Grace P. - Doing Her Nutrition and Gymnastics Homework
The hardest part of eating well is the WEEKENDS- in the past I didn't plan well on weekends. And when I don’t have food prepared I choose poorly. During the latest nutrition challenge my weekend just like any other day. I realized quickly my mindset about weekends being hard was defeating me more than it actually being hard. Now I plan and start my day properly and had appropriate snacks just like I would during the week.
This challenge I went in with a better relationship with food and a better attitude. Having worked with coach Mat and learning about macros really opened my eyes to many things about how I was eating or NOT eating. Food is not my enemy and I can eat it and a lot if I make the right choices.
I did not start it by saying "I can’t go 30 days clean”. I took it one day at a time, and I did not self-sabotage by saying I deserve a reward, I finally realized it’s not a reward at all. I deserve to feel good and be healthy- that’s my reward.
In so many ways, the most noticeable and most surprising to me was how fast I recovered from workouts when I eat well. My strength workouts where getting better and do I dare say I think I was even moving faster. My Sunday am runs improved, I recently shaved 5 min off my 3 mile run from six months ago. I PR’d on my pull ups.
CFCL coaches talk a lot about goals, I chose to focus my CrossFit goals around gymnastics movements. Starting with pull ups, I got my first pretty quickly but the others did not come as quickly. Also, I did not realize that other movements would improve as a result of my "homework"- a better push up, toes to bar, power clean. I was seeing and feeling those improvements which motivated me to keep going.
It was NOT overnight but they would happen. Working with Coach Dan taught me that if I want the one more pull up or that faster run I have make the effort and it may not be easy all the time, but when you get better it’s so worth it.
Since there is no more "I can’t" (50 burpee penalty for me when I say it), when 16.1 announced chest to bar, I was not sure what to do. I knew my homework had included movements that helped chest to bar but I had not ever really tried to do one. I was not afraid to fail, I knew if I didn’t get it I would just scale down and keep moving. So I tried, one turned into many and each time I thought it was the last. I just kept trying and before you knew it I had done more than I ever would have thought.