A note on traveling solo, Part Two

“Hi, do you speak English?” I asked the man. He nodded warily, not before casting a suspicious and puzzled sideway glance at me.

“Will your phone be able to make an overseas call?” I asked quickly, as I watched his mouth open and closed when I clearly answered his un-asked question. He nodded again, this time more affirmatively, while glancing at the red Singaporean passport that I was clutching firmly in my hand.

Perhaps it was the look of desperation on my face or that he was holding a similar passport himself that prompted him to hand me his phone, I will never know. I didn’t have the time to find out because this was an emergency.

What was happening? Well, let me start from the beginning.

As my solo trip to Australia came to an end, I was checking in to my Jetstar flight back to Singapore in Melbourne Airport, when I was unceremoniously informed that I did not opt for the 15kg check-in luggage, which meant I had to pay a grand total of AUD 160.

I could have just paid up, wheezed past customs and boarded the plane back to Singapore, right? Well, that was the best case scenario.

The worst case scenario would be not having any money on me because I spent it all, mostly on souvenirs, a credit card which wasn’t activated back home, hence couldn’t be used for overseas transactions and not having a handphone because I smashed it a few days ago.

Unfortunately for me, that was the scenario I was presented with, two hours before I was supposed to depart for Singapore. As I scrambled around begging my fellow passengers for a phone, I was praying to God that I was dreaming and this was somehow a nightmare. With time ticking down on me, I felt the walls closing around me and thought I would definitely miss my flight.

A flurry of phone calls back to my family in Singapore later, one on my fellow countryman’s mobile phone and the second on another kind samaritan’s mobile phone, I finally had the money to pay my luggage fees and was through customs with time to spare.

When I left for Australia two weeks ago, I never imagined that I would learn anything from my second lifetime solo trip, as the highlights would most likely be skydiving, snorkeling and climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

I was wrong. Granted, all this trouble could have been avoided if I had paid for my baggage beforehand when booking the flight, but I realised that my family and God was all I could think of when I was in trouble. That is why I’m comforted that I have my priorities in order.

However for my next trip, I will definitely keep some emergency money, activate my credit card for overseas transactions and most importantly, pay for luggage beforehand when flying with budget airlines.

Discipline vs Obsession

It’s three days to my first ever CrossFit competition. Am I ready? Honestly, I do not know.

2014 has seen quite a number of significant changes in terms of my fitness journey. I left my CrossFit box because firstly, I felt I wasn’t progressing; I was getting fitter with all the metcons, but not in strength, which go against everything CrossFit stood for. Secondly, I was getting too caught up with trying to beat metcon timings in the box that I became obsessed with trying to get better at CrossFit.

While I took a break from working out in a community for the past six months, I started training alone and followed The Outlaw Way’s Outlaw Power programming while doing some reflecting on my own.

The question that ate at me was: Why do I feel so empty and hollow when I was chasing big numbers in my lifts and aiming to achieve faster timings?

It dawned on me that the purpose of my life had become all about trying to excel at CrossFit. Shouldn’t my life be about trying to please God? I should workout to live and not live to workout.

I had crossed the fine line between being disciplined and being obsessed. I couldn’t go a week without working out and beating myself up about it. To miss a workout, was not okay to me.

Sin City Invitationals 2014 will be a significant milestone for me when I take to the competition ground this Saturday. I have learned to forgive myself when I miss a workout and knowing the difference between being disciplined and being obsessed. I constantly remind myself  that I train to honour God and not because I want to be faster, stronger and fitter than anyone else.

I haven’t trained as much as I would like to in the last few weeks leading up to the competition because of full day coverage at the WTA Finals and Singapore National Games as a journalist, but I choose to have faith in my training for the last six months, have fun and leave the rest up to God.

 

 

 

 

IPPT: All round fitness test or purely an endurance test?

Photo: TODAY

Depending on which side of the fence you were on, the recent changes to the Individual Physical Proficiency Test either caused you much anguish or made you celebrate like Mario Gotze after scoring the winning goal for Germany in the World Cup finals.

