Hi Dan,
Leilani pulled us aside yesterday and asked Johnny and I if we could come by the Open House tomorrow. We’re more than happy to represent the mid-40’s group J! We’re also more than happy to talk about how it’s completely changed our lives in the following ways:
1) Johnny has lost a total of 16 lbs (as of today!) and he no longer needs to use his sleep-apnea machine (he put it away a few weeks ago and I’m sleeping much better!!).
2) Joining as a couple helps strengthen the relationship as it gives us something we can do and enjoy together.
3) As both of us are in mid to late 40’s, investing in one’s health is really the best investment one can make. Our little aches and pains have all gone away. We ache and pain from our workouts but those feel good as we’ve earned those!
We’ll be there from 5pm-6pm. Glad to help convert more folks to Crossfit. J
Gigi
Hey Dan,
Feel free to use what you'd like from this. If you don't like the wording on any part let me know.
"I came to Crossfit Bellevue in April 2009 looking to make some changes in my life. I didn't consider myself terribly out of shape but I was looking for something more than I was getting at a big chain gym. I chose to try out Crossfit Bellevue after my friend Levi told me how Crossfit Bellevue was the only gym he could find that was friendly prompt with their response. I went through a short fundamentals bootcamp program and was hooked.
Crossfit Bellevue is a little different from many Crossfit gyms in that the workouts can challenge your mental dexterity as much as your physical strength. Workouts range from the 5.5 minute destroyers to the hour long grueling program where finishing alone gives great satisfaction. I've seen myself grow physically and mentally stronger throughout my time here. For the number-conscious Crossfitter, I've seen my Fran time drop in half while the weight on the exercise was increased. My only complaint is the many long days at work that prevented me from getting to the gym more often.
The staff and community are amazing. Dan, the owner, has extensive experience in teaching and motivating people to push themselves harder and longer than they thought they could. The atmosphere at the gym is great with an amazing balance of cheering your friends on while at the same time doing your best to do better than them. Did I mention that I've never seen another gym where everyone wants to be your friend almost from the minute you walk in the door?
I can't thank Dan and everyone else at Crossfit Bellevue enough for everything during my time at the gym. I'm moving away but Crossfit Bellevue will always be on my list of places to visit when I'm back in the area."
Jon R.
Dan,
We met in N.Carolina during a W-EMT course a year and a half ago. You and Chris introduced me to Crossfit and i never looked back. I love it. You told me you were opening a gym. I saw you on the crossfit Games DVD. i'll never forget you and Chris. Thank you for your time during that one week in N. Carolina. I...'m working for a fire department in fort Worth, Texas and studying for my Paramedic Cert. hit me up , i'd enjoy hearing from you.
Dan,
I was at the doctor's this morning and they happened to measure my resting heart rate: 56! I think the lowest it's ever been before was 74 - that's astounding! Nice work, Crossfit Bellevue :)
Iestyn
Hi Dan,
Well, it's been 3 months since my "restart", and I thought I'd jot down a few thoughts:
First, San Diego is NICE! Despite being there for the first rainfall in 5 (you gotta be kidding me) frickin' months, the weather the day before and after was perfect.
My daughter's team won their division at Surf Cup and are now ranked the 15th best U-16 team in the nation, #1 in Wa. St. !!!
I loved the tour of the Midway, and sitting in the sun at Shelter Island watching an aircraft carrier head out to sea while being chased by one military helicopter after another (not sure what's going on with that!)
Well, despite my "rope gone bad" incident (Okay, I'll stop using that term from here out), my results are pretty amazing. Since I walked (back) in the door on Sept. 5, I'm down about 12 pounds (net) which, according to my unreliable scale, consists of 15 pounds of fat loss and 3 pounds of muscle gain. Note: results vary day by day - by several pounds usually! (see my workout log) But I can't argue with the same scale dialing me in at 28% body fat on Sept. 5, and 21% today !
Of course, I don't take the figures above to heart - it's the overall trend that continues to have me excited.
So, a long ways still to go. But I know I'll enjoy getting there. The people I've met and exercise with are a joy to be around. Going to the box every day reminds me of waiting in anticipation for the recess bell to ring in elementary school. Can't wait to get out there and play (despite the "pain")
regards,
Bob
Dan, the sheep hunt is in the books and I have to say thank you very much. A picture the ram is attached. I took him on Nov 24th.
