Who Needs To Be Motivated!!!!

Here's to the guys I work with!! Westlake Crossfit has had the biggest impact on my life in the past year!! Thank you!! For all of you wondering about Westlake Crossfit, come check us out!!

Oh Muscle Ups!!

The benchmark WOD of 30 Muscle Ups gave me a lesson..... Mind over matter!!! First, a muscle up is a very basic movement in the gymnastic realm and takes a lot of strength, coordination, agility, and balance. I thought I was knocking out the muscle ups pretty well and keeping good form until I hit number 14. I then had about 8 failed attempts, which took the confidence out of me and I just wanted to throw in the towel because I was mostly just embarrassed. I had never attempted this work out for the same reasons that probably my clients think when they walk in and see the WOD... FEAR and DOUBT! Then I started to put 2 together. Then 1 at a time. And fellow Crossfitters were yelling at me to finish. And as a coach I CANNOT quit because that would make me a hypocrite. So at the end of it I had a proud time of 12:22!! It was a feat I had been avoiding for months! So thank you Jesse and Jevon and the rest of the class for motivating me to knock it out. So to all of you don't avoid things because of fear. Attack it!! And you will be surprised at what you learn or relearn about yourself!!

ON THE RIGHT TRACK!!

This whole week has been a good one and yesterday was a great day for me! The W.O.D of 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 Split Jerks gave me a boost of confidence with a PR of 260. Then after my workout I coached class at 6:30 pm and the energy from my workout carried into the class setting when it came time to coach the movement! I felt really comfortable after watching a couple technique videos on the main site and watching the recording 0f myself go thru the movement.....  My class rocked it!!   I was excited thatI was able to motivate and educate my fellow crossfitters thoroughly!! I felt like I am finally coming into my own in the Crossfit and training world!! Now I am greatly motivated and feel great about my future (not that I wasn't before) as a coach/trainer and cant wait to continue down this path!!! I dont know... Time to dive in and really become who I want to be! I can only hope that my attitude will be contageous for the loved ones around me!! So here's to the future my friends! Its in our hands!!

The power of change!!

Change….. Change can be a frightening experience if one is always trying to prevent it. But why try and prevent change? Change brings about new experiences, personal growth, and insights. Whether good or bad, there is something to be learned from every new curveball that is thrown at us.

But just as some are trying to prevent change, others are harnessing the benefits of small changes that can be made throughout our daily lives and can compound into something great!! So try not to get discouraged about unfortunate shortcomings because that is what they are….short.  Nothing in life goes according to plan.  A ship sent to the moon is only on course 5% of the time.  So as long as you are true to the goal (landing on the moon), the other 95% of the time spent off course may give you new ideas or a new perspective to help refine your goals. Just get back on course.

 A good way to accomplish these goals in life is to take it into your own hands because great things do not just fall in your lap! So get proactive and write down some personal and life goals you wish to reach. Whether it is losing weight, going on a vacation, bettering a personal relationship with a loved one, or starting your dream job. Write down small, attainable goals to be done daily to dial in on that bigger goal. Such as, eating smaller portions everyday, saving an allotted amount of money each paycheck, making a small comment to your loved one everyday (it’s the small things that count), or research information and logistics to starting that dream job. All of these goals can be reached with a little effort and time so lets get going!! Turn off those TV’s and lets get serious about what makes us happy! CHANGE!!!

Whats stressing you??

So have you thought about what stresses you out? Have you taken the necessary steps to minimize the factors that bring about stress?.... Stress comes in many forms throughout our daily lives and never ceases. But can be controlled if dealt with  properly. I read "stress is in the eye of the beholder".... I know, I know. What kind of mumbojumbo is that? Well think about it! How do you wake up in the morning? Do you wake up and say,"its going to be a GREAT day,"? Or do you wake up and say," damn it I don't want to go to work today."  If you can analyse things in the right perspective, you can come to a conclusion that your opinion alone made you feel the stress. So try not to let stress control your attitude, motivation, relationships, goals, and etc.  There is a positive way to deal with everything, it just depends on how resilient you are, how well you can communicate with yourself and others. Try and find what calms and relaxes you. Examples of productive coping methods:exercising, reading, silence, meditating, being around friends, or vacation. Examples of destructive coping methods: eating or gorging,  consuming alcohol in excessive amounts, narcotics, oversleeping, etc.  So my best advice is to control your life and don't let your life run you into the ground. So have a GREAT day!

Decisions..Decisions

"Mind is what your brain does consciously. Our minds perform a series of information processing in order to form strategies needed to live our daily lives. This process is known as decision making."

"Somewhere along the line of development we discover what we really are, and then we make our real decision for which we are responsible. Make that decision primarily for yourself because you can never really live anyone else's life."

