Thanks to all of you who’ve been following our Transformation Challenge participants!
For more updates on the Transformation Challenge, as well as other news about Joust Fitness, you can visit us at the new Crossfit Joust Blog.
We hope to see you there!
Cheers,
The Joust Team
Well, folks, this is my last official Joust Transformation Blog post. The last six or so months have been quite the adventure; full of ups
and downs. How did I do? Did I meet my goals? Unfortunately, no. But that isn’t all bad. Let’s review:
A major focus of this journey was for me to lose some fat and though my weight hasn’t changed much (the difference between my first weigh in and my last was about five pounds) people I see infrequently have commented that I look thinner. Measurement-wise, most of my stats have stayed the same - though I did gain 1/2″ on my chest measurement and I lost 1.5″ from my thighs. My best guess is that this indicates I’m losing fat and gaining some muscle. That’s gotta be good.
My diet, though not perfect, is cleaner today than it was six months ago. I still have bad days where I completely fall off the wagon and eat a lot of junk, but those days happen less frequently than they used to. Since I eat about a quarter of the carbohydrates that I used to eat, my thinking is clearer, my sleep is more sound, those afternoon sleepy spells have disappeared, and I rarely experience
hunger. That’s all good.
Despite the month and a half of slothfulness that plagued me from May into June, I’m back on the wagon and attending 2-3 classes a week at Joust. Yes, I’m sore and I’ve got a really long way to go; but I’m still making progress. Exercise isn’t a habit, yet; but I’m closer to reaching this goal than I’ve ever been before.
For the first time in years, I didn’t gain weight between February and June. That’s very good. That alone was worth the price of admission!
I enjoyed this project and I’m grateful to Jenn & Melissa for letting me participate. It went by so fast! If Joust decides to try this type
of thing again, here are two suggestions that I think would make this project even more successful:
1.) Pair participants up as diet/fitness buddies. Being accountable to another person really helps keep one focus on their goals. If I had a “diet buddy” to check in with on a daily basis it would have helped keep me on track more often. The same goes for attendance of Joust classes.
2.) Make weigh-ins and the fitness assessment more regular and mandatory. Again, this lends itself to accountability and would
provide instant feedback to the project participants.
That’s my brief assessment of the last six months. What am doing for the next six months? More of the same. Joust is now my fitness home.
-Fred
Yes, it’s true that Melissa & Jenn love shoes, but that’s not why we’re offering info on shoes & your training at Joust. 
You often see us instructors wearing lifting shoes during non-running workouts. There’s a reason: Stability, power, and better performance. Lots of good options for lifting shoes — just talk to a Joust trainer about it & we’ll be glad to offer recommendations.
Interesting blog post on footwear and training, especially as it relates to kettlebell work, by Nikki Shlosser, RKC.
It’s a time of great sadness for us all - my last post. Since my last one, I’ve settled back into a more consistent pattern again. Two or three workouts a week with one or two racquetball days thrown in the mix. I also picked up one of those 3rd wheel bike trailers so I can take my son biking with me, which is another good way to exercise. Especially when he decides that he’s tired of pedaling!
I did my final measurements with Melissa last week. Since we started I’m down almost 10 pounds and 1 inch around the stomach. Not too bad, especially since I’m sure that I’m still not her best student. While I haven’t cut back on the desserts / cheese / pasta much, I have added more fish & vegetables into the mix, so at least the percentage of healthy food is bumping up.
I’ll be spending about half of July & August Up North, but I am planning to continue with Joust, so I’ll still be around, just not quite as consistently. I definitely don’t want to start backpedaling on getting into shape. It feels like in the last month or so I’ve started making better progress. I’ve been trying to bump up the weights I’m using and I think it’s having an effect.
Since this is my last post, I’d like to thank everyone who’s been reading or commenting on these, and hopefully I’ll see you at the gym!
-David
Well, Joust Transformation Challenge Blog readers, it’s that time again. This is my sixth post and we’re in the home stretch for this project. After months of complaining about being “off the wagon” and then “on the wagon” (repeat that multiple times) I’m at a loss as to what to write about this time around as I know that sound like a broken record.
