Into the Mirror

What is your self-image?

Do you have negative self talk with yourself?  Do you have positive self talk? What’s the effect of having negative and/or positive self talk with yourself.

There are days where I know myself and I have negative self talk.  I see myself in the mirror and I’m disgusted.  I don’t see the progress that I’ve made.  I see how far I have to go, not how far I’ve come.  Having this negative talk with myself, especially early in the AM, can completely ruin my entire day.  It can literally send my day into a complete downward spiral.  BUT….

When you have positive self talk with yourself, it can have the opposite effect.  I can think I’m as thin as the college students that I work with.  I can be proud of all of my successes.  I can be 110% on track with crossfit and food.  So what causes me to have negative self talk?

A lot of it for me, goes back to what I see in the mirror.  Do i see the muscles that are forming in my arms? Do I know that I’m down a lot? Can I see myself as lean and strong? it takes a long to adjust to what I see. I can’t see myself getting smaller all the time and then I try on a pair of pants, I didn’t know when I would fit into them, and they fit! The best thing for me is to look at older pictures on me.  I recently looked at some pictures from less than a year ago and I couldn’t believe what I saw.  I have a picture of myself from probably 14 or 15 years ago.  I always look at to see where I want to go.  It was always my goal picture.  Now my goal is to continue to be healthier but stronger too.

I know that I still have a way to go to reach my goals.  But I know that when you have positive self talk, you will reach your success sooner.

Take a look in the mirror and what do you see?

Holy Yoke!!

I went back and forth about signing up for the Strongman Seminar on Saturday.  I seek out advice from the various coaches.  I went back and forth in my head.  Could I do it? Should I do it? I’ve only been to a handful of strong(wo)man classes due to my job.  I loved when I went.  Hell, I even competed in the first Strongman comp at ACF.  But the bottom line, the lack of confidence issue of mine, was holding me back.

I may have had a moment of weakness when I signed up.  I wasn’t sure what I was getting into.  I was nervous.  I only mentioned it to a few people.  And than I got the email with all of the information.  Quick attitude adjustment on my part….I WAS STOKED!!!

I got there on Saturday and was thankful that my first (of hopefully many) Crossfit certifications was taking place in the comfort of my home box.  I don’t think I would have signed up, if it wasn’t at ACF.  There’s something about being in familiar surroundings to help tackle something new.  It was great knowing where everything was and of course seeing some many familiar faces.

The day got started with great instruction and enthusiasm. They warmed us up with running and some light stretching to get us started.  (Note…very intimading running between Kevin and Dean…definately won’t slow anyone down).

We than started with tire flipping fun!!! I love to flip tires.  There is something empowering about it! I practiced on a little one and then went to the next size up.  This one was harder than the one we typically use because it was lower to the ground.  We practiced some more and then had a mini-WOD.  1 minute max tire flips and 30 seconds box jumps on the tires.  I went first and tackled the low tire.  It felt great! The box jumps turned into step ups because the first jump I did, I almost fell…   I don’t remember my score but then I went a second time of just flipping the tire.  I figured I would take full advantage of it!

The next part was stones!! Moving heavy objects to our shoulders….love it!! The stone’s can be intimidating and because I don’t do them a lot, I stayed little.  I got to 75# for our tabata mini workout but again I was working form.  The stones are hard to handle and because we were learning different techniques, I was nervous.

The final part for the morning was kegs!! I couldn’t wait for this one!! The kegs are amazing to lift! Now since I run a bar as part of my job, I was curious to learn the proper carrying technique and they worked me thru it on the side at the end of the day.  This was my first time cleaning a keg and pressing it over my head and I can say that it was very challenging.  It’s definitely not compact like the typical barbells.

Finally we broke for lunch.  Now who could resist going to lunch with fellow athletes at Chipolte on a Saturday afternoon! It was such a nice day, Stacia and I convinced Cean to walk there! It was a great day and I love hanging with amazing people!

After lunch, we regrouped and they warmed us up again.  This second part of the day, I was prepared for anything!! We did contentials, farmers walk and the yoke!  I have never done the yoke before so I was most excited for that.  It felt strange at first to have it on my back but I did empty first and walked swiftly with it across the triple wide.  We slowly added more weight and got to what we believe to be 270#!! HOLY YOKE! It started getting heavy and I can tell that it is something that I want to try again!!

Overall, the whole day was AMAZING!! It was great to meet new people but still be comfortable in my surroundings.  It was very empowering.  Strong(wo)man events always make me realize how much stronger I really am than snatching or deadlifting barbells.  It was definitely out of my comfort zone.

What have you done lately to make you realize you are stronger than you think?