Six months

Today is 2 May 2012. My first Crossfit, official, with a book and writing it down, workout, was 2 Dec 2011. So we're six months in. Some stats and thoughts, general reflections:

December: 7 total workouts.
January: 8 total workouts. (Jan/Feb I was sick for two weeks)
February: 6 total workouts.
March: 27 total workouts.
April: 19 total workouts. (mostly because I was in Vegas for a week)

I could just barely run 400m in December. In January I had gotten up to 800m, and by the end of January I had managed 1200m, but just once, and failed it a few times after. Then it was 1600m, and as you all know I ran my first 5k last Friday.

It's important to remember that I started Crossfit after my motorcycle accident, and when I run, or lift, or do any of that stuff, I'm doing things I was told I'd never be able to do. When I started, Siddharth would look at my "squat" and just tell me to get as mobile as I could and we'd work with it from there. With five broken vertebrae, I went from a "kettlebell deadlift" of 16kg to pulling 275lbs just recently (almost 8 times as much weight, and more than my own weight). I was doing "tire steps" because I couldn't jump a box, to now doing the normal "big" box jumps.

I wanted to look through my book and add up all the burpees and box jumps, the total meters run, pounds lifted, and things like that, but I don't think they mean as much as I thought they did. What matters is that, sixty-eight workouts later (I hit the 0600  today), I am walking without a wheelchair, using stairs, doing dishes, laundry, and gardening, and have all those things in life that are really important but we take for granted. My life is immeasurably better. I have made tremendous friends who have sweat through these things with me. I have been in awe of heroes like Del and Blake, and remembered people like Jayna (I thought that workout was the hardest thing that I'd ever done, and I kept thinking about Jayna. Every. Single. Rep, and I knew there was more in me than I ever thought there was; I knew nothing I was doing was anything near what she did, and that kept me going).

Crossfit, or the work, or the people, or eating better, or sleeping better, or something, but more likely all of it, has made me a better person. I kind of hinted at this before, but a deep part of me has been worried I wouldn't be able to stick to it; that it would be some kind of fad thing – like the nutrition challenge – that I'd accept grudgingly and do and it would have limited, measurable results, and then slip from my grasp. Friends, I'm looking forward to the next six months and wondering just how far life goes now instead of how to make it hurt less – literally and figuratively.

Lastly, everyone wants to know the weight-loss metric when it comes to Crossfit, and a lot of us have been trying to strike that down -- both your weight on the scale and your BMI "score" -- lately, but ultimately, people think you should be losing weight if you're working out. I want to be very clear: I weigh three pounds less today than I weighed on my first crossfit workout (although probably not after this morning's breakfast!!). The BMI chart would have me lose fifty pounds to be a "normal weight." That's just lunacy, people. Those of you who've seen me over the last six months, try to imagine me today with fifty less pounds on me. I'd have to be missing limbs.