Changes for my year- 2012

http://games-beta.crossfit.com/article/sakamoto-prepares-2012

This article inspires me in such a way that makes me believe I could one day get there. Maybe not placing at the crossfit games, but maybe making it to the games.

I know I have done considerably well in the short amount of time I have been training as a crossfitter-4 months now, but I've got a lonnnnng ways to go to reach my potential.

The biggest obstacle is going to be one that I've struggled with all of my life... Food.

My diet has been a disaster for years. Growing up I lived off of sandwiches, chips and juice. I was fortuanate in that those were some of the most unhealthy choices my parents provided. I wasn't often pleasured with candy, pop, white bread or sweetened cereals. Even so, the addiction to different forms of shelf-life food has been real and undeniably difficult to remove from my diet.

Over my teen years, I became consumed with limiting calories. The type of calories didn't matter in my mind, I was only concerned with one thing; getting thin to look good in a leotard. This method only lasted for so long before it swung sharply in the other direction.

I was injured in the sport of gymnastics, a shattered bone in my foot and a permanent wrist injury. Not only did my calorie consumption sky-rocket but so did my weight. I put on 30lbs in 3 months. Yikes!! After that, cravings would follow me through the next 2 years. I managed to lose about 10lbs upon my initial return to gymnastics.

Re-injurying my wrist would send me on an up and down an awful road to continued weight struggle. I had left during this time for college and decided to return home to re-start my journey back to the gymnastics world. At this point, I became a vegetaria. At first I wanted to simply try it out, but one month of the endeavor and I was hooked. Another 10lbs were lost gradually over the following year. However, the wrist injury persisted and getting back to top form seemed impossible. 9 months after my return, I would make the decision to retire.10lbs were put back on over the next couple of months after leaving the sport.

3 months afterward I would become invigorated by the sport of cycling. Likewise, I fell in love with someone whose eating habits quickly changed my own. I lost the 10lbs again.

Shortly thereafter I returned to school, only to find myself severely depressed, exhausted constantly and living on pastries and sugary coffee. My weight fluctuated up and down between the 10lbs before I finally chose to return home.

That was when I found crossfit. Not only was it the first thing to replace gymnastics, but it also changed my eating habits. Very slowly I began re-introducing white meat into my diet. But the severe exhaustion continued to nag at my body. I felt like I just couldn't reach my fullest potential in crossfit. It got increasingly worse, some days I literally would nearly fall asleep behind the wheel. I finally got allergy tested and found I was severly allergic to gluten. I took immediate action entirely removing gluten, rice and potatoes out of my diet, along with my sugary coffee, nearly all dairy products and still no red meat. I increased my white meat consumption, seeing that that was one of the few food products I could eat. Within that week, my energy not only sky rocketed but my work outs became considerably easier, I lost a few more lbs and my body chiseled down quickly. The only drawbacks were the cravings and hunger I still felt.

After a week, I re-introduced corn products, as well as some rice, as replacements for bread, pasta and potato products. And then...the holidays came...

Nonetheless, it's been nearly 2 months since the initial detox and I am down 10lbs, I fluctuate between 2 and 5lbs heavier than my original weight prior to my injuries. My energy level is still elevated and my workouts are still pretty consistent. I have yet to reach my potential and I know the only way I will get there is following the crossfit diet.

As soon as I get there, I truly believe there will be nothing to stop me.

Now I just have to find the motivation...

Crossfit Level 1 Certified Trainer (soon-2-b...)

It has been 2 months worth of studying and training. I finally got to experience my first level 1 crossfit certification opportunity over this past weekend. I am so excited to finally have removed myself from the gymnastics world and instead explore another field where I am invigorated about life and can train, as well as coach.

I was really worried I wouldn't make it over the pass with the snowstorm we experienced, beginning Wednesday and going all the way into Friday.

Nonetheless, I headed out into the detrimental weather and arrived in Portland, Oregon around 6pm Friday night.

It was my first experience of staying at a hotel by myself and let me tell you, it was the most wonderful experience possible!

I was fortuanate to have a buddy who lives in Portland, and even more exciting is that he was living only about 20 blocks away from my hotel!

He took me exploring around town before finally stopping for dinner at a quaint but nice place that I cannot recall the name of-had the word elephant in the title...Haha! It was unique in the assortment of food choices and it was delicious after so many hours of driving. I seemingly fell in love with Portland that night. It was so much bigger than home; so many people, so much good food, so much more liberal... I went back to my hotel early that night, to get some sleep before the next day's 8 hour Xfit clinic.

8 am came quickly.

I was lucky to have been so close to the location of the crossfit gym.

It was a very long day, filled with sitting in a classroom type atmosphere, learning how to train the basics of the sport and even getting to do a WOD at the end of the day. Yes, we had to do a real WOD at the end, oh dear I psyched myself up as soon as I got news that we would be doing Fran...

It was incredible to watch how quickly the instructors pulled out barbells and weights. It took only 5 minutes before the whole gym was laid out in equiptment and then we began.

I didn't go until heat 3.

It was an awful 5.55min that I experienced.

21, 15, 9
Thrusters (55lbs)
Pull ups

Without a warm up, I was extremely cold beginning the WOD. I think this is what caused my heart rate to jump so quickly, possibly also from the adrenaline that came with being in a competition setting.

Cheryl Brost, currently the 7th place finisher in the crossfit games, was in my heat as well.
http://www.cherylbrost.com/home
She definitely proved that she belongs in the top 10 fittest women on the planet. She had the fastest time of both the women and men. Her time was 3.03min.

In comparison to mine, our times can't even compare! In Fran, a few seconds difference is a lot-mere minutes is an unfathomable jump. It's like doing 50 meters freestyle at 35 seconds, while Dara Torres time, for instance, is 10 seconds faster. It seems like that is not a huge jump but in a sprint style event, that is a MASSIVE DIFFERENCE!

I went back to my hotel that night and quickly headed out for a meal and also for some extra studying to prepare for the next day's test. I stopped at a little Mexican restaurant that Chris had pointed out the day before and got the most incredible chicken fajitas! After the little amount of food I had taken in that day + the cold walk in the rain + the WOD= The food was the most amazing tasting chicken fajitas I EVER EATEN!

I found myself in bed that night by 8pm.
Needless to say, I was exhausted.
The planned adventures that night with Chris were cancelled due to both our exhaustion kicking in at such an early time.
I awoke that morning quite refreshed and headed out for day 2 of the clinic.
It seemed much longer this time around, possibly because I wanted so desperately to get the test over with and head over the roads back home before it got late.

Day 2 was similar to Day 1, in that there were lectures, a wod and hands on coaching for basics. Finally, around 4pm, we settled down for the test.

Immediately after I headed home in scary weather conditions.

Now I just have to wait for results before I can be called a "level 1 crossfit trainer," but it was honestly an incredible weekend and I would go back in a heartbeat to Portland and to the Crossfit gym-Called X Factor.