Where does it go?

Recently my wife and I decided it was high time to take complete control of our financial lives.  Between the two of us we earn a modest income that allows us to live comfortably.  But we found ourselves constantly asking each other "where did all the money go"?!  We both work hard for our incomes.  Kelly works multiple contracts as a medical marketer and helps out at TSC CrossFit as much as possible.  I manage to split time between the fire department, Pin Up CrossFit and TSC CrossFit.  At the end of the day or week we often find ourselves exhausted from the early mornings, late evenings and constant running around.  I've always thought of myself as a good money manager but was starting to worry that all our hard work was just being piddled away. 

We sat down together and formulated a plan.  We enrolled in the "Financial Peace University" by Dave Ramsey, created a budget, cut some frivolous spending and committed to taking control. While we're still working out the kinks of the budget and are only about halfway through the FPU, I feel in control.  I feel like I know where our money is going.  I feel like we get to tell our money what to do instead of it dictating what we get to do.  It's a good feeling. 

While going through this process with our financial lives, it dawned on me that maybe this wasn't the only area of my life that needed "budgeting."  Often times I get overwhelmed by how much there is to do and how little time there is to do it.  Maybe my "time" needed to be budgeted differently too?  This one is clearly a work in progress as there are many more variables and fewer tangible items to create my budget with, but I feel it's equally as important. 

I've started small, creating a daily "time budget" if you will.  It starts with priorities.  What is most important for me to accomplish today?  What can go by the wayside if I run out of time?  Typically my priority list looks something like this...

1.  Family time.  With the addition of Grace to our family, it as important now as ever.  I typically arrange my day so that I am able to spend time with Kelly and Grace in a substantial chunk.  Sometimes this means early in the day, sometimes in the evening when we all get home.
2. Work.  We have to make money to support our families.  My schedule with the fire department is set. I know it months ahead of time so it's easy for me to plan around this.  My schedule at the gyms is always changing! I make sure to schedule one-on-one clients to maximize my time at the gyms and do my best to avoid idle time where I'm  not productive with what time doing.
3. Workout.  This is the tough one. Typically work (gym stuff...think accounting, cleaning, emailing, planning, programming, etc.) tries to spill into my workout time.  Sometimes I let it get out of hand and it take over my workout time.  I'm working on it. But I don't allow myself to say "I didn't have time to workout today."  Instead I use the statement "I didn't make working out a priority today."  Try it...it puts a whole new spin on "I didn't have time." 
4.  The rest - home improvement, lawn care, socializing, errands, etc.  Typically I try to pick one or more of these and include them on my daily time budget.  The key is to make sure you are realistic - only put items on your list that you can actually accomplish.  This way disappointment is avoided.

Do you budget your time and/or money or do you often ask yourself  "where does it go? "

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Who are you accountable to?

It's back to blogging!  I'm out of practice, so no judging...

The title says it all...who are you accountable to for what you are looking for in __________ (fill in the blank).  Maybe it's in fitness, nutrition, work, tithing, or just life in general.  Hopefully #1, you're accountable to yourself, but let's be honest, that's not always the easiest task.  Sometimes we need someone from the outside looking in to keep us on task and accountable for our goals.  That's why I'm here today...I need you guys, my clients, fellow coaches, and friends to help me be accountable for an aspect of my lift that I have let slide in the past 16-18 months.

In October of 2013 I fulfilled a goal of mine and joined the Houston Fire Department.  It was a major lifestyle change for me in terms of time management.  I was back working for the man while in the Academy for 10ish hours a day.  My freedom to work out, plan my meals, and keep my fitness lift on track were slightly derailed.  As hard as I tried, my weight lifting and CrossFitting fell by the wayside.  In a big way.  I didn't lift a weight in terms of weight training for almost a year and while I was running daily at the academy (gross, I know) my WOD's had dropped back to just a couple times/week.

We finally graduated in June of 2014 and we headed out to the station.  Turns out it's really easy to eat REALLY bad at the station.  I don't think I have to elaborate on that.

Finally, my beautiful wife Kelly and I were expecting our first child in December 2014.  Our baby Grace Lucille was born on December 28th and we couldn't be more happy.  Turns out having a baby also means you're really busy...all the time!

So in a nutshell, my fitness and nutrition have fallen by the wayside in the past 17ish months.  While I'm back to lifting weights here and there, and have managed to squeeze in WODs before coaching classes, my nutrition is a mess. It seems my motivation has been wiped away.  I sometimes get excited to get back on track...and then I see a doughnut...may doughnuts are good.  So is bread, pasta, ice cream, brownies, cookies...blah blah blah.