Looking at my Social Media feed, there were people who were posting about the changes and using words like “Finally!” or “Now I don’t have to do Remedial Training!”  As for the opposing camp, netizens were concerned about how making the test easier is inviting criticisms that soldiers in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) are weak and pampered.

When I was still serving the nation more than two years ago, I felt that the IPPT was flawed and needed some tweaking. One of my pet peeves I had was that there was too much emphasis placed on running. I blame this on “the faster you ran, the fitter you are” culture in the SAF. The scoring system of the old IPPT system was proof of that.

For example, if you pass your standing broad jump, shuttle run, pull ups and sit ups stations but fail your 2.4 kilometres run, you fail the whole test. How does that make sense? If I can do 20 pull ups, jump 250 cm, finish my shuttle run in 8.45 seconds, do 50 sit ups but I fail my run because I did it in 15 minutes, does this mean that I’m unfit?

The old system cultivated a habit where soldiers who performed poorly in the 2.4 kilometres run would do the minimum effort required to pass in the rest of the stations in order to save energy for the run. This meant that there were no accurate readings on which soldiers actually has the strength, flexibility, speed and endurance.

Another bug bear I had was that as a combat-fit soldier who went in to the field almost every week in full combat gear, I realised performing well in IPPT doesn’t always translate in to performing well out in the field. Why? Again, because of the emphasis placed on running.

Physical Instructors were so obsessed with training soldiers who failed the 2.4k meters run, that 90% of the training consisted of running. In fact, every opportunity that SAF had, the commanders made the soldiers run. Oh, it’s Battalion Cohesion Day? Let’s go to East Coast Park to run. There’s a new Commanding Officer in the unit? Let’s welcome him by going for a run. You get my drift. There was a run for everything.

Running is beneficial and healthy, yes. But the truth is, endurance alone is not a good training to prepare soldiers for combat. Soldiers needs to have strength training to prepare them for the heavy loads that they will be carrying, flexibility to climb over objects and uphill/downhill, speed to sprint to take cover or attack during fire movements.

So does the new IPPT changes address these issues? Well, Yes and No.

As with everything in Singapore, the changes to the IPPT, which has been reduced to 3 stations (push ups, sit ups and 2.4 kilometres run) is not new or original. It is a watered down version of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) Physical Fitness Test (PFT), which consists of pull ups, sit ups and 5km run.

This watered down test is great for Operational Ready NSmen because it addresses the main grouse: It is easier to train for and pass because they are simply too busy with work.

However, this test still does not determine if soldiers in active duty is combat fit and neither does training for the test prepare the soldiers for being in the field.

The USMC has another test, called Combat Fitness Test (CFT), which has a 800 meters run, lifting a 13kg ammo box over their heads as many times as they can in 2 minutes and a 274 meters course where they have to perform 5 various tasks. This test has to be done in boots, camouflaged pants and t-shirt.

Here’s my suggestion: Implement the CFT for soldiers in active duty and use the PFT for NSmen. This will effectively kill three birds with one stone.

Firstly, it will prevent the IPPT from being a purely endurance test and encourage soldiers to train for strength, flexibility, speed and endurance. Secondly, NSmen who don’t train regularly because of work will not have a hard time passing the test. Which is SAF’s main purpose for changing the IPPT system in the first place. Lastly, both tests don’t include the dreaded pull ups anymore.

What do you think of my suggestions? Share with me in the comments section below.

#SeoulStrong

Photo from The CrossFit Games

I looked up from my computer screen to survey the competition floor for the last heat for Event 6 of the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games Asia Regional in South Korea. My fingers were tense and hovering above my keyboard as I waited to see who would get up from the rower first.

Spotting the current leader on the Women’s leaderboard, Marlene Andersson, leaping up and moving to the box jumps, my fingers went to action. “Marlene Andersson is first off the rower!”, I typed furiously, “Followed close behind by Crystal Sullivan!”. As soon as I hit enter to post my tweet, my social media boss, Lynn hurriedly pointed out to me that Yuko Sakuyama was next off the rower.

No rest for the wicked. I realized I was holding my breath. I let it go and typed out what Lynn had pointed out to me, even as my eyes went back to survey the competition floor, looking for my next tweet.

