Lovin’ my Crossfit

I’ve always been into working out.

I love that feeling after you push yourself and you stand there sweaty and panting. And I love high tops and belted leotards.

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I also love keeping my heart healthy, my cholesterol low, my body strong and my gut in check during mealtimes. It’s hard to be tempted by french fries when you know you have to run 3 miles the next day.

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Biceps and I did P90X for several years, perfect for a life on the road of touring. If we didn’t do P90X, I would go to the usual running 3-5 miles a day and weight lifting.

But, recently with Biceps getting the firefighter’s position our lives have changed, and I spend 1/3 of my time at home-alone. I needed something new, something challenging and something to get me out of the dang house.

Cue “Crossfit”.

I was given a free 7 day pass to the YWCA close to my home-close enough that I can bike to it since we just have the one car. After just a few classes of Crossfit, I was hooked. It pushed me to try harder and go further than I would on my own-and my classmates are encouraging and really stinkin’ cool.

So, after selling a few things and pinching our pennies, I signed up for a year-long membership to the YWCA.

This tough little number, Christina, is our trainer. She’s the perfect mixture of butt kicker, teacher and motivator. Plus, I really just don’t want to make her mad. She could level me with one uppercut, I’m sure.

Somedays, I don’t want to go to Crossfit-when it’s 99 degrees outside and I have to bike the 2 miles there and back, I run through the excuses in my head.

But knowing that I need to see other humans, and need to practice my “double unders”-(two rotations of the jump rope with only one jump -see above photo), I keep going back. And keep getting bruised and whip marks and I keep loving every minute of it.

If you’ve ever done Crossfit, you probably either loved or hated it. For me, I am in love.

Cross Fit-My Current Obsession

I don’t get into new fitness crazes. They’re just not for me.

But, I do enjoy those leotards. Holy cow.

(I am not getting paid, endorsed or receiving any kickbacks for this post. I am just sharing with you something that I love!)

I have never done jazzercise,

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pole dancing or ‘Sit and be fit’.

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See, I’m old school. I like the good old fashioned clanking sound weights make as I struggle through a set. I look forward to eating my raw eggs in the morning, strapping on my chuck taylors, my gray hoody and then running up an extremely long set of stairs while it’s snowing.

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And, I have always enjoyed eating healthy-minus the occasional cravings of mozzarella sticks which produces the overwhelming feeling of regret the next day.

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I did share with you how much I liked P90x. This is a difficult workout that incorporates all of the old school aspects that I love, along with a great butt kicking from Tony Horton that makes you want to die.

Biceps and I have done P90x for three plus years, while mixing in some of our own workouts/runs/bike rides. It’s good for me to have a definite start and stop to my workouts. Otherwise, I get distracted emailing all of you back….

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Anywho-every once in awhile, I need to mix things up. I decided to try a Cross Fit Class at my local YWCA when I was given a free 7 day pass from a friend. I fell in love and am currently scheming how to come up with monthly fee in order to become a full fledged member. (I am thinking of selling off my plethora of cat fur to that strange lady that knits purses out of animal hair.)

Cross Fit mixes cardio, weights, stretching and endurance. Every day I come home very sore, but loving the amount of energy that I’ve expended. Then, I complain about it to Biceps until the next class rolls around. He’s such a patient man.

If you’ve done Cross Fit or P90x, I’d love to hear what you have to say!

Tony Horton and P90x

“I love him, but I hate him.”

P90x has never, ever, ever, ever heard of me. Never. Not once. Get the picture? However, if they knew the amount of free marketing I was giving them by telling all my friends about it, they might think twice about ‘ol Rebekah. They may even throw me a yoga mat or a ‘recovery drink’.
I love these workouts, and I’ll tell you why.

The workouts are well,…they’re just really hard.
And I love to workout. Always have. Makes me feel less guilty when I buy a box of Mike & Ike’s and eat them all in a single sitting as I watch ‘The Biggest Loser’.

And I would rather be doing this over P90x most mornings. But I force myself to wake up (actually Cowboy won’t let me sleep in once the alarm has gone off). I put in another grueling P90X DVD and listen to Tony telling me to do things I don’t want to do.

But I need to give you a bit of a disclaimer: Tony says some weird stuff sometimes. Things like this:
“That’s the gruntin’!”
“Nice muscles, dude.”
“The Makes snakin’ contact, elbow, thigh!” (no idea what he was trying to say here.)
“Oh, no! Tops are coming off!”
“Yummy, yummy, yummy!”
And the cronies in the videos with him add to the weirdness.

His favorite cronie, Dreya Webber, is that kid in class you want to punch. She actually gives Tony advice on how to make a move better. But Tony doesn’t mind and just flirts with her relentlessly, although I am pretty sure she’s a dude.
The flirting is kind’ve weird.
Yet, somehow you end up liking Dreya, too. But, that doesn’t stop the urge to still punch her.

Once you get into it, you really start to look forward to the next time Tony screams: “I know it burns! It’s supposed to burn!”

Ah. P90x. I love it, but I hate it.
My sick obsession.