I joined CF Sausalito during the first month that it was opened. I live a few blocks away from the gym and saw the “opening soon” sign posted.  I had no idea what crossfit was but I had been pretty inactive for 18 months before joining so needless to say, I was excited to get going again!

I’d had my first child in June 2009 and there was a period of time where I just didn’t have much energy for anything. But I need physical activity to stay sane: before giving birth, I was an avid rock climber, mountain biker, snowboarder and played roller derby with the Bay Area Derby Girls for a little while.

When it came to nutrition, I aimed for cooking with local and organic food at home, even before crossfit. But the problem was that I never actually cooked at home! And its pretty challenging to be healthy when you eat out for every meal.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Since joining CrossFit Sausalito I’ve gone down 3 pant sizes (Yay!!!) and I have seen huge improvements in my overall fitness.  I recently got thirty consecutive kipping pull-ups! I did them almost by accident…And I got my Rx Fran (an awesome CrossFit workout) time down to 5 minutes and 10 seconds – an almost 2-minute improvement over my time only a few months earlier.

Then at the beginning of this year, I got inspired to try the paleo diet after my coaches at CrossFit Sausalito told me about it: stick to meat and veggies, cut out the grains and sugars. I adhered to it faithfully for a few months, cooking at home and keeping a food log (the only way to keep myself honest). And I dropped weight fast – probably 10 – 15 pounds in 2 months. The surprising bonus was that I had more energy, I felt more alert.

Right now, I’m not being as strict with paleo (I’m waiting for the next nutrition challenge to get re-inspired!) but in general my whole diet has shifted to where I just consume very little sugar and starch on a daily basis. So I’ve maintained the new weight.

Crossfit Sausalito hits all the elements I really want to get from a workout: it’s intense, it’s scalable, and it’s always varied so I don’t become bored by repetition.

One of my favorite things about Crossfit Sausalito is that there are many ways to measure progress built in. Whether it’s doing the baseline workout every few months, repeating a particular WOD, or finding a weightlifting max, you get a sense of how much you’ve improved and I like having a feedback loop.

The other thing I really enjoy is having a community of motivated people to workout with. It pushes me to try that much harder. I never feel like I’ve wasted my time after a session at Crossfit Sausalito.