Live tweeting is hard. Live tweeting without a live stream is harder.

Without a live stream, the onus was on the social media team to provide up to the minute play-by-play action on Twitter for the audience at home. Honestly, I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. After all they were just moving weights and going through complex movements, right?

Boy, was I wrong.

I forgot there was only one reason why I was looking at the athletes down in front of me from my social media booth. Why they were here in the first place.

They were amazingly fast. Which meant that we had to be faster. Only God knows how much Lynn and Jen, the Regional Media Director, were screaming in their hearts for me to type faster when they were hovering over me during the Heats where I was covering the play-by-play action.

I had never tweet as fast as I did before that weekend and admittedly, it was stressful, but at the same time I was happy that I volunteered. I learned so much from Jen and Lynn, who both had amazing leadership throughout the whole weekend.

I was inspired by the athletes too. From my vantage point in the social media booth, I had a bird eye view of the whole arena. What I saw on all three days proved that Asia can hold its own amongst other bigger regions.

Granted, Asia is not where you get to see the likes of Rich Froning or Samantha Briggs compete. We still get made fun of for having caucasians on the podium. We only get one spot to the Games.

However, what Asia lacked in terms of super-human strength statistics and star names, the crowd made up for it in their never wavering and endearing support for the athletes. I witnessed the crowd cheering every rep for athletes, whether they were struggling or about to finish first. Who they came to support was immaterial. First or last, all the athletes taking part were already heroes in their mind.

The athletes too, had never-say-die attitudes.

I saw athletes like Jaki Kan from Team Asphodel, struggling with his overhead squats during Event 7 and yet refusing to give up. I saw the hours athletes put in to train their weakness finally paying off, like Eric Carmody, when he won Event 7 and qualified for Carson. They were just two of the many athletes who gave nothing but their all.

It was also very easy to not give your full effort as a volunteer when your region is an obscure region. This was my second surprise that weekend.

Starting with the media team, we hailed from 7 different nations and despite most of us meeting each other for the first time, we instantly gelled like glue. We were not paid, we had to be the first at the arena and the last to leave. But every task we were given, we did it with our full effort.

As for the rest of volunteers, from Security to the Judges to the Equipment guys, they worked as though this was their full-time job. I was very impressed especially with Security. They had a million and one things to do, from crowd control to making sure that no one brought in banned camera lenses. Yet, whenever the Media team had any issues with the crowd, they would drop everything and helped us.

All the volunteers were united for two reasons: We love CrossFit and we wanted the athletes to only worry about their performances on the competition floor and nothing else.

We decided beforehand that the hashtag for the 2014 Asia Regional would be #SeoulStrong. Amazingly, the hashtag has  887 posts and rising on Instagram.

I can’t help but marvel at how apt this hashtag has been. The story about the Asia Regional this past weekend was about teamwork and fluid coordination. Everyone, from the spectators, to the athletes, to the volunteers were a collective unit. We were, #SeoulStrong.

This article represents only my views and is not sanctioned or endorsed by The CrossFit Games and CrossFit,Inc

Bringing out the bully

Photo from The CrossFit Games

I don’t care if you don’t like or made a vow never to try CrossFit. Just stop telling the whole world why.

CrossFit is not without it’s faults. There’s a thousand and one things that can make CrossFit better and CrossFitters know it. They do not have to be subjected to a public service announcement (PSA) every other day. Critics and haters justify their constant PSAs as “being concerned for the general public” or “to prevent people from being brainwashed by CrossFit boxes”.

Now, what qualifies someone to be “a fitness authority” when there are millions of coaches in the world? Is there such a thing as “Fitness Police”? Can they actually ban someone from doing CrossFit instead of just merely writing or posting on Facebook about why someone should stay away from CrossFit? Do they have the powers to persecute someone for doing CrossFit?

Imagine a school setting. CrossFit is the new kid on the block. The rest of the kids (Bodybuilding. Running, Cycling, etc) have been there for ages. They see CrossFit as a threat because suddenly their best friends forever (BFF), Gymnastics, Olympic Weightlifting, Strongman, Powerlifting have started hanging out with CrossFit and do cool stuff with them. They start to desperately scramble to show their BFFs why they are “cooler” by whispering to them nasty things about CrossFit, picking a fight with CrossFit over the tiniest issues, using Social Media to create fake accounts to spread rumors.