Some quick history. I had been planning to race in the Baja 1000 this year as a 50th birthday present to myself. I knew I was over weight, but hey, you are in a car right? So no super big motivation to get into shape. Then on July 3rd I got a call from the Montana Game Department and they told me my ticket was drawn in the raffle for their Bighorn Super-Tag Sheep Hunt. They only give out two of these sheep tags a year, one they auction off, it went for $245,000.00 and the second they raffle off (the one I got). The reason it goes so high in the auction is that there is no place else in world you can hunt bighorn sheep that are as big as they are in Montana. I buy a few tickets every year as the money goes to the game department but never in my life would I think they would draw my ticket out of the 29,000 tickets they sold.
If you have never been sheep hunting, you have to climb some really steep high altitude stuff to get to them. So being fat is not a good thing. So on July 3rd I was fat (265 lbs) and had a sheep tag. So I asked my son Jake where can I get into shape in 3 months?!?! He had been going to CrossFit and he said I should come with him. Well thanks to you and your CrossFit gym I was able to lose 45 pounds in 3 months and go sheep hunting. The program works (sure you have to work at it), but I was able to climb the hills without problems and my strength was awesome! I have been on other sheep hunts and I used to do things like climb Mt. Rainier to get ready for them - but I was never in as good a shape in my core as I was this time.
Of course to top it off, 5 weeks before the hunt, I hurt my knee jogging (not at the gym :-) ) and had knee surgery 4 weeks ago. I thought my hunt of a lifetime was toast. Well, not only did I get back in 4 weeks, but I was able to climb those cliffs without issue. Thanks for your help after the surgery with the rehab!
Now that I have completed the Baja 1000 race and the sheep hunt, and lived through both of them, I will be back at the gym next week. I still have 30 more pounds to lose before I am at where I want to be! The knee is still only about 80% so I need to keep working it also.
Thanks again man - even though you weren't there - your spirit in the gym with there with me!
brian
PS: Check out that scene in the background of the picture. What an awesome place it is over there.
PS: Jake and I also had a blast in the Baja 1000 race. When I see you again I will fill you in on those details!
PSS: You being a frogger and all - you will appreciate this - the shot was 280 yards, 15 mph cross wind, 4200' elevation, 24 degrees out - so it was not an easy shot - deep breath, adjust for the wind, and squeeze - when we got over to him - the impact point was 1 inch lower than where I thought it would be - not only was the core solid - the ice is still in the veins!
Hey Dan,
I wanted to thank you for always pushing me to put more weight on the bar. Over the past 6 months since surgery, I'd been so focused on getting my strength back that I didn't realize I completely surpassed it until yesterday. Coincidentally, I did crossfit total in our garage 3 days before I broke my arm: back squat - 140lbs, press - 85lbs, deadlift - 155. Yesterday I PR'd by 105lbs! Back squat - 185lbs, press - 90lbs, deadlift - 210lbs. I owe it all to you and the rest of the community for being patient with my recovery, while pushing me at the same time (and paleo probably helped too!). Thanks again!
Jen Lyon
Hi Dan and Leilani, this month I celebrated my CFBV 6-month anniversary…I took some time to step back and take a look at how I was doing relative to my original goals….
I came to you last fall with some restless middle-aged bones, having recently hit that 40-year milestone, and with a singular goal of improving my overall fitness and health. You’ve clearly exceeded those goals. Thank You. Not only have I found improved health, but also a tremendous community and a whole lot of good-hearted fun.
Below you’ll see a chart showing my body weight and fat decreases over the past six months. I figured the weight would drop off eventually…indeed it took awhile since evidently I was building muscle mass along the way. It’s hard to recognize gradual changes in one’s own body. And while I knew I was a bit (ok, a lot) de-conditioned, I didn’t think a 40-year old, 130+ pound squat frame could make this type of leap in six months time. For reasons unknown I tracked this stuff from the beginning with a journal you provided, every few weeks I have taken measurements, and I am still surprised that I have now lost 10 inches combined around my mid-section (waist, hips, chest), along with a modest 10 pound weight lost. But the 10 inches turn out to be a loss of almost 25% of my body fat based on the calculations.
What the numbers don’t tell is the change in the shape of my body, like there are newfound muscles in my legs and arms, and I’ve actually gotten bigger here, I can really feel it in the fit of my clothing. It reminds me a teensy weensy bit of Mr. Incredible who tightens up his mid-section while etching out muscles in his shoulders, legs, and arms (ok, well at least in my dreams), and except that I am the Misses. Truthfully, I really had no idea my 40-year old body could go through this type of transformation in such little time, I thought it just happened in Hollywood mags with botox and airbrushing and artificial stunts like that. This was sheer CrossFit sweat equity.
Here’s another thing. Asthma has been a growing pest in my life over the past ten years. This winter was the first in many where I have required no medication to manage it. I find it remarkable. Additionally, I have had very few seasonal bugs – no more than two brief colds over this winter, and nothing compared to the past five years. Pinching myself.
