Embrace YOU!

I think we could all learn some valuable life lessons from children.

This morning I was telling the story of when my son was 5 years old and wanted to be "brown".
When he was in kindergarten he had a little girl friend named Desire (pronounced Dez-er-ray). She was a precious little black girl and he talked about her all the time.
One day he came home and informed me that when he grew up he was going to have brown skin.
When I asked him why, he explained that he was going marry Desire so he needed to have brown skin like she did.
As sweet as I thought this was, I explained to him that he didn't need to change who he was to marry anybody and that it was important to just be himself.
He thought about this very hard for a moment and then proclaimed that he was going to have brown skin and have orange hair.
"Why?", I asked.
He answered very simply, "Because I like the color orange."

Fast forward 9 years. His skin is not brown and his hair is not orange, but he is a 14-year old that has embraced being an individual. He is that kid in band that has the long hair when no one else does. When all the kids were wearing skinny jeans, it seemed he was the one kid who refused. He didn't care what everyone else was wearing. (smart kid) When all his friends were playing baseball, he chose soccer.
He doesn't follow "the crowd" and aside from that day when he was 5, he has never wished he was anyone other than who he is. The kid is pretty self confident.

I have found that as adults we still struggle with this very thing. Self-Confidence.
I have met so many people in my adult life who are not happy with who they are, wishing they could have what someone else has,  or do what someone else does.
I know I have been guilty of this in the past, thinking "if I could do "x" like this person, I would be sooo much happier!"
This is not healthy. Mentally it can be debilitating.

As CrossFitters, most of us at one point or another have looked over at that person next to us who has just crushed their WOD, secretly wishing they would drop a plate on their foot. We yell and congratulate them on their PR, giving them high fives while secretly thinking, "Damn It! How did they just beat me?"

It's okay to admit it. I mean, maybe you had a bad day and are just in a terrible mood. This doesn't make you a bad person, it makes you human. When it becomes a regular thing though, when you are constantly comparing yourself to someone else, that is the time to step back and take a breath and reevaluate.

If your thoughts are constantly on what other people are doing, you are no longer working on yourself. It makes it a bit more difficult to become better if you are focused and preoccupied with what everyone else is doing. What this WILL DO is cause you to get frustrated, disappointed and frankly will just suck the fun right out of your day!

As some of you know, one of my favorite CrossFit athletes is Cheryl Brost, initially because she is my age and watching her compete in the CrossFit Games gave me the confidence that I was not too old for CrossFit. Cheryl is a phenomenal athlete and I think it would be incredible to be as strong and fast as she is one day.
Coach Mike Burgener is another amazing person that inspires me and I can only hope to be as great of a coach as he is one day.
Will I ever be just like Cheryl Brost or Mike Burgener?
Nope! It's impossible for the simple reason that I am not Cheryl Brost or Mike Burgener. I am me. Do I want to get better? YES, and they inspire me to push myself harder, set new goals, continue to learn and better myself.

God made us all very different for a reason. We all have different goals, skills, talent, gifts, dreams...and faults. If we were all made the same, this world would be a very boring, uncolorful place.

So, the next time you get your butt kicked in a WOD by that person, EMBRACE it!
Be INSPIRED by it!
What you may not realize is that YOU were the one that inspired them first.