Sounds familiar? I might not be a behavioral expert, but I think it’s safe to say that the behavior these people are portraying is similar to bullies. I know, because I used to be one. Not my proudest moment, but hey, everyone makes mistakes right?

You want to do tricep curls and have 5 different ways of doing it? Cool. Here’s to bigger arms. Run 42km every weekend? Sure, if it makes you happy! Don’t hate me because I rather be doing cleans and snatches, learning to walking on my hands and trying to PR my 30 muscle-ups for time.

I think golf is boring, racing around a race track for 60+ laps is stupid and running marathons is the bad for the knees. Do I see the need to let the whole world and the people doing it know why every other day? No, because I rather be training hard, improving myself and enjoying watching people who don’t CrossFit enjoy what they are doing.

CrossFit is not perfect. But so is every other sport or exercise program. The bottom-line is: Do you legitimately want to warn people about the dangers of not doing CrossFit properly? Or do you simply just fear CrossFit?

If you are a fitness professional who genuinely wants to improve CrossFit and warn people about what not to do in CrossFit, then it’s time to embrace CrossFit. Because let’s face it. CrossFit is here to stay. As Lift Eat Get Big put it simply in this article: “If you truly want your sport to grow, embrace all of the people that are introduced to your way of lifting by Crossfit. Gyms and coaches who put their heads in the sand when it comes to CrossFit are gyms and coaches that will struggle greatly to make ends meet, for the most part..”

However if you are a fitness professional or an individual who fears the influence of CrossFit, do me a big favor and keep your hatred to yourself. When you open your mouth, write a “100 reasons why CrossFit sucks” article or write that Facebook status condemning CrossFit, you are showing the world that you are nothing but a bully, a coward and a paranoid pain in the ass.

Enough of the CrossFit bashing.

Seeking Redemption: Stephanie Liew

My interview with Stephanie was originally intended for The CrossFit Games website, but the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Open results and timing sensitivity meant that it went unpublished. I decided to publish the interview here instead because I love Stephanie’s fighting spirit and wanted to share it with everyone.

Photo taken by Pauline Yong

By her own admission, 26-year old Stephanie Liew feels that her path to redemption is about to end, after a poor showing at the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games Asia Regional.

The writing was already on the wall during the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games Open when she failed to attempt any muscle-ups in Open Workout 13.3, which was 150 wall-balls, 90 double-unders and 30 muscle-ups.

As a result, she did not qualified for the Regional as an Individual, but instead was chosen to compete as a member of Brunei’s GETFIT CrossFit team after helping them to qualify.

To her dismay, she found out that muscle-ups were penciled in for the Team Events after the workouts were announced ahead of time; she scrambled to work on the complex gymnastic movement. However, time ran out on her.

Her worst nightmare came to pass when she failed to attempt a single muscle-up in Team Event 3, which was a 7-minute AMRAP of burpees muscle-ups, which meant that her team got a DNF, thus preventing the team from advancing in the competition.

“Mentally, I felt that I could do the muscle-ups, but physically, my body didn’t agree,” she said.

It was cold comfort to Liew that out of 20 teams that competed in the Regional, only 3 teams managed to finish Team Event 3. Her inability to perform the gymnastic movement crushed her, and she went back to the drawing board with her coaches to re-evaluate her training as a whole after Seoul, with the ultimate goal of mastering muscle-ups.

“I went back to basics. I started doing strict gymnastic movements and focused on progressions to build strength. I also started training consistently, knowing that skills take hours of practice to master. At the same time, I kept strictly to my scheduled rest days to prevent burn out,” she explained.

It was a long and arduous 6 months, but Liew’s revised approach to her training has benefitted her tremendously. By the time 2013 came to a close, she could finally string together a couple of muscle-ups whenever it was programmed in a WOD.

She has been on a roll since Regional, winning Brunei’s Battle Royale 2013 and finishing in second place at the inaugural Sin City Invitational 2013 in Singapore. Even though these local competitions did not program muscle-ups in scored workouts, her performance at the Regional is all but a distant memory.

