CrazyFit
Tell us about your background. How did you first get interested in fitness?
I was pretty active growing up — gymnastics, dance, soccer, swimming, cheerleading. Once I got to college, though, is when a lot of that activity stopped. New friends, new schedule, and new freedoms meant my workouts and my diet went down the tubes. But then I met my husband the summer after my first year of college; he was very much a gym-rat at the time. I learned a lot by working out with him and soon got hooked. I would read every health and fitness magazine I could get my hands on from cover to cover. Soon I started running and entering races, lifting weights at the gym, and taking all kinds of group classes – Pilates, kickboxing, Zumba, you name it.
What is your training regimen like today?
It has actually evolved quite a bit. Throughout college, I lifted weights in the gym according to a fairly traditional four-day split: back/bi’s/abs on Monday, chest/tri’s/abs on Tuesday, rest on Wednesday, shoulders/abs on Thursday, legs on Friday. Exercises like bicep curls, leg extensions, and chest press dominated my workouts, followed by 30 or so minutes of “cardio” (treadmill or elliptical) – if I felt like it. I lost the “freshman 15” I had put on that first year of college but that was pretty much the extent of the progress. I never truly felt like I got stronger or faster. I was just maintaining. These days, I’ve pretty much handed over my entire fitness routine to CrossFit. After the first couple of weeks, I noticed strength gains with every single workout, and just in the first month, my arms and lower body got noticeably shapelier. I still like to run in races because I enjoy the energy of the racing community, but I am 100% convinced that short, intense workouts are the best and fastest way to optimal fitness.
I’ve heard of CrossFit. Tell us more about their approach to training.
CrossFit is a style of training often used by police academies, military branches, martial artists and tons of elite athletes worldwide. The idea is that you practice and train major weightlifting moves like deadlifts, squats, shoulder presses, etc. Similarly, we work to master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, push-ups, sit-ups, stuff like that. You can run, bike, swim, or row as long as it’s hard and fast. We take elements of these areas and mix them all up in different combinations every day. Workouts are short and intense; routine is the enemy. And every workout is scalable. It doesn’t matter if you’re 5 or 75; you can CrossFit. I work harder now in 20 minutes than I ever did in my old 60- to 90-minute workouts.
I know a lot of adults that would love to work out like that with you. What made you specifically target kids and teens?
Well, they can work out like that with us at CrossFit St. Pete. It’s an incredible community of folks that I would encourage any parent to look into. Just bring a pair of gym shorts the next time you come with your kid and ask to do a trial workout with one of our trainers.
As for me, I’ve always wanted to work with kids. When I went to college, I started out pre-med with visions of being Chief of Pediatric Surgery at some huge research hospital somewhere. But alas, Chemistry did me in and I ended up in Marketing. I started babysitting when I was 10 years old and got particularly attached to the family I was with during college. After seeing them every week for four years, I almost felt like they were my own, in a way. I also had the privilege of teaching countless children to swim during my five years as a lifeguard and swim instructor for the City of St. Pete. It was probably in that coaching role that I really started to feel like this was maybe something I could do vocationally. But that’s as far as it got. I completed my liberal arts degrees, got a “real job” in Corporate America, and daydreamed about what I might do when I grew up. Then one day, I saw an episode of Honey, We’re Killing the Kids, a short-lived show on TLC where a nutrition expert visits families to show startling computer images of what their kids could look like as adults if lifestyle changes weren’t made. The family then has three weeks to overhaul their bad habits and create a new picture of health for their children. That one episode was all it took. A light went on, and I ran to my room to grab pen and paper as I furiously scribbled every pertinent detail of the show. I had found my calling – a combo nutrition/fitness/lifestyle/family dynamics consultant on a mission to help parents and kids create healthier, more productive lives for themselves through simple everyday changes.