Be Beautiful Today

Why are we, as females, so hard on ourselves?
 I know you have heard that phrase, “We are our own worst critic” but seriously, we can be absolutely hateful!
We will say things about ourselves that we would NEVER say to anyone else.
Why?
Where does that come from?
Just recently during one of the classes I was coaching, I was watching one of my athletes do dead lifts in a WOD. It became obvious immediately that the load she was using was way too light. After class, I worked with her to help her get a true 1 rep max on her dead lift. At first, I could tell that she was hoping I would just let it go so she could just slip out the door.
What she told me was something I had heard many times before but on this occasion it was also enlightening and something that I have been thinking about for days.
She said she did not want to lift heavy because she did not want to get bulky.
Looking at this sweet, gorgeous, quiet woman, my first response was automatic and reflexive.
“You will not get bulky doing CrossFit.”
“Women are only bulky if they TRY to be.”
“They have to do “X” kind of things to get bulky!”
I gave her the answers I am always prepared to say when I hear this.
But then I LISTENED to what she was saying. I mean, really listened. Why in the world did she feel this way? This woman is not someone I would ever say could be bulky and yet, she absolutely believed she could. Why?
Then she said, “I've always been told I could easily get bulky.”
“I’ve always been told…”
Words are powerful and I knew then that this wasn't just a conversation to brush off and give the one, two, three answers.
Insecurities are real and sometimes they are very hard to overcome.
I am terribly guilty of my own constant self criticism. I have gotten better and better at keeping them to myself, but they are there and they are real.
Just the other day I was called out by a good friend of mine. He even scolded me for not being able to take a compliment. 
I suck at it. It’s true.
This seems to be an issue with almost every woman I know to some degree. Even the top athletes in CrossFit suffer insecurities. I read a blog the other day about a CrossFit Games athlete with her own anxiety about how her legs looked in short-shorts. It was a great post, and I assure you, her legs are gorgeous, but in her mind they are something to be hidden.  Why?
WORDS.
I promise you, sometimes I would prefer the sticks and stones.
My own insecurities go all the way back to elementary school. I moved around a lot as kid and by the time I was in 5^th grade, I had already attended seven different schools. Making friends was hard. I was terribly shy and being the new kid was something I was made fun of for.
In the 4^th grade, I was made fun of the way I dressed.
In the 5^th and 6^th grade I was teased that I was too white, too tan or just because I wasn't black. I couldn't win that one.
In middle and high school I was teased by everyone for everything, even my best of friends.
I was too dumb.
I was too blond.
I was too skinny.
My boobs were too small.
I was too tall.
My hair was too curly, ect.
Was I a depressed, sad and lonely kid?
No, not at all! I have some great memories from high school and lasting friendships. I wasn't miserable at all and I don’t want you to think that this is about bullying. I took most of it in stride and just accepted that I was “that girl. I just began to embrace it.

In my adult life, it still continues. This was who I am and this is how life goes. As a result, I have grown some pretty thick skin, but those insecurities are there. They are real, no matter how I try to ignore them.

What I am saying is that years of being told that you are not “this”, or that you should change “that”, or that you are not good enough for “this”, WILL have a lasting effect on someone.
CrossFit has done more for my self confidence and my self-esteem than I can put into words, but even now I have a hard time with compliments.
There are still things I struggle with. I have blogged before that someone close to me has always talked about how I need to get rid of my lower belly.
 If there is something I have issues with, it’s my tummy.
Don’t get me wrong, if I am working out in our box in 100 degrees, I am the first one to dump my shirt, but it’s because I can’t stand things sticking to me, not for an ab show, that’s for sure!
 Most of the time, right after the WOD, I will drape a towel over me in a way that no one can see my tummy well until I cool down enough to put my shirt back on.
 I recently went through over 3000 pictures from a competition my box hosted and found myself not posting ones of me because all I could see was my belly. All I could see were the flaws and think “I’m a CrossFitter! I shouldn’t have a belly!”

I promise you, I DO NOT do this with anyone else! I will post photos of ladies from my gym and they will ask me, “Why did you post that? I look “insert reject word here””
I always, honestly respond, “All I see is a strong and beautiful woman!”
It’s true. At my gym, I do not see old people or overweight people or skinny people. I only see amazing, beautiful people that I love to spend my day with!

So the moral of this blog is this.
I need to learn to cut myself a break.
I need to be nicer to myself.
We all need to do this because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what you look like on the outside, it’s the beautiful person on the inside that people love.

Be beautiful today.

Metamorphosis

My husband pointed out to me that I always begin my posts with an apology for not posting. So, I won’t apologize, but I will explain why I have not blogged in so long.  I have been blessed with a growing CrossFit box, training new athletes and new job as Head Writer for the CrossFit South East Region. It’s amazing how much your life can change in such a short period of time!

