Thursday 4 April 2013

Moderately Obsessed: Gym Edition



I have always been an advocate of healthy living. Fruit and veggies are a big part of my diet, water is still my favorite drink (even beats champagne, believe it or not), and I was never one of those people who had gym memberships purely for the medical aid benefits. My membership cards were swiped regularly because I actually went to the gym. Regularly.

I am currently doing ballet, I went through phases where I did a lot of yoga, sometimes I went to fun jumpity, kick boxy kinds of classes and I certainly know my way around the Elliptical.

But all things in moderation (except shoes and things that sparkle) (and fluffy stuff)

Even though I have been active and busy trying to stay healthy, I wouldn’t say I have ever been extremely fit. The idea of running marathons exhausts me and makes me feel like a cup of tea and a lie down. A nice climb up a mountain is something I will only do at my OWN pace thank you very much, and only if I can do it while stopping to smell the fynboss along the way. And anything that involves bikes? Oh HELL no.


But then I was introduced to something new by a friend. CROSSFIT. It’s gym, but on a whole new level! Said friend was pregnant at the time, and she still looked more amazing than me or most of my female friends. Her husband is a crossfitter too, and he looks more amazing than most of my male friends. So I took a good long look at them, and at this thing they call Crossfit, and realized, I want me a piece of that.

My current state of exercise was just not enough. I wanted to up my game, take it to the next level, and look more amazing than I have ever looked! I wanted to feel strong, not just healthy. Fit, not just skinny. And also, my baby making time is coming soon…I am going to need to be strong and healthy and ready for it! I can't be waking up late feeling all sluggish from that mid-week second glass of wine, putting off the morning walk on the promenade for an extra half hour in bed. I can’t be trying to get rid of a pizza bulge round my middle when I have bigger fish to fry: The dreaded baby weight. No, it was time for me to take it up a notch and get serious.

After all, if I don’t work on that six-pack now, when will I ever get there?

And so I joined Crossfit. WHAT a rush! The training is hard but so much fun. I didn’t expect to love it so much – after all, it still involves hard sweat – but something about the structure of it all, the people, the way we all work together and help encourage each other makes me enjoy the work outs immensely and actually look forward to going to gym. I would say I feel somewhat obsessed about it! I even jumped on board with their whole eating plan regime and now am fully converted to eating a ZONE based diet. (well, 80% zone at any rate)

Now don't get me wrong. All things in moderation. I have started off slowly, with 2 to 3 workouts a week. I'm more newbee than ninja, and so need to scale a lot of my work outs, meaning I do my push-ups from my knee's and my version of a 'toes-to-bar' is a 'knees-to-chest'. But to be able to do a hand-stand push-up one day? Yea, that would be pretty awesome. Plus, I got to go shopping for a new pair of shoes, 'specially designed for Crossfit :)


This week, 2 months into Crossfitting, I hit my first real achievement. It's called a PB (personal best) and I did my first PB of a weight noteworthy enough to get included on the board with all the other names. Up till now my weights have been too low. But yesterday, even though my PB was the lowest one scored on the board, it was still the highest I personally have ever scored! Hence PB :) I did a 42.6kg back squat - which is more than double my last attempt! (last time I only got to 19kgs) This on top of doing 96 lunges, 60 V-ups, skipping, and a bunch of other stuff. So I feel pretty good about myself right now, and pretty on track to getting that proverbial six-pack before baby!

I do, however, also feel pretty stiff and sore, and have not been able to walk normally all day ;)

Love, lust and fairy-star-dust
Cherry Blossom

*pictures taken from the Cape Crossfit Facebook page

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