A little about me...
I've always been a big guy. I was 170lbs by 8th grade. I always played sports as a kid, but wasn't ever very good at them. I ALWAYS hated running. After middle school, I stopped playing any sport at all, except for water skiing, but that was, at best, a part time hobby. At 18, I started smoking cigarettes, which I still consider the worst mistake of my life. I smoked off and on for the next 10 years (mostly on... mostly REALLY on.) In November 2010, my friend Darren and I decided we were going to quit together and be each other's support group. It worked, which was good because at the time, I couldn't even laugh hard without coughing. (Gross, I know.) Over the next two months while I dealt with quitting, I gained a LOT of weight. At my heaviest, I think I was 300 lbs. And very little of it was muscle, because it doesn't take much strength to hold a TV/Playstation remote, or drive to Taco Bell. I was the heaviest I'd ever been, and definitely hated my life.
For my New Year's Resolution, I told myself I was going to start going to church more. I needed something. The church I decided to go to was one I'd been to before, and I'd had a few issues with it, but decided for some reason that that was where I was going to go. The sermon was the first of a series based on getting your life out of a rut. Whether it was drugs, alcohol, obesity, etc, it was all covered. And how we try over and over again to beat these problems on our own, but it never works. At the end of the sermon, the pastor said we should go home and talk to a friend and tell them that we're stuck and need help.
I called my friend David Liles. We worked at a summer camp together several years before, and had kept in touch. I'd always valued and respected his opinion, and he seemed like the right person for me to call. So I texted him and asked if we could talk later, and we set something up. I think the phone call lasted somewhere between 2-4 hours, I don't remember exactly. We covered everything, about how unhappy I was and how I felt like I was stuck. Towards the end, he told me he'd heard of this thing called CrossFit, and thought I should check it out.
I googled CrossFit locations, and there was a gym literally 1 mile from my house. I looked up the website, and saw they had a "Free Community Workout" the next Saturday. I called David and told him, and no matter how hard I tried to argue that I needed a couple weeks to prepare, he told me I was going to go to that workout. So I showed up to Crossfit Leander that Saturday, some say I was the spitting image of Zach Galifianakis. I was terrified. I hadn't worked out since 8th grade gym, and I'd smoked about 10 prisons worth of cigarettes since then. A few people came up and introduced themselves, and then we were off. I don't remember what the workout was, but I remember for that entire hour I wanted to drive to David's house and punch him in the face.
I texted him after it was over, saying I was alive. I went home and laid on my living room floor with the fan on, and I don't think I stopped sweating for 30 minutes. But then something awesome happened.... I felt amazing! I emailed CrossFit Leander on Monday and signed up for my elements class. I started the Paleo Diet right away, and lost about 10 lbs in 2 weeks.... before I even started working out regularly. I started out going 3 times a week, everything was scaled. Before every class, I would think of 1000 reasons why I couldn't go that day, but my unwillingness to let David down kept me going. I'm pretty sure I texted him after every workout and told him what we did and how close to death I was sure I was. He was always so encouraging and positive and happy for me. If it hadn't been for his friendship and support, I wouldn't be where I am today, and for that, I will always be thankful.
I showed up three times a week for almost a year, and several months in, I started doing home workouts on my off days. Yoga videos, made up bodyweight movements, anything I could find. After a year, I decided I wanted to start showing up 5 days a week. After about another year of this, I told my coach, Chad, the owner of CF Leander, that I was thinking about getting in to coaching. He gave me an incredible opportunity to start helping with our free community wods, and after a couple months of that, I started watching a few of our other classes. I knew this was something I wanted to do, so I signed up for my Level 1. I took the Level 1 test in April, and for the next few months, I helped out a few times a week with the amazing Coach Amanda's classes. Then Chad gave me another incredible opportunity, to start coaching a couple classes on my own.
It's been an incredible journey, and I plan to use this blog to both help out anyone who is looking for it as well as document my experiences from here on out. Crossfit has saved my life, of that I have no doubt, and if I can help it save someone else's, then all of this was completely worth it.
For my New Year's Resolution, I told myself I was going to start going to church more. I needed something. The church I decided to go to was one I'd been to before, and I'd had a few issues with it, but decided for some reason that that was where I was going to go. The sermon was the first of a series based on getting your life out of a rut. Whether it was drugs, alcohol, obesity, etc, it was all covered. And how we try over and over again to beat these problems on our own, but it never works. At the end of the sermon, the pastor said we should go home and talk to a friend and tell them that we're stuck and need help.
I called my friend David Liles. We worked at a summer camp together several years before, and had kept in touch. I'd always valued and respected his opinion, and he seemed like the right person for me to call. So I texted him and asked if we could talk later, and we set something up. I think the phone call lasted somewhere between 2-4 hours, I don't remember exactly. We covered everything, about how unhappy I was and how I felt like I was stuck. Towards the end, he told me he'd heard of this thing called CrossFit, and thought I should check it out.
I googled CrossFit locations, and there was a gym literally 1 mile from my house. I looked up the website, and saw they had a "Free Community Workout" the next Saturday. I called David and told him, and no matter how hard I tried to argue that I needed a couple weeks to prepare, he told me I was going to go to that workout. So I showed up to Crossfit Leander that Saturday, some say I was the spitting image of Zach Galifianakis. I was terrified. I hadn't worked out since 8th grade gym, and I'd smoked about 10 prisons worth of cigarettes since then. A few people came up and introduced themselves, and then we were off. I don't remember what the workout was, but I remember for that entire hour I wanted to drive to David's house and punch him in the face.
I texted him after it was over, saying I was alive. I went home and laid on my living room floor with the fan on, and I don't think I stopped sweating for 30 minutes. But then something awesome happened.... I felt amazing! I emailed CrossFit Leander on Monday and signed up for my elements class. I started the Paleo Diet right away, and lost about 10 lbs in 2 weeks.... before I even started working out regularly. I started out going 3 times a week, everything was scaled. Before every class, I would think of 1000 reasons why I couldn't go that day, but my unwillingness to let David down kept me going. I'm pretty sure I texted him after every workout and told him what we did and how close to death I was sure I was. He was always so encouraging and positive and happy for me. If it hadn't been for his friendship and support, I wouldn't be where I am today, and for that, I will always be thankful.
I showed up three times a week for almost a year, and several months in, I started doing home workouts on my off days. Yoga videos, made up bodyweight movements, anything I could find. After a year, I decided I wanted to start showing up 5 days a week. After about another year of this, I told my coach, Chad, the owner of CF Leander, that I was thinking about getting in to coaching. He gave me an incredible opportunity to start helping with our free community wods, and after a couple months of that, I started watching a few of our other classes. I knew this was something I wanted to do, so I signed up for my Level 1. I took the Level 1 test in April, and for the next few months, I helped out a few times a week with the amazing Coach Amanda's classes. Then Chad gave me another incredible opportunity, to start coaching a couple classes on my own.
It's been an incredible journey, and I plan to use this blog to both help out anyone who is looking for it as well as document my experiences from here on out. Crossfit has saved my life, of that I have no doubt, and if I can help it save someone else's, then all of this was completely worth it.