When I first began this blog, almost 2 years ago, I was a fairly new CrossFitter with stars in my eyes and big dreams about making it to the CrossFit Games one day. I had my plans on how I was going to get there. I was going to do 2-a-days, add strength and Oly work to my training, clean up my diet, run more, ect., ect..
This was a great plan and I began competing in local competitions. (I LOVE competing!)

But  it didn't take long for me to realize that 2-a-days are not very realistic for me. Adding extra training, time-wise, is very hard for me to do. I am a mom of 3 very busy boys and a wife to an amazing guy that travels a lot. I also currently have 3 jobs, coaching, freelance graphic designer and writing. This is not to say that I gave up on my dream or that I am making excuses for myself because what happened was a wonderful thing.

 I found that my goal changed and that my dream has become even BIGGER.

What could be bigger than making it to the Games?

Changing someone’s life.

My goal did not change overnight, though. It was really more of a metamorphosis. I guess you could say I evolved …this is a good thing. I have been coaching CrossFit for over 3 years and yes, I have gotten stronger and faster.  I would hope so, it’s been over 3 years! I look back at my old blogs and my old WOD scores and I see how far I have come.  I will never be satisfied with my strength and speed. I will ALWAYS want to be stronger and faster, but during this journey of mine I have discovered something that I want even more than my desire to be stronger and faster and that is to watch that new person who walks in our doors reach their goals. To help them get that very first pull-up, that very first box jump, lose that “x” amount of weight or even compete in their very first competition brings me a joy I can not even articulate. 

My goal is to be the very best coach I can be. I want to help people dig down and find that strong person that is inside of them. I know it is there and want to help them find it!

Seven months ago, I took a big leap of faith with my very dear friends and opened a CrossFit box, CrossFit Alabaster. When we opened the doors, we had 20 members and I was so excited! Today, we have over 100 members and every single one is important to me.

My goal shifted. It morphed into something much, much bigger. I still want to be my best, but not for the Games, for my athletes and I want to help my athletes do their best! I think I get more excited when they PR than they do! If you saw the dancing I do when they PR, you would agree. Honestly, I have even cried a few times, I can’t help it.

Is my goal an attainable goal? Yes, it is! I know I can absolutely be the best coach I can be.
Can I be the perfect coach? Absolutely not. Nobody can be perfect. Anyone that claims to be is lying or just delusional.
Do I make mistakes? Of course. If you are not making mistakes, you are not learning.

So I want you to ask yourself the same questions. Look at your goals. If you don’t have any, MAKE SOME!
Is your goal attainable? Of course it is, it just requires action.
Will you make mistakes? I hope so. Remember, you are always learning.

Set your goals high and work your butt off to achieve it because it’s during the “working” part where the miracle happens. Sometimes the result is a goal accomplished and sometimes the result is an achievement that exceeds all your dreams.

Believe! You Can Do This!

It is that time again when one year comes to an end and another year begins. A time when we look back on the past year and pat ourselves on the back for achieving goals that we set for ourselves OR wonder "What the hell happened?!"

I have stated before that I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions. Why? Well, let me ask you. How many of your New Year's Resolutions have you actually achieved? My guess is, probably not that many.

Now let me ask you another question.

How many of the goals that you have set for yourself have you met? I would venture to guess that you have reached many of them.

Have you achieved all of your goals? Probably not. If you have, I would tell you it is time to make some more. We should ALWAYS have our sights set on a goal and when we reach that goal, set a new one! Remember, "The finish line is just the beginning of a whole new race."

As I have looked back on this past year, I am thrilled and amazed at how much has happened.
There were many goals that I set out for myself that I still have not reached, but I am certainly closer to achieving them than I was a year ago.

As far as goals met, I competed in 4 CrossFit competitions in the RX division,  I even came in second place in my first Master's Division at the Reindeer Games. I recieved my CrossFit Gymnastic Cert., organized my very first and successful fundraiser benefiting Autism, (WODism for Autism). I went to the CrossFit Games and watched some amazing athletes! I met Cheryl Brost, Lindsey Smith, Rich Froning Jr AND Fitness Lonnie! I learned butterfly pullups, got my first bar muscle up and got stronger.

