My relationship with health and fitness sounds very similar to other members paths. At the age of 11 I stared to gain weight with the passing of my father. The weight gain was not due to greif, but rather my mother was left with 5 kids, not a lot of money and working long hours. Fast food was the quickest and cheapest option. We went from a family that ate dinner everynight at 6 o clock at the dinner table to eating burgers, pizza, chinesse, or whatever in front of the TV. My weight quickly became an issue on my very short frame.
In a nut shell I spent about 7 years yoyo dieting, taking fad pills and using weightloss programs. I spent decent time in the gym (I don’t mind working out) but soon got burned out on step (even though I’m awesome at it!), spin and kickboxing classes. Some of these combinations were successful, but my diet and weekend binge drinking quickly dissolved any progress I had made.. Yeah, I did this for a long time!!
In 2008 my husband, Brett, who was at that time really coming into his own at the gym and looking for his niche came across Crossfit Chicago. We discussed it and he told me based on the programming he would be spending half the amount of time working out that he currently was (I had to add this part, since it’s clearly hysterical if you know Brett). Within the month he was really pressing me to go in and give it a try. He knew I liked a bit of a competive environment and thought I would do well here.. After about 3 months of this I finally gave in and came in, but just to watch!! It looked horrible, I wanted nothing to do with it, yet I found myself later that week doing a baseline with Kurt.
At that point I was the heaviest I had ever been in my life. Brett and I had been married for a couple years and by that time and were looking to start a family. In hindsite I realize my overall health and fitness had contributed to the problems we were having getting pregnant. Thanks to modern medicine, we were lucky enough to bring two beautiful and healthy baby boys into the world in September 2010. I quickly realized that I needed to be as much as a healthy influence over these kids as my husband would be. I wanted to be a fit fun mom participating in their lives, not watching from the sidelines… I decided I’m going back to CFC and giving it my all.. I rejoined (off due to high risk pregnancy) in Jan 2011 and really did the best I could. I saw gains in stregnth and speed and slowly the weight came off. 11 months later I was in the best shape of my life and just about 30 pounds lighter. I was in a great place physically and mentally, I really could not have been happier… Unitl, unexpectdely we got pregnant again, on our own!! That is what CFC has done for me! It has given us the gift of another baby boy due this September. I 100% believe that eating well and getting in shape was the answer for me/us. So I thank Rudy and Bryce and all the other coaches from the bottom of my heart for knocking me up! We all will be a part of the CFC family for a long time! So now I’m taking my WODs a bit easier, but I’m looking forward to working hard and kicking ass when I’m able!
(May’12)