Bootcamp vs. Crossfit (not a fair fight)

You all knew this was coming, if you know about bootcamp and crossfit then you were probably sitting there thinking “How long will it take for her to get to get to crossfit?” It does seem like the logical step after nearly 10 months of camping. BUT… Somehow I think there is a step missing, a step that will make the cross over from camping to crucifixion (CROSSfit) less like dying and more like slowly drowning in a sea of sweat. A step that feels and looks more natural… OR maybe that’s the whole point. Getting from horizontal running to bootcamp (with actual running) is already like stepping onto a 2m high box.

I personally feel that Bootcamp is Crossfit’s retarded cousin. You know the one at the family reunions that you try and avoid but you can’t cos she is so funny to watch! Don’t get me wrong I am not knocking bootcamp at all, I love bootcamp (everyone loves the retarded cousin, its family after all), I have muscles, I’m stronger… all in all camping is doing me a world of good, I am just saying that when compared to crossfit, bootcamp is less. But you know what they say, less is more. (I don’t think I can use that one here, less exercise is deffo more flab but not more muscle)

I hate the jiggle

Where is all this coming from? You ask… Well, Tuesday we shared a studio with a new class of crossfitters. I gotta tell you, it was intimidating to say the least. Our humble 3 person (including instructor) group doing our squats and skipping, lunges and planks quietly in the corner, while a group of roughly 20 muscled beauts (men and women) do hand-stand-push-ups, some Spiderman looking pull ups, dead-lifts, walking on the hands NOT quietly.

Yikes…

It’s safe to say I stood with my back towards these machines of bone and muscle. To be honest (cos usually I’m a big fat liar) it was slightly motivational having them there. I mean come on, when you are doing little circles with a 5kg weight while some other woman is doing 60kg dead-lifts you are bound to be motivated to at least not stop circling till the time is up. If there were only females I would not have stood with my back towards them, I’d be getting my motivation and encouragement, but the guys that were there were all soooooo good looking and well-built that I felt slightly shy (NO WAY, SHY?!… I know right?) to face them.

So to some up, bootcamp is great, will always be great, but seeing the crossfit thing happening makes you feel like a retard, but also you feel like – That’ll be me soon, spidermonkey-ing up that crossbar like I’m being chased by a tiger.

5 Years From Now!?

In less than a month I am turning 25… a sentence I never actually thought about saying. I don’t know why but turning 25 has got me looking back at my life and trying to figure out what in the heck I did with it. I’m not freaking out about it, cos I sure as don’t look 25. I’ve recently been told I could pass for 19, so whatevs.

You judge for yourself… me at 24!

Yeah sure there’s not much you can do for the first 18 years of your life, you know, being a dependent and below the legal drinking age (which NEVER stops anyone) and all. But after school, after you leave your teen years, after the carelessness of being dependent on parents for clothes, food, transport, and STUFF. That’s the “life” I’m talking about here. I got asked the other day, “Liezel, where do you see yourself in 5 years?” and I thought, why do you ask me these morbid questions? Why do you toy with your life insurance? Do you want to die with your fingers in your eyes and a lollipop up your nose?

The lollipop follows…

As you can well guess, my violent behavior springs from my own insecurities, that and growing up with brothers and male cousins (why, oh why, does the English language not have gender specific words for male and female cousins like Afrikaans has? Nefie: Male, Niggie: Female) and uncles. Having to defend yourself and your food in any scenario makes you violent – only a little – also having brothers who practiced amateur wrestling on you or taught you how to flick someone with a dishtowel so hard that they bled. Yes, *taking a bow* I can do that. Getting off topic again, I was saying something about insecurities… oh yes, my own insecurities about what I’ve done, or not done, with my life in the 7 years I have been out of school. Oh, I have lived, enjoyed life, been carefree, but was it worth it? Was it worth being where I am now to have a bit of fun? The crazy (and more populated) side of me screams YES!!!! The other side of me (the side with the higher IQ) screams HELL NO!! And then there is the question – where are you? Sometimes I think I have been on a 7 year long gap-year. Something Dylan Moran has strong feelings about…

Oh, Dylan!!

But, then age is just a number, and I can do so much now. I can do anything I put my mind to. I mean I am killing myself at least twice a week at bootcamp. Oh that reminds me, I did a whopping 15 regular non-girly push ups yesterday, and I TRIED doing one pull up. In my mind I was chinning the bar, in reality I just hung there looking like a piece of meat in a butchery. Why do gyms have mirrors by the way? Yes, back to what I am doing, living each day as it comes. Taking steps to better myself and I came to the realisation that in 5 years from now there are 2 scenarios that I see myself in: 1) I at least want to have bought myself a BMW like this one…

Soon my beauty… soon.

that’s a start, isn’t it? Obviously there are certain steps that would lead to the actual purchase of the beaut of a car, like earning more money. Nothing that doing some courses and classes and using some brain power (most of which are dormant at the moment) won’t fix. And 2) being a fighter pilot in the South African Air Force.

The trouble with asking the 5-years-from-now question is that you need a contingency plan. A how-to-guide to actually get to those places. that’s where I don’t know where to, with what, or how. But I do know that I am not part of a church just for nothing and I do not have supportive family and friends for nothing. Ask and ye shall receive, even if it is a klap to wake up.

Ok I’m done now!

3 is a crowd!

Lately everything has been happening in 3’s… Well ok not EVERYTHING but last time I checked I was still a female soooo I have the right to exaggerate, slightly.

