My New Addiction

*Warning* 

This post may come across as very boring and somewhat self-indulgent.  If you know me, you know I am passionate about working out, so I have to share.  Feel free to exit now.  Consider yourself warned.

I have always enjoyed working out.  I remember doing FIRM videos (the old school ones) when I was in high school in our playroom at the end of the hallway, just because I thought it was fun.  I asked for gym memberships for Christmas as a teenager (remember Lifestyles 2000 anyone?)  I have always LOVED group exercise classes.  I enjoyed working out so much that I decided to become a personal trainer during my internship to become a registered dietitian.  I loved working at Spectrum in Valencia making lifelong friends with some of my most favorite clients (you know who you are!).  After moving back to Utah, I found love at LifeTime Fitness.  I loved how nice it was, I loved the group exercise classes, I loved the kids' club, I loved it all!  Even better was that I was hired part-time as their nutrition coach with my other dietitian friend Eliza which meant my membership was free.  Once I became pregnant with London, I quit the job portion and continued to workout there, which I had done faithfully for about 4 years...up until about 3 months ago. 

Enter CrossFit.

I first heard about CrossFit from my uncle Jason about 4 years ago when we moved here.  Jason is an avid marathon runner and cyclist.  He had me help him with nutrition so he could lose a little weight and get a PR at the St. George Marathon.  He started telling me about this crazy workout gym he would go to downtown during his lunch breaks.  He would tell me about how fun, hard, competitive it was. I knew he wasn't kidding when my soft (but totally cool) running uncle started to get some serious muscles and definition.

(Jason with his daughter McCall)

I began to hear more about it from my cousin JoJo and her husband Travis who was in the Coast Guard living in Puerto Rico at the time.  They really got into CrossFit and were doing the workouts in their home just doing the WODs (workout of the day) from www.crossfit.com.  

Then another cousin (Mom is oldest of 8...lots of cousins in this family!) Dallin, Jason's son, started doing CrossFit and was absolutely amazing at it, even entering a few CrossFit competitions and eventually becoming a CrossFit trainer. 

Enter Mike & Sara Terry.

Mike works with my uncle Jason.  Jason referred Mike & Sara to me for nutrition.  I started working with them October 2008.  At the time, Mike was regularly doing CrossFit with my uncle Jason during their lunch break.  Sara was super active, doing P90X, running, etc. but not happy with her weight or her body.  Sara started doing CrossFit with Mike a few months later and her body totally started to change.  (I'd love to take credit, like it was all my nutrition advice, but the reality was...it was mostly CrossFit.)  Over the next few months as Sara reached her goals, our relationship changed from dietitian/client to friends.   Sara invited me to go with her sometime to try out CrossFit Sandy, so I took her up on the offer and got my first real taste of this thing I'd heard so much about.

I got my butt kicked!  It was so hard.  I was huffing and puffing and Sara was loving every minute of the fact that she was beating me (rightfully so).  Sara had become Wonder Woman!  She was so strong and her muscles proved it!  I could tell that CrossFit was something I would really like, but there was no way I was going to drive to Sandy everyday with my kids to workout.  Mike had said from the time I met him that he wanted to open a CrossFit box in South Valley somewhere since there wasn't one.  I told him I would join in a heart beat. 

Over the next year, Sara and I kept in touch and the idea of opening a box in South Valley was sounding more and more like it was going to become a reality.  Both her and Mike became CrossFit trainers and then...

March 2011 CrossFit South Valley opened in Riverton and I was one of the first to join. 

I told Sara that I was likely going to do CrossFit Tu, Th, Sa, and then go to LifeTime on M, W, F.  What I didn't expect was the addiction. 

(Cue Depeche Mode...I Just Can't Get Enough)

I find myself at CrossFit everyday and LOVING it!

So...I can hear you asking...what exactly is CrossFit?  So glad you asked.

(from the main CrossFit website)

CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.

Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.

The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs.

The needs of Olympic athletes and our grandparents differ by degree not kind. Our terrorist hunters, skiers, mountain bike riders and housewives have found their best fitness from the same regimen.

I like to think of myself as a terrorist hunter rather than just a housewife.  :-)  I have being doing CrossFit now faithfully for 3 months and can say that I have seen more change in my body in these 3 months then ever before doing any other workout plan (sorry Firm videos).

This video (although promoting a box in Florida) shows a good explanation what CrossFit is:

As a trainer, I always did your typical 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps for most women, including myself. 

I am now lifting weights heavier than I ever have before and I gotta say, feeling rather tough.

I did assisted pull-ups a la P90X in my basement for months and can now do them unassisted...thanks to a little friendly competitve spirit with my sister-in-law Jenni...also a fellow CrossFitter (who normally kicks my trash).

CrossFit is for all body types, literally.  One of my good friends who I workout with now started CrossFit at a weight in the high 200s and is now stronger and fitter than ever and also kicks my trash.

If you are interested in working harder than you ever have before to get results like you never have before, come try CrossFit.   You can try it for free any Saturday at 7, 8, or 9 am for all my local peeps at the South Valley location.  I'll go with anyone who wants to give it a whirl.  You will love Mike & Sara Terry who are the morning trainers and my cousin Dallin who is the evening trainer.  They may not have granite countertops, but they do get you results!