January 2011 was the beginning of my fitness journey. I asked for a month of personal training for Christmas to get a jump-start on my journey and to eventually have a lifestyle change to be able to do things on my own. Gyms can be very intimidating and I needed that extra support to show me the ins and outs of training and eventually be self-sustaining when it came to my fitness. I wanted to be able to walk into a gym with confidence and know what I am doing. I had a little experience of training due to my history of athletics. My number one reason for wanting to work out when I started was to lose weight...nothing else. I didn’t really have any other goals. I started 6 months after I had my son, and I definitely had baby weight to lose and then some. I was about 20-25 pounds overweight when I got pregnant and tacked on another 60 during pregnancy. I topped the scale at 235 at 9 months of pregnancy.
I cried during my first training session because I had let myself get so out of shape. I was angry at myself, but I loved every moment of the session. I kept going back. That one month has now turned into 8 years of training with Keith and Tracie from personal training sessions, to small group training sessions, and into the evolving door of CrossFit FXT/Functional Training Center (which I swore those people were crazy and would never do it myself). I now love it and would not have it any other way. These 8 years have changed my life forever and I am forever grateful for Keith Gulledge and Tracie Stose Gulledge. As time progressed, I developed more goals because that’s who I am... I’m very goal oriented and very competitive (not necessarily with other people, but myself.) I love CrossFit because you can track your physical performance. Seeing my progress keeps me motivated and wondering what I can do next. The best thing about CrossFit that people don’t realize that you can start from right where you are. You don’t have to be in shape to start it. Everything begins on your level and you progress from there. It is amazing to see where I started and where I am now. Box jumps, kipping pull ups, running long distances (half-marathon 2014), push-ups, double-unders are just a few things I can do now that I couldn’t do at all when I started. Some of these things took months to achieve, but I just kept pushing along. Nutrition has played a huge part of my success as well. By no means am I perfect in what I eat, but I definitely look at food entirely different than I did 8 years ago. I pay more attention to what I eat and when I eat it. I pay attention to the way it makes me feel and I use it to fuel my body for performance. With the workouts and eating right, I was able to meet my original goal of weight loss. I have lost 40 lbs from the first day I started to where I am now. Losing the weight took about 1 year to 1 ½, but I have changed the whole structure of my body and tacked on some muscle! Now my fitness journey is about way more than weight. It’s about what I can accomplish! I HATE missing the gym. I only miss the gym when I am sick. I try to work out 5 days a week and I push myself hard every time. Pushing myself and getting to the point of “I don’t think I can take another step” is where I find myself getting better. I have never regretted going to the gym, but I have regretted not going. For more information on CrossFit FXT/Functional Training Center, contact us today to get started (334) 797-2482.
