My intention with these next blogs is to document my journey as both an athlete, coach, and gym owner and to possibly inspire someone reading this. I want to share everything from my point of view and share the lessons I have learned. Everything in life is a learning experience. Which is why it’s so important to shift your mindset from thinking “why is this happening to me” to “what is this teaching me”. When you adopt that mindset, you become more resilient and can handle life’s stressors (because everyone has them) much more efficiently than someone who has yet to develop a growth mindset. With that being said, let’s get into it!
On November 1, 2013 I got my driver’s license. I wasn’t your typical teenager in a hurry to drive because I had transportation anytime I needed it and didn’t mind working two jobs and saving as much money as I could. However, I was very fortunate I got my license when I did. 3 weeks later, on November 25th, my mom was hospitalized where she would await a double lung transplant. My older sister was away at college and my dad was working crazy long hours. I quickly had to learn to be independent. I was now responsible for driving myself to work, school, sports, and anything else in between as well as grocery shop. After a couple of weeks of salsa and chips and spoonfuls of peanut butter for dinner, I started to become interested in nutrition. If I was going to be doing my own grocery shopping, I wanted to learn how to cook real meals like my mom would make and not just follow the directions on the back of a box. So, I started buying steaks and vegetables.
A couple months later, I decided I wanted to get a gym membership. I was determined that once basketball season was over and before softball season would begin, I would join. I remember contemplating which gym I would join as if it were a life or death decision. Planet Fitness at the time was $9.99 and Choice Fitness was $20.99. I seriously was considering driving out of my way to save $11. Luckily, I made the right choice.
Pick the gym that is close to where you live or close to where you work. You’re not going to be motivated to go to the gym every single time and if your gym isn’t convenient for you, you’re going to be less consistent. If you’re not consistent, you’re not going to see the results you’re looking for.
I went with Choice Fitness because it was close to my school. I was determined that when basketball was over, I wanted to get into a new workout routine so when softball started I had already developed a solid workout routine. Well, the first day I was available to sign up for a gym was in the middle of a nor’easter, Nemo. I called the gym to confirm they were still open and I remember backing out of my unplowed driveway in my mom’s Scion TC and getting stuck in the snow. I just needed to make it to the plowed roads and I would be fine. I ended up ripping off a piece of the undercarriage underneath the front bumper trying to shovel my way out and eventually two of my neighbors came to my rescue. Finally, I made it safely to the gym and signed up.
It was amazing. Because it was in the middle of a nor’easter – nobody was there. Talk about a great first experience. I was able to freely roam around and try all of the machines and nobody judged me for not knowing what I was doing. I’m pretty sure I was there for several hours because I can remember I did 4×10 on every single machine, even the machines that were the same because I wanted to try every single one – which is an insane amount of volume for anyone let alone a beginner. In later blogs, I’ll discuss how to actually program efficient workouts.
Shortly after joining the gym, I wanted to prioritize my sleep. I started reading nutrition labels in the grocery store, working out consistently, and now I wanted to focus on my sleep. I started to notice how good I was feeling. I had more energy and just felt better overall. I would wake up at 4am and go to the gym before school, did an insane amount of cardio (almost 2 hrs), first period was gym class and I would run around the track for 30 minutes, softball practice or a game after school, then go back to the gym to use the machines before going home to eat dinner, shower, go to bed, and repeat. In a later blog post, I’ll talk about how this is obviously unsustainable and not what you need to do to get results, and optimal nutrition for health and performance.
I was hooked. I was seeing results, I was getting more “toned”, getting stronger, and I was feeling good. As a senior in high school, I was starting to think about what I was going to do with my life outside of high school. I went to a trade school where my focus was on Health Occupations and I worked as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) simply because it was the path my older sister had taken and I had seen how much money she was making and thought even if it was temporary it was still a good path to choose. After working as an aide, I knew for a fact health was not the field I wanted to be in for the rest of my life. I didn’t mind the work I was doing, I certainly didn’t feel like it was my calling but the biggest deterrent was that not a single nurse I worked with was happy. Everyone complained all the time. We all worked crazy hours. We were tired all the time. Why the heck would I go to college to become a nurse?
There’s a lot of pressure on kids to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives at 17 and 18 years old. I didn’t know. But, I did know what I didn’t want to do. I was considering studying forensics or criminal justice or even going the military route. Until I started dating my boyfriend (now husband). I decided to go to community college and major in “General Studies”. I knew I had a passion for fitness but wasn’t quite sure if I could make a career out of it so my plan was to become a personal trainer while I saved money and eventually became a teacher. I can vividly remember my professor saying “personal trainers don’t make a lot of money, and they don’t need a degree”. She wasn’t wrong. Most personal trainers bust their ass improving the quality and longevity of other people’s lives when they could make more money at McDonalds. Crazy isn’t it… I also didn’t know how to become a personal trainer at the time and even though I went to a trade school, there’s this pressure that kids have to go into college and if they don’t they’re basically a bum. I couldn’t imagine graduating college at 22 years old and becoming a teacher right away. Teachers aren’t in their twenties, they’re all middle aged women about to retire. I felt like because I had a passion for fitness I would become a trainer until I was old enough to become a teacher. However, being shot down that what I wanted to do didn’t make money nor did it require a degree – I had to switch careers because I “needed” to go to college. I needed to get a degree.
