How Yoga, Crossfit, and Facebook Changed My Life
I have never been able to touch my toes. I’ve been VERY inflexible for as long as I can remember, and that’s something that has always bothered me. Even in high school, when I stretched every day with the tennis team, I never have been able to get past mid-shin. That is the reason that yoga always scared the crud out of me. My husband had been telling me for years that yoga would be good for me, and he thought I should try it. I didn’t even consider it. Yoga is for people that can put their palms flat on the ground and do back bends, and that wasn’t me. Then my friend and neighbor Lisa told me about her yoga class and how much she loves it. She invited me to come with her once, and since I think she’s awesome, and since my husband thought it would be good for me, I decided to try it. I didn’t really like it. It seemed like it went on forever, and I felt lost. I didn’t know what everyone was doing. When I see someone do something, it looks easy enough, but I can never seem to make my body do what I want it to. So, for the entire hour of that yoga class, I felt like I was doing everything the wrong way, and I felt like a big loser.
Fast-forward about five years. I was teaching math at a brand new high school. I wanted to get to know other teachers and really be a part of the school. I wanted to love my job and feel connected. The teacher across the hall from me, who was also my department chair, was setting up a weekly yoga class for teachers, at a discounted rate. After getting confirmation that we would be in a secluded room where no one would be able to see my attempts at a downward dog, I signed up. I had lots of anxiety about it, but I decided to give it a try. We had a really small class (maybe 8-10 teachers), and I actually felt pretty comfortable. I got there really early on the first day so I could claim a spot in the corner, where I could hide but still be close to the instructor. I let everyone know up front that I sucked at yoga, and that made me feel better. I didn’t know what I was doing, but my teacher (Debra – she’s awesome!) went slowly and helped me along the way whenever I needed it. It took me a couple of months, but I started to feel confident since we did a lot of the same moves. I still felt like a loser sometimes, but I was actually doing yoga, and that was pretty cool. I had to modify some of the positions that were difficult for me, but that’s okay, because I was doing yoga! The modifications were sometimes because of my lack of flexibility and/or balance, but sometimes I had to modify because of my joints. I have rheumatoid arthritis, so sometimes I couldn’t hold a position for too long, especially if I was holding myself with my wrists at a 90 degree angle (like you would when doing a push-up). I actually really liked my yoga class, and I felt safe there. No one cared that I sucked at yoga, and I was happy that I was getting better. I felt proud of myself for accomplishing something that had been so intimidating to me.
Fast forward about two more years. My husband started doing CrossFit. He was getting stronger and leaner, and he LOVED it. He raved about it. He loved his class and his coach, Aggie. He started telling me that I should do CrossFit; it would be good for me. While I used to be considered an athlete, that was a long time ago. I didn’t really exercise at all anymore, and CrossFit seemed way too intense for me. For a girl with a couple of knee surgeries and rheumatoid arthritis (and serious confidence issues), lifting free weights and running didn’t seem appealing, at all. After a while, though, I started considering it. I guess I must think a lot of my husband, because I always seem to come around to his suggestions. He convinced me to come to a “Free for All” on a Saturday morning at his gym (CrossFit Round Rock), where he and I worked together on a Partner WOD (Workout of the Day). It was actually a lot of fun. I did one exercise for a short time, then I watched him, then I did something else, then I watched him, then I did something else… you get the idea. I needed a lot of instruction since I was new, but the coaches were helpful, and my husband was proud of me for trying it. I ended up joining.
I started in Coach V’s 4:30 afternoon class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I wasn’t strong at all, so I started with the “baby bar” as I call it, but in time, I was using the regular bar like most everyone else, adding weights as I got stronger. I really liked my class, my coaches, and my new friends. Mostly, I felt really good about accomplishing something I didn’t think I could do. I had triceps that were actually visible, and people even commented on my muscular arms every once in a while. I enjoyed working out and more than anything, I loved that I had gained so much confidence. You may be wondering how this relates to yoga. Well, if it hadn’t been for my yoga class, I would never have had the confidence to try CrossFit. Throwing up weights in front of other people? No way! I had been to the gym and used their cardio stuff and weight machines plenty of times, but this was WAY out of my comfort zone. I figured that if I could do yoga, I could do CrossFit.
