Yoga Day at the Box

Today was yoga day at our box. I have done yoga in the past and yoga at our box is not like any other yoga I have
ever experienced. There are a lot of guys in our yoga class. Guys that don’t look like they would ever contemplate
doing yoga. They are very big and they do Crossfit a lot. The music at our box is not meditative; they leave the music on from previous classes. This is loud and is meant to get the body moving. There is also a lot of talking in
our yoga class. I thought yoga was supposed to be slow and graceful.

This is Jesse. Jesse wants to be on my blog so he can get famous. I caught Jesse texting on his cell phone during the yoga class today. I told you our class was different.

This is Christian. He was just pathetic today.

Nicky is a very good yoga instructor and she has incredible patience. Eventually things settled down and we were actually doing very good yoga.

See how good everyone is being?

All Crossfit boxes have what I call a “tone” or vibe as you will. When I started Crossfit 4 years ago, I only knew of one box in our area. Now there are many different boxes (most people call them gyms but we don’t) and it is important to find the box that fits you best. Our box is a lot of fun and filled with folks who are encouraging and
inspirational…and funny. You don’t have to be super fit to joint Crossfit- you just need to be willing to get your foot in the door every day and do the best you can. Coaching is important in Crossfit so you don’t do something stupid or hurt yourself. I think our coaches are the best. They are Adam Klink and Ben Smith. Yep, got that right. Ben Smith is my coach. For the uninitiated, Ben took 3rd place at the Crossfit World Games. We have folks (read girls) who like to visit our box and get their pictures taken with Ben. Ben is a very humble guy….he also does yoga!

I Eat Paleo – Except When I Don’t

A couple of years back I did the Lurong Paleo Challenge at my box. We all entered into the coach”s office where we were weighed, measured and photographed in sports bras. Yes, I had my picture taken in a sports bra! In the course of the challenge I lost ten pounds and a couple of inches. I also won the challenge at the box for the person who complied with the rules more strictly than anyone else. I think this has more to do with my competitive nature and my mildly OCD personality! I felt really good about this Paleo thing and my coach felt validated because I had complained that although I do Cross Fit I had not been seeing the results that I wanted to see. Of course I said I was a changed woman and I was in this for life. Not! The holidays came, I ate what I wanted, I gained back weight.
Sigh. I had two kids who got married and I dieted for the weddings so I would look decent for the pictures. I told myself I was a nutritious eater but in reality I am a sugarholic. If there was an organization for this I would be attending, stating my name and boldly proclaiming “Hi, my name is Nancy and I am a sugarholic.” During the day I am a nutritious eater. At night all bets are off and I become someone else. My drug, opps sugar, of choice is ice cream.
I could eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner cheerfully and would be a happy camper. However, even I know that this is bad for you so instead I eat things like dark chocolate covered almonds. Unfortunately, the portion size listed on the bag says 1/4 cup. Now I know dark chocolate is sorta good for you and certainly almonds are good for you so if you put them together they should be — good for you. IF I could stop at 1/4 cup which I can’t. I’m lucky if I can stop at half a bag. Yep. And ice cream. I tell myself to just not bring it in the house. Does that work? Not really. I buy a pint on Friday or Saturday night and eat the whole thing…..the entire pint. My sister told me a pint lasts her a week. Geesh. And don’t get me started on Sweet Frog or Skinny Dip. It’s not in my house but it calls my name as I pass. I can justify it for lunch anyway; it’s yogurt so it’s healthy right? Then we have eating out. I have noticed as we have gotten older that we eat out more. When the kids were little I was at home so I cooked. Now we eat out two or three times a week; even better if we can get there early enough for the senior discount….and of course, we just came off those holidays. We’ve also had a health scare at our house. I come from a very crappy gene pool. My mother died at age 44 of an aneurism and my father died at age 69 after having had several by-pass heart surgeries. My husband lost his second brother within a year on January 1st of this year. Both died of sudden cardiac arrest and were in their fifties. Their father passed away of the same thing at age 47. So there you have it; we both came from crappy gene pools and decided to get some further testing. Our children, family and friends were demanding it. My blood pressure and cholesterol had been creeping up. The cholesterol medication they had put me on was making me sick. And then the testing. We decided on a CT heart calcium scan. Supposedly it gets right down to see if there is any plague in your arteries and is a good indicator of future heart attack risk.
We had good news and not so good news today. Although I have been fighting with my blood pressure and cholesterol the test showed I had minimal plague buildup and a low risk for heart attack. My husband, although blood pressure and cholesterol numbers quite good, showed moderate risk of heart attack and was referred for further testing. I attribute my number to Cross Fit. I am also reading a book entitled Cholesterol Clarity which gives excellent information regarding the difference between fluffy, good cholesterol and tiny, icky artery clogging cholesterol.
I am also reading The Omni Diet by Tana Amen who espouses a 70% plant + 30% protein diet. I have dusted off my book The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf and have accepted his challenge to get back on the Paleo food wagon for 30 days and have my blood work reevaluated. I eat Paleo – Except when I don’t. For the next 30 days I’m eating Paleo.

