Do it to me one more time, once is never enough...

I've been thinking about what my new short-term goals should be, and this led me to consider the short-term goals I made and achieved over the past two years.  The first came in September 2009, fresh off of a longer than usual business trip to Rome, where my diet consisted only of bread, olive oil, cheese, and wine. Being insulin resistant, and obviously a glutton for punishment, I stepped off of the plane (side note: Jay-Z was also on this plane, HOV<>!) fatter and sicker than ever. My first goal was to lose weight...any amount of weight. My second goal was to not be morbidly obese. My third goal was to run for longer than 2 minutes without stopping.  On and on the goal setting process went.  Each time I met a goal, I shocked myself. I continued to lose weight (at a very slow but healthy pace).  I moved from the morbidly obese category into the less undesirable obese category, and then into the plain-Jane overweight category.

Tangent:  Imagine, if you will, me, not too long ago, in only my underthings, jumping around the bathroom joyously shouting, "I'M OBESE, I'M ONLY OBESE NOW, BABE!" <end tangent>. 

I was eventually able to run a 5K without stopping, and although it was most likely the slowest 5K ever ran in the entire history of running, I felt accomplished. I also felt bored. I traded in running shoes for dance shoes and started Zumba. While it wasn't exactly the down-and-dirty choreography I loved to bust out in my younger days, it wasn't Sweatin' to the Oldies either*.  Whatever it was, it kept me off the couch (I'm so sorry Detective Stabler).

Around this time, a good friend of mine (Paula) started to talk about this whack-ass-torture-chamber-of-a-gym she recently joined, where people did "CrossFit". It sounded awful to me.  I told her so. Each next time we met, she unveiled more details about this gym, and I responded by calling her things like "maniac" and "psycho".  I couldn't understand why anyone (especially a girl) would want to do endurance and strength training when they could get an adequate cardio workout shaking their groove thing to Shakira. Wouldn't Paula get huge?  Wouldn't she want to start oiling up, wearing triangle bikinis, and flexing her muscles to flashy music on ESPN?  Thankfully, the answer to all of these questions I had is "no". Paula is not huge, in fact, she is getting quite small.  I can almost fit her in my pocket (but she will still kick your ass). Fast Forward to two-ish months ago.

Note to the reader: As well as being a great friend, Paula is also one of my tattoo artists. 

During a particularly painful tattoo session, in an attempt to get Paula to talk for an extended period of time without needing a response from me (so that I could avoid whimpering), I asked her to explain CrossFit again in explicit detail.  As a lover of CrossFit and Guerrilla Fitness, Paula went on and on.  Being in a super hazy state of consciousness from the pain, I was brought to some new-age level of understanding for the first time in my life.  Don't get me wrong - nothing Paula said this time was drastically different from anything she had told me before. Everything still sounded absolutely terrible (to me).  Everything about the workouts still seemed too difficult, too stressful, and honestly - too impossible for someone who was in my physical condition. CrossFit sounded like the opposite of fun**.  That's when it clicked - this was exactly what I needed in my life - something that forced me to push through the bubble gum limits I would otherwise set for myself.

Where were we?  Oh yes, goals.  So here are several of my new short-term goals.  I'm going to share them with you so that you can keep me accountable.

1. Add a well-executed girly push-up to my workout repetoire (Nope, don't "have one" yet)***
2. Get faster on runs
3. Move from the rings to a band-assisted pull-up
4. Begin to incorporate "cleaner" food choices into my diet
5. Successfully complete a 30-day Paleo challenge after European vacation (we come home October 3rd)
6. Stop whining about the things I can't do yet

*No disrespect to Richard Simmons - he runs this motherf*cker, shut yo mouth!
**CrossFit actually is fun (most of the time)
***"Have one"or"Have a": CrossFit terminology for the ability to perform a specific movement.  Example:  Coach 1: "Hey Jill, do you have a pullup yet?"

Thanks to everyone who read the opening post and to those who left encouraging comments!  I hope you continue to enjoy my blabber because I'm really amped to keep this up.

A special thanks to Paula for being Paula :).