I love Gardens CrossFit. No, really…. I think I LOVE it! I wake up in the morning thinking about it. I go to bed looking at the GCF website checking to see what the next day’s workout will be. I’m texting with my workout partner, Alaina, throughout the day (and we are often talking about how sore we are from the day before). I come home from a workout and tell my husband all about what we did that day in the gym. Whenever I find a picture of myself on the GCF photo gallery I make sure to save it and send it to my family back home in NY so I can show them how strong I’ve become. Lululemon is my new favorite store. Yep… I’m pretty much obsessed.

I didn’t always love GCF though. Initially, I came in with a bad attitude and with the idea that I only wanted to get skinny for my upcoming wedding. I came in to the gym about once a week and had major anxiety about not knowing anyone. I wasn’t very good at any of the movements or lifts and I was likely coming in last place when we did a WOD “for time”. I didn’t get skinny like I had wanted. I started to think that GCF wasn’t for me and that the whole experience was a failure.

For my entire life I have been chasing this impossible female ideal, rail-thin, pre-pubescent body that is plastered all over the media, and the only way success was measured was on the scale. After my wedding I decided to give CrossFit and overall wellness another try. In the couple months I took off between September and November I re-evaluated what I wanted to get out of the CrossFit. After many years of trying to conform to the media’s ideal female body image, I admitted to myself that it just wasn’t going to happen. I needed to have a realistic and attainable goal. It was time for me to give whole body wellness a serious effort. So, I dove in head first.

I started eating Paleo and I did the Whole30 challenge with the gym in February. I started coming to the gym 4 times a week. I expanded the range of supplements I’m taking with the Anabolic Gardens line. I keep a WOD journal and I buddied up with a workout partner (Alaina Sabatello! That’s you!!). I stopped weighing myself all the time and began to measure my progress in strength improvements instead. I hit new P.R.’s every few weeks. Getting that first Rx WOD was a BIG DEAL! Symptoms from asthma and allergies have dramatically decreased. I’m stronger than I’ve ever been in my entire life- I even helped my husband lift and carry a big A/C air compressor unit!!!

I’ve never felt as good about myself as I do now, both physically and mentally. I’m more in tune with my body than ever before. I get tremendous satisfaction in knowing I’m improving myself from the inside out. There will come a day when my body will be old and frail and I won’t be able to do box jumps or pull ups or squats- but that day is not today.

I’ve come a long way, but there are still lots of things I want to do. I’m not trying to win the CrossFit Games or set a World Record. What I really want is to be super fit and healthy and live a very long and happy life with my new husband. We have grand plans of traveling the world until we are in our 80’s or older. GCF has given me the gift of health and quality of life. I’ll be forever in debt to Miki, Lee, Wayne, my workout partner Alaina, my husband Chris, and every single one of you who have encouraged me along the way. I love you guys!!!!