Sarah vs “The Scale” (spoiler: Sarah wins)
Sarah Knox, CrossFit PAX “Athlete of the Week”, deserves some serious props for dedication. Sarah’s testimony speaks volumes about what she has learned in the past six months since taking our Fundamentals Course. Sarah has come to truly understand that calorie counting, lowfat/boring/tasteless foods, and monotonous workouts do not have to be our path to health! Even better news is that health and fitness are not measured on a scale. Exercise can be fun and can even social. Eating REAL FOOD is the foundation of health. Community is vital to success. Sarah says it so well- read and enjoy:
“Even though I have only been Crossfitting at The Bunker since May of this year, my story starts long before that. I have long struggled with my weight and how I felt about my appearance. For as long as I can remember, I have always been ‘the chubby friend’ and have hated the number I saw when I stepped on the scale. Over the pasts few years, I did manage to lose a decent amount of weight (about 40lbs), but I was constantly tired and hungry and still never happy with any of the results. When I was dieting, I was counting every single calorie I ate and every single calorie I burned while running (which I despised doing and was always trying to find excuses to get out of it). My entire life was consumed by counting – worrying about how my next meal was going to fit within my daily totals or how much I’d have to run that day in order to get my calorie deficit large enough. It was exhausting.
Then around January of this year, I starting looking into this ‘Caveman Diet’ I had heard about from a co-worker. I would love to say I started eating Paleo because of all the amazing health benefits it yields but that would be a lie. I was still solely focused on the scale. I started my Paleo experiment because it seemed like a miracle weight loss diet. “You mean I can eat whatever I want from this list and the pounds will just melt away? Sign me up!” So I jumped in by doing a Whole 30 the month of February. And my results were great. I felt really good- I wasn’t tired, my blood sugar spikes/dips seemed to level out, my skin cleared up, and I had lost about another 10 pounds. But then that weight loss plateau’d. Another 2 months of clean Paleo eating went by without a single change on the scale. And even though I felt great, the only thing I was focused on was that number. That’s when Crossfit began to enter my world.
Around the same time that I noticed many of the paleo blogs I read all mentioned this thing called ‘CrossFit’, this little tiny sign on the side of Three Notch Road popped up- CrossFit PAX. After a very short Google session, I was absolutely terrified. “They do what? And they’d want me to huh? There’s no way I can do this.” But it also seemed like a no-fail way to get into shape. So, with much hesitation, I emailed Jade and told her my story. I took a little convincing, but eventually signed up for the May Fundamentals class.
In the beginning, I definitely felt out of my league. I used the trainer bar for just about everything. I needed the biggest, baddest bands we had for pull-ups. And I was routinely last to finish every single WOD (I think my first Fran took me something like 13 minutes). Yet I kept coming back. And even weirder, I looked forward to it. I had never before challenged myself in the way Crossfit challenges me. And I had never met a community of people so open and welcoming to someone who had never stepped foot into a gym before. So when it was time to decide if I was going to enroll as permanent member after my fundamentals trial period ran out, it was one of the easiest decisions of my life.
5 months later, it’s crazy to see how far I’ve come. Yes- I still scale many things, but I’m getting better. I get really close to RX-ing weights on some WODs. I’ve consistently come down on what bands I need for pull-ups. I’ve accomplished some pretty awesome things- a 215# deadlift, a 100# clean & jerk, and my proudest moment so far: a kipping HSPU (I had to use 2 abmats instead of only one, but that was still big deal for me). Considering before Crossfit, I had never picked up more than a 5# dumbbell, I’m pretty amazed at what I’ve been able to do. And I have to give props to Darren who is always there to give a huge smile and a five-high whenever I PR, no matter how many times he has to correct me about keeping my knees out earlier in the day.
Outside of the accomplishments, the biggest thing Crossfit has done for me is helped me realize that the scale isn’t the end-all-be-all. A couple weekends ago, I saw a friend I hadn’t seen since June and he asked me how much weight I lost. I told him truth- zero. Yet he was convinced that I had lost like 15lbs. It just goes to show that weight only tells a little bit of the story. And while I can’t say I’m completely over my battle with the scale, I can say that since I found a fitness routine I love, I’m amazed at how much my focus has shifted from ‘I need to lose 5 more pounds’ to ‘I’d love to be able to lift/squat/press 5 more pounds’. Thank you Crossfit Pax for changing my life forever- both physically and emotionally.
Now- if only I could get that un-banded pull-up…….”
Sarah, we are confident that un-banded pull-up is in your near future. We are glad that you stopped counting and started living and now you are blowing everyone away with all you do! You are spot on about the scale- keep working hard and spread the word!