“When I competed in the local competitions, I focused on the pain I felt when I failed in Seoul, and I used it to fuel and push myself to do well because I never want to feel the same way again.”

She credits her head coach, Gavin Singh Sekhon, for keeping her rooted and not letting her successes get to her head.

“He spots my weaknesses and puts me through drills and progressions over and over again. He doesn’t have to remind me of what happened during Regionals because he knows it will always be at the back of my mind.”

Liew, who coaches the kids’ program at her box, feels that teaching the kids the fundamental movements of CrossFit has gone a long way in helping her cope with her new training directions.

“What I have learned and realized after every lesson I have with them is, when in doubt, revert to the basics,” she said.

Liew felt that her experiences since May last year, both good and bad, helped influenced how she approached the recently concluded 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games Open

“The competition is really steep, no doubt about that. But as the level of competition increased, the way I trained has also evolved. That was why I am confident of my chances.”

Liew felt that out of the 5 Open workouts, Open Workout 14.4, which was a 14 minute AMRAP of 60-calorie row, 50 toes-to-bars, 40 wall-ball shots, 30 cleans and 20 muscle-ups, was the hardest workout for her, both physically and mentally.

“I have never rowed more than 300m continuously before this, so it was truly a mental game. There were also a lot more pressure in this WOD because I expected myself to reach the muscle-ups without burning out during the row.”

In the end, Liew only managed to score 178 reps, 2 reps shy of reaching the muscle-ups, before the clock ran out on her.

Liew was confident of her chances of qualifying for this year’s Regional. In the event that she made it through; she was undecided on whether to compete with the GETFIT CrossFit team or as an individual

“The fundamental nature of CrossFit is to be ready for ‘the unknown and unknowable’. I will do my best to be prepared for whatever awaits me. Between now and Regional, I will concentrating more on my work capacity.”

Despite her valiant efforts, Liew will have to look ahead to 2015 for the chance to redeem herself after missing out on the ticket to Seoul, South Korea this year. With her exceptional work rate, she will definitely put up a strong challenge next year.

 

 

A note on traveling solo

I walked out of Tai Cheong Bakery in Central, Hong Kong, holding a bag of egg tarts, the best I have ever eaten. Taking the escalator up to the Central Mid Levels walkway, I walked from one end of the walkway to the other end, slowly munching on my egg tarts and experiencing the world’s longest outdoor covered escalator system. All 800 meters of it.

It’s moments like this that makes my decision to travel solo worth every penny. I had the freedom to do what I want, when I want and how I wanted to do it. My little “walkway egg tarts adventure” may not make much sense to others, but it was one of the highlights of my trip.

Traveling alone provides you the opportunity to live in the moment too. I did that by taking the Star Ferry in both directions, from Kowloon to Central and vice versa. The 10 min ride allowed me to take in the magnificent and breathtaking view and disconnect from the world for a moment. The sea was choppy and sometimes still, as though it could read the minds of all the passengers on board.

The biggest obstacle was finding directions. Google Maps was almost hopeless, but when technology failed me, the locals were very helpful. That was probably the only opportunity for me to talk to them, given the language barrier. You get a sense of achievement when you finally find a place by yourself or with the help of the locals.

Have the opportunity to travel alone? Do it.

The story of the Open

 

I looked up from where I was, trying to shut out the massive noise around me. Hands on my knees, trying to control my breathing, with saliva dripping out of me. I was ready to throw in the towel. I badly wanted this to be over.

Taking in the scene around me when I looked up, I smiled. Yes, I smiled. There was a Commonwealth Games weightlifting athlete shouting at me to pick up the bar. My buddies were counting down my rest time. They too, were screaming at me to pick up the bar. At that moment, I felt important. This was my performance. To give up was to let them, myself down. 

The smile on my face got wider. I fully embraced the noise, walked back to bar, and continued my performance.

 

This happened  during 14.5. It was probably the most mental Open WOD this year. Fitting end to the Open after 5 weeks. Nobody expected it to be this tough, even though we had an inkling of what was to come after Dave Castro, Director of the CrossFit Games said: “The clock will not save you. You either give up or quit” when he announced the WOD.