This is where you come in.  I need your help.  I need you to help hold me accountable.  On Wednesday March 18th begins my new quest for healthy eating.  No more doughnuts.  No more biscuits.  No more ice cream.  Just good food and good workouts.  So, if you see me with a doughnut in hand, or ice cream remnants on my t-shirt, call me out!  Tell me I'm failing.  And don't be nice.  Make me feel bad.  Make me feel guilty!  It's my own 60 day challenge that I want you to be a part of. Will you help?

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Life Can Be Crazy!

It’s 2005 and I’ve finally finished my bachelors degree.  Student teaching has led me 1500 miles away from my home town of Mayville, ND, population 2500 (on a good day, with a festival going on, with good weather, and probably a holiday).  I’ve executed the first stage of my 5-year plan.  See, at that point in my life I lived and died by my 5-year plan.  Everything I did was geared towards making my plan happen.  Here was my plan:

Step 1:  Obtain teaching position in Aldine ISD

Step 2:  Start my Masters Degree in year two of teaching (2007)

Step 3:  Finish Masters Degree (2009)

Step 4:  Obtain administration position after 3^rd year of teaching

Step 5:  Complete 2 years of administration experience in Aldine ISD

Step 6:  Move back to the great white north and continue my administration career. 

Everything was on track!  Steps 1-5 went off without a hitch.  I taught high school math for 3 years while obtaining my Masters Degree in Education Administration.  From there I moved into an assistant principal role at a Middle School in Aldine ISD.  I was pretty darn proud of myself.  I was a young, energetic assistant principal who was trying dearly to hold on to my “teacher morals” as an administrator.  As year one wound down and year two was on the horizon I realized how much I hated my job.  To say I was miserable would be a catastrophic understatement.  I began to feel myself care less and less about the kids at school and more about the politics involved.  I was stressed to the max and had lost sight of why I chose education as my profession in the first place.  To be completely honest, my experience was ruining the profession for me. 

While I endured year two of my administration position, my saving grace was that I had found CrossFit.  I started toying with CrossFit in my last year of teaching and continued to pursue it in the two years in administration.  CrossFit was my escape.  It was quickly becoming my passion and a much larger portion of my life.  I began spending more time at the box than I did at home.  I would wrap up my day at school and head to the box, spending 3+ hours working out and socializing.  I finally took the plunge and decided to get my level I certification.  I became CrossFit certified and began coaching on a very part time basis.  As I learned to love the coaching aspect more and more and hate my job even more, conversations revolving around opening another box became more frequent. 

Finally, in April of 2010 I made the biggest decision of my life.  I decided that my 5-year plan sucked.  I had flawlessly executed steps 1-5 of the plan and now decided to scrap it all, abandon what I had worked so hard to obtain to pursue the opportunity to own my own CrossFit box.  I put in my resignation notice at the school district to be effective that summer.  I began working more at the box and started the search for real estate to open what is now Pin Up CrossFit.  I was scared.  Really scared. 

I no longer had a 5-year plan.  Hell, I didn’t even have a 1-year plan!  I never dreamed of being a business owner and the thought of relying on an income that can fluctuate like an obese 60-year old’s blood pressure made me nauseous.  I lived week to week, month to month, hoping that we would pull in enough cash to pay my rent and fill up my truck with gas.  My savings account dwindled slowly.  I can still remember the morning I was sitting at my desk in my apartment crunching numbers.  I had a couple bills to pay and knew rent was due in just a couple days.  I quickly realized that this was the last month I could pull from my savings account to pay bills.  It had dried up.  Then, as if God decided it was time, I got a text from my business partner – “we made a profit this month!”  It was actually happening.  We were getting paid to do what we loved.  To coach other individuals into a healthy lifestyle.  

Today I don’t have to live week to week or even month to month sometimes.  I make a modest income and manage to squeak out a few luxuries here and there.  I don’t have a job.  I don’t have to go to work.  I don’t have a 5-year plan.  I have a passion, a gym, and a lifestyle many dream about. 

Life can be crazy.  You can bust your ass to execute your plan.  I can happen flawlessly.  But in the end, what does it get you?  Plan execution?  Don’t close doors.  Open them up as you walk by.  You never know what might be inside one that can change your entire life.  Let life be crazy – or you might go crazy. 

