And so it goes

Complete as many rounds as possible in five minutes of:

275 pound Deadlift, 3 reps

115 pound Push press, 7 reps

Ken Gall 9 rounds + 3 push press, Lucas Brainerd 7 rounds.

Today is the beginning of our second week of our “Build your own warm up” intensive.  A perfect workout for it as well!  Reread our past weeks posts if you need a review and we will still be there to help, so don’t worry!

The Happy Before Couple (Maru left, Jess right)

I do have a few thoughts on the past 8 weeks and the IWC challenge, but first lets have one more guest post from the ladies winner, Maru!

The last few years have been interesting for us when it comes to food and health, both physical and emotional. For those of you who are married, or have bought a home, or have a high demanding job… which might relate to everyone… well we started our journey of figuring out how to balance our lives in the healthiest way, and again I mean both physically and emotionally. We, like many couples, tried to figure out what our new family’s culture and values would be… food had a lot to do with it!!! It started with trying to cut down on grains by substituting with sprouted grains. Jess convinced me that because of my Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which in simple words is hypothyroidism, I had to stop having any soy products. That was the first request, then came trying to make me read books about autoimmune disorders and then the real challenge came along… CROSSFIT AND PALEO! Well, I came home one day and Jess was sitting down in front of the computer and stated: “I found a crossfit gym close to home and it’s expensive but I want to do it, and you don’t have to do it with me”. I thought: “nice way to welcome me home after a long day at work, babe”. There it was, she was going to do it and I could have just let her do it and slowly convince her that with that money we could be taking a great vacation in the Caribbean or something… but instead my guilty conscious dragged me to the “FREE” 101 class with her. Little did I know that what Jess had told me was a “FREE” one time thing to see what happens would become a commitment for life. AND well you know what happened, we joined the Monday after, I actually went to pay on my own since it was Valentine’s Day and Jess was working, I thought this is the best gift I could have gotten her… well then I realized it was the best gift for both of us.

One month in and we were hooked, the challenge was announced and we had some serious thinking to do… well I did, Jess knew exactly what she wanted to do, AGAIN. Jess was very excited about the food part of the challenge but had convinced herself that I wasn’t going to do it, so realistically it would be impossible if we weren’t both in, she thought she was lucky to just get me to do crossfit. So, Jess came home after work and I told her: “Let’s do the challenge!” Jess couldn’t believe it but she played it cool and went with it, while I now had agreed to so much, little did I know. Once the decision was made, we dove right in and the first two weeks of the challenge we did Paleo and we zoned… however hard, we stuck to it together and supported each other (sometimes with a little yelling and some Spanish curse words). After the first two weeks, the strict zoning slowly got more relaxed but we continued Paleo through out the whole challenge. The working out was the least of our worries, we continued three times a week and started seeing improvements… we pushed our own limits and slowly got from thick bands to thinner and to none.

I will have to confess that I now look back and realize that this experience has changed our life for the better. We feel great, have so much energy and are mentally stronger. I personally had been dealing with hypothyroidism symptoms for about 4 years and it’s the first time that I was able to lose weight and significantly reduce many of other symptoms, such as hair loss and fatigue. In the next week I am going to get my TSH levels checked to see what impact all this had on my health… I know they will be different than in the last 4 years, we will see. We want to thank everyone who is part of this gym… however I do want to thank Jess for wanting better for us, and slowly but surely showing me that I should want better for myself as well.

Diso and Martina: Congratulations! It’s two girls… on a serious note, we are forever grateful for everything you’ve given us, gracias.

Zeb: (especially from Jess) Thanks for pushing me to my limits, being there for all my food questions and teaching me, I couldn’t have done this without you.

G: (especially from Maru) What can I say, that sweet and innocent however passive-aggressive stare has pushed me not only to my limits but beyond (mostly because I don’t necessarily think I have a choice)… Thank you so much!

This is an amazing community and we feel honored to be a part of it… we can’t wait for what’s to come!

Dayymmmn!  The After Shocks!