CrossFit in my life...by Lisa Perkins
Paul –I wanted to thank you for giving me CrossFit in my life. I can’t even begin to tell you how it has truly changed my life. Today’s workout (your anniversary workout) was so challenging to me and a workout that I honestly did not think I was going to make it through and I DID! I still can’t believe that I am able to do the things that I can do now.
I started CrossFit the beginning of January 2011 and was at a point that I had to make a change. Over the years, I had slowly been gaining weight, drinking more soda, and just not regularly exercising and as I approached my 40th birthday, I really was starting to feel unhealthy and overweight and knew I needed to make a change. I had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in Spring 2005 and knew that if I did not change some habits soon, they were going to change for me.
It was my New Year’s Resolution to start exercising and I promised myself I was going to make the most of it and make it work even with my MS. I weighed myself, took my measurements and even took some not very becoming photos of myself. At this point, I weighed 165 lbs.
Over the course of the next year, I thought I was eating a healthy diet, I gave up soda completely, I tried to watch my portion sizes, etc, but I just ate what I wanted in moderation and thought with the exercise that I would begin losing weight and toning up. For the year, I had only lost about 3 ½ lbs, which I knew partly was due to gaining some muscle. I had lost some inches, mostly around my waist and hips, but not really anywhere else and I still wore the same jean size.
In January 2012, the “Throw Away the Scales” challenge was given to all of us and I knew that I wanted to do this and really challenge myself to be healthier. I had asked Paul many times in the past what I could do to lose weight and get rid of more of my mid-section and he always told me, it was my diet. I honestly did not believe that I ate that bad, but I thought it was the perfect time to do this challenge and really incorporate The Zone Diet that he always talked about.
It now is almost the end of May 2012, 5 months later, and WOW, I am absolutely shocked by my transformation. I have been doing the Zone Diet since January and have lost 21 lbs in just 5 months and I am now 140.2 lbs. The inches have just begun to melt away. I LOVE THIS…all my hard work has truly paid off. I have gone from a size 12 that I had been at FOREVER and I now wear a size 6 – yes, that’s 3 jean sizes. I have now lost a total of 8 inches around my hips since I first started, 6 ½ inches around my belly button and 4 inches from my waist!!! Since January, I have been able to really increase my weights and see more muscle definition and the only change in my life has been that I incorporated the Zone Diet – it really has been that simple. Now, I can’t even imagine eating my “old” way. I was really strict for the first 2 months during the challenge and now I allow myself to eat whatever I want for two meals a week and then follow the Zone for the remainder and I have truly never felt better in my entire life. My MS has been really good and although I still struggle during some of the workouts, it is at a much different point than it used to be in the beginning and I am SO PROUD OF MYSELF!
From the bottom of my heart…THANK YOU SO MUCH PAUL, I can’t even imagine my life now without CrossFit!!!
Lisa
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