Ok so here is an after photo. It is not one I submitted but you get the idea. 7000 people entered last year so the chances of winning are not very good but at least I gave myself the my best chance I could. Anyway the real victory is that I actually followed through with it. The essay questions and pictures have been mailed so it is out of my hands. I won’t hear a thing until December so… I guess that is that for now.

Below are the results of my fitness goals outside of just generally getting in better shape. I definitely met that overall goal – mostly by playing volleyball incessantly. Again, an after photo will be posted tomorrow. I guess the picture to the left there is kind of a preview. Yeah, that’s me.

Pull-ups (dead hang)
Goal: 10 consecutive
Starting: about 1.5
Today: 8
Note: I was really close but didn’t quite make it all the way to 10. For my next round one of my goals will be to get 12.

Push-ups (military)
Goal: 25
Starting: 5
Today: 26
Note: Got that one! They never seemed to get any easier. Just the capacity increases. The next round will to include a goal about burpees instead of pushups because mine are really slow and very ugly:

Run a 5k
Goal: 7:30 per mile
Starting: In January I ran as fast as I could in the cold at 8:45s.
Today: No idea
Note: This goal fell by the wayside when I realized that for the weight loss goal I was getting better results from the hiking. However for the CrossFit training I will be doing miles of sprints so this goal is going to resurface for sure.

Sit-ups: It was not a goal, per say, but I also did over 6000 sit ups in those first 12 weeks. In the next round I will have a goal to get better at toe to bars. This girl starts with a demonstration of knee to elbows. You can see toes to bars at 1:03. Be sure to watch the freakish guy at 2:00 demonstrating windshield wipers:

If I have learned anything it is that it will take me a lot longer than 12 weeks to meet all my goals. But at least I have conquered a few. Obviously, the first was the weight goal. I have gained back a little which I had planned to do since 130 is a little low for me. I am happier at about 135-137. Just need to put the brakes on now before some real weight starts creeping back.

Starting weight: 157
End weight: 130
Current weight: 135

This week I am finally going to share the results of my 12 week challenge. Gulp… I also have permission to post one of my after pictures. Don’t get too excited. It will NOT be a full body bikini shot. Those are reserved for the judges. It will be a partial in a sports bra and shorts and may be in black and white. And since I find it EXTREMELY embarrassing, for whatever reason, it might only be posted for a single day. That day will be this coming Thursday. I just need a few days to work up the courage. Yikes.

Here is the picture of the CrossFit team. From left to right:

Me – the one standing like my back is broken. I am sooo sore.
Lucinda – the one who killed us on wall balls.
Roseanne – she can do 100 pull ups in under 6 minutes.
Tim – the owner and our trainer.
Steve – a major stud I had not met before Saturday.
Brad – professional kayaker who works out with me and the early crew.
Notice on the board behind us Brad was 1st in every event – by a lot.
 

Despite being completely sick all week and having shingles, I still managed to perform well enough yesterday to take one of the three female spots on Flatirons Crossfit’s Affiliate Cup Team! I am so excited! We had to do three grueling workouts within 2.5 hours. It was brutal.

Workout 1:
As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes of:
6 pullups (kipping allowed)
4 deadlifts @ 180 lbs
150 meter run

Result: I almost made it 8 rounds, tying with Rosanne for the top score.

Workout 2: Ironically named “Karen”
For time: 150 wall balls at an 8 ft target with a 14 lb ball.
It looks like this:

Result: I was 2nd behind Lucinda who smoked all of us. After all those dead lifts it was really hard to get out of the squat.

Workout 3: The one I feared would keep me off the team:
3 overhead squats at the heaviest weight we could get up to.
3 rounds of as many pull ups as we could do in a row.

Result: I was okay with the pull ups but I am TERRIBLE at overhead squat. I mean worthless. My shoulders don’t have that range of motion so I keep avoiding them. But luckily I did well enough in the first two to make up for my 4th place finish in this one and edge by Elizabeth.

The team is made up of 3 girls and 3 guys. At the end of April, we will compete against 38 other teams for only 8 spots in the competition in California in July. We have our work cut out for us!

Did you know it is possible to get a resurgence of chicken pox just from putting a lot of stress on your body? I didn’t. Apparently that is what “shingles” is. Luckily you only get it in a small isolated area and once you start the medicine you are no longer contagious. Otherwise I would not be able to go to CrossFit tryouts today. I thought the doctor was joking. They spray tanned me for my after photos last week so I thought I was just having some kind of reaction to that. But no. Shingles. Every time my shirt brushes against the itchy patch on my side it is like torture. Not a distraction I want to have during 3 grueling workouts today. Major bummer. But whatever. I just need to suck it up and still kick butt today.

I picked up the CD of my after photos yesterday. There are about 500 to choose from. I worried that if started looking at them it would distract me from work so I haven’t seen them yet. Tonight after work I will start the process of figuring out which ones to send in. An interesting thing happened at the studio. The photographer apparently showed my pictures to girls that are part of a team that does fitness competitions like bikini modeling and stuff like that. Based on how the pictures came out, they seem to think I am qualified. Whoa. I don’t know. I think I am probably more suited for and more interested in the performance type competition that CrossFit offers, racing and stuff, over standing on a stage in a bikini and high heels trying to look happy. I guess I am still going to email their trainer to ask about it though. Just to see…

Sorry I skipped yesterday. Lots to do between work, writing the essay, and getting ready for those CrossFit Affiliate Cup Team tryouts on Saturday. Based on the workouts posted and the girls signed up I think I am probably about 4th best and there are only 3 spots. So most likely I will end up as an alternate. One girl, Roseanne, is on a whole other level. She is a given. Lucinda and I are really close in the workouts but she is just slightly faster and just slightly stronger in most areas. I am usually faster than Elizabeth but she is so ridiculously strong and does WAY more pull ups than me. Half our workouts on Saturday include pull ups and weight lifting so between me and her for that 3rd spot I think her strength and her pull ups are going to trump my speed. I guess we’ll see.

The Body For Life Challenge is 12 weeks and begins whenever a challenger wishes to start. Each year there are four rounds. Your round is determined by your dates. Since I finished my 12 weeks prior to May 6th that means I participated in Round 1. Round 4 ends December 12. At the end of the year, the judges compare the top performers from each round and choose the winners. This means the winners are not announced until next January. The Grand Prize is $25,000 and a home gym. The prize for winning in your gender/age group is $10,000 and a home gym. However, each year they receive roughly 6000-7000 entries. This means the chances of being a winner are extremely slim. The real triumph is finishing the challenge and being proud of the results.

For the past month I have focused entirely on the goal of finishing the physical aspects of The Body For Life Challenge. I have not written much about how the competition actually works. Let me start by pointing out that the after photo is only half of what you are judged upon. You are also required to write a short essay about what you have learned from the experience. The essay is equally as important if not more so than the after photos. Contenders are chosen based on pictures but winners are selected based on the life lessons they have taken away from setting a difficult goal, putting all their efforts into it, and reaching it. If you doubt the importance of the essay like I did, consider this…

Last year’s Grand Prize for men went to this guy:

instead of this guy: