It does not take a long period of time to make drastic changes to your body composition and your health. If you make the decision to do what you have to do, no matter what, you can transform your life in 90 days or less. It does not take a lot of time. It only takes a 100% commitment. I want to share a three month period in my life that literally changed my health and the trajectory of my life. It was one of the most impactful periods in my life up to this point.
When I joined my first CrossFit gym in August of 2010 I was in the worst shape of my life. I had gotten released from a baseball team that spring and had spent the entire summer trying to get picked back up. What started as working out and hitting every day turned into a summer long depression session of eating, drinking, late night Sonic runs, binge watching Netflix DVDs (back when they used to send them to you in the mail) and struggling to find the motivation to workout. By August I had gotten to 235 pounds, the heaviest I had ever been. I decided it was time to move on to the next chapter of life (plus I was about to start having to pay my student loans so I needed to get my life together). I joined Mississippi CrossFit and started going every day Monday through Friday. I didn’t have a job and had hardly any money but I had enough to pay for the first month. I knew I would figure out the rest after that.
After about a month of training I started to feel like I was getting pretty decent. I had slimmed up a little bit and was feeling better. I was starting to do fairly well in some of the workouts compared to other members. It wasn’t until I went to a charity Fight Gone Bad at another local CrossFit gym (CrossFit 27:17, which is now Coyote Fitness Flowood) did I realize how far I still had to go. I got beat by over 100 reps by the top guys. I stayed after to watch them snatch and clean & jerk and many of them hit 50 plus pounds over my max. On Monday when I went to class I asked the owner what I needed to do to take my fitness to the next level. He told me to cut out bread and sugar and cut back on beer. So I did.
Flash forward two months later and I was in the best shape of my life. My weight had dropped down below 200 pounds. I ran a 5k with the gym in under 24 minutes (which was the furthest I had run since I was probably 10 years old). I was finishing with one of the best scores of the day in the class workout consistently. A few months after that I participated in the first ever online CrossFit Games Open and qualified for Regionals. I was on my way to a lifetime of health and fitness and finding a new career. It all happened very quickly.
So what were the most impactful things I did? Why did my life change so quickly? This is something I have been thinking about a lot lately. The biggest thing was a 100% commitment. My coach told me what to do and I did it without question. I completely eliminated bread and sugar (looking back I would tweak a few things but it did have a huge impact) except for a cheat meal on Saturday nights. I showed up to class every day Monday through Saturday and just did what was written on the board. I pushed myself as hard as I could every day in the workout. I started going to bed earlier so I could recover. I quit drinking beer and switched to vodka water and only on Saturday night (I should have cut back more but I was still young and dumb). And I did all of these without fail. Every. Single. Day. And. Every. Single. Week. Within 6 months I had gone from the worst shape of my life to qualifying in the top 30 of the South Central Region. It was a drastic overhaul.
The point of all of this is to show you that it doesn’t take a ton of time to completely change your life. All it takes is a complete and utter commitment. With the new year about to start it is a great opportunity to think about what we want to change in our lives. Where would we be by spring break if we committed 100%? What could our lives look like this summer if we finally said enough is enough? I’m tired of being 80% committed. 90% committed. Being inconsistent. I’m going to go ALL IN 100% COMMITTED for 90 days.
I challenge you to think about what area of your life you want to improve on the most and commit to do whatever it takes to change it. No matter the cost. No matter the time. No matter how hard it is. Give it your all for 90 days and see where you are. I promise you that if you truly commit you will be a completely different person by summer. Who knows maybe in 10 years you will be telling someone else a story of when you finally decided to 100% commit and how it completely changed the trajectory of your life.