I’m two weeks away from the six month point of my involvement with this project and I can honestly say that the last four weeks have been the most difficult weeks of our challenge. I’ve had a week or two of lows in the past where I couldn’t find my way into Joust or I
completely lost track of my diet; but this month has been the worst because I think I lost my desire to achieve my health and fitness goals. I wish I knew what was going on, but this winter sapped me. Every aspect of my life feels like it is unraveling, but it’s my health and fitness goals that have lost the most momentum and I’m having a heck of time getting the ball rolling again.
I think that I’m out of the woods and I’m not in danger of completely backsliding into my previous life of couch potatodom. February
through May are my seasonal weight gain months, and thankfully my involvement with this project helped me lose some weight and then maintain that weight throughout this dangerous third of the calendar. But now June is here and I’m currently fried; burned out. My wife and some of my friends are very excited about making new gains in or starting their fitness plans, but I lost my mojo and I don’t know how to turn it around.
So, that’s where this month’s post stands. How do you, JTCB readers, find the desire to continue chasing health and fitness after it has left you? How do you stoke your fire when you’ve got nothing left?
- Fred
100 sit-ups a day for 30 days. For some, including me, this might sound like a daunting prospect, but it’s also a really effective way to stick with a routine. And really, when you think about it, it only takes about 15 minutes to do 100 sit-ups. It’s something any of us could easily fit into a busy day.
The Joust sit-up challenge started on May 13, and I’ve been keeping up with it, almost flawlessly, since then. I missed a couple of days, but made them up as soon as I could. So far, I’m feeling stronger (the evidence being that I don’t hurt as much the morning after anymore) and I can tell my posture is improving. But there’s one other added benefit I didn’t originally consider: The sit-up challenge is making me work out more.
After work, I head to the Y (I’ve been getting out of work so late that it’s hard to make it to Joust for a 5:30 Charge or 6:30 Revolution). In order to do my sit-ups, I change into workout clothes. And I find, as I’m walking past the ellipticals, tread mills and exercise cycles, that it’s easier to hop on and do 40 minutes of cardio. What the heck, right?! I’m already there and dressed for a workout. Plus, getting my heart rate elevated before the sit-up gauntlet helps me keep a good pace and not chicken out on the last 10.
As with many challenges at Joust, this one gets me in the right frame of mind to start small and end up surprising myself with what I can do. Instead of just 100 sit-ups, I end up doing a 40-minute run, 100 sit-ups, about 50 push-ups and another 50 squats. I break up the monotony of little numbers by creating my own mini-WODs. And all of that just to check off a day on my sit-up challenge calendar. Sometimes, it really is all about the psychology of self-motivation.
Another cool aspect of the sit-up challenge is that I know other Jousters are striving for it, too. Even though we may not be doing our sit-ups in the same room at the same time, there’s something about that solidarity that keeps me motivated to keep trying harder. For the past week or so, I’ve added a 14-pound ball to my sit-ups, touching it down on the ground above my head and then to my knees as I move up and down. The bonus there is strenght training in my triceps, and I can definitely feel it.
Even though I’m doing really well on the sit-up challenge, I’m still disappointed I haven’t been able to make it to Joust very much over the past few weeks. That’s definitely a goal for me in June — the last month of the transformation challenge.
- Nicole
Looks like there’s a theme going on, since reading everyone else’s entries feels very similar to what’s been going on with me. I was thinking about that this weekend. My theory is that all the support we’ve been receiving has helped push us past the normal New Years Resolutions quitting point, but we’re all at some sort of plateau.
I took 2 weeks off from working out. It started with a couple vacation days and then getting sick, but there were a few days that I either wussed out or let myself get talked into going out for lunch. Normally I go to Joust with a friend, but he’s been flakey lately too, so I’ve let that throw off my routine. Today I decided to rededicate myself to powering up. I don’t want to waste the improvements I’ve been making. So I came back and did a Revolution workout. It kicked my ass, but I was expecting that.
I’ve also noticed that I tend to eat better when I’m working out consistently, so there’s a double benefit. The diet is sketchy as always. I’m not sure where my weight is, but while the belt notch hasn’t changed yet, if I keep hitting too much dessert it will.
With summer approaching it also seems like a good time to figure out my long-term plans. I was talking with my wife about cost / benefits of continuing to do Joust once the ‘Transformation Project’ finishes. We’ll be Up North about half of July & August, so I’ll probably switch to a punch-card, but as long as we can fit it in the budget, I’d like to keep going. While I’m usually one of the slower / weaker people working out, it’s a very supportive environment, which isn’t what I expected when I first heard horror stories about the intense workouts.
