Day 497. 207.5 pounds lost.
There is a guy in my life that plays a significant role in my journey that I need to take time to share with all of you. I struggle with the fact that maybe I never talked about him before for selfish reasons. Did I want him all to myself? {{laughing}}. I’m partly kidding but perhaps not.
My earliest memory was watching him coach a class. He’s a watcher and sees more than he says. He paces the room and puts his hand on his chin as if he’s in deep thought. I have sometimes wondered what he thinks about when he does that. He carefully watches movement, and you can tell the wheels are always spinning up there in his head. If you spend a half a second around him, you’ll quickly realize he radiates incredible positive energy. I knew when I met him for some unknown reason that he was going to play a part in my life.
He uses the purple devil emoji with the horns and smirk face. All of us at the gym know what this means. It means “it’s going to be incredibly difficult and out of your comfort zone, but it will catapult you to become better.” Quite simply put, it’s going to be brutal. When we see this simple emoji, our first response is “oh shhhitttt.” It’s legitimately become his trademark. We see this emoji, and we know what’s coming when he starts dropping hints about the WOD, but we come anyway.
His shirt always matches his shoes. He has a questionable addiction to Qwest bars and Love Crunch, and he has this THING about protein balls.
He’s a man of very few words. He doesn’t just spew words to say things. But we know that when he does say something, he means it with every fiber of his being. He has a contagious laugh and doesn’t laugh at everything, but when you know he does….. it’s legit funny.
He has a passion for his CrossFit programming like nothing I have ever seen, and he’s good at what he does, and he takes it seriously.
I knew about a year ago when I wanted to transition into CrossFit that it was going to take the right combination. These combinations are hard to find, and to some degree, you have to trust this person with your life. I was worried about his response to my desire to pursue CrossFit, but when I brought it up, he never flinched. How many coaches are going to look at a severely obese person that still had trouble balancing on both legs let alone jump around like House of Pain and believe they had a shot? He might not get the reference here because well…………….. he was probably two years old when the referenced song came out {{{head back laughing}}}}
Every time I had a crazy idea about my goals or where I wanted to go with training or CrossFit, he never questioned the goal. His only question has always been, “what can I do to help get you there?”
I’ve heard many people say, “Hey great job Athena” over the last few weeks but most of these people don’t realize I had help. I have a great community and a fantastic box, but I have one hell of a coach.
Everyone – Meet DJ. Oh yeah, you spell his last name H-I-L-L-I-E-R.
Love you man.
Always, Bean.
