"I knew I was ready to make a life change and I knew that CrossFit and the community within CrossFit was my beacon of hope."
During the CrossFit Games Open in 2011, Shelly Poling could be found on the sideline watching and cheering on her fellow athletes. Not too many people knew she was quietly plotting and brainstorming her goal.
The goal was to compete in the 2012 CrossFit Games Open. In February 2012, Poling began to accomplish her goal. For five weeks, Poling was no longer standing on the sidelines. She was standing her ground.
Poling had been around CrossFit for almost a year when the inaugural Open began in 2011. CrossFit was a family affair for her, her sister and brother-in-law were avid CrossFitters and introduced it to Poling. She started going to classes, but it didn’t last long.
“I let someone else that said they loved me determine my worth at that point in my life,” Poling says. “I would go to the workouts, but I was queen of going through the motions and not truly trying. So I just stopped. I stopped going, I stopped watching my diet, and I stopped even trying. I’m not proud of it, but that is the God's honest truth. I let my then boyfriend’s words become my actions.”
Poling has been in a constant battle with food for her entire adult life. “You don’t just wake up one day at 313 pounds and think, ‘Where did this come from?’” she says. “You might not like it, but you know where it came from. It comes from finding your worth in food instead of making food your fuel.”
Freedom
Finally, Poling’s toxic relationship ended. She started back at her 5 a.m. workouts. She made changes within her diet and began her journey with paleo. Simply put, Poling became a CrossFitter.
Poling says she often heard a little voice in her head telling her, at 313 pounds, “I don’t belong here. All you can think is that all eyes are on you because you are the big girl in class,” she says. “You don’t think, ‘I am an athlete.’ But then something happened, my switch went on. I knew I was ready to make a life change and I knew that CrossFit and the community within CrossFit was my beacon of hope. I finally got that no one was watching me because I was the big girl. They were watching me because I was becoming an athlete, just like them.”
Poling’s fellow athletes agree. “Shelly is the face of CrossFit. Because CrossFit is about digging deep and fighting for something that you want more than anything and that is what Shelly does and all while chewing on her gum and flashing that one of a kind smile.”
Over the past year since her days on the sidelines, Poling has reached new heights. She’s lost more than 60 pounds, completed her first Rx’d workouts, competed in a CrossFit team competition, ran her first 5K (without stopping), deadlifted 335 pounds, and reached her goal of competing in the CrossFit Games Open – just to name a few.
“I know I am never going to be on the podium in California and that is OK. For me, it is not about that. I have learned so much about myself over the past year,” she says. ”I learned I am competitive, even when I know I’ll probably be in last place. And I am an athlete, even though I haven’t always seen myself in that way”, Poling says. “Being modified was totally OK during the Open, I actually didn’t have to modify as much as I thought I would. And I still felt like a champ.”
