive to improve.

I have lost my little box I live in, and found wings that are ready for opportunities.

I have lost friends, but found soul mates. 

I have lost anxiety, but found an unstoppable desire to chase my dreams.

Growth and change isn’t easy.  And a loss is always tough.  Just as our joints have pains when going through growth, these so called “growing pains”… so do our minds and the non-materialistic parts of our lives. But it is at these points when we need to stop, reflect, and be thankful for those losses…

They are creating who you are & You are awesome.

Cut Yourself A Break & A Little Piece Of Cake

To often many of us look at food as a negative.  We see it as something that changes our body in a way that stops us from putting on the bikini, from wearing trunks with no shirt, and overall from expressing ourselves through clothing.  It’s the thing that makes us overweight and that takes us from a size 6 to an 8. It’s the thing that we immediately turn too when we aren’t getting the physical look we want and don’t look like those models we see in the magazines. 

Just like you can look at the glass as half full or half empty… you can look at the donut as 400 calories or half the calories because there’s a hole in it.  I choose, half the calories (:

All of us have different goals.  Some of us track our food because were prepping for a show.  Some of us have dietary restrictions.  Some of us weigh our food because were looking to hit new numbers in the gym… This is all awesome.  You know what you have to do.  Keep at it.  I’m rooting for you!

However, there are many of us that work a full time job that maybe doesn’t require manual labor, we may have families that need time and care or simply we may have hobbies that don’t demand us to be in the gym everyday. I find most often that THESE are the people that beat themselves up because their body doesn’t look the way society says it should.  We have that extra little pouch on our stomach; our legs have fat that moves when we walk, we have the beer belly that would easily disappear had we not had a social life.  It's these people that I am challenging right now.  I’m not going to tell you to workout 5 days a week, or to cut back on eating a certain food. Here is my challenge for you….  It’s a challenge of changing your mindset.  Changing the way we see the food we put in our bodies.  Changing our expectations (or our finish line per say) of our bodies looking like people who train hours a day or people who model for a career, to being happy with bodies suitable for a lifestyle we live and love. 

ENJOY IT. 

When you drink the beer – taste it.

When you have a home cooked meal – savor it. 

When you have a cookie, a donut or a brownie – INDULGE.

This isn’t me saying eat all the amazing food in the world and forget about health, because I will be the first to say I am (in general) a very healthy eater.  However, this is me saying… cut yourself a break.  Stop beating yourself up for enjoying something that has more calories than water.  For having more fat on our bodies than we did before this thing called life came and changed a few things on us.  It’s okay to splurge here and there.  To have a balance but get excited over your food. 

Of course we can all lose a pound here and there and it’s a journey that I highly respect and look up too, however, it doesn’t have to be a miserable process.  If this one goal of losing a few pounds or looking a certain way is stopping you from enjoying and appreciating one of life’s greatest things… food… then we need to sort some things out. 

Some of my friends joke and say I am a “fat kid at heart”… and although I almost break my retinas rolling my eyes, I think I’m proud of it.

I’m proud I haven’t let this world beat me up to thinking I can’t enjoy what I eat.  I’m glad I can fully savor a meal, and feel like a 12 year old demolishing a donut on occasion.  I love being able to sit by a fire during the summer with a s’more in one hand and a drink in the other without feeling guilty.  

For being able to cut myself a break, and on occasion, a piece of cake.

There are so many things in this world that can make us feel guilty… why do we let food be one of them?

Do I want a 6 pack? Yes.  And I know good and well what I would have to do to get it.

But the way I see it… I got a little extra layer of life. 

            It’s an extra layer of thanksgiving dinner around the table with my family

            An extra layer of bonfires with s’mores and drinks with friends

            An extra layer of being home with my mom baking in the kitchen

We are aware of what we need to do to get results.  It clear – you want to lose weight, we have to change our eating and workouts.  We want a six-pack, we need to be strict in tracking our food and diligent in our training. And if you chose you want a certain result – COMMIT.  GO FOR IT. I will be your biggest supporter. However, some of us are perfectly happy with what we do, how we eat, and what we look like but then the world makes us second-guess it … DON’T. Stop right there.  Quit looking at that model in the magazine. Quit listening to that commercial about losing 20 pounds in a month.

Food is here to nourish us.  To keep us alive.  To bring us together.  To be a positive aspect in our lives. TO BE ENJOYED.  Food is fuel. So I think it is about time we stop giving it a bad wrap and cut ourselves a break.

In short, my challenge to you is this - when you eat:

Learn to love it. Get excited about it. Make yummy noises. Let people see how much you enjoy it – whether it is a carrot or a piece of cake. 

And if nothing else… Don’t be the person at the table that’s talking about how many calories your eating while others are enjoying it.  Leave the people who know how to enjoy their food- to enjoy it.

It’s rare to find – and those people are my favorite. 

As my best friend Gabrielle would say…

 “Who needs washboard abs when you’re surrounded by people you love, good blueberry pie, and the outdoors?”

This post made me hungry... time to go get some ice cream!

Get out of the gym.

