For those of you who don’t know me, I played soccer almost my whole life and I was a
bad sport. I would miss a goal or get beat by another player and I would sit down on the sidelines, furious and sad at the same time. I certainly did not know then what I know now.
Circumstances in life had me depressed living in a cycle of negative thinking because I mentally was not strong. As I got older, I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease which is an autoimmune disease that attacks your nervous system and joints. I had arthritis at 13 years old, acute migraines, and all sorts of problems that didn't help my negative thinking. Lyme disease can go dormant, but unfortunately there is no cure for Lyme Disease, unless you catch it in its early stages. I was on and off antibiotics for about 4 years.Through college it would come and go, but it wasn’t until I started CrossFit when I started to feel good. My chronic fatigue, joint pains, and headaches became less prevalent. Not only has CrossFit helped with my Lyme, it has tremendously improved my mental attitude. Like I said before, I was a bad sport, always getting mad at myself and very negative. When I started CrossFit at Revolt Fitness, I had been doing CrossFit for about a year already and with the same bad attitude. I was negative and would get mad if I couldn’t do heavy weights, if I would perform badly, and I started to not enjoy CrossFit. Honestly, through my coaches and the people around me, I slowly started to realize that my problem wasn’t physically, it was mentally. Physically I was in shape going from soccer to CrossFit. When I started I enjoyed it and felt amazing, however after a while, I went back to my same old attitude. So it wasn’t the physical aspect that changed me, but it was the mental aspect of CrossFit that did. Mentally I became a lot stronger.
My coaches are amazing in how they have shown me it is not always about the weight on the bar or the fastest time. It is about you achieving personal goals even if that goal is improving my mindset to be more positive or having a better attitude about life! I also have several others around me that are coming in here each day DOING THE SAME EXACT THING. Everyone is bonding in this community of CrossFit because we all want to leave each day better than we were yesterday. That mental toughness and challenge you give yourself in CrossFit makes you realize a few things. Knowing I had to start changing my mindset when I came to the gym, carried over to my personal life like worrying less and enjoying life around me. See? CrossFit is so much more than working out. So, there you have it, no before and after photos, no amazing weightloss journey or anything. There are many ways CrossFit can change people.
I still have my days when I get negative or have a bad attitude, but that is a work in progress and why I keep coming back every day to work harder at it.
Thank you Revolt family for helping me achieve my goals!
Mickey Crist