Bally's to Crossfit

In my previous blogs I wrote about not being athletic or playing any sports. I also wrote about my unhappy life and marriage.

In 2011 I lost my mom suddenly of a massive heart attack. I left my spouse of 10 years. My kids and I moved from a 3,000 sq ft house to a 1 bedroom apartment with my dad. Sad to say, that is what finally got me into the gym. My mom was overweight and unhappy for as long as I can remember. The last 3 years of her life it got worse. I didn't want to be like this.

I started "working out" at Bally's. I would take my kids to school go to Bally's for 3 hours and do almost nothing. Their were days I would walk in and say "I don't want to do this" and turn and walk out. Their were days that I would sit on a bike watching tv for half an hour or walk on the treadmill. I would then go and mess around on the machines. Finally I would go sit in the hot tub, steam room and sauna. That completed my "workout". I did lose about 10 pounds in about 5 months.

In September 2011, I told my brother I wanted to train in kickboxing or Muay Thai. He told me I needed to lose weight first and to start crossfit. I had no idea what crossfit was or even where to look for classes.

In October 2011, I drove down 78th Avenue in Thornton and saw a sign that said crossfit, free classes. I emailed them as soon as I got home. After emailing them I searched google and found some youtube videos. The videos I found were intimidating but nothing like what you see now. If all this was to happen now, I would of never attempted crossfit. My first class was on October 10, 2011. I was scared, I didn't know what to think. I didn't know what to wear. I sucked it up and walked in the box (crossfit term for gym.)

The owner was super nice. Another lady showed up right before class started. She was tall, thin and very athletic. I thought "great I can't compete with her." The first thing we did was take a 400m jog. I thought "oh this is easy." Yeah right! I tried my hardest to keep up with the other gal. I was dying when I came in and ready to go home. It took me sometime to catch my breath. Once returning from the run I tried to play it off like that was easy. We stretched a little and I think we may have done some squats as a strength portion. I do not remember! Then it was time for the workout. WHAT! None of that was the actual workout. Oh shit I am going to die.

My first workout was:

5 rounds for time of:

20 Double Unders 5 Handstand Push-ups 10 Knees-to-elbows 15 Weighted Lunges 95 lb

I have no idea what I did for any of this. I obviously couldn't do any of it as RX (term used for doing a workout exactly like its written). Once this was complete we were done. YAY! Finally done. All of that, kick ass workout, was only 1 hour. I did more in that 1 hour then I did in a whole month at Bally's. 

When I got home I had to climb 3 flights or stairs. That wasn't happening. I sat in my car for 30 minutes before I decided to attempt the stairs. 

Life as an Adult

After high school, I continued working with the credit union I was at during high school. I also continued my college classes. I was determined to have my CPA by the time I was 23.

My boyfriend and I were together for 3 years. I was unhappy with myself because I had gained some weight. I started getting attention from another guy. I broke up with my boyfriend and started hanging out with this new guy. Yes, it's very sad and wrong. When you are unhappy with yourself and you get new attention you start to "feel" better. LOL so I thought.

After a year of an off and on relationship we had a daughter in 2004. We weren't together most of my pregnancy. I was stupid and believed the "I'm sorry, I love you."  I lost the weight from my pregnancy. We separated again when our daughter was 6 months. I didn't see or hear from him until we went to court for child support. Again I was stupid and believed the "I'm sorry, I Love You." This went on for 10 years. Within that 10 years we had a son in 2007. Got married and bought a house in 2008, all thanks to my mom (financially). He didn't like to work much.

Through the 10 years of a roller coaster ride of emotional and verbal abuse I lost all my friends. They got tired of hearing I am going to leave him. My family was tired of hearing that stuff to, luckily they stuck around and listened to my cries. Also through this 10 years, I made sure my kids were active. I signed them up for cheerleading and basketball. My daughters cheerleading practice was basically my life. We (daughter and I) would be at the studio for 3-4 hours 4 nights a week. I didn't mind because it kept us away from my "husband". This also meant always eating out. The weight just continues to pack itself on.

In April 2011, I lost my mom (my bestfriend) of a massive heart attack. She lived with us and my son, 3 at the time, is the one who found her. She had been overweight most of her life. I didn't want to leave my kids at such a young age due to being unhealthy. I started going to Bally's. Being unhappy, all it did was help me relieve stress from my relationship. I hardly worked out though, I sat there talking to others for hours just to be away.

After my mom passed away, I decided I didn't want to be unhappy my whole life. I quit my job because I was tired of my husband being allowed to stay home all the time. We both attempted to work for a process serving company. In June 2011 our power got turned off. I knew this was my only way out. The kids and I moved in with my dad and he went to his moms. I would take the kids over there everyday for hours. It was very boring. All they did was smoke and eat. Which resulted in me eating more. In August 2011 I decided I had enough and told him I was done. In October 2011 he chose to stop picking up the kids. In November 2011 I served him with divorce papers.    

FINALLY! I was free. Changing my life starting with health and wealth. He made it very hard to do this. BUT, in February 2012 I was finally free and doing so much better.

Now to the good stuff..........Crossfit.

Where it all began

I am 5' 3", the last number I seen on the scale was 193 pounds. For a few years, the only time I stepped on a scale was when I went to the doctors. I may have weighed more at some point. I needed to get in shape. I needed to be healthy. This determination came from a very hard life lesson in 2011.

First, lets talk about me growing up. When I was a little girl I didn't play sports. I tried a few things but never stuck with it. My brothers always played football or baseball. I tried gymnastics, I completed one 6 week session when I was about 7. My aunt was the president of a baseball little league but I was never interested in baseball or softball.

In middle school I didn't care for gym class. I wanted to be a cheerleader, I didn't have any experience so I didn't try out.

In high school I still didn't like gym. As a freshman you had to take the regular gym class, unless you played sports, then you could take weights. I remember thinking I wanted to sign up for high school gymnastics, cheerleading or swimming. I didn't have any experience and didn't want to make a fool of myself so those thoughts disappeared quickly. I was barely passing gym class and did whatever I could to not participate, which meant walk around the gym the entire class.

I don't remember if it was freshman or sophomore year, finally I decided to sign up for basketball. The only reason I was signing up was because my friends were. I was on the freshman basketball team, that doesn't necessarily mean I was a freshman, again I don't remember. I literally played about 20 minutes the ENTIRE season.

Through the rest of high school I tried track and softball. Track, I never made it to the first meet. Softball I made it through the 1st game, which I sat the bench the whole time. I took weights class for two years. I hardly lifted weights. I refused to run during the warm up. I had every excuse on why I couldn't participate in class. As a female, I had lots of excuses. I again barely passed weights class, I was just glad I didn't have to learn about another sport in gym class.

My senior year, I was going to high school, working and taking college classes. That left little time for eating at home. I ate out all the time, mostly fast food. I slowly started gaining weight. I was average size in high school, I wore a size 7. (Is that average?!) Once this crazy schedule started I was moving my way up to a size 11.

Moral of this part of my blog is I did not play sports and was not athletic at all!