-- Eleanor Roosevelt 

I found the above quotes and the excerpt below and thought it was very deep and important to keep yourself educated beyond what people are just telling you: "The total effect of the culture and industry is one of anti-enlightenment that is the progressive technical domination of nature, becomes mass deception and is turned into a means for fettering consciousness. It impedes the development of autonomous, independent individuals who judge and decide consciously for themselves."  

How do you base your decision making? Is it based on how people will perceive you? Is it based on what goals you have set for yourself/family or loved ones? Decisions are an everyday part of life and must be made in a successful one. The inability to not make decisions is, to me, forfeiting your life and can lead to a unhappy state of mind!  Do not get me wrong. I myself have made poor decisions and in some cases still paying for them. So now it is time to make decisions that will start paying me in the near future! Now I challenge you to start setting goals and start making the necessary decisions to obtain them. And remember DO NOT let the idea of what people think about you cloud your decision making. Explore the path that you want to go down!!

Goulash Post!!! (A little bit of everything mixed in)

Well its been quite awhile since Ive posted a blog but a lot has happened and changed since then as well!!! I am super stoked on where my life is heading  and how much I have learned in just the past month and a half.  I have grown mentally, physically, emotionally, and hope soon financially but that is in due time..... In the past month in a half I have incurred a muscle injury in my back which took me away from what I love to do.....Crossfit!! Im at a job I dont necessarily like,  my girlfriend and I were learning a great deal about each other, which can sometimes be a hard task, and bills were coming in and the cash coming in was barely covering them especially since I was taking time off work because of my injury!! I was SO crushed, I was depressed, and even started questioning if I wanted to even be a trainer! 

 But I had a huge support group... Thank you Justina for pushing me and helping me realize my true potential and thank you Joss for being the motivator who always opens my eyes and gives me a calming and rejuvenating breathe of insight! Thank you Je'von for your wealth of knowledge and the ability to articulate the ways of training. I have learned SO much from you!  To those I did not mention, you also had a big part of making me who I am! So to all of you, THANK YOU!

So now my back is strong and I am even stronger from the rest, go figure, another thing learned ahaha. I am also Crossfit Certifield Level 1!  I get my CSCS on July 6th (pending test goes well). I have a new found passion for training and I am even beginning to pick up clients and working on starting bootcamps!! And my friendships and relationships are proving to be stronger than ever!  So all I have to do now is take some advice from Je'von and take the "first step".  I hope to see you on the journey!!

Breaking Point!!!

This past weekend I competed in the Crossfit Challenge Finals at Crossfit Central and had a high hope of finishing in the top 2 spots. I had done almost everything right to prepare for this "battle" from sleep, diet, and programming of my workout. In the previous challenge, pushing myself seemed to be my weakness because I didnt want to reach that breaking point. So that is what I worked on, pushing myself, perseverance.

I killed the first workout of the finals, heading into the next workout with about a 45 second cushion and feeling very confident!...

During that second workout I was going fairly strong until my body basically gave out on me, my body was telling me that I was done. Though the thought of getting a DNF (did not finish) almost sounded great to me at one point during the second workout.... But I had GREAT support, and I could not let them down....Now think about that, everything within me was telling me to quit, I had reached my breaking point. Never in all of my training over the years did I EVER just want to say "Im done!!!"..... But I didnt quit, on the last segment of the workout, which was a 5oo meter row, I was not there but my body was moving... And I have never been SO exhausted. But I even had other competitors I was competeing against along with my friends, pushing me, telling me I was almost finished!...

At the end of the workout, I was embarassed, pissed, and discouraged to know that I had blown my chance at the top 2 spots! But once I calmed down and had some positive words spoken to me, I came to realize that I accomplished something astronomical (to me). To be able to reach a point where you want to quit, reaching your "breaking point," and still can persist and move on to finish, is a feat within itself! After it was all said and done, that morning was a humbling endeavor that has given me a new light on crossfit that has ignited an insatiable fire within me so I can take it to the next level of training!!

Have you tested your breaking point? I challenge you to find what you're made of! You might be surprised of what you may find!

The Truth Hurts So Good!!

Truth. What is truth? That has long been argued by philosophers for centuries! It can be subjective, objective, relative, or absolute. I believe it is based on your upbringing and the good and bad experiences throughout a person's life. But that is just my opinion.

Many people are hurt by lies. Why do we lie? One of my favorite sayings is, " the truth hurts but not as bad as a circle of lies unraveled!" I have made a commitment to always try and tell the truth no matter what. It sometimes is easier to say than do, especially when someone you care about is involved. Have you tried telling the truth in a hard situation? From personal experience, it may be difficult in the present but beneficial in the future! So let the truth be told and try to surround yourself with honest and genuine people!

FIGHT THE PAIN!

Pain is defined as mental or emotional suffering or torment. But as most things with enough perserverance it can be overcome. Have you overcome the physical and emotional barriers that are hindering your goals or dreams? Try and find that something that inspires you to run through those barriers!!