Athlete Spotlight: Alex Chong
Starting with Step One
By Coach Drew Hernandez

Alex and I started to work together in October this past year. When we first sat down, he told me about him being a husband and a father of two. He told me of his history of CrossFit and his LOOOOOOONG list of injuries. Some small hesitation in his voice was sensed by me, but I tried to assure him that we have a very different culture than other CrossFit gyms.

The conversation started into what was really important and we had a very strong conversation about long-term fitness goals and the reality that surrounds that. He started his On-ramp and I soon realized that Alex is a very energetic jokester ( we hear him a lot during classes) joking about doing the minimum of the workouts I gave him. Jokes aside, I saw a father of three on his first steps of changing his mindset and health.

Alex and I started to go over nutrition and the thighs that were holding him back. We started with micro-changes to see long-term change. First, we started on the frequency of meals. This leads us to start conversions on the noise surrounding him and the stressors that can really hurt or help our nutrition ( stress eating). We introduced hints of stoicism in our talks but clarified that a lot of the noise we deal with is out of our control.

3 things out of his control:

❌🥴Work stress
❌🥴Family food choices
❌🥴Families schedule

Now what he DOES control:

✅🏽Awareness of what he can and cannot control
✅🏽Knows that his relationships with food are HIS relationship with food
✅✍🏼Now he plans and schedules his nutrition throughout the day

Alex is now a different athlete and has grown so much in these 6 months. He has grown not only physically but has changed his mindset. Having a clearer lens on his day!  We started with step one to start walking on the journey of whole health. Alex has shown me that through the hard times, we find that we are truly controlling what we can control. And that is our outlook and mindset.