I also surprised myself with achieving my largest goal.

Owning and running my own box has been a long time goal of mine, more like a dream of mine. I saw that dream fulfilled back in August when I and two of my good friends opened CrossFit Alabaster. It has been a huge success and that is due to my outstanding partners and our amazing (and fun) athletes! I have made some pretty incredible relationships because of CrossFit Alabaster and have the opportunity to spend time with some pretty amazing people on a daily basis. I am blessed.

This morning while I was in church listening to my dad preach, he said this during the sermon, "sometimes opportunities come disguised as impossibilities. Remember, nothing is impossible with God!"

This is so relevant to me. I don't know if I thought it was impossible to have my own box, but I did wonder if it would ever be possible. What I can say is that I BELIEVED I could do it. I don't know what your faith is, but I do know this. You must BELIEVE  for it to come to pass. I truly believed. I had a few people tell me that I would not be any good at all running my own gym/business. That I didn't know how to do "this", I didn't know how to do "that". I wasn't good at "this", I needed to be better at "that".

I had faith in myself though. I had a positive support group and I chose to listen to them. I chose to believe in myself and I chose to put my faith in Him.

Have you ever set a goal or set out to do something and had someone tell you that you couldn't do it?

Did you do it anyway and succeed? Why? Because you had faith in yourself! You believed you could do it!

The same also applies to your fitness goals, as well. One of my goals this year was to have a "PRETTY Muscle Up". It's okay, you can laugh, but if you saw my muscle up, you would agree that this is a very good goal for me to have. The other day, I was on the rings working with one of our other coaches and he told me, "Dawn, give me a few minutes, I will have you on top of those rings! It's going to happen today!"

HE believed!

We transitioned, we kipped, we broke everything down back to the basics. All the things I already knew. I could do this! I was ready to do this...right? I got back up on the rings, did this beautiful kip (well, it felt beautiful)...and felt myself stop pulling, mid-swing.

For the first time, I actually heard the words in my head. "You are going to fall."

I was scared I was going to fall. I KNEW I was going to fail. I was scared I would go through the rings...all the way through and fall out of the rings. I did not expect to get on top of those rings. So...I didn't.

I did not believe.

Guess what goal I have not reached. Guess who is holding me back...me.

So today I am asking you to make goals for yourself. Write them down. Share them with someone! My biggest goals were achieved because I had help and encouragement and I BELIEVED.

You can do this!

2013 is going to be an amazing year!

Happy New Year!

Be Thankful

Thankful.
What does that really mean when you apply it to yourself?
I'm not talking about being thankful for friends or family, I literally mean your self, your body.

This is the month to be thankful. On Facebook, everyone has started the "Day 1, I am thankful for...", including yours truly. In risk of sounding cliche , we should be thankful EVERY DAY!
Today that was really brought home to me. Reality punched me in the face!

I have a younger sister that was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis close to 15 years ago. If you are not familiar with this disease, it is basically an attack on the nervous system.

The way it was explained to me is that there are 3 different types of MS.
In the first case, the person may have an exacerbation and then never have one again.
This is not my sister's case.

In the second case, the person will have a series of exacerbations over their lifetime. Each one can be completely debilitating, which for my sister, put her in a wheel chair the first time. The exacerbations can also be mild. But after each exacerbation, that person does not recover their health 100%. In essence, it is like a stair step effect. Each exacerbation leaves them a little weaker, a little less coordinated, a little more "foggy", ect.
This WAS my sister's case.

In the third case, the person will have an exacerbation that they never really recover from and their health takes a nose dive.
THIS has now become my sister's case.

This post is not about MS.
This post is about being thankful and NEVER taking your health for granted.

MS is a terrible disease and it is awful to watch someone you love suffer from it. What is even worse is when it happens to someone who no longer has the will to fight it.