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Squat!

SQUAT!

I think by now most of you should know I like to tell my folks to squat.  Wanna get stronger? Squat.  Wannt lose inches? Squat.  Wanna gain muscle? Squat. Wanna run faster? Squat.  Wanna PR your clean? Squat. Wanna look leaner? Squat. Do It.

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The New Age of CrossFit 2.0

CrossFit has changed, evolved, and grown.  We've already talked about the "new" ways CF gyms are opening and the feel they take on as newbies into this explosive sport.  Today let's take a peek at how the athlete has evolved.

"Coach" Vic at Sectionals in 2010

When I first found CrossFit local competitions were scarce.  I remember the first competition I competed in was a team effort between Vic at Bayou City and Carlos at CrossFit Houston.  It was an all day Saturday party in the middle of the scorching hot Houston summer.  I wasn't sure if I was ready for a competition, didn't know if I'd be able to hang, and really didn't even know what to expect!  I didn't do anything different to get ready.  I didn't change my workouts, modify my diet, or add to the boxes programming.  We just rolled with it.   It turned out to be a blast and I even did fairly well. 

Fast forward a few years.  Local competitions sell out in minutes - literally.  There's no "being on the fence" about competing, you have to be ready to click that register button the minute the registration opens.  Competition comes from all over the region.  It's become a real sport.

How about the CF Open, Regionals, and the Games?  I can recall talking with competitors back in 2010 when we had the Sectionals, Regionals, and then the games.  Most of them were athletes who went out, gave it their all and whoever was best prepared punched their ticket.  But how did they prepare?  Few had dedicated coaches.  I can't recall a single conversation with an individual who mentioned having a coach who programmed for them, watched them workout, analyzed workout video, or helped them seek out their weaknesses.  Sure, we all had our coaches at our home box.  The same one who helped us while helping the other 10 or so athletes in the class with us.

2012 Bayou City Team at Regionals

Today the successful athletes can't get by without the coaching aspect.  Sure, you can follow the programming at you box or on CrossFit.com and be respectable in any number of competitions.  This years' regional winners didn't just follow .com, or come in and participate in a class at the box.  They had coaches.  Dedicated, paid coaches.  These coaches look in from the outside, identify weaknesses, program skills, strength, and metcons.  They are as crucial to the successful CrossFitter today as is explosiveness in a power clean. 

It was a real eye opener when exiting the 2012 CF Games this year with the Bayou City team.  We did well with the preparation we took into the games.  We looked back and realized we were missing a piece.  We were missing that coach looking in.  The days of simply getting together with the team for a metcon, or throwing up some back squats for the heck of it are over.  We'll evolve with CrossFit and I'm excited to see what can be accomplished with coaching in 2013.  

cg

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The New Age of CrossFit - 1.0

CrossFit has changed, evolved, and grown.  The past few weeks/months have opened my eyes to how much has evolved with CrossFit and how it has changed as the sport grows exponentially from  year to year. 

CrossFit was first founded in the year 2000 with its first registered affiliate opening in Seattle called CrossFit North.  Between 2000 and 2005 only 13 more gyms opened up.  Needless to say the growth in the early 2000's was small.  Today there are several thousand CrossFit gyms worldwide. 

I found CrossFit in the summer of 2008.  At this time there were only a handful of boxes in Houston and it took some real searching to find one initially.  I began working out with Carlos at CrossFit Houston that summer until my job forced me to spend more time at work than in the gym.  My schedule wasn't working with theirs and I had to take a small hiatus from CrossFit.  Meanwhile, I got chunky.  My brothers noticed and, like all brothers do, gave me some grief about it.  I immediately went back to CrossFit, this time finding Vic and Bayou City CrossFit in the heights.

The original Bayou City

When I started at both of these places, equipment was sparse,  facilities left lots to be desired, and it was anything but a luxury experience.  I loved every minute of it.  We shared bars, used dumbells for KB swings, jumped on whatever we could find as a makeshift box.  It was exactly what I wanted in a workout.  No one complained that we didn't have enough bars for the whole class or that you had to use a heavier KB because the rest were being used.  No one ever even blinked at the dark, dirty, sometimes working bathrooms.  There was no AC...anywhere in the facility.  If you wanted to cool down, you went across the street to Cedar Creek and had a beer...no one ever even asked for AC.   In fact, we even drug our mats outside every single day for about 6 months after being denied permits by the city...rain or shine, hot or cold, light or dark.  Every day.  No one cared.  We all came back day in and day out. 

