Labor Day Thoughts
As I sit here on Labor Day... I should be working on writing a research paper for my class, but here I am word vomiting instead LOL. Anyway, what I want to talk about is fitness. **OMG SHOCKER ASH** I know. I know, it's pretty rare.
It's been several months since I've been on #teamChillTheHeckOut and not doing CrossFit like 4 hours a day everyday. I'm so sorry, body hahah. But recently I've really realized how much fun it is to use the fitness that I have gained from CrossFit to do other things.. ya know, outside of the gym. Isn't that kind of what it's meant for? It's called functional fitness. It's making you fitter to be able to do other things more efficiently because you're fit.
It kind of affected me in the opposite direction, though. While I did do it in a competitive manner to compete, I also did it way too much and would never allow myself to skip a day of it, which isn't healthy mentally or physically. It was actually causing me to become WAY less involved in my actual life outside of that. When you have goals, there are no doubt things that you have to sacrifice, but I was sacrificing a lot of things for really nothing except my selfish desire to train that much.
I sacrificed time that I could be enjoying the outdoors and actually using my fitness. I bring this up now because I've recently gotten more into hiking and going on trails in the woods. It's extremely therapeutic for me and I absolutely love it!! I wish I would have gotten into it sooner, but CrossFit held me back because skipping a session (or three let's be real lololol) in one day would not be worth it to go hiking.
I also probably missed out on different events, parties, friend dates, etc. I mean I was literally doing this stuff for hours on end every day since I was 16. Looking back, I just want to slap myself bc like ASH R U DUMB. You don't lose any gains and you won't lose an ab if you skip one session. STOP the pressure you put on yourself girlfran! You ain't going to the games - you are not that important!!! *insert laugh emoji*
While I 100% enjoyed what I did with CrossFit and how much I did it, I just also realize how much I missed out on based on the fact that my whole life revolved around when I was working out. My days were controlled by it and then because it's also a stress reliever for me, when school and my nutrition business started getting more time consuming and causing more stress, it led to just training longer.. aka more stress. It was a vicious stress circle, my friend.
With all of these new changes that CrossFit has put out for the upcoming Games season, it makes me realize that there is so much more to life. There's no more regionals. NONE. & for so long, that's what I thought I wanted. I didn't really want it. I just knew others wanted it for me and knew I had potential, but deep down I didn't really want it. That doesn't make me any less of a person - it just means I'm not willing to make certain sacrifices.
But now that there is no more regionals, it honestly kind of gives me this sigh of relief because now I know at least I'd never put myself back in that over-training position. & I hope that it is a reality check for those that are training as a regionals-hopeful to really hone in on their "why". If now they see no point in training at all, maybe they didn't really want it in the first place. Maybe now it will give an opportunity for them to slow down a little bit and maybe not train so much just for the sake of telling people you want to go to regionals. Maybe it'll give people an opportunity to start investing into their future in ways that will actually pay off.
Now that I'm doing things other than just CrossFit (because I have to for my health), I'm having a lot more fun honestly. I've been doing more yoga, barre, light bodybuilding circuits, hiking, going on trails, short runs, biking, etc. I get so much more enjoyment using my fitness for these things honestly. Also barre is REALLY HARD YALL! I was totally not expecting it. I had no idea what it even was which was probably a good thing because then I didn't know what it was going to feel like hahaha. For those wondering: no it's not a form of yoga. It's a form of light dumbbell torture.
I have gone on absolutely so many rabbit trails with this post. But these are just my thoughts and I had to get them out. Thanks for reading them LOL.
Happy Labor day!
xo
Ash