In my instagram biography it says, “Sometimes, I write.” When people ask what hobbies I dabble in, I reply confidently, “I write.” Unfortunately, life can alter your plans and change your hobbies. “Sometimes” becomes “occasionally”. Then occasionally turns to rarely. After that, a hobby that once worked its way into daily life now slides out of existence then you find yourself 6 months later wondering, “What the fuck happened?”

I love writing. I love the way when I read a book I can be whisked away to a distant time or place. Or how sometimes I read a sentence that is so strikingly beautiful I glance over it again and again like a beautiful woman in a room full of people. The idea that I can take what is in my head, transcribe in to paper and then years down the road, revisit my struggles, misfortune and jubilant times is comforting.

I’ve missed it.

This post will be a bit of catching up. Six months have elapsed and a lot of things have changed. To be quite honest, I spent the time from March to May stressing out about CrossFit regionals. That was my life. Everything I ate, the hours I slept, the training I took part in. Trying to juggle all that with a full-time job was an absolute disaster for me mentally and I took a beating, finding myself in the occasional “dark” spot. To run you through a typical training day:

4:00am-wake up
5:30-8:30-coach classes
8:30-11:00-Training session #1
11:30-1:30- Coach Classes
1:30-3:30-Training Session #2
Occasionally, some evenings and middays had to be shuffled around to get some of my PT clients in.
7:30-Get ready for bed.

If you’ve seen the movie “Groundhogs Day”, you can easily see where this is going. By late April, I felt like I was just going through the motions. If you know me, you may understand how I try my best to keep things in and hold back any signs of weakness, but inside I was bubbling over slowly. Several times, that led to some emotional outbursts of frustration or sadness.

Luckily, a really great person from a local small business, Float on Hong Kong, stepped in and truly saved the day. Leading up to regionals, she provided a few free sensory deprivation floats to help me calm the nerves (or in my case, prevent emotional burnout). I don’t want to turn this into a sales pitch, but Dee is an amazing spirit and hopefully this post let’s her know how much her assistance meant to me. The first float was the hardest, as I couldn’t find it in me to really “let go”. Work, programming, deadlines et cetera all kept me from emptying my thoughts. As my sessions went on, it became easier and easier to slip into a tranquility I haven’t found anywhere else. Floating truly helped me alleviate a lot of the stress of work and training.

Some of you may be thinking, “Cameron, you workout for a living, what could you possibly be stressed about?”

Fair point, except that’s not the case at all. I won’t step up to the defense of coaches/athletes everywhere as some may tout that they manage to coach and train for the games at the same time when in actuality, the only see about 6-8 coaching hours per week. Maybe my job is easy, maybe I do spend more time working out than 90% of the population, but I take it deadly serious. In my head, I put pressure on myself. I put pressure on myself to perform at a high level and when I had a shit workout, I took it personally. I strive to make the classes I coach fun and the highlight of our member’s day. When I feel like that didn’t happen, I get a little down on myself. For me, my job isn’t a hobby or something to just pay the bills. It is my passion and I’ve worked hard over the past 8 years to get where I am today. I pride myself on that.

Regionals, done! Stress free. Bobbie and I spent an amazing few days in Australia, basking in its beautiful sun, surrounding ourselves with the positivity that oozes from its inhabitants and trying our best to forget about going back to work. It was a brief moment, but it felt so good to let loose, have some drinks and have no agenda or to-do list.
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My life is a brief periods of excitement followed by slightly longer periods of normalcy. One of the brief periods of excitement came in the form of a 3-kilogram mass of flesh and fur that goes by the name of Chipper. We bought him on a whim. One of those situations where both parties involved in a major decision just look at each other, at the object in question, then back at each other and knowingly nod in unison as if to admit defeat under the crushing weight of consumerism.

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After all, how could you say no to a face like this? Raising this little monster has been an additional stress. I have never cleaned up so much piss and shit than I do now. I say that like its a bad thing because…it is. Here’s the catch though: the good of owning a dog far outweigh the negatives. Coming home to this loving and adorable furball has really made the end of a day a lot easier. Sometimes, when home alone, I just watch him like I imagine a loving mother watches her newborn. He is captivating and a real joy in our life. It also made me push having a real kid further away on my life’s timeline because after a few months with a dog, I know my irresponsible ass isn’t ready to bring another human being into existence.

July brought about an unusually eventful month as Bobbie and I found ourselves jetting off to Korea for the Asia Champs. This 3 day event is the highlight of competitive CrossFit in Asia and really does a great job of representing the community. The training leading up to to the event was, for me, lacking a lot of the usual joy I find underneath a heavy barbell or in the middle of some brutal AMRAP. I went into it with one goal in mind: Have fun. Every little leaguer around the globe knows that phrase. It’s uttered by coaches who know that the chances of victory are slim to none and after a few rough weeks of training, I felt like that little league coach. I just wanted to “play”. That was something that had been lost for me lately. The ability to let loose and not take myself too seriously. At the end of the weekend, my goal was accomplished, as I had an absolute blast at the competition!
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The end of July saw another first for me in Hong Kong. The obligatory “first junk trip”. I would have a lot more to tell you about it but I can’t remember much of it. A combination of free flowing sangria and champagne did a fantastic job of making sure the only highlights I have are the ones that were captured on camera.
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In all seriousness, it was an amazing time. One that I hope to relive again soon…at least a year from now. I can’t recover from hangovers like I used to.