Gabrielle P.

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After having my third child early last year, I noticed how incredibly weak I was. While I've never been a strong person, I just felt pathetic; there were simple things I couldn't do by myself and it really aggravated me. About this time last year, I was also 20 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight and figured I needed to do something about that as well. That's when I started working out at a local gym. Before then, I could probably count how many times I had worked out since high school, which is pretty sad.

My main goal was to get stronger since that's what I felt I needed the most help with, I figured losing the extra weight would happen as a result of the strength training. Unfortunately, I didn't make much progress on my own. I always saw people at a CrossFit gym near me outside doing bad-ass exercises and I thought "I wish I could do things like that!" In January of this year there was a family fitness night at my daughter's school and I met Paula and Melissa! I also ended up winning a free month from a drawing. It was FATE! That's where my love for CrossFit began.

I chose to do CrossFit lite. After my first week at Jaguar I could barely move, my first thought was... "Oh hell no! I have to do all of this to get in shape?!?!" But I did have a whole month free so I stuck it out. By the third week I LOVED it! One of my greatest obstacles with trying to get in shape is just getting there! Coming to Jaguar felt like an appointment that I had to keep so it got me going consistently. I didn't have to think about planning my workout, all I had to do was show up and someone would tell me what to do.

After my free month I took a break. I thought "I can do this by myself." Plus it wasn't exactly in my budget at that time. Going back to my gym was hard. I had to go back to planning my workout, AND I had to basically fight to get to the ONLY squat rack that was available. After several months of that I was tired of it and I MISSED CrossFit. I missed how great I felt after a workout, it always gave me a sense of accomplishment. I came back to Jaguar in May and have been going one to two times a week since then. Plus, I enrolled my daughter in CrossFit kids so we could both get a good workout.

My first achievement was feeling comfortable wearing shorts. My legs have more shape than they ever have, and while I still have a lot more work to do, it feels great to feel comfortable in my own skin. I also have a greater sense of self confidence. Finishing a really hard workout or being able to increase the weight I lift makes me feel proud of myself.

I don't have anything I'm focusing on now, but I'd like to increase my overall strength. One of my goals is to be able to do a pull-up. I haven't gotten it yet, but I also haven't really been focusing on it either. In the near future, I'd like to start going to CrossFit more often to be able to improve quicker.

My favorite Jaguar memory was volunteering for the Battle of the Boxes 2016. It was inspiring to be around a lot of great athletes; it made me want to improve myself to one day be able to join a CrossFit competition.