Recently, a good friend of mine and I were talking and the conversation of being “in shape” got brought up.  Within the conversation I made the blunt and honest statement of saying “No, I am not in as good of shape as I have been in the past, but I truly believe I am healthier than I have ever been“.  This may sound contradicting but the more I thought about it, the more I have become confident in my statement.

Perhaps some of us walk into a gym, dreading it, but thinking that what were doing is healthy, because working out our body is the healthiest, right?!

How about our minds?  How often do we think about exercising our brain as much as we exercise our bodies?  Or even better yet, how often do we take the time to let our minds relax in a state where it is truly at ease.  I would bet you it is not all to often.  We are so busy running to work, making sure we have food for ourselves/our families, taking care of the pets, going to class and all the other daily stresses and then we proceed to drag ourselves into the gym because it just seems like the right thing to do.

It seems as though we lost the real idea of what being healthy is all about.

It’s about our bodies, our minds, and our overall well being all being in sync.    

Ya see, reaching a state of being healthy isn’t about how many times you’ve went to the gym this week, how many miles you ran, or how many pounds you’ve lifted… sure, it is part of it. However, to me the real question of whether or not you’re at a state of being healthy is “Do you enjoy what you do?”.  THIS is the key. 

ENJOYING IT.

So maybe it’s not the gym that thrills you or gives you a sense of satisfaction, but perhaps maybe it’s rock climbing. Or maybe running miles upon miles isn’t your forte but hey, there’s rollerblading or even hiking!  There are so many endless possibilities to stay fit and active and going to the gym is only… ONE. 

After spending my summer in California I got a little lost in the great outdoors of Glacier National Park in Montana.  The time I spent in Montana left me with no CrossFit box, no weights, and certainly no equipment.  But what I did have was my imagination, a pair of shoes, and an amazing landscape that I was ready to take full advantage of.  Like I often say, life happens… and sometimes as much as we think our bodies need a workout or exercise, our minds need it even more.  In Montana, I went for jogs around the campsite.  I brought a towel to the beach and did sit-ups and pushups on it.  I went for long hikes. And some times I just sat, enjoyed a Moscow Mule by the fire and gave my body and mind a little time to relax. 

California also gave me similar situations.  I had limited time at a CrossFit box, which was a big change compared to Iowa, however it gave me time to explore other options.  Sure, I wasn’t lifting everyday or making big PR’s at the gym, but I would go for jogs to learn about the area I lived in, long walks to the beach, I would find stairs to climb to prep me for the hikes in Montana, and sometimes took a jump in the ocean to tread water.  Did this put me in the best shape of my life?  No. But did it make me healthier? Yes. 

These other things I would do; walks to the beach, swims, stairs, hiking… they gave me an outlet to be on my own however, it also gave me the ability to strengthen my relationships by doing them with others. 

I hiked to the Hollywood sign with my sister, which led to a deep heart to heart that inspired me to start this blog. 

I got out in the water and learned to surf, which helped me face my fears and give something new a try.

I went for jogs in Montana, which allowed me to see the landscape and appreciate NOT being in that high of elevation all the time (the breathing was a struggle)

I went for hikes with my family, which gave us all something to remember and helped me add a few things to my bucket list. 

And the funny part was… none of these took place at a gym, but still encouraged a healthy lifestyle. 

In high school and my early years of college, I was a bit of a fanatic.  I would work out three times a day, all of which was in the gym.  And on top of that, I would pass up going out with friends or eating a certain food because in my mind, it was going to ruin the body I always wished for.  I had this impression that I was healthy and that what I was doing was making me healthier.

I was wrong.

I would beat myself up for eating sweets, or simply missing one of my three workouts.  I would stay in on a Friday night in college because I was nervous that it would affect my workouts, or once again the body I always wanted. Coaches, parents, friends, and so many other people tried to tell me to chill out but I was so sucked in there was so escaping. 

I’m not entirely sure when the switch was flipped or when the transition took place but now that I am out of the fog, it is incredibly clear to see how much healthier I am.  The gym may not be the first place I report every morning, but my health is the first thing I think of without a doubt.

I have found hobbies that bring me closer to friends.  I have gained a deeper appreciation for the world and all it has to offer.  I have learned to cut myself a break and not be so hard on myself for not having the most perfect body in the world.  And I have found sources of joy and fulfillment within everyday of my life – outside of the gym and away from the barbell. 

GET OUT OF THE GYM.

If you don’t like it… LEAVE

If it is more of a burden to your day… FIND YOUR JOY.

If it’s just not your gig… LET’S FIND YOURS.

There are so many things we stress about day-to-day, fitness and health should not be one of them. Find what you love, and let it be your source of fitness. 

I have found the healthiest version of myself.  A version of myself that allows my body to be challenged and tested, while my mind is able to explore all the curiosity it has ever had.  Sure, some of it takes place in a gym - but most does not. 

I promise you, there is more to fitness and health than a gym, and I challenge you to find the healthiest version of you, both body and mind. 

No, I am not in the best shape I have been in, but I am the healthiest I have ever been.

The world is here to be explored.  Go get it!