have you ever heard the saying “You can’t out-exercise a bad diet”?

Well I was living proof of that. I’m celebrating my 8th CrossFit-versary this month and during those 8 years I also hit my heaviest bodyweight. At the time I didn’t understand anything about nutrition and through a series of crash diets while still putting the hours in at the gym, I had also managed to rebound HARD from them.

I had convinced myself that just by working out I would lose weight. When that didn’t happen I convinced myself that if I lost any weight I wouldn’t be as strong – and eff ya did I like being able to throw around some heavy barbells. It turns out both of those were misconceptions. When I eventually dialed in my nutrition the proper way, I was able to lose the weight I wanted to AS WELL as keep it off. It also turned out, while I was getting leaner I also managed to maintain my strength. When I was 175 pounds my 1 rep max deadlift was 335#, I could clean and jerk 210#, I could back squat 270#. Guess what? Now that I’m 150 pounds I can still deadlift over 300#, clean and jerk over 200# and I’ve snatched more than I ever could at this lighter bodyweight, hitting a 170# squat snatch on more than one occasion. I’ve also pr’d my power clean at 210# and power snatch at 155# without needing 170+ pounds of force behind me.

You know what else I do better? I move faster – I run, row, squat faster. I do much bigger sets of muscle ups, pull-ups, handstand push-ups. I have better endurance and can last longer. Turns out carrying around the extra body fat was slowing me down in all areas and at the time I just thought I needed to be stronger, not lighter, to get better at all of those things.

This story isn’t so I can sit here and brag about accomplishments. It’s to show you the impact my diet was having on me. If comparing it to CrossFit related movements doesn’t resonate with you, think of it as being able to get down and play with your kids for longer, being able to walk a million miles on the Vegas strip and not skipping a beat, taking a friend up on the offer to go for a long cross-country ski with greater ease, having to walk up a giant hill and not dreading it. All of those things will just feel much different.

– Ash