JOHN
So how did I get here and where did I come from?
Well I’m no world class athlete by any means, I played sports almost every day while growing up. When I was growing up no one hung out inside all day, we spent our summers running or riding our bikes everywhere we went and just being active almost every waking hour of every day. In high school, I played soccer and was good enough to be a conference “all-star” at the goalkeeper position my junior and senior years.
No college for me, it was off to the military I went and my recreational sports time dwindled to zero other than the occasional softball game. Oh, and I took up smoking when I joined the military because, well just because. Nonetheless being on active duty in the military will keep you very active all day long and I stayed in a reasonably decent shape during those 25 years I served. I even did daily physical training with the EOD units when I deployed to the middle east and pacific theaters. I then served as a paid on-call firefighter for over 6 years before retiring from the military. So, all in all, I was in kind of good shape.
I retired from the military in 2006, quit smoking and moved to Minnesota (Not my home state of New York) where I pursued another childhood dream of becoming a law enforcement officer. Quitting smoking and the sudden change in activity level assisted me in putting on over 50 pounds and I got further and further out of shape. Having been active and in professions that requires strength, agility and endurance my entire life and lacking the “group training” that the military “offers,” I joined Lifetime Fitness when it opened in Lakeville in 2007 and had marginal success at staying strong and flexible, kind of wandering around with no solid plan other than to " workout".
I had been curious about CrossFit for some time and wanted to give it a try but was hesitant because of the amount of weight I had gained and the broken-down parts of my body I received as a parting gift from the military. The heavier I got, the more aches and pains I had. The more aches and pains I had, the less active I was. I tried to be “healthy,” I tried to stay “in shape” and had marginal success with weight loss a few times but nothing ever stuck and I always rebounded, right up to the very sexy 235 pounds I weighed when I was when I walked into Crosswinds CrossFit in April 2016.
Fast forward to April 2016.
There are several CrossFit gyms in the area but I decided to give Crosswinds a chance because of Dan's background. I quickly realized that I was in no shape of any kind and this further contributed to my embarrassment and frustration with my physical condition. As everyone who does CrossFit knows, it is very humbling and requires you to truly evaluate yourself, and know your “why.” It requires you to be honest with yourself about your abilities and capabilities at that point in your life. And finally, to learn it is ok and necessary to scale and modify workouts when you are new, or out of shape, and I was both. My hardheadedness, pride and ego got in the way of learning these lessons for about a year.
In March of this year, still weighing in at a stealth 235 pounds, I finally had had enough and made the decision to do what I needed to do to lose the weight that I had gained and to leave my pride and ego at the door. As the weight came off, my abilities increased; as my abilities increased, my comfort level at Crosswinds increased. And more importantly I had learned to scale properly and not be afraid to ask for assistance with properly scaling and modifying an exercise or workout.
Fast-forward to today, I'm down nearly 50 pounds and am stronger, more flexible and more confident than I have been in over 10 years. I'm capable of doing things now that I thought impossible last year. The aches and pains from the broken parts while still there are greatly diminished on a daily basis, which contributes to my overall sense of accomplishment. I completed a trip to a small town in Canada recently, and while there found a CrossFit gym where I dropped in and completed a WOD with them, confident that I could handle whatever was on tap that day.
I still have quite a few things I want to accomplish this year, and will stay committed to and trust in the process, knowing that those goals are now within reach. Heck, I even set the pace for the 400m warm-up run the other morning. How about that! :-)
Crosswinds CrossFit is a great place with great people and I would not be in the position I am today without the motivation Dan, Kristy and ALL the members Crosswinds provide me. Thank you all.
-John, member at Crosswinds CrossFit since April 2016
Well I’m no world class athlete by any means, I played sports almost every day while growing up. When I was growing up no one hung out inside all day, we spent our summers running or riding our bikes everywhere we went and just being active almost every waking hour of every day. In high school, I played soccer and was good enough to be a conference “all-star” at the goalkeeper position my junior and senior years.
No college for me, it was off to the military I went and my recreational sports time dwindled to zero other than the occasional softball game. Oh, and I took up smoking when I joined the military because, well just because. Nonetheless being on active duty in the military will keep you very active all day long and I stayed in a reasonably decent shape during those 25 years I served. I even did daily physical training with the EOD units when I deployed to the middle east and pacific theaters. I then served as a paid on-call firefighter for over 6 years before retiring from the military. So, all in all, I was in kind of good shape.
I retired from the military in 2006, quit smoking and moved to Minnesota (Not my home state of New York) where I pursued another childhood dream of becoming a law enforcement officer. Quitting smoking and the sudden change in activity level assisted me in putting on over 50 pounds and I got further and further out of shape. Having been active and in professions that requires strength, agility and endurance my entire life and lacking the “group training” that the military “offers,” I joined Lifetime Fitness when it opened in Lakeville in 2007 and had marginal success at staying strong and flexible, kind of wandering around with no solid plan other than to " workout".
I had been curious about CrossFit for some time and wanted to give it a try but was hesitant because of the amount of weight I had gained and the broken-down parts of my body I received as a parting gift from the military. The heavier I got, the more aches and pains I had. The more aches and pains I had, the less active I was. I tried to be “healthy,” I tried to stay “in shape” and had marginal success with weight loss a few times but nothing ever stuck and I always rebounded, right up to the very sexy 235 pounds I weighed when I was when I walked into Crosswinds CrossFit in April 2016.
Fast forward to April 2016.
There are several CrossFit gyms in the area but I decided to give Crosswinds a chance because of Dan's background. I quickly realized that I was in no shape of any kind and this further contributed to my embarrassment and frustration with my physical condition. As everyone who does CrossFit knows, it is very humbling and requires you to truly evaluate yourself, and know your “why.” It requires you to be honest with yourself about your abilities and capabilities at that point in your life. And finally, to learn it is ok and necessary to scale and modify workouts when you are new, or out of shape, and I was both. My hardheadedness, pride and ego got in the way of learning these lessons for about a year.
In March of this year, still weighing in at a stealth 235 pounds, I finally had had enough and made the decision to do what I needed to do to lose the weight that I had gained and to leave my pride and ego at the door. As the weight came off, my abilities increased; as my abilities increased, my comfort level at Crosswinds increased. And more importantly I had learned to scale properly and not be afraid to ask for assistance with properly scaling and modifying an exercise or workout.
Fast-forward to today, I'm down nearly 50 pounds and am stronger, more flexible and more confident than I have been in over 10 years. I'm capable of doing things now that I thought impossible last year. The aches and pains from the broken parts while still there are greatly diminished on a daily basis, which contributes to my overall sense of accomplishment. I completed a trip to a small town in Canada recently, and while there found a CrossFit gym where I dropped in and completed a WOD with them, confident that I could handle whatever was on tap that day.
I still have quite a few things I want to accomplish this year, and will stay committed to and trust in the process, knowing that those goals are now within reach. Heck, I even set the pace for the 400m warm-up run the other morning. How about that! :-)
Crosswinds CrossFit is a great place with great people and I would not be in the position I am today without the motivation Dan, Kristy and ALL the members Crosswinds provide me. Thank you all.
-John, member at Crosswinds CrossFit since April 2016