Now, fast-forward one year. My husband was doing the Reborn challenge with our CrossFit gym. For this, he would have to follow a Paleo diet for two months. He encouraged me to try it, and my coach (the amazing Coach Anna) wanted me to try it, too. I already mentioned that I have rheumatoid arthritis. I also have Type 1 Diabetes and Hashimoto’s thyroid disease. Anna thought that eating healthier would really make a difference for me. She watched me struggle every class with low energy, light-headedness, joint pain, blood sugar problems, etc., and she knew it frustrated me. At one point she said, “You NEED to do the challenge.” I kind of wanted to do the Reborn challenge, but honestly, I was scared to try it (shocker, huh?). I didn’t think I would be able to give up my afternoon candy or my delicious bread. While I didn’t eat much sugar (except my fun-size Peanut M&M’s in the afternoon), I was addicted to sugar and ate tons of carbs. I kept telling myself that I was going to do the challenge, and then I let the sign-up deadline pass. I told people it was an accident, but of course it wasn’t. I was relieved that I was off the hook, but I felt guilty, like I missed an opportunity. So, I made the decision that I was going to do the challenge, unofficially. I followed the same Paleo diet that my husband did for two months.
The first week and a half were pretty rough. I was moody and lacked energy at first, but then… I started feeling good! I went from being tired all the time to actually having energy! It was awesome. I couldn’t believe how much better I felt. Other people noticed it, too. People would comment that I was looking great and ask if I was doing something differently. In the span of three days, I had three people comment that I had pretty eyes, and no one had said that to me for years. It wasn’t that hard to follow the diet either, once I got the hang of it. In addition to flexibility, yoga, and CrossFit, I also sucked at cooking. But, with practice, I started getting better at cooking, and I mainly stuck with simple meals. There are lots of recipes out there, thank goodness.
Fast-forward to the end of the two-month challenge. I had already decided that I was going to stick with Paleo. My husband wanted to continue with it too, and so did our other friends who did the challenge. Everyone was feeling better than ever. Now, how does Facebook fit in to this story? Well, I was browsing through Facebook (it’s a time-suck, as you probably know), and it suggested a page I might like. It was “Autoimmune Paleo.” Well, those chronic diseases I mentioned earlier, you know, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and thyroid disease… those are all autoimmune diseases. My body’s immune system attacked my own body instead of foreign invaders and really messed it up. So when I saw this page for Autoimmune Paleo, I was intrigued. I checked it out, and I found out that people were healing their autoimmune diseases with diet. I had never heard of this! Now that I had all this newfound confidence from yoga, CrossFit, and the Paleo challenge, I wanted to try the Autoimmune Paleo diet. It was like the regular Paleo diet, only stricter. It eliminated nuts and seeds (yes, that includes chocolate), eggs, and nightshade vegetables, like tomatoes and peppers. You don’t necessarily get rid of those forever, but you eliminate them for several months and then reintroduce them to find out if those foods are triggers for your disease. It only took ten days for me to realize, “Holy crap, my fingers don’t hurt!” My fingers felt free, and so did my other joints. It was amazing. It just sort of hit me that everything felt a lot better. I remember specifically walking through the hallway, heading back to my classroom from the bathroom, and realizing that my joints felt really good, better than they had in over a decade. I was opening my hands, closing them, opening them, over and over, amazed. They didn’t feel as swollen. I felt like someone had loosened the hinges in my knees. I was really happy, and I couldn’t believe that this was possible. Even my mom noticed how much thinner my fingers looked. She said they looked like they used to, when I would play the piano with my pretty, long fingers. Now it seems so obvious – how could I not have known that the foods I eat have a huge impact on my health?
I was feeling so good. I wanted to get even healthier. I knew that my medications weren’t good for my body, so I stopped taking them. I got off of five prescription medications. I feel better now without them than I did before I changed my diet, with them. This has been so life-changing for me that I decided to study nutrition. I became a Certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. I want to help others with their autoimmune disease. I want to spread the word. I want everyone to know how much the food that we put in our mouths affects us. Even my boys are healthier now. We only prepare nutrient-dense whole foods at our house. I do a lot of cooking, which takes a lot of time, but it’s totally worth it. Two of my sons have really improved their allergies because of it. My husband doesn’t snore like he used to. The dog gets to take awesome trips to the farmer’s market every Saturday where he gets the homemade treats that he loves. We are all so much better off since, as one of my sons put it, “I remodeled the refrigerator.”