I picked up 3kg’s about a week ago. All of a sudden. I mean the food forced me! I had no choice! Don’t look at me…

Aaaaanyway, yeah,so I picked up 3 big ones. Now for you to understand why that’s a big deal you need to know that as I stated before I am a female and I have been camping since end of January. Granted just cos I’m camping doesn’t mean I’ve been eating camping food. I started off eating well and cutting the bad stuff out but lately I have been eating like I was stuck inside on a cold day and had nothing better to do. (think about it…)  So I was genuinely upset when the scale shouted at me. So I sucked it up (and in) and concentrated more on what I eat and have been exercising every day for about 2 weeks now. Now what I have learnt from this experience is… STAY OFF OF THE SCALE!! Oh and that if I just pay a little more attention to what I eat its possible to lose 3kg’s in a week. YES I DID!! Oh and look at that… another 3.

My Photoshop skill are limited, so imagine him doing push ups…

At bootcamp last week I was doing girly push-ups like a boss, eating them up like I was the Push-up Monster, then the instructor said, if they are getting too easy try doing the proper push-ups. Now, the difference between girly push-ups and proper push-ups is the girly ones you do on your knees, so its less weight on your arms, the proper ones are done on your feet so its a lot more weight on your arms. I tried doing a proper push-up about 2 weeks ago when my older brother wanted to know how good bootcamp was treating me… I fell on my face. Not the best way to show off but it will come. So when the instructor said proper push-ups I cringed a little but being the beast I am (someone has to say it) I settled in to see if I could do any, and I did 3… granted the last one was wonky but I did them. I never knew that something so seemingly insignificant could have such a positive effect. I felt great, felt like I should train even harder cos obviously something is working.

hummanah hummanah hummanah – Monica

Oh and just to prove my theory of everything happening in 3’s lately… we have Iron Man 3 that recently came out on cinema and the Fast and the Furious 6 (thats 2 x 3’s in there, baby) oh and if you watch Fast and the Furious 6 you will see 3 very yummy men! Sooo there you have it, theory proven. Sorta!

Drome… Motivering… Dissipline

Ons almal het drome, aspirations, dinge wat ons graag sal wil wees/doen/bereik. Of dit nou travel is of om jou eie multi-millionere maatskappy te begin (Of in my klein niece se geval – om hare soos

All that hair… wow

Rapunzel te he) of net om gesonder te lewe en in als n 110% te gee. Elke liewe een van ons droom… of HET gedroom en het so moedeloos met die groot drome geraak dat ons settle vir kleiner drome. Ek val in daai laaste een meer as die ander… MAAAAAAR, die afgelope tyd is dit asof n nuwe ding in my wakker geword het. Dis so asof my gees connect met God se Gees en ek begin agter kom net wat presies die “plans He has to prosper me and to give me a hope and a future” is. Maar nou ja.

Sooo, nou dat ek weer droom, what am I gonna do about it? Gaan ek maar net terug sit en fantasize oor hoe awesome die droom is of gaan ek vinger trek en iets daaraan doen? Dis waar die motivering inkom… VRIENDE mense VRIENDE en FAMILIE. En nie daai platoniese kom-drink-saam-my vriende nie, nee. Die vriende in jou lewe wat jou hart ken, wat al n pad saam jou stap. Maar dan bedoel ek ook nie net die vriende wat vir jou gaan se dat als fine gaan wees nie. Dont get me wrong, daai is nodig, maar eerlikheid is key tot verhouding. Soms het jy nodig om te weet dat jy n fout gemaak het of dat jy nie rerig sooo hot in daardie pers rompie en neon groen crocs lyk nie. (Ek besit nie so n outfit nie, dit was net vir emphasis gebruik, ek besit nie crocs nie en sal nooooit nie). Daardie selfde vriend moet kan weet wanneer die reine waarheid gaan help of die afgewaterde een. Die vriende moet in jou drome kan deel, saam met jou VIR jou kan droom. Saam met jou kan stap deur die hindernisbaan soos jy jou droom nastreef, en soms soos die drill sergeant wees en agter jou staan en skree

Need I say anything??

“you call that a push-up? My grandmother can do it better.” Sulke vriende wat weet wat jy nodig het sonder dat jy dit weet… You know what I mean.

Elkgeval, so ja, ek het nou weer drome en wense. Ek kort net die motivering en natuurlik die dissipline. Alles in die lewe gaan oor dissipline. Op skool is dit die woord wat onderwysers die 2de meeste gebruik. Die meeste was natuurlik detensie en die is soms saam met dissipline gebruik om die punt sterker te maak. Ek dink sonder dissipline dan gaan al die motivering van al jou beste vriende jou niks help nie, en as n resultaat gaan die vriende moeg raak om die heeltyd hout op die vuur van jou droom te gooi en so vrek jou droom, want jyt nie dissipline nie, of want jy voel skuldig want jy het nog niks aan die ontwikkeling van jou droom gedoen nie. Nie almal het dissipline in al dieselfde areas as ander nie. So mens kan nie regtig se dat iemand is meer gedissiplineerd as n ander nie, want hoe weet jy? Dissipline is n moeilike een, dis moeilik en harde werk. Maar dis waar die motivering weer inkom. So my punt regtig is dat “dreams fade in the absence of motivation and discipline and discipline fades in the absence of motivation”.

Ek weet dis n diep onderwerp maar dit moes uit en dis hoekom hy maar kort is, dis maar net ietsie om jou te laat dink… te laat droom.