I'm Cool Like That...

March 2008. Billy had much too much time on his hands. My husband with more to love had leaned down to a more fit physique but was still not where he wanted to be. He tried changing up his lifting and exercising, eating different food, but nothing was budging that number on the scale.

One day he came home and said, "So, I heard about this new thing I want to try. It's called CrossFit. I found it online." I was 8 months prego and nesting like a mad woman (or as much as you can when you have a 9 lb 7 oz turkey stuffed inside you), so I said, "OK." I could have cared less.

That is, until he decided to install a pull up bar in our garage.

That was when the War of 2008 occurred.

I fumed. I huffed. I yelled. I pouted. I cried. He yelled. He bought the stuff. It went up.

I thought he was so dumb.

Enter baby Matthew in April 2008. (Oh it felt good to breathe again!)

I watched him try this new CrossFit thing. Some of the workouts seemed kind of bizarre. Lots of the movements seemed kind of easy, but they had him huffing and puffing and sweating like a madman. Sometimes I laughed at what he had to do. Burpees?! Box jumps?! What the what?!

But he started to lose weight again.

Then this conversation began:

Billy: "You should just try it."

Me: "I don't want to."

Billy: "Oh, c'mon. Just try it for a couple weeks."

Me: "No!"

Billy: "Why not?!"

Me: "It's weird."

Billy: "It works."

Me: "I can't do all that weight you do."

Billy: "They scale it down for you."

Me: "I don't know..."

We had the same conversation, day after day, week after week. He kept trying to convince me to try it, and I kept resisting. I will dig in my heels if someone tries to make me do something, and I dug them in deep.

But soon, I found myself 6 weeks postpartum with my nice, squidgy post-prego body. Yuck.

And Billy's sister, Sarah, was in town. She was game to try Billy's latest hobby. And the both of them finally convinced me to give it a go.

At first I couldn't do anything. You know how it is after you have a baby. Especially a c-section. You start trying to exercise and your body screams at you, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?!?!?!" and every single part of you just hurts. Especially that scar.

But I kept going. I liked how the workout was different each day. I liked how there was so much variety in the movements that made up the workouts. I liked how I could fit it into the day more easily. A workout typically lasts 10-20 minutes. It's super fast, intense and gets your heart beating! Add the warm up and you're done in 30-35 minutes. That sure beat my hour-long FIRM videos I had.

It wasn't all peaches and cream. We fought when he bought a set of used barbells and weights. I resisted and resisted his lifting platform in the garage (which meant the corolla was officially moved out of the garage to the driveway), the big weight rack seemed so excessive in my opinion.

Fast forward to 2012.

I may not have rock solid abs, but I am in much better shape than I was 4 children ago. I can do pull ups with my weak little arms. I can deadlift 172 pounds. My body is more toned and stronger.

And suddenly CrossFit is cool. I had five people talk to me about it just last week. So here's some info if you're interested:

CrossFit.com - the official website. It's free. This is where you look at the WODs (workout of the day). They have a pattern of 3 workouts followed by 1 rest day. I aim for 3-4 WODs a week, fitting it into my schedule as I can (usually M, T, W, F) There are usually demos of each WOD you can watch. Those can be helpful.

Exercises and Demos - a huge list of examples showcasing all the moves required in CrossFit. I have looked at these a lot. Lots of tips to make sure you're moving right and not hurting yourself.

Scaled Workouts - For those of us who aren't super buff and can't do the prescribed weights or repetitions or movements (I can't do a handstand push up.), this is where you go to see the scaled down versions of the workouts. This is where I go daily to find the workout that is challenging and possible for me to do.

Nutrition - In complete disclosure here, I have to admit it wasn't just CrossFit that helped me lose all that baby weight after Matthew and then again after Megan. It was the Zone Diet as well, which just happens to be the way of eating encouraged on the CrossFit website (each meal must consist of 30% protein, 40% healthy carbs and 30% healthy fats).

This fit on our tenth anniversary last August. Not bad after four kids.

You can do it at a gym (CrossFit or not) or at your home. (Or come to my house!) You don't have to have a lot of weights and stuff to get started. If you have a floor, tennis shoes, something to jump on (stairs, step) and a jump rope, I think you're off to a great start.

3-2-1 Go!