A Concoction of Fun Things

Random reflection time for me, people.

Since I’m feeling especially good about my body lately, I went and splurged (only 25 bucks mind you) on a new bathing suit at….wait for it…WALMART. Haha. It was cheap but it’s so cute and for the first time I looked at myself in the mirror and liked what I saw. I’m still working towards my own personal goals with how I want to look and feel like, but today felt like a step forward for me mentally.

I’ve always been one of those people that was skinny but athletic looking, and I was always trying to stay thin, fit into size 1 jeans, have a flat stomach, and look like the skinny stick models who can wear tiny shorts every day. I have been a sporty girl all my life. I did competitive gymnastics, cheerleading, soccer, and rode horses growing up. I was never going to be a “stick” but I was always “in shape” for what I was doing. I have never been overweight or chubby or whatever you want to call it, but somehow, finding CrossFit has COMPLETELY changed my mentality about life, myself, nutrition, and the way I feel.

It was love at first box jump for me and I fell in love with the sport of CrossFit instantly. I was bored with the workouts we had to do for my team at school, and I hated long distance running as my sole workout every day, so I asked one of my best friends if I could come with her to CrossFit one day. The rest was history.

I became obsessed with getting stronger, gaining muscle, toning up, and being an all around ninja. Seriously, the fact that I was sucking wind on a constant basis in the middle of WODs oddly enough made me so excited. Weird, I know. I think alot of it was the satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment I had after I finished the workout or particular lift or whatever it was I was doing. Somehow, every time I left the box, I felt stronger and better than when I walked in. Almost instantly, I went from wanting to be skinny skinny to muscular and fit. My coach told me he will never forget what I said to him the first time I met him coming into the gym.

“Hey, I’m Brittlan, and I want to be jacked.”

HAHAH. Such a douchey thing for me to say. But in all seriousness, I did. I suddenly found having alot of muscle absolutely beautiful (not that I didn’t before, but this was a personal feeling pertaining to my body) and wanted to start lifting and have CrossFit kick by butt day in and day out from now until, well, forever. I went from admiring a body like the movie stars had to admiring (and realizing I could attain) the bodies of any female CrossFit athlete (Camille, Miranda, etc.). It was like my mind did a 180 on me, and I loved it.

Most of my followers know that I eat Paleo, but what you all might not know is that I haven’t been eating paleo forever or anything like that. When I first started CrossFit, I didn’t change my diet. I never ate poorly throughout my life because that’s not how my parents raised our family, but it was by no means close to paleo. I loved veggies and fruits, but meat I was super iffy about and tended to avoid it because of a traumatic incident with a chicken nugget at McDonald’s when I was 4. I’m not going to go into it, but it scarred me for life to say the least.

So I wasn’t changing my current way of eating with CrossFit, and I definitely noticed alot of changes going on with my body for months and months, but as of March of this year, I realized I wanted more out of my performance at the gym and still wanted to see my body change even more. I had tried Paleo at this point for a few days and saw an immediate difference in my body and how I felt, but then a week into eat I pulled the “I miss cereal and sandwich wraps too much” excuse and thus pushed Paleo to the side again, albeit not very far to the side.

With all the Games coverage and competition and seeing how amazing these athletes are, I suddenly woke up and realized that I want to put the best things into my body on a daily basis. I want to look and feel like a million bucks every stinkin’ day and be strong as hell in the gym. EVERY DAY. That’s when I decided to jump into Paleo 100% and stick with it. It wasn’t terribly hard to give up cereal and grains because I didn’t eat them every single day (it was more of a convenience thing in the dining hall), but once I got through a week of strict paleo, I loved the way I felt in and out of the gym. I told my mom about it and she was completely supportive and did research on it to figure out what stuff she could make for me when I came home during the school year. Nutrition became a top priority and still remains one to this day. 

I guess this whole post is to somehow say thank you to CrossFit. Thank you for inspiring me to push myself every single day, thank you for healing my warped sense of feelings about myself, and thank you for giving me yet another thing in life to be head over heels passionate for. I thank God for CrossFit every day. I really do.

Tagged: personalreflectioncrossfitpaleofaithlovehappiness