Success Stories

Well we have our first athlete profile! This will be an on-going success story as Gena H. says “My journey is nowhere near being complete, but now I can at least see the path…”

Gena started at the box a while back and has been a tremendous athlete from the start of the boot camp, she was one of the first to start and didn’t care if she was by herself! Well, maybe she did, but she still fought through some tough WODs and has put in a lot of work and shown tremendous heart! I’ll stop writing about her and let her own story be the focus here…

Gena H.

For most of my ‘grown-up’ life, I’ve struggled with losing weight…and keeping it off. I’ve done just about every diet fad out there, and crashed and burned at each. I would exercise on and off, but never did so consistently. I smoked for many years and drank way more wine and beer than I care to admit. I was unhealthy and more importantly, I was unhappy.

While losing weight and fitting into a cute pair of jeans is important, I also wanted to do something about health issues – in particular my cholesterol and thyroid. I’ve had high cholesterol since I was in college and developed hypothyroidism a few years ago. I’ve been able to maintain healthy levels for the past couple of years, but that has been controlled by taking prescriptions daily. While both of these are partly due to bad genetics, I’d love not to have to worry about which pills I need to take at what time of the day. I learned of CrossFit in 2009 and immediately thought “there is no way in hell I can do that!” I had never really pushed myself that hard physically and couldn’t imagine being able to do so. However, I knew I had to try something different if I ever wanted to be healthy and fit. My first step was to quit smoking, which I am proud to say I have done so successfully. The next step was to actually attempt CrossFit. In May 2009, I decided to suck it up and go to the ‘box’. I must admit that I immediately thought, “What the BLEEP did I get myself into! This is BLEEPING insane!” But I was determined not to give up. I soon found that I had to push myself mentally – probably more so than I did physically. After a few months, I could definitely see that I was getting stronger, and I enjoyed being around the people I met there.

In January I decided to give the CrossFit Boot Camp a try. I had always been interested in doing a boot camp and thought it was perfect that Cross Fit now offered such a class. In addition, I had just joined a weight-loss challenge at work and the prize was $250 so that definitely gave me some motivation! While the WODs never get easier, I have been able to push myself harder and do things I didn’t think I could. However, I still had to tackle another bad habit – FOOD.

I am a Cajun gal and I love to eat, especially things that have absolutely no nutritional value! Enter into the picture….Andrew. He has somehow convinced me to try Paleo, in particular Paleo Zone. After doing this for just three weeks, I instantly saw the results. It has been four months since I started at Memorial Park, and I never thought I’d say this but I actually enjoy going to Boot Camp! I know…crazy talk. I’ve met some great people – shout out to M-W-F 6 a.m. peeps – and I’ve lost more than 10% of my weight. And, I won the weight-loss challenge at work! However, the most rewarding part of it all is the confidence I have gained over the past year since joining CrossFit. When I first began, I only had one goal – lose weight. Now I find myself setting new goals each week….doing more ‘real’ pushups in each workout, double unders, increasing my run times, etc… I haven’t reached my goal weight yet, but I know I can. I owe a great deal of my success to Andrew. While I may curse at him in my head during the workout, he has really helped me get on the right track. My journey is nowhere near being complete, but now I can at least see the path to get me there. Instead of saying, “what the BLEEP am I doing” I now say “I can do this BLEEPING WOD!”

You’re kicking ass Gena! I look forward to seeing you reach your goals and doing anything I can to help along the way. Any chance we can get a picture of you to go up here too? I know you’re a little camera shy…