OK, so you probably already guessed which pieces of CrossFit drove these results. Eventually worked all of them, most of the time. I came to you three days a week initially, and six days a week with multiple wods per day leading up to the Sectionals. In January, I embraced a 12-block Zone diet, plus a few additional rations of healthy fats. My Zone portions were of earthly meals – wild fish or roaming animals, hearty nuts and seeds, fresh veggies and fruits, minimal refined carbs, and no sugars or spirits. I felt sufficiently full most of the time. It appears the workouts combined with the diet delivered exponential returns, and that turning point can be seen in the sharp slide below. No rocketry here… just a solid bout of focus, prioritization, and sweat equity.
Additional components included a workout journal, food log, daily fish oil supplement, and getting adequate rest (8 hours sleep nightly and 1-2 days per week rest). It wasn’t really until January that I was able to ignite all the levers simultaneously (and frankly it would have overwhelmed me to have done so back in September), but the results show that the efforts combined seemed to deliver more than the sum of their parts. And by the way, I did say “most of the time”: While certainly dedicated, I avoided being too oppressive about all this… and cheated a tiny bit when the situation was warranted.
I hope to prove myself wrong when I say this, but I suspect the most significant progress may be behind me. And yet I am super optimistic about life ahead, how the past lifestyle changes will be accrued well into the future, and am certain that continued focus will deliver ongoing health and joy, including keeping up with my kids, enjoying windsurfing and skiing, and feeling very much alive and well with your daily CrossFit challenges.
Thank you again –
Kym
To Lei and Dan, when I first started crossfit in Alaska May of last year, I was coming off of a two year stint of being a full time student, full time job, mom, wife, and small business owner, blah blah – in short, I had no time to workout and was extremely out of shape. Most of the time Ron would have to force me to go which I would dread because I knew that the warmup alone would have me gasping for breath. After moving to Washington this past July, I trained at a different crossfit and wasn’t enjoying myself. By November, I was still finishing last and would choke back tears as everyone else would be done with their workout, the music would be turned off, and the other crossfitters would be grouped up talking about how great they did as I was still two or more rounds to go. I would get frustrated because none of the trainers would push the weights so some of the other women who were pretending to workout would blaze through their workout using the lightest weights they could, as I was trying work my way to Rx. One time a chic even used nothing more than a dowl stick. . . no lie. By the time Ron and I stumbled on your gym, I was ready to quit.
Since being at CFBV, I have made leaps and bounds from where I was. When I started back in May, I could barely lift 45 lbs overhead. A pull up was out of the question and I couldn’t even get on my hands to try a handstand push up. Crossfit is hard. A crossfitter needs to be pushed and sometimes its not enough to push yourself and you need someone else to do it for you. You need to enjoy being around the people you workout with also knowing that while you are competing against your gym mates for the top, none of them wants to see the other fail! Ron and I know the sacrifices you and your family make for the gym and for what its worth, my staying with crossfit and any progress I’ve made, I owe to you two and the community you have built at CFBV. I look forward to working out there and, if we lived closer, would be there five days a week.
To Kym, Matt & Jon: Mad F’ing props. on the games. I never doubted you guys were rockstars. But it took my first Monday workout after the games to put into perspective just what an accomplishment it was. As I was watching you guys, in between naps, I was jealous. I immediately said that I was going to do it next year. I went to the gym Monday and thought this is going to be a fun workout, Im going to blaze through it - mentally preparing myself for the games next year. . . I like to plan ahead. Wellllll, I made it to round 4, yeah that’s right not even half way, both my hands were ripped, I was exhausted, and then tripped on the box jump and broke my leg (not really but that’s what it felt like), thanks Gabe for catching me. . . yes it was that disasterous. That was one workout; you guys did three in one day; and five over two days. You should feel nothing less than awesomeness, it’s a good feeling I know because Im awesome. . . in other ways. Needless to say it is because of you three, everyone else at the gym, and especially the women, Jen (you’re my hero in the wedding pic with the ripped back - I want to workout and have another wedding just for a picture like that which I would hang on my wall), and Janice, Christina, Lei, Micki, and anyone else I forgot that pushes me to want to do better. You ladies are beasts, you want to push hard and aren’t there just to pretend to workout.
Erin J. Onyon
Dan – I just want you to know what a wonderful wife you have. She is so devoted to the life you have chosen, the gym, the children – she is really incredible. And you children are really quite wonderful – you can feel it when she brings them to the gym, they are well parented children. I admire and respect her greatly.
Just wanted you to know you have a real gem there!
Travel safely,
Molly
