I remember my 22-year old nephew coming home from school one summer talking all crazy about this new hardcore fitness regimen that he'd started following. Crossfit, he called it. He told me about all the heavy barbell lifting, the lung-busting endurance workouts. Told me about WOD's, about Burpees, about girls named Fran, Helen, and Grace. Told me how he'd sit at his computer every night, hitting refresh, waiting to see what tomorrow’s workout would be. Showed me his 2-pood kettlebell in the garage, how to swing it. I couldn't even lift it. Crossfit...some extreme fad for adrenaline-junkie young athletes right?. I guess. But me? a 38 year old office-working, television-watching, junk-food eating new dad? I don't think so. But I was fascinated...
It was a year or so later, when CFLI was about to open its doors, that I started thinking about it again, I'd had a Bally's membership for over 10 years. 8 bucks a month, couldn't beat it. Once a year I'd start going again, try to lose weight and get fit. Inevitably I'd be back on the couch again. There was just no motivation to keep going. The physical results were minimal, and the atmosphere? Please. No one knew who I was, no one cared. Everyone just doing their own thing, lifting things up and putting them down. Running in place, riding ellipticals, whatever the F that is. If I was ever gonna make it, I knew wanted something different. I NEEDED something different…
Another 6 or 8 months passed until I finally walked in the door @ 54 Old Dock Road for my baseline workout. I was fat, I was listless, and I was just plain pathetic. But more importantly…I was ready. Ready to change my life, once and for all. I was ready to put it all in the hands of Coach Cos and CFLI. That was February 5th. I weighed close to 240 pounds, I was soft, I was weak, and I nearly threw up after 10 minutes. But I left there that morning feeling something, knowing something had just begun…
Its September now, and I’ve spent the last 8 months rebuilding my life. I’ve been at that box religiously, giving it everything I have, physically and mentally. And it has given back so much more. It has given me the confidence, in mind, body, and soul, to believe there is nothing that I cannot do. I don’t really know how else describe my experience other than to say that I am reborn. I’m living life the way I wish I would have for all these years. I’m 40 now, I weigh under 210 pounds, and I look and feel better than I have in my entire life. I have changed the way I approach my life in so many ways. CFLI has strengthened my family, it is helping me to pave the way to a healthy lifestyle for my children, and it has brought me into a community of amazing people. It’s even brought me a new business venture. To me, the friendship, support, care, and motivation provided within this wonderful community is truly the backbone of what Crossfit is about. So I give thanks, in a way that I can never repay, to my nephew, Coach Costello, to the rest of the trainers, Brianne, Pat, Ian, and Trav, and to the men and women who grunt, push, sweat, and fight through these WOD’s at my side every day.
BEFORE
AFTER