When my sister had her first exacerbation, she walked into the ER on her own two feet. Two days later she was temporarily paralyzed on one side of her body. Just. Like. That! She was in a wheel chair for the next 3 months and she worked very, very hard to get out of that chair.
She did!
She was 25 at the time.

I think that was all the fight she had in her or close to it. The next exacerbations were not so bad, but as she recovered from each one, I could tell that her coordination was getting worse, her memory was getting worse and her desire to fight it and her desire to stay active faded.

I wanted so much to help her. I had big ideas on how I could do physical therapy with her and get her stronger, steadier on her feet and help her be able to walk up stairs again. I had read testimony after testimony on how people were able to fight their MS. There was even a story on the CrossFit Journal about one lady's journey with MS and how CrossFit helped her so much. I was excited! We could do this! I sent the article to my sister saying "look what we can do!"

She didn't want my help. What she wanted was an easy fix. The way she looked at it, her legs had always worked, they would work again. She had always been able to walk, she would be able to do it again. What she didn't see was that she had to do the work. She had to put forth the effort.

She was taking her body for granted. She thought that her body would just keep taking the neglect she had been showing it. That she would even be fine to continue to smoke. Other people smoke, right?
I spent 6 frustrating months working with her daily and finally had a painful realization.
You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped.

My sister just turned 39 years old on October 16.
This morning I visited her in a nursing home.

This is what I learned today.

My "Fran" time doesn't matter so much to me as I thought.
The fact that I can carry my 9 year old son up the stairs to bed if he falls asleep on me, does.

Treat your body right. God gave you that body to do work.
Do wonderful, wonderful things!
And be Thankful.

My New Adventure

Once again I would like to apologize. I have been missing in action for quite some time. In fact, my last post in July was just a week before my life changed in this new, exciting direction.

"So what's been going on?" you ask. Let me tell you!

When I decided a few years ago to become a certified CrossFit coach, my long term goal was to own and run my own box. At the time, my boys were a bit too young for me to dedicate that much time coaching and then shortly after, my husband's job changed and he began traveling...a lot! So, the idea of me having my own box was put on the back burner.

That was okay. I wasn't ready yet and I was loving every minute coaching where I was. I loved the people there and I loved watching that box grow with new members. As the months and years went, CrossFit became more and more of what I thought about, what I did and who I was. I was what some called "obsessed" but what I just call "dedicated".

Then, this summer, a remarkable thing happened. God opened a door for me.
In late June, my dear friend and fellow crossfitter, Leigh, asked me one day during lunch if I had ever thought of opening my own box.

"Oh yes!", I told her. But then I went on to explain why I had not pursued this yet.
"Wouldn't it be amazing if we started a gym? A box, run by amazing, strong women?", she asked.
Well, that WOULD be so amazing!!!
And then we talked about it, ate lunch, went home. Life went on.
We were just talking...right?

But deep down I was serious...and so was she. This was my dream. Could we really do this? So we kept revisiting this topic and I knew within the next week that we absolutely could do this!

Then another remarkable thing happened. Another great friend of ours (not knowing anything about what we had been discussing) asked us if we had suggestions for a great business to invest money in. Didn't we have any ideas?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
We said nothing. Not. One. Word.

What we did is went home and thought about it. Talked about it and did a whole lot of PRAYING about it.
What became very clear to us both was that God was opening door after door. Was this really happening?
YES!

Our goal was to open in October but again, more opportunities came available and a month and a half later we were owners of CrossFit Alabaster!

We opened the doors 3 weeks ago, August 27, almost 2 months to the day after we first talked about it.
Last week was our official Grand Opening and I was moved to tears by the support of the CrossFit community that came out to support us.
Talk about a whirlwind!!

It has been a crazy, exciting and very emotional few months and I am still pinching myself to make sure I am not dreaming. But I am loving every minute.

I would be lying if I didn't admit I have never been this tired, but to see these new faces walk in the door and try CrossFit and become part of my CrossFit family, has just made everything worth it.

Our first week, we signed up over 20 new people and as of now we have over 50 members.
Mind. Blown!