I had witnessed an incredible scene before it was my turn to attempt 14.5. One of our members, who was beyond exhausted, pleaded with his judge to stop the time. He wanted to give up. It was too much for him to handle that he even shouted at my coach to “shut up” when the poor guy was trying to encourage him. However, the community rallied behind him and cheered him to the finish line.

This was just one of the many stories that the Open had produced over 5 weeks, with many more stories appearing on my social media news feeds. There were stories of people getting their first muscle-ups, of people like the member in my box who found the marker on his previous limitations and placed it a little further away.

I am happy to share my own story.

2014 is my first year attempting the Open, a year after watching the live announcement of 13.5. I remembered watching Rich Froning, Jason Khalipa, Samantha Briggs and Camille Leblanc-Bazinet throwdown, which piqued my curiosity for CrossFit. Registering for the Open this year, I knew I wasn’t going to qualify for Regional, but I knew I was going to learn a lot about myself.

There were painful moments, there were frustrating moments. There were even moments when I questioned my decision to sign up for the Open. But all these were never going to replace the lessons I learnt about myself, about life.

14.1 taught me that anything was possible. No matter how behemoth the task I had before me, the effort to attempt something I thought was impossible was enough to produce results. That’s how I ended up with 60 double-unders in 10 mins, when I was expecting to spend 10 minutes trying to finish 30 double-unders.

I learned how important was it to control my emotions when things don’t go my way in 14.4. It was frustrating to get no-rep after no-rep during the wall balls. At one point I was even punching the ball after a no-rep. When I was stomping around after the WOD, trying to vent my anger, I wondered how different the situation would had been if I had been calm in the face of all those no-reps.

That can be translated in to life too. How you handle your emotions during a WOD is a reflection on how you handle your emotions in your daily life. And yes, this “stomping around, venting my anger” ritual is something I always did when things don’t go my way. It was childish and immature, and after 14.4, I took a deep and long look at myself.

Did the thought of repeating the WODs to get a better score on the leaderboard crossed my mind? Yes, after 14.4. Then I remembered that I went in to the Open with the goal of not repeating any of the WODs because I was going to do my best and giving my all with no regrets. No disrespect to those who repeated the WODs, because we all have different training objectives.

There will probably never be another competition as unique as the CrossFit Open because it allows you to challenge with the best of the best around the world and learn things about yourself you would never have otherwise learned. People like me would have realised that after the Open, the only competition that we have is ourselves. What is better than doing that and having fun at the same time?

This is my story of the CrossFit Open. What is yours?

 

 

 

How I’m making CrossFit sustainable for myself

The very real possibility of getting injured in training is something that has been nagging at me coming in to 2014. As I arrive at the box everyday, I wonder to myself: “Is CrossFit sustainable” The answer to that, is yes, CrossFit is sustainable. The community and getting in to kick-ass shape is what makes CrossFit fun for me. However the only caveat is that I have the discipline to incorporate active recovery in to my training. .

Sometimes we think more training is good, but that’s not true. Less training is sometimes good as well. After all, muscles grow when you are out of the gym. If you have just started CrossFit, going to the box every day is fun because PR-ing is liberating or getting the top of the world (literally) feeling when you finally get that muscle up. Nothing wrong with all that, but as much as we have discipline to turn up for training, we should also have the discipline to know how to “pull” ourselves away from the box too.

No doubt, CrossFit is an extreme sport. But CrossFit doesn’t cause injury. Bad or the lack of mobility and inflexibility causes injury. We think that lifting really heavy weights makes us strong, but what many of us, myself included, fail to realize is that strengthening our basic body movements is the key to making us strong and preventing us from getting injured.

For me, 2014 and the years ahead will not be about chasing more PRs or trying to qualify for the CrossFit Games. It will be about finding the balance of strength and flexibility. That will mean a balance of CrossFit and Yoga for me. Am I concerned that I will fall behind my fellow CrossFitters in terms of strength and faster timings? Yes. But that’s fine with me, because I am responsible for my own body and accountable to myself for making my training sustainable.