A semester or two in, I switched to a Liberal Arts degree with a concentration on middle and secondary education after thinking if I don’t know what I want to do with my future life, what is something I have already done in my life that I enjoy and can see myself doing for the rest of my life. Well I loved math and going to school – so teacher it is!
During the spring semester of my sophomore year and college, my then boyfriend and I bought our first house in New Hampshire. I would be able to live at home and commute to Southern New Hampshire to finish out my degree. When we first moved to New Hampshire, we got all these coupons in the mail. Inside I pulled out all of the coupons that looked interesting to me, particularly the local gyms in the area. 3 stood out to me in particular, Hampstead Health and Fitness, Orange Theory, and The Fort CrossFit. I knew I needed to find a new gym because again, if I wanted to be consistent I needed a gym close to where I live or where I work. I continued to work my nursing assistant job while I paid for school and commuted 45 minutes to work while working back-to-back 16 hour shifts simply because I didn’t want to start a new job in a field I wasn’t passionate about and wouldn’t be at much longer anyways. Plus, the licensure for nursing assistants in NH is different than Massachusetts but that’s beside the point.
While I was at community college I continued to play softball in the Fall and Spring. I was hoping to continue to play at SNHU where I would graduate with a Bachelor’s in Mathematics. But they were good. Really good. I tried out the different coupons, more on that another time, and gave myself an ultimatum. If I don’t make the team, I’ll join CrossFit.
I wanted to get in-shape as fast as possible before tryouts and knew my cardio had taken a hit since all I had been doing now was machines. Surprise, surprise I wasn’t able to maintain over two hours of cardio every single day. For whatever reason, I thought running 5 miles the day before tryouts would get me into shape. After not running at all, I was so unbelievably sore. I was at a complete disadvantage. I was now a junior in college, so would the coach even want to develop a player for 2 years when she could develop someone for 4 and keep them longer, and I couldn’t feel my legs. Let’s just say it looked like I had never played softball in my life.
To be honest, I wasn’t too sad about it because now I would get right into CrossFit. On October 1st, I made a decision that completely changed my life forever. I was nervous about the price because I was paying $20.99 at a commercial gym, and stopped seeing the results I saw from when I first started going to the gym and CrossFit was $150 a month. As a 19 year old kid making $14 dollars an hour, paying for college, groceries, and now a house – this was a big deal. But so was my health. You can pay for your health now, or you can pay for it later. In other words you can be proactive and invest in a gym membership, better quality foods, etc. or you can be reactive and pay for it later in medications and medical bills.
I am very fortunate that I have been active all my life. From the moment I started playing sports, I haven’t stopped. That’s because I know how important it is. I am also very fortunate that I enjoy exercising because the reality is, not everyone does. So in addition to finding a gym that’s close to where you live or close to where you work – you need to find something you enjoy. If there isn’t something out there that you enjoy, keep looking. If there still isn’t, find the lesser of the evils and do it anyway because you’ll be sorry you didn’t when your health eventually declines and you’re older and dependent on everyone around you.
My first month of CrossFit, I went every single Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On the other days, it was all I thought about. The following month, I upgraded to the unlimited option of $170. I’m laughing at myself for treating Planet Fitness for $9.99 and Choice Fitness for $20.99 as if it was the hardest decision I ever had to make at the time.
For months, CrossFit was all I thought about and talked about. I was learning new things, seeing results faster than before, and was lifting more and more weight than I even thought was possible. I wouldn’t shut up about CrossFit. I begged my boyfriend to get off the couch, shut Judge Judy off the television, and come to the gym with me after every single workout. Until one day, he said “ok, I’ll do it but – not until the boys are back at school”.
On September 1, 2016 was Eli’s first day of CrossFit. For anyone who needs to hear this, it doesn’t have to be the first of the month, a Monday, etc. to make a change. It can be anytime. After one month of doing CrossFit together, the gym had decided to switch business models. There was an announcement that the gym would no longer be “The Fort CrossFit” and would be “Opex Hampstead”. I remember crying because it took me 11 months to convince Eli to workout with me and I looked over at him and he goes “what are you crying for, we’re staying”.
The Fort had some members doing an alternative program to CrossFit called “Individual Design”. I noticed the people who were doing Individual Design or ID, were starting to lean out. Although I loved CrossFit, one of the reasons I joined was because I wanted to lose weight. Ultimately, I was happy with the change in business models because I am not quite sure I would have made the decision to switch on my own and if I did it wouldn’t have been for awhile. For me, this pushed me to the decision I wanted to make anyways.
With the new business model, Opex, Eli and I each had our own custom workouts designed based on our specific goals, we met regularly with our coach, and were able to workout together still. It was perfect until, like many gyms, – COVID happened.
Right before COVID, the business owner and his wife were pregnant with their first child. Nobody knew how long everything was going to be shut down for. Life was stressful and unpredictable. The owner was forced to make a difficult decision that was best for not only himself, but for his family. They decided to close permanently.
I knew when that decision was final, I would never be happy with any other coach. I would always compare that coach to the amazing coaches I had and would never be happy. Therefore, I felt like it was time to become a personal trainer myself.
After being talked out of becoming a trainer years prior, now was the right time.
In later blog posts, I’ll talk about the different certifications I took, what pushed me to working fitness full time, and more.