- David
This update echoes Nicole’s entry last week; I struggle every day with motivation. I might have two or three “good” days, but then I fall back into my previous ways of not regularly exercising and making poor food choices. This inconsistency has caused my weight and cholesterol to increase in the last two months. Not good. I definitely have to focus on getting my diet under control. The one good thing that I have to report is that my waistband isn’t getting tighter and my workout performance - though not fantastic - is still improving. But that’s nothing compared to the level of fitness that I expected I would achieve by this point into my Joust journey.
My diet is my biggest single problem. In order to get it under control I need to do one very important thing that I’ve been unwilling to do so far: I need to plan my meals. I eat an average of two meals a day outside of my home - usually at the cafeteria in my building at work or a local restaurant. I always think that I’ll make wise food choices, but we all know how rarely that happens. Then, I’ll realize that one “bad” thing wasn’t so bad, so I’ll work another one into a meal, and then another; and before I know it I’m back to eating coney dogs and fries with ice cream for dessert. Blah.
You can’t out exercise a bad diet. Getting fit is 10% exercise and 90% diet. Though I’ve got room for growth, exercise-wise; my unwillingness to get serious about my diet means that I’ll never get fit unless I get my eating under control. I see now that I’ve got a choice to make: start planning my meals a week at a time; or throw in the towel and go back to the couch.
I guess that I’d better plan a trip to the grocery store.
- Fred
Well, it’s official, I have a problem motivating myself. This’ll be a short update, since there aren’t any accomplishments to recount. And why? Because I’ve fallen off the wagon in a big way. Why do I feel like some of my previous posts have echoed these same sentiments? Probably because I struggle with the same three things over and over again:
I know for sure I’ve dealt with the first two; all of us transformation challenge bloggers have. But what about the third? It seems to me there’s something inherent in the mind of the atholete that tells them to always push for something more from themself. I don’t always have that. Maybe I’m getting a little deep here, but the days I feel good about myself — my social life, my work accomplishments, my newly polished kitchen floor, etc. — are the days I lack motivation to work out. Only when I feel downtrodden, lethargic or chubby am I really motivated to go work out. So I want some advice. How do you, awesome readers, balance feeling good with wanting to feel better?
I know I’m better when I work out regularly. At this point, I can tell the side-effects of being too sedentary, and you’d think I would do my best to combat that, but something is lost in translation between my mind and my body.
The transformation challenge is almost over, and I have very little to show for it. I have all necessary resources available to me, but I don’t always take advantage of them like I should. So it’s time to get serious. A month of honest discipline wont kill me, and I’m excited to see what I can really do. I posted these goals back in February, but haven’t kept up with them so I’m posting them again. Practice makes perfect, right?
- Nicole
It’s been a big month for me. Last time I posted I mentioned that I wouldn’t be working out as much due to a couple racquetball tournaments I wanted to get ready for. Well, I stayed stronger this year than ever before and took 3rd place in the singles tournament. Grudging congratulations to another Jouster, Jim Bujaki, who beat me to claim the title of 2nd best racquetball player at UM. The following week we came in 2nd in the doubles tournament. Once the kid who won graduates I fully expect us to be UM champions!
I’ve also been in a weight-loss challenge with several coworkers that just finished up, and I won that today. We do it by percentage toward your goal and nobody really went crazy, so dropping 8 lbs was enough to do it.
Besides all that, I just got back from a week in Colorado, so I feel like I haven’t been consistent at Joust for a long time. I did make it to the hotel fitness room and tried to put myself through a workout, but it’s hard to do it without other people for motivation! I ran a mile and did about 25 minutes of thrusters, weighted lunges & weighted squats. It’s more than I would have done previously, but I think I really need to get back into a routine, and possibly have some new fitness goals. When I don’t have some sort of goal it’s much easier to skip working out and go do something else. So I think my new plan is to run a 5K this summer and try to do it in 30 minutes. I just thought of this, so I don’t know when one is coming up, but I’m sure there must be plenty of them. And I’d like to try and do the Michigander bike tour this year. Just the 2-day one, so I’ll check into that. That may be enough incentive to actually get me spinning for the full hour!
- David
