You've Gotta Start Somewhere....

I have decided to try out for the CrossFit Games in 2009!

There is a qualifier in Seattle in May. Then off to the Games in California in August. I want to share my road to the competition. I started CrossFitting in august of this year and it has proved to be a great decision in my life. I had been working out hard for a year and a half before I started Crossfit.

On April 21st I was a very strong but chunky 215 lbs and 18% body fat. My workout style was slow like a power lifter and my diet was, "eat as much as possible".

I was not happy with my results. I was tired of being 18% bodyf at. I made a plan to change up my workouts and stop drinking (for a while at least). I started working out more like a bodybuilder. I was doing sets of 15 instead of 6 and I limited my rest between sets to one minute. I also changed my diet a little bit. I started eating 6 times a day, a lot of protein and smaller portions. I still couldn't bring myself to do cardio but I was noticing a little progress by 7-28-08.

I was now down to about 200 lbs. My body fat was still about 16%. Amazing what not drinking a few pitchers of Kokanee Gold on Monday nights during bowling will do to a guy :)

This is the week that I found CrossFit. I had never heard of it before. Dan Staton and Kenton Clairmont are the owners of the Spokane Valley CrossFit Affiliate. I saw Dan in the gym one day and he said, come check out what we do. I ditched my bench routine and followed his lead.

One of their motto's is, "Our warm-up is your workout". After a grueling 15 minute "warm-up", we started the WOD (workout of the day), dumbbell thrusters and sumo deadlift to highpulls (SDHP). This simple workout took me 18 minutes and it was the hardest thing I had done since conditioning in high school sports. I fell to the floor for 15 minutes afterwards trying to hold back the puke. Call me a crazy person, but I was instantly hooked!

I have been Crossfitting 2 - 5 days a week ever since. I started to notice results instantly, well at least as soon as the extreme muscle soreness wore off! Dan and Kenton teach us to eat the Zone Diet and when I started the plan, my progress took leaps and bounds!

I am feeling better than ever! As of 11/27/08 I am now 178 lbs and 11.5% body fat. I have been able to keep my muscle and drop the fat.

My Goal is the keep losing fat and gaining muscle. I am going to update the blog as much as I can with my meals, workouts, and progress to help keep me accountable.