The Step-By-Step Guide to Shattering Your CrossFit Dreams
1. Hit up the noon class at your CrossFit box
2. Do some shoulder presses and power cleans leading up to a 1 rep max.
3. Fail your shoulder press max at 140#.
4. Fail your first attempt at 240# for the power clean.
5. Wait 3 minutes.
6. Scrape the energy you have left in you to PR at 240# on your power clean.
7. Do 50 kettlebell swings at 55#.
8. Top things off with a 500m row.
9. Get a shitload of congratulations from everyone in the box.
10. Go home.
11. Feel a sharp pain in your upper abdominal area.
12. Think it’s just hunger, so you start preparing your food.
13. Realize it might be gallstones or appendicitis.
14. Shit your pants.
15. Go to the emergency room.
16. Take various tests and prepare to get your appendix removed.
17. Shit your pants again as you realize you might go weeks or months without CrossFit. Might have to bail on your Garage Games team in October.
18. Get appendix removed.
This Was All A True Story
…except for Step 18.
Tonight’s blog post was not supposed to be like this (holding off on that post for another day). Seriously, I was so pumped from PR’ing that power clean that of course I had to share things on Facebook and Twitter.
Literally minutes after those posts, my abdominal area was KILLING me. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t prepare my lunch. Couldn’t do shit.
I’m so relieved that Step 18 didn’t happen.
My surgery probably wouldn’t be until midnight, so I’d probably still be waiting in my tiny hospital room at this time.
Shit Got Pretty Damn Scary
…after the results for my blood test came through. All the usual stuff seemed healthy, but I just had higher levels of white blood cells for some reason. The doctor said:
“If I were a betting man, I’d say it’s your appendix.”
Fuck.
My progress has been pretty consistent in terms of nutrition and working out. I even started cooking some really nice paleo meals. Why did all this have to happen now?
I was even thinking of having to live a sedentary lifestyle for weeks or even months after getting the appendix removed.
Luckily, by 8:30pm or so, I got my results from the CT Scan, and things seemed fine. The doc said I probably just went too hard on my workout today.
And That’s Why I’m Taking Tomorrow Off
I was told that I can continue my usual workouts and nutrition. However, tomorrow I’ll just chill and get some work done.
Right now, I just feel so blessed that things worked out fine. Sitting there helpless in the hospital bed with remnants of that sharp pain in my abdominal area, so many terrible possibilities came to mind.
Since things turned out for the better, I have more motivation than usual to keep things up. My WOD times have been pretty damn nice the past few weeks. My eating has been pretty spot-on with Tim Ferriss’ Slow Carb Diet, although I’m going full-on paleo once again.
No more cheat days as well.
Why? First of all, I feel like shit after them. Second, while I do see progress despite the cheat, I prefer just staying more clean overall. Lastly, today’s appendicitis scare showed me not to take things for granted.
I’m signed up for the Garage Games team event in October, and I’m going to train and eat well for it. Rather than make this some kind of “diet” or “challenge,” today has shown me that it’s much better to adopt this as a lifestyle.
