By the time I was 30 I was happily married and working 10-12 hour days, so I lost pretty much all motivation to exercise. My knees hurt when I tried to run, my back was killing me. Once, I even pulled my back out while bowling so bad I couldn't go to work the next day.  I put on 30 lbs since college. I think the final blow was when I went to visit my grandfather right before he passed away. Seriously, one of my last conversations I had with him he said  "Well, doesn't look like you lost weight."  Nice burn, Grandpa. 

I somehow found Crossfit Atlanta online, and decided to check it out.  One of my first workouts involved tire-flipping, slamballs and one-armed kettlebell swings. I felt like Donkey Kong. It wasn't long before the man-ape feeling was crushed when I pitted against a 110 lbs 14 year-old boy in the "NANCY"  WOD.   I was beaten soundly. To my defense, that little f***er was fast... 

Although I loved it instantly, I didn't really take it seriously for the first year. I was doing it 1-2 days a week along with some other activities.  Kinda weekend-warrior mentality.  When we started the BTB Paleo challenge I started coming in to BTB 3-4 days a week in addition to 1-2 other activities like swimming, biking or running.

Here's what happened.

- That's me before Crossfit and After. I first started Crossfit in 2008 when I weighed in at 205 lbs.  I'm at 180 now.  That's my wife on the right who apparently doesn't need Crossfit to look good. 

- My "chronic" running knee problems magically went away within weeks of starting Crossfit. I don't run too often, but I beat my high school mile run time  and I completed a full 26.2 marathon earlier this year thanks to BTB's CrossFit Endurance program. 

- This is weird, but I swear my reaction time is faster. I'm somewhat clumsy (my wife describes it as a "lack of spacial awareness") so I'm frequently knocking things over. I tend to catch them more. I'm frequently catching things behind my back when they fall off shelves, etc... I've had a lot of "Man I wish someone saw that" moments since I started Crossfit.

- I haven't thrown my back out bowling and my average is now 197. (Not sure if I can thank BTB for that one)

Here are the things that worked for me:

1) Working out in the AM. My work is pretty intense and I rarely get out of the office until 7-8pm, so it seems like I always had an excuse to skip workouts. I'm not a big fan of rolling out of bed and heading straight to the gym, but I do it because it's the only way I can guarantee I will will get my workout done. 

2) Injury-proofing. I'm really prone to sports injury. Not quite sure why, but I'm pretty consistently pulling and tearing muscles and ligaments. After watching Kelly Star's videos on the Crossfit Journal I started taking serious steps to injury prevention and treatment. I've made huge strides. I'm a big fan of lacrosse-ball myofacial release and post-workout protein shakes. 

3)  When in doubt scale down. There's no sense in over-exerting yourself if you're not able to return to the gym the next day. Sometimes it's hard to take ego out of the equation, especially in CrossFit. I am now a big fan of the 50% rule. If you can't lift more than twice the amount at least once, you shouldn't be using that weight in a high-rep workout.

4) For nutrition I'm a 80% paleo-er now. I have the occasional dairy product and some rice or bread, but Paleo makes a lot of damn sense.  I was able to accomplish the same amount of results in 3-4 months as the previous 12 thanks to Nutrition and committment to regular workouts.