In July 2010, I flew to Vegas to visit my Pops, who has battled polio his entire life and type 2 diabetes for the past decade, in ICU. He had a pretty bad heart attack; the first of three. Luckily he was in the hospital for dialysis when it happened, so help was right there when he needed it. He pulled through eventually and got back to his normal routine. The same routine he had been doing for the last 9 years. The routine was a dialysis visit that usually took 4-5 hours a day every Mon-Wed-Fri. He spent the rest of those days recovering from dialysis laying in bed trying to get or stay warm even on the hottest Vegas days. He had a motorized chair to get around in and barely had enough strength to get on and off the pot most days. Until the last year or so when the doctors ordered a colostomy bag be attached permanently to him, which he hated.
I watched my Pops smoke a pack, sometimes two, of Marlboro Reds a day for most of my life. At the same time he would eat whatever he wanted and put down a pot of black coffee in the morning only to chase it down with a 2 liter of RC Cola in the evening while watching TV. The one thing to finally make him stop was his first stroke in the Fall of 2002.
I was always active and involved in sports growing up. I could eat and drink whatever I wanted and always be ready to go. I remember leaving the gym in high school and getting 2 - .99 cent Whoppers as my post workout meal. Funny thing is, I got pretty darn strong and lean off that diet too. I played football all the way through college. I worked out so often again I never thought about worrying what was going in my body for the most part.
In 2005, I graduated college and got a job teaching middle school Physical Education. My playing days were over, but I was still staying active playing in adult volleyball and softball leagues, short runs, and lifting at the gym (lightly and unmotivated). My playing weight in college was 210lbs. Over the next 5 years of teaching I ballooned up to 260lbs. I was always tired at home, couldn't demonstrate lessons without losing my breath in front of the class, unmotivated to do anything around the house, a lazy father to my daughter, and husband to my wife.
On my way home from Vegas that July, feeling all 260lbs of uncomfortableness in a an airplane seat, I knew things had to change. I've watched him deteriorate long enough to know that is not the future I want to go through or for my kids to watch me go through.
I had been following Crossfit on the main site for a while. Never really actually having the guts to do any of the WODs because of the shape I was in, so I took the physically easier route and I started eating Paleo as soon as I got home. By September, I had dropped a 15lbs. I started doing some "easy" WODs, very inconsistently, at school as the year went on. Holiday season came and I put back on 5-8lbs. At Christmas, I was blessed by my generous brother in law with a 2 month membership to a local box, Crossfit Fire. I started in February 2011.
I HAVE LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT!!! Lifting is fun again and motivation is never hard to find! There is always someone willing to push you a little harder in a met con or to lift a little heavier during strength. I am a better husband, father, coach, and teacher because of the shape Crossfit has helped me get in to. I have since moved on to Crossfit Prevail. The lowest I've been was 205lbs and I feel great.
My Pops passed away on December 19, 2011. His third heart attack in seventeen months. The doctors told us the first two would have killed him had he not been in a hospital both times when the attacks occurred. He survived because he was a fighter. He fought his way out of an abusive home as a child, he fought to prove himself everyday because of the handicap he had since he was a young boy, and he fought to get better each time he was hospitalized because he loved his children and grandchildren and wanted to spend as much time with them as possible.
He has and always will be my inspiration to BE BETTER despite the circumstance. I didn't start Crossfit to one day become the next CF Games Champion. I Crossfit to be a better husband, father, son, brother, friend, coach, and teacher than I was yesterday.