Time passed and we upgraded.  Vic bought equipment as we needed it, never going and and buying just because it was new.  We moved a larger space, but only as the clientele grew so large that it was necessary.  We added more equipment as the clientele grew even further.  You get the idea...things were added out of necessity, not because there was a wish list. 

The original Pin Up

The new and improved Pin Up!

Finally we opened Pin Up CrossFit.  We started small in a tiny 1800ish square foot office space.  Low ceilings, bad parking, not the most ideal CrossFit space.  We used old discarded equipment from
Bayou City and purchased a few new things to get us started:  some bumpers, a couple bars, a handful of KB's and some jump ropes.  I remember finally getting some medicine balls after clients begged for them so they could do beloved wall balls. I think we were at least 6-8 months in before we even bought a wall ball.  We have also evolved since then.  Moving into new digs a few months ago, purchasing some new equipment along the way, and adding things as necessary.  We still live by the philosophy that we get what we need. 

Freshly painted exterior

Where am I going with this?  I noticed the other day when I was out to pick up an order at our local equipment store (more wall balls - only our second order in the 2 years we've been around) that there were a couple new box owners picking up an order as well.  They had a truck FULL of KB's, plates, bars, bands, wall balls, GHD machines, etc..  You name it, they were buying it.  They told me they were opening the beginning of August.  I simply smiled.  Things have changed.  They'll open their doors with a full stock of equipment (in fact I noticed via the wonderful internet they have the whole place matted, several rowers...anything you can think of).  Their new clients will walk into a gym with brand spanking new equipment and tons of it.  I'm not dogging these folks.  It's what CrossFit has become.  If you want to compete with the gyms around you, you're going to have to outfit that gym!

And some new facilities look like this!

But at the same time it sucks.  Those new clients don't get to appreciate the "grassroots" feeling of using banged up, rusty old equipment, sharing a bar with a neighbor, or rolling around in a dirty parking lot because it's all you have.  To me, that's part of the draw.  You don't need fancy equipment to PR your clean.  You don't need a $10,000 pullup system to get good at pullups.  You don't need your whole floor covered in clean rubber to get your ass kicked in a workout.  All you need is some folks that are willing to push their body to the limit, red line that heart rate, pick themselves off the floor, and come back and do it again the next day. 

Don't get me wrong, I didn't get in on the ground floor, but I wish I did.  I wish I could have seen it it 2000, applied it when playing college football, and been a part of it when it was just 13 gyms strong. 

CrossFit has evolved.

Watch for 2.0 coming soon.

cg

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Bigger than us.

Woah.  I guess I've fallen off the blogging wagon lately!  It's been about a month and a half since we finished up the CrossFit games...I thought things would slow down and I'd have more time for this kind of stuff once the games were over.  HA!  Wrong.  Busy is good...I'll take it!

Bigger than us:

I'm going to be honest.  I haven't put near as much effort in to Fight Gone Bad 6 this year as I would have liked.  I haven't been the PR guy I've wanted to for the event, I haven't raised as much money as I would have liked to, and I haven't sunk as much time into the planning of the event I had anticipated.  But, that doesn't mean I'm not excited about it!  When I get to sit down and think about what FGB is, why we do it, and how much it can mean to others, I get pretty pumped up! 

This years FGB primarily benefits 3 foundations:  the ISR program via CrossFit Kids, Camp Patriot, and the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.  Camp Patriot and the SOWF are foundations that help veterans and their families in times of need.  The ISR is recognized as the safest provider of survival swimming lessons for infants and toddlers.

All of those are bigger than us.  Here we are, able to decide IF we want to complete FGB, IF we feel like donating money, and IF we want to help others.  We have that choice guys.  Families of deceased soldiers, injured battle veterans, or accidental drowning victims don't get this choice.  They are left with the hand they are dealt.  Period.  So let's help.  Grab your piggy bank, clean the floorboards of your car, turn your couch upside down, write a check, or skip that morning Starbucks for a week and throw a few dollars at Fight Gone Bad 6.  If you, your friend, and their friend, and their friend.....you get the idea...can pitch just a couple bucks we can help some people and families in a major way!

Bayou City CrossFit will host Fight Gone Bad 6 this weekend at our new digs at 3622 Golf Drive.  Registration starts at 8:00 a.m. and the first heat will start promptly at 9:00.  Come out and support those who need it.  We will have donation buckets on site. 

See you on Saturday!

cg

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