First of all, let me say thank you to everyone who was so supportive about yesterday’s exciting announcement. If you haven’t checked it out, what are you waiting for? Pre-orders are happening fast, make sure you order yours before the sizes/styles you want sell out! (tip: follow @WODink on twitter for discount codes and giveaways!)
That really leads into what is really on my mind today: the power of community.
It is really a spectacular thing. The idea isn’t anything new to me. It’s something I’ve known for awhile, but if I’m totally honest, finding community has been hard for me.
5 years ago when we eloped I left everything I knew and moved across the country. My community became my husband. Slowly I began to acclimate into his group of friends, but I’d be lying if I said it was easy. After a few years I started to feel like I found community in our church. One thing led to another and we ended up leaving the church, and with it a lot of our close relationships. We found another church and poured ourselves into it and when the church ended up closing its doors, a lot of people left the area. Once again we were left without community. Don’t get me wrong- we have a handful of friends that have stayed in our close inner circle, and I am so grateful for them (although I did tweet today about how none of them are female… and sometimes I get tired of their man talk… I mean, you can only listen to them argue about if Maggie Gyllenhaal or Jennifer Goodwin is hotter for so long! For the record, I think Jennifer Goodwin wins)
Anyway… One of the reasons I started this blog is for the community. I’ve been blogging for over 2.5 years now and I’m just starting to scratch the surface of the community. In the past few months I have connected with Healthy Living Blog Communities like FitFluential, Healthy Living Blogs and FitApproach. The amount of encouragement and support I’ve received from them has been astounding. I have been reading blogs religiously for the past 2 years and just in the last few months have I begun to actually comment and interact with other bloggers. That makes all the difference! It is like being a spectator vs playing in a game.
Even though it has only been 6 weeks since my first CrossFit experience, I can’t tell you enough good things about the culture of the community. Not only are the people at my CrossFit Box (CrossFit O’Fallon!) awesome… but the community as a whole is fantastic. The CrossFit games really confirmed that for me. These elite athletes were competing against each other, but at the end of every workout those who finished first would catch their breath and then go encourage and coach those who were still working! Having found myself being one of the last few to finish a workout, I am thankful for those who encourage me to push myself further than I thought I could go.
Pic Source: Ashley from AshleyNCline.com wrote an awesome post about this
I thought I couldn’t be any more in love with the culture and community of CrossFit, but I was wrong. I emailed Meg from the Facebook page Women of CrossFit = Strong with a 6 week update picture and a little bit of my story. She posted it on her page and 520 likes, 71 comments and a handful of emails later and my heart is so full from the encouragement and support poured out. If you are one of the awesome people visiting from that link, Welcome and thanks for stopping by! I was going to wait until my next fat loss check in to post this, but after today I have to share.
This is a loss of about 12ish pounds and definite gains in muscle, strength and confidence. I love CrossFit because when you go in and complete the WOD (workout of the day), even if you have to scale it down to fit your fitness level, you get a huge sense of accomplishment. It really makes me feel like I can tackle so much more in the world outside of CrossFit.
I know this is a long post, but it really means a lot to me. To those who have inspired me, thank you. To those who are inspired by me, I’m humbled. This is a journey, i’m certainly not where I want to be but I’m proud of where I’ve come from.
Where do you find your community?
imperfectly courtney 
My friend posted a link to your blog on my Facebook page today. I haven’t had time to explore everything, but it’s almost like you are writing my story. I’ve been CrossFitting for about 3 years, but my eating hasn’t been the greatest. Am getting more and more serious on dialing that in, with the help of two friends.
I wish I had “known” you around March of this year. I went to CrossFit TNT in St. Charles, MO, (looks like it’s just down the road from O’Fallon!) to earn my CF-L1 trainer cert. All 240 lbs of me. I was the largest person there, and certainly got some stares and looks. It bothered me to an extent, but they stopped pretty fast when they saw that I could do everything that they threw out at me. I actually sat in my car and bawled my eyes out when I finished, because I was so proud of myself for having done it. I’m still amazed that I made it through and I’m a CrossFit Level 1 Certified Trainer!
Keep up the great work! You inspire me!
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Seriously? It is SO good to know I’m not alone. Are you still around here? Where do you coach? I hope to one day get certified. I would love to chat some more!
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I live about 3 hours northeast of St. Louis in a small town called Rushville, IL, and I coach there at CrossFit Rushville. When the owner asked me to teach, I was terrified and had no confidence in myself. But I decided to jump off that bridge and give it a try anyway! Yep, I get some “looks” from new clients, but I know what I’m doing, and they quickly learn that. Feel free to shoot me an email and we’ll chat! It is angiev70 at gmail dot com.
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Hey Courtney, first of all – congrats on your Crossfit progress, keep up the amazing work! Secondly, thanking you for linking to my blog! I can relate to story – also moving across country and it has taken me years to find this “community” feeling that I have found in Crossfit. This community feeling is what really drives my passion for the sport more than the fitness and health benefits I think. Looking forward to more of your posts! 🙂
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That is amazing! I have several friends both doing CrossFit and Paleo and they always have great things to say about it. I may have to check it out for myself!
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