The time I spent away from the box, recovering, mobilizing and stretching will be the key to meeting the demands of the WOD when I’m in the box. My goal after all, is to CrossFit for life.

My 2013 in a nutshell: “Overcoming challenges and obstacles”

I don’t want 2013 to end.

You may think that I have had a great year after making that statement. Well, it couldn’t be further from the truth. 2013 has been a year where I found myself being forced to deal with challenges and obstacles thrown at me from all directions. It almost broke me, but I refused to give up, which is what makes this year memorable for me. But I know 2014 will be much more exciting. Let’s start with my first challenge:

Entering the workforce

I graduated this year with a Diploma in Mass Communication, looking to enter the media industry and gain some industry experience before moving on to a Degree. This has always been a dream of mine. I started with an internship at a social media marketing agency, moved on full time to a social media role in an advertising agency and now I’m in corporate communications before 2013 ends.

It has been a whirlwind journey for me because I intended to go back to school after my internship ended. Somehow one thing lead to another, and I ended up having my first professional job, which unfortunately, I wasn’t ready for. I realised I was still tuned to the mindset of being in school and not tuned to the mindset that I’m actually in the workforce already.

I guess I’m lucky because I had never been in a bad spot in my life up to this point. Through the 3 months of struggling to keep my head above water, I came to the painful realisation that  it was time to stop being a kid who had no pressures in my life and become an adult who is able to cope with the challenges of life. I emerged out of this challenge with lessons that will be invaluable to me in the future.

Injury, CrossFit and Yoga

2013 is also the year my CrossFit journey began and I fell in love with it almost immediately. Unfortunately, my love for it was like a double edged sword. I was so obsessed with it that after I got injured during my powerlifting competition, I felt very depressed I couldn’t train for a month. Trying to deal with being injured for the first time in my life didn’t help either, which brings me to my next point about finding my CrossFit family.

I have said this before and I will say it again. This family is the reason why I CrossFit and they went a long way in helping me to learn to cope and overcome this challenge. That is why the picture below means a great deal to me. I’m the only one not in workout gear, but I still went to the box to cheer my family on because I refused to let my injury consume me. I owed it to them not to languish in despair and to come back stronger

I sometimes struggle with not letting CrossFit take priority in my life because I want to enjoy the process. I deal with that by using what I learnt in CrossFit to help me PR my life. It has helped me get better at goal setting, discipline, self-motivation, reacting to failure, asking others for help, and many other life skills that are so valuable.

Taking up yoga lessons has helped me to deal with that struggle. For starters, yoga poses are a great challenge and obstacle for a inflexible person like me. However, it has taught me how to let go of things that don’t matter and learn to appreciate the little joys I experience or gain. I find myself starting to gain a little bit of flexibility and the breathing techniques I learned on the mat has helped me greatly in WODs. To me, CrossFit has helped me to become a better person while yoga makes me a better athlete.

Competing and organising a competition

This year, I also competed in my first ever competition in powerlifting and help to organised a CrossFit competition. Being a newbie in both sports, it’s an achievement for me.

Relationship with God

My walk with God is always a challenge for me every year. Honestly, I have always struggled with making Him my priority. Getting injured was a reminder from Him that I was placing CrossFit first instead of Him. This year, I have learned a lot of surrendering everything to Him and learning to love Him with my heart instead of my mind. As I reflect back on the past year, I realised He has had a hand in every decision, every move I made. I have also learned the hard way that my plans aren’t set in stone, His plans are. I write my plans down in pencil, but He holds the eraser.

Final thoughts on 2013

There are still other things that happened in my life in 2013, but these topics are the ones that impact me the most. I’m also at crossroads. All these years, I have always thought that fitness was just an interest to me and working in the media industry is my passion. But after starting CrossFit and unexpectedly joining the workforce, I have come to realised that fitness has always always been my passion. This realisation will influence my selection of a Degree course and my career path after that.

I have no idea what 2014 holds for me other that an enticing opportunity to work with CrossFit HQ media team, which is currently still in the works. But I know that I have God, and with Him beside me, I can overcome all challenges and obstacles 🙂