Why I do Crossfit.

I turned 60 years old this past September so now I’m almost half way through the most difficult year I have ever
experienced. I dreaded turning 60 and, frankly, I am not sure I like it very much. Because I do Cross Fit I often hear, “you don’t look 60” or “I would never know you were 60” but this does not change the fact that I am….
in fact, 60. When I was younger 60 seemed very far away and it was difficult to comprehend. However, it’s now here.
I started Cross Fit 4 years ago because I knew 60 was coming and I wanted to “head it off at the pass” so to speak.
I have lost dear friends who have died and watched other friends struggle with what seems the inevitable signs of aging; diabetes, high blood pressure, dementia, to name a few. Prior to starting Cross Fit, I attended a funeral and watched friends and family in my generation struggle to walk, difficulty getting up from chairs, etc. and knew I needed to do something — and fast! I went home and googled gyms in my area and found a Cross Fit “box.” Little did I know what I was getting myself in for. The first day I walked into the box was extremely intimidating. No ladies in cute workout attire, no circuit weights – not even heat or air conditioning! It was a warehouse set up with tires, weighted balls and metal pipes where we would be doing our pull-ups. And weights. Lots and lots of weights. That fit on bars. That guys with tattoos slapped on and picked up with ease. Did I mention tattoos. Everybody had tattoos even the girls. And they were all very, very young. I had furniture older than all of them and discovered quickly I was the oldest person at the box. I was surrounded by Navy seals, military personnel, firefighters and police officers. To say this was intimidating would be putting it mildly. And so began my Cross Fit odyssey .. and addiction. It has been a lot of sweat and tears but also growth in what I have learned I can do and accomplish.
There is a huge, what I call, learning curve with Cross Fit. Women in my generation were not encouraged to exercise
and the only acceptable exercise at that time was cheerleading or majorette. If you were on the girls field hockey team your sexuality was certainly questioned and well, we’ve grown in this area the past 40 years thank heaven!
Unfortunately, when women in my generation come into the box they are so thrown off by what they are being asked to do they end up quitting because it is so far outside their paradigm. My advice to them is to give it a year, yes a year, because that is how long it took me to get comfortable with the lingo, the lifts and the tone of the gym.
It is very hard to be this age and watch younger, stronger kids come into the gym and in three to six months bypass what has taken me four hard years to accomplish. Oh, but what I can do!! I can do box jumps and am very grateful for the master’s women 60+ 14 inch box for the open! I can do an unassisted pull up but prefer my tiny skinny band. I can do double unders, can deadlift 185, swing a 36 lb kettle bell and can do hand release pushups with the best of them.
My goal is always to see the rear ends of the kids working out in front of me! And squats…I can do squats. And my rowing has gotten way better and I can run a 9:37 mile (on a good day anyway). I can’t remember the last time I didn’t finish a WOD (work out of the day). I may be last but it gets done. And I’ve got muscles! Real muscles. No old lady bat wings for me. I always look forward to summer when I can show off the “guns.” I do Cross Fit because it’s fun (I say it’s like getting to go outside and play with your friends) and it works. I have changed gyms in the past year and I am still the oldest person who works out there. One of my coaches, Adam, says he won’t sign anyone up who’s older than me because I truly love my old person status at the box. If you come to my box and I haven’t seen you before. I will probably put out my hand and say “hi I’m Nancy” quickly followed by “my only claim to fame here is I am the oldest person to work out at the gym.” If you have gray hair I will sneakily sidle up to you and say. as casually as I can, “hmmmm, so how old are you?” Love it when the answer is …… anything younger than me!
Have a great day!