November 2013

There are a precious few doors in Life, that when you walk through, positively and unimaginatively change everything. 

 

When I walked through the “Garage” door in March I was looking to get stronger and improve my cardio. I had already lost 70 pounds after 8 Kidney Stones, 2 Heart malfunctions( it didn’t like beating consistently),  and the 3cm Tumor on my Thyroid was removed in May of 2011. My life had returned to somewhat “normal”. I was ONLY on 6 prescriptions now, was back into Martial Arts, Hiking, and Skiing, but wanted to return to the levels that I had enjoyed in my “younger” years. I had driven by BCF several times and finally decided to give it a shot.

 

Mike and Bryan greeted me enthusiastically as I strolled my fat, weak ass body, through the door. I knew the moment I saw what was going on in the “Box”(reminded me of Gold’s in the 70’s) that the “shit” that everyone was doing, was going to work for me. WTF is CrossFit I asked myself after having committed to one year for Mike et al to get me back into the body I had in my 20’s.

 

The “Deep Dive” had begun. I had no clue as to all of the “extreme” claims being leveled against the sport by those who don’t know the first thing about what we do, and never felt intimidated by anything we were asked to do. The emphasis has always been on form and correctness of movement. It took me a couple of months to completely accept the philosophy, the work ethic, the pain, and come in every day as prescribed. I knew that the only effective way to recover from years of sickness and inactivity was to approach it incrementally. “I may not be able to do that today, but I may be able to by the end of the week” was/is my outlook. Can’t is a word that disappeared from my lips. Elephants can be eaten. I’m living proof!

 

What I immediately found out is that the PEOPLE of CrossFit make this possible. Open, friendly, accepting, encouraging, inspiring, tough, strong, fit, FUN people.  I am awestruck by the women in our Box. You ladies rock it and our culture says you shouldn’t do such extreme sports activities!! You’re changing yourselves and our culture for the better. Age and Sex don’t matter. Nor should they. 

 

The biggest inspiration that I have around here is a gentleman named Mark, who comes in in the  afternoons to work with Rich R., so that he can fully recover from an injury/disease that kills or leaves most people paralyzed. He never utters a bitch about anything. Just tries to improve his life every day now that he has another shot.  Thank you for your example Mark. 

 

Ah ha moments are coming with time in the Box. I think the biggest one for me is to always take what you’re given in a WOD.  This sport is tough enough without my “I’ve got to Rx” ego getting in the way.  Another Aha- Progressions work fantastically if you practice religiously and on occasion try to Rx to gauge where you are. Then on that “day” your mind correctly instructs your body to put everything together and suddenly you have a new skill to add to the toolbox. 

 

Without a doubt, the single most influential 2 hours I have spent at the Box were listening to Marcus present the Science/Anthropology regarding Nutrition and Hydration. I weighed in at 198 that am six weeks ago, down 91 from the peak, and have lost another 16 pound Kettlebell since going Clean! More importantly, my body fat, as measured monthly by Bioimpedance, is now below 9%.

 

Today, Levothyroxine is the ONLY pharmaceutical that enters my body. Unfortunately I can’t actually survive without it. My problem, not anyone else’s. 

 

My Goal:  The same as many old farts- qualify for the Games in the 50-54 category in 2014. I need that vacation to Southern Cal badly!

 

A short term goal: linking 10 DUs would be awesome. Perhaps next week?

 

Best Regards,

 

Craig Whitelock