I must also add that there is no way I could do this without the support of my amazing husband. No way.
He has been amazing.
So this is why I have been missing.

I will be posting on a regular basis again now that things have begun to settle.
Thank you to all who follow. I hope you will enjoy this ride with me!

My Experience at the 2012 CrossFit Games

I didn't think it was supposed to rain in sunny California!

It has been a week since I had the incredible experience of going to the 2012 CrossFit Games and it has taken me a full week to process what an amazing weekend it was!

A few months ago, my husband told me that he wanted to take me on a weekend get away, just the two of us, no kids. Where did I want to go?

I told him, “The CrossFit Games!”

Seriously?

Yes! Seriously!

The very first event I wanted to see was the Master’s. I know that 90% of that crowd was there to see Rich Froning Jr., Annie T and the who’s who in CrossFit, but for me, the Master’s were first on my list. They had already started when we finally made it in the gate, but I was mesmerized instantly. 

These athletes were absolutely amazing! I was humbled, enthralled and inspired watching these incredible people trudge through WOD’s that would have crushed me! Watching 60+ year old women knock out pull-ups and double unders like there were nothing is something I think everyone should see! Seeing Freddy Camacho compete was pretty exciting, too!

Freddy Camacho

Master's chipper WOD

I also had my check list of friends I wanted to see. Our first stop, was to stop by the 2Pood booth and visit my friend, Justin Key. I cannot explain how cool it is to travel all the way across the country and attend an event knowing you will run into someone you know!  Friends that I have made in the CrossFit world through competitions, certs or events. Really, I think this was one of the most exciting things for me.

My husband and I with our friend, Crystal and her son Morgan.

Shelby Levy and I right before the "Double Banger" event.

I loved that I was able to visit again with Jeff Tucker, Coach Burgener and Chuck Carswell and have the opportunity to introduce my husband to them. Being able to meet people that I have become friends with on Facebook because of CrossFit was just awesome. To meet Eileen Schreiber was a big highlight! Meeting Candi, with WOD Love, Kevin Daigle and Lisbeth Darsh, I mean, really, it was hard to contain me! Seeing Nicko Kazadzis with Atlas Power Wraps and being able to finally hug his neck for all the help he gave me for the WODism for Autism...it just made my weekend.

Eileen!

Me,Tucker and Nicko

Of course meeting Fitness Lonnie was just an experience in itself!

Honestly, these moments are what my weekend was about. Yes, we watched the Games! Are you kidding? We sat in the stands and baked in the California sun and cheered. We jumped to our feet and screamed as it came down to the wire between Kristen Clever and Talayna Fortunato. We were caught up in the emotion watching Jenny Lebaw struggle through the bar muscle up triplet. We sat in awe as we watched Chris Spealler clean a med ball that weighed as much as he did and made it look easy. I had goosebumps as I watched Matt Chan take the podium in 2nd place and cried with Annie as it was announced she was the Fittest Woman in the world for the second time. But you see, I could have done all this while watching the games on my computer at home. Being there at the Games was soo much more than just watching the elite crush workouts. For me, it really was about the community. It is truly something I have never experienced before.

This past weekend, I met many of the “who’s who” of CrossFit and I remained star struck most of the weekend. Here is what really stood out the most to me.  I did not meet ONE asshole. Not one! In a place full of 10,000 souls, I was surrounded by a group of people that I had something in common with and every person I met was just nice! When does that happen?

I was so excited to finally meet Cheryl Brost. She has been my inspiration for 2 years.

I do have a confession to make. There was one person I did want to meet over everyone else that weekend. She was the top of my list and I when I did finally meet her, I became like a kid. Cheryl Brost did not disappoint me, she was adorable! I had just had my picture taken with Lindsey Smith and Jermey Kinnick when she ran up to talk to them. I looked at my husband in disbelief because she was running right at me.

I looked at her and said, “Oh my God! I have been wanting to meet you all weekend!”

She said, “Oh my God! I have been wanting to meet you, too!

And you know what?

I believed her.