D-Force: The Overall Update

Yikes I've been slacking!

Every day I learn or reflect on a new lesson in this journey of fitness. Sometimes it's the same lesson that manifests in a variety of ways.

During the last few months, my lessons have mainly been about coping with injury, with disappointment and keeping things in perspective.

Luckily, the injury seems to be minor, it's a shoulder injury specific to the movement performed during thrusters and pull-ups. I try to remain positive about not being able to go as heavy as I'd like, but I just remind myself that it's a temporary set-back while I heal. I had just set a pull-up goal, which was frustrating, I was ready to attack the pull-up bar but will have to lay off it for awhile.

I got my first massage in years. It was a reminder that I need to give my body a chance to heal after doing intense workouts. I didn't realize scar tissue would develop from weight-lifting. I had purchased a PVC pipe because I noticed that I was crooked in how I hold the barbell. I thought I just needed to spend some time in front of a mirror, practicing. The very next day, I went for a massage. The wonderful miracle worker asked me at one point in the massage, "Does it feel like your body is straight or crooked?" I answered, "Crooked." She told me that she had made me perfectly straight. No wonder I was lifting crookedly!

The disappointment . . . I bought shorts. Took them home, tried them on, excited to have purchased them just in time to attend an all-day Crossfit event (Sectionals). However, when I tried them on and asked Reggie how my legs looked, he very gently told me I wasn't quite ready for the shorts. ;-( Cellulite isn't a trait that really runs in my family, but I had damaged my body so much with weight-gain and unhealthy eating, that my legs aren't really so pretty. I even have stretch marks on my calves. Who gains so much weight they get stretch marks on their calves?!!! My thighs have improved over the past year, which is encouraging, but it's a disappointment that they are not ready for this summer's bikini season. I told Reggie if they don't improve within a year, I'm getting liposuction! I work too damn hard to not wear a bikini. I half mean it . . . we'll see!

I felt better the next day, I found a picture of myself last year. Wow. I had been doing Crossfit for about 3-4 months, and still looked fat! I remember the disappointment I felt while looking at that picture right after it was taken. Like, "Hey, I've worked so hard, why don't I look better?!" I've come so far since then . . . so I'm looking forward to next year when I get to look at my picture and see how much farther I've come. It's important to keep things in perspective. We all want to improve and sometimes we get impatient about the rate of improvement. But sometimes progress takes time, and we have to realize how far we've come already. This lesson really sunk in that day when I saw a fellow Crossfitter, who I admire greatly. She was frustrated that she had difficulty doing chest-to-bar pullups. But it was only 2 months ago when she was using a purple band to do a regular pull-up. She pushed herself to get to regular pull-ups (yay!!) and it will take time to be able to do a lot of chest-to-bar pullups. I was amazed that she could do as many as she was after such a short amount of time. She didn't feel that way. So, keep it in perspective when you get frustrated.