Busy Beginnings

For as long as I can remember the idea of “health” engulfed my family and therefore, me. I grew up in a home labeled an “ingredient household” meaning every item read the word “organic”, produce grew in the garden when possible, and pre-made meals circulated few and far between. In addition to this both my parents, especially my dad, put an emphasis on working out and performance within this. Podcasts about cold showers for recovery and different supplements to boost sleep lingered through our kitchen at many hours of the day.

All this to say, while you may believe I would reject this lifestyle since my parents ever so kindly shoved it down my throat, I ended up drinking the kool-aid right along with them. I even wound up a nutrition major so I can’t even deny it if I wanted to.

My life revolves around my workout schedule as well as when and what meal I can squeeze in. Throughout this blog I plan to document my training and everything else that goes along with it that may seem less obvious to someone not living it.

To kick-off, I want to describe the process of transitioning my home lifestyle to fit in around my new schedule here. I had a soft launch into the college experience by starting with the summer session, but nonetheless it still required quite the adaptation.

A typical day for me back home before starting college looked a little something like this: 5am crossfit training before school, classes until 2:40pm, straight to work until 3:30pm, followed by lifting or active recovery depending on the day until 8:30pm. While this may sound like a lot, I thrived under the busy schedule and everyone from my coaches to my fellow crossfit athletes became my closest friends so a lack of social life never emerged as an issue.

I knew coming into college things would have to change, but I persisted to keep my training a priority. To start the summer session I began by locating the nearest crossfit gym in regards to campus. I knew a club existed on campus, but that would not open until the fall and I needed something to keep me sharp in the meantime.

I ended up finding one called “Crossfit LionHeart” right down town and immediately found my home away from home again. Crossfit fosters a community in itself and engaging in a group like that to have a constant in my day during the summer was immensely helpful in the moving process.

Fast-forward to fall, clubs started and I loaded my class schedule into my calendar. I now participate in the crossfit club on campus, take part in the powerlifting team, and still attend Crossfit LionHeart off campus. In order to manage all of this I rifled through all the practice times for each establishment and put together a weekly schedule that balances my attendance at each gym and is feasible for my body to uphold. A week now typically looks like this for me:

Blocked out cells are my classes, light pink is my training downtown, grey is any type of powerlifting practice, light purple is my training with the crossfit club, and the green cell is a time where I have the option of which crossfit gym I would like to attend based on the workouts listed.

The structure and rigor of this lifestyle keeps me sane and focused. I could not be happier with the way I was able to conform my life into the same format I am used to from back home.

In order to incorporate our lesson from this week I did my best to avoid passive voice and “being verbs” while writing. I also went back after writing and located any “being verbs” that I wrote out of habit and replaced them with more vivid verbs and adverbs in order to “spice up” my writing as much as possible. Some examples of where I did this are bolded.