7 times down, 8 times up!

By Tan

Before starting my CrossFit journey, I was leading an extremely unhealthy life. I was overweight all through my school years, until turning 20 and deciding that this wasn’t a healthy life, or a life I wanted for myself.

After losing over 40kgs in 2009, I got too used to the weight loss and spent the first half of 2010 living on a packet of chicken noodle soup a day, hoping to keep the weight coming off. Every day activities were a struggle, so when a friend in Brisbane excitedly informed me that a CrossFit box was starting up in Tassie, I was more than a little hesitant.

I’d heard her talk about CrossFit for months, but shrugged it off as it sounded insane! Burpees? Pull ups? Olympic lifting? Pfft, no thanks. I’ll stick to my yoga and chicken noodle soup; after all, it was working so well, right? But her excitement and insistence that I try this CrossFit thing continued, and I decided I’d go along to the first session just so I could say ‘I went, it sucked, enough about it already!’ But things went a little different than expected..........

.................So I came back again, and again, and again. I felt uncoordinated as I tried to skip, I felt weak using a PVC pipe for my lifts, and I felt slow in all my runs. Very, very slowly things improved, but my diet stayed the same and slowed my progress. I decided I needed to eat more, but this led to even more disordered eating. If I felt I ate too much (after consuming only chicken noodle soup for months, everything felt like too much) I’d have to purge it from my system immediately. This also slowed my progress, as my body wasn’t receiving the fuel it needed for energy and recovery...........

..........I’ve done so many things that I never would have imagined doing before CrossFit, whether it be travelling to Brisbane for my first CrossFit competition, or competing in a muddy but awesome obstacle course. I’ve met so many awesome people this past year, and feel privileged training with them at every session, and love that they put up with me some days (especially Stephy!).................