CrossFit and Paleo in Japan

Aww....a topic I know you are all just DYING to know and hear about right?

Thought so.

Well let me tell you all about it.

Ok, I'm gonna start with CrossFit. Within two days of us being in Sasebo, I found a CrossFit group. They call themselves CrossFit Kool-Aid. Pretty good, huh? The creator, Nikki Moore, started the group and even established legit classes through the fitness center on base. Although, sadly, after about 3 weeks of us being here, the class was canceled. Kind of a long story, but it came down to outsider complaints and the whole thing being a bigger hassle than it was worth. Typically, the military is very very welcoming of CrossFit. There are bases all over the world with affiliates and/or appropriated spaces for it. The Navy though...not there yet. They are behind the times on everything.

However, we figure it out and find ways to get our lifting and WODs done. I feel bad for the 40 or so athletes that were a part of the classes. Good news though. The group facebook page is still going and Nikki posts WODs all the time so that the members can still do CrossFit. I'm helping out people here and there with their form when I can. I don't have a car so I can't drive out to main base whenever.

There are 3 gyms. There are 2 on main base and 1 in Hario base housing.

Us CrossFitters congregate typically on this part of one of the main base gyms...

To the far left you can see a lifting platform and then the obvious pull up rig. I heard they are taking that out soon...which would leave us with ONE fucking pull up bar. Sorry for the language but it pisses me off. There are a lot of people that use it that aren't CrossFitters...

Now where I workout typically is Hario. Mainly because I don't have a car. However, I have a friend that lives here that I'm going to start carpooling with the main base for WODs. I was working out alone since I got here. My friends in OH were programming for me so that I can get stronger and better to compete in the Open. But today I just couldn't do it. I fell in love with CrossFit for more than its intensity and results. I fell in love with it because of the community. The people involved with the sport are the greatest. It's almost like church. Every time I walk into a CF (crossfit) gym, I feel like I'm surrounded by my best friends.

I don't have that here, but I do have CrossFit friends here. That's what motivates me. That's what I need. That's who I'm going to start working with. Competing in CrossFit may not be my path, not right now, but my health and sanity is. So I need to get back to why I started CrossFit. Get back to the basics!!!

Anyways, here is what I have to work with at Hario...

This is what I have to work with. In the top photo I clear out those benches for certain WODs and on the bottom I use the squat rack, and to the right I use that black pad as my Olympic lifting "platform".

It is what it is. I do what I can with what I got!

On to paleo. This will be short and sweet...I can eat all the same things I do at home. We have the commissaries here. Although I have to mention the Japanese produce here. It is soooo fresh. The eggs are totally different and their cuts of meat, the size of them, are half the size of USA. Why? Because they don't pump their animals full of crap to make them bigger. It is what it is here. It tastes different. It's amazing. So if I have a car, I go to the Japanese grocery store for produce. It's a little more expensive though. Worth it! As long as Jordan is cool with it, haha.

When it comes to eating out...I just eat what I get. No use trying to change things up here. First of all, I'm not fluent with Japanese and second, changing the order or explaining an allergy is seen as WEAK! I mean, I read that somewhere...can't be a weak American right?! RIGHT!

Ok really its just because I can't speak Japanese...haha.

That is my life right now! Changing things up with CrossFit, paleo is still a thing...oh and people here think I'm nuts. lol. Again, that's ok. No worries there.

Sayonara!!!