Nourish Paleo Foods

This post is the final post in a series I have creatively titled, “Things that are awesome” Wednesday.

In this weekly post, I have shared something that struck me as awesome during the past week, such as a great recipe, a cool event, a favorite blog, a special moment or whatever else scores a 10 on the awesome-meter.

Next week, I will  starting a new series of posts with a wider range of topics.  Check back tomorrow for more details — and enjoy this post!

* * *

Next up in CrossFit: Being able to consistently do overhand chest-to-bar pull up. One day, if I keep trying, it may happen.

I am passionate about eating a nutrient rich, paleo-style diet.  I love it so much that I write this blog about it.

But truth be told, I love CrossFit even more.

CrossFit is awesome.  I’ve hesitated to write too much about it in the past because I know there are lots of people who eat paleo who are not interested in CrossFit.  I am also aware that people who love CrossFit talk about it more than any non-Crossfitter wants to listen. CrossFit is not universally beloved.  Spend two minutes on the internet and you can find people saying terrible things about it.  But that has not been my experience. At all.

For me, CrossFit has been awesome.

Imagine a pre-CrossFit Mary Catherine, circa 2008.  She runs a lot and loves it.  Her sturdy legs easily carry her many miles.  But her skinny little arms cannot perform one push up.  A pull up is a fantasy, something only other people can do.

She starts CrossFit.  Pull ups do not come easy to skinny-armed Mary Catherine.  She uses three huge rubber bands to help her spring high enough to get her chin over the pull up bar.  After a year, she says to her husband Matt, “I may just never be able to do a pull up. That’s OK. ”

But she keeps trying, slowly reducing the number of green bands from three to two to one.  She works hard, lifting and jumping and learning and practicing and trying to do pull ups.  She does hundreds and hundreds of pull ups using the green bands.  Then one magical day, March 20, 2009 (yes, I wrote it down), she does a pull up!

She continues to do more CrossFit workouts.  She gets stronger, practices and lifts more.  Eventually, she can do two pull-ups.  Soon after, she learns to do a kipping pull up, which allows her to do pull ups more easily.  She gets a little better, very slowly, until a magic day in 2012 when she achieves another goal that once seemed impossible — 100 kipping pull-ups in a single workout.

I told this story about my experience learning to do a pull up. But I could have told it about lifting a particular weight, climbing a rope, performing a double-under or dozens of other physical challenges in CrossFit.  Time after time, I have accomplished things that seemed impossible at first.

That’s because if you work hard at something in CrossFit, you will eventually make progress.  It probably won’t be as quickly as you want and you may not get as far as you want but you will move in the right direction.  And one day, if you get there, you will know that it was your consistent effort that made it happen.  That’s pretty awesome.

It’s an amazing feeling to keep evolving into stronger version of yourself.  Crossfit helps me do that.

CrossFit not only helps me be a stronger version of myself, but also happier version of myself.  The exercise lifts my mood.  I feel a sense of accomplishment from completing the challenging workouts.

When I am at my gym, I get to spend time with people I admire, people who also work hard and want to get better.  Everyone is quick to smile and quicker to share compliments and encouragement.

CrossFit makes the rest of my life better as well.  I want to take care of myself, eat well and sleep well so I feel good for CrossFit.  The bonus is that therefore I also feel good for the things I do when I’m not at the gym.

If you’ve seen me, you know I’m still a relatively skinny-armed Mary Catherine.  But, thanks to CrossFit,  I’m also a happier, healthier and more inspired Mary Catherine who can do a pull up.  That’s pretty awesome.