“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”- Thomas A. Edison
FROM THE WOMEN OF THE MORNING CHALK UP
Fighting The Stories in our Heads: A Series on Body Image
Start CrossFit and your perspective changes. Suddenly your focus shifts to what your body can do rather than what it looks like. Suddenly you have muscles you love. A body you love.
That story gets told a lot.
But it’s not the real story for many, maybe even most, women.
The real story is far less elegant. Yes, CrossFit changes our perspective. Yes, CrossFit helps us embrace our strength, our functionality, our bodies. But it’s anything but automatic.
For most of us, it’s often a messy journey of progress and regression, an ongoing struggle of battling the stories in our heads, of fighting against the tapes that have been playing in our minds and have been dominating our thoughts since childhood.
Yes, CrossFit allows us to make strides, but often they’re small ones, fleeting ones even, on our winding paths to loving our bodies.
That’s the real story, and it needs to be told. Women need to hear the real story. They need to know it’s OK if they’re still struggling to love their body.
This became the impetus for our upcoming body image series, where the six women of the Morning Chalk Up share their raw, personal, ongoing journeys of finding peace in their own unique, beautiful bodies. Even if they don’t quite believe they’re beautiful yet.
In case you missed it: Lauren Kalil, the host of The Bottom Line, spoke to Chyna Cho and Jamie Hagiya about whether they think Mal O’Brien can dethrone Tia-Clair Toomey at the 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games.
Last chances: Next week from June 29-July 1, CrossFit’s Last Chance Qualifier will take place, and two men and two women will get tickets to the Games. Matt Dlugos looks ready, are you? Check the Morning Chalk Up for a complete breakdown of the events and results as a group of athletes get one last kick at the can.
L1 love: The one and only Chandler Smith, an Army veteran, talks about getting certified as a CrossFit Level 1 coach. 🎖
Aloha: Kaua‘i Crossfit will host the first USA Weightlifting-sanctioned event on the island in over three years with this week’s Ohana Open.
“THUNDER THIGHS AND DOUBLE DS, I DON’T FIT IN”
Lauren Kalil
I’m 10 years old, in the fourth grade, and I’m already going through puberty.
My classmates and friends are all still tiny beanpoles, and I have Double D breasts.
One day, there’s a new kid in my class and he thinks I’m the teacher. I’m so embarrassed.
I learn pretty quickly that I can’t come home and pound junk food and candy after school with my friends anymore, because I start gaining weight pretty quickly if I do.
People call me Thunder Thighs all the time. They have for as long as I can remember.
It’s just who I am. I’m the stocky girl with the big legs and now the big boobs, and I don’t fit in.
Why am I the only one who looks this way?
I feel so uncomfortable in my own skin.
The Dance Days
I’m surrounded by people with eating disorders. Some of them are actually pretty open about it.
I get influenced by them here and there, but it’s never out of control for me. I mean, I never make myself throw up and I never completely starve myself, but there is always an attempt to eat less.
Calories are bad. Dressing on salad must be avoided at all times. Consume as little as possible because you have to fit into your costume.
But regardless of what I do, it seems I’m never going to make it as a dancer anyway, because of the way my body looks. It’s something that’s reiterated to me by a judge: You should really wear long sleeves because your arms are too flabby.
I’m just the girl with the Thunder Thighs, the Double Ds and now the flabby arms.
I sit down on a chair and notice my thighs look a little chubby as they squish out to the side because of the pressure of the chair.
That’s not good.
I am 6 years old and I’m hyper aware that leaner is better. Lean is the ideal.
It’s something that’s only reiterated to me even more when I start CrossFit at the age of 9, and especially as I reach the teenage division, start competing in the Open and Age Group Online Qualifier, and become more aware of who is who in the sport.
Brooke Wells trains at my gym and I take note that people love her butt.
That’s it. I am going to be just like her.
My butt doesn’t look like Brooke’s, and I don’t have abs like she does. And I’m a little annoyed that you can only vaguely see four of my abs.
Annie Thorisdottir is another idol of mine. I don’t have abs like her either.
Outside of my gym, social media tells me the leanest athletes, like Katrin Davidstottir, seem to get more attention than still lean, but maybe not quite as lean athletes like Laura Horvath.
I need to be leaner.
The Competition Years
I’m in the eighth grade and I start diligently meal prepping and tracking what I eat, consuming just 1,700 calories a day even though I’m doing two hours of cross-country and four hours of CrossFit training each day in hopes of qualifying to the CrossFit Games as a teenager.
All I want to do is be great at CrossFit, and to look like my competitor Mal O’Brien.
I start getting pretty skinny, and soon I eight only 110 pounds, yet still I can’t see my abs as much as I would like.
By the ninth grade, it’s all too much for me to bear on my own. I end up in therapy for an eating disorder.
Last Chance Qualifier 2022 Mock Draft: Men’s Division
We’re running it back from last year with a two round mock draft for the men, and then also one for the women. The draft will be snake style with the person who drafts first for the men drafting last for the women, and vice versa- leaving one analyst with the second pick for both men and women.
Remind me: The Last Chance Qualifier is a three-day online competition running from Wednesday June 29 to Friday July 1. The thirty-plus athletes competing in both the men’s and women’s fields are vying for the final two spots to the CrossFit Games in early August.
Watching the Semifinals give you a pit in your stomach because your season ended back in March? Being on the cusp of the Quarterfinals or Semifinals is a mentally tough place to be. Here are some tips on where to focus your training for those looking to kick on.
You know that scatterbrained feeling going into a workout, unsure if you have everything you need, you’re trying to focus but getting distracted? Your bag shouldn’t add to the stress of this, it should make it easy to find your gear, grab it, and go.
Elite athletes preparing for the CrossFit Games need to focus on many things. Training, recovery, nutrition, and... 24-hour bike rides in a canyon, of course. See how Rich Froning and the Mayhem crew fared when they flew out to Texas for the 17th annual 24 Hours in the Canyon ride.
Track Your Summer Runs, Rides, and WODs With A Free WHOOP Strap 4.0
Stop putting the work in but not knowing if you're getting results. The WHOOP 4.0 measures your body's data over 100 times a second to get personalized feedback on your recovery, strain, and sleep. Morning Chalk Up readers can get a free strap and an extra month's membership when you sign up at the link below.
If you're a smoothie fanatic, you'll love this list. You’ll find protein-packed green smoothies to enjoy post-workout, energizing morning smoothies for breakfast, and even smoothie recipes that taste like dessert. Stock your kitchen and freezer with a few essentials, and easily make these healthy smoothies ahead of time.
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