HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT...I may puke

Deep breath.
Take a drink of coffee.
Feel retarded about being nervous about writing this post.

I mean, I can always just NOT post it, right? But that isn't going to happen because it is time. It is finally time to share with everyone what in the world we've been doing, planning, dreaming, and obsessing over.

Goodness, I really don't know how to start this...So I'm just going to get to the point. Levi and I are opening a fitness center and have applied for our CrossFit affiliation. 

I have drank the CrossFit Kool-aid and I'm totally and utterly in love with the idea of fitness being SUPER HEALTH and NUTRITION being the foundation of it all. We have been a part of the CrossFit community for a while now and although nutrition is considered the foundation according CrossFit HQ it isn't really practiced. Don't get me wrong...healthy diets are discussed, 30 day paleo challenges are tackled and that lovely pyramid is usually displayed somewhere but for some time now I have dreamed of a gym where NUTRITION, DIET, and HEALTH are the focus and the workout is secondary. Because let's face it...if you want to see your body change, if you want to see your bloodwork improve, if you want to have more energy, improved mood, less pain then the area to target is not the one hour you spend in the gym but the other 23 hours in the day.

I have said this many times and it is still true...I am just not the hard core athlete type and it kinda blows my mind that I am about to start a gym but I also think that this gives me a unique approach to fitness because although I don't care about being able to press tons of weight over my head or being able to back squat more than the person next me, I DO want to be toned and fit and feel good about my body and health. Yet I have found that doing presses, front squats, sprinting, pull-ups, tabata planks, rope climbs, GHD sit-ups, double-unders (okay...double-under attempts), ect. in a variety of formats and with my best friends really makes working out and staying toned a lot of fun for me and keeps me wanting more. I love that it is something different every day and I am fascinated by the idea of programming workouts with the focus of the ultimate health and overall fitness for any athlete.

With CrossFit you are not just isolating one or two muscle groups. You don't do arms on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and legs Tuesday, Thursday with a little cardio mixed into the warmup. Every day you use your whole body. If you are nutritionally healthy then you can and will have those much desired six-pack abs without having to do 10,000 sit-ups a day because everything you do works your core. But the key truly is that you have to have your diet in check. Some people are genetic anomalies and they are going to have that six pack and all the twinkies they want but I know that is just not reality for me or for most people. That is why I want to start tweaking member's diets at the onset.

We are not going to be a Paleo Cult. In fact, although the paleo diet works really well for me and my family, I want to encourage people to find what foods and nutritional plan works best for their individual body and their family's schedule. If you show up and your diet is 10 Dr. Peppers a day, we are most certainly not going to challenge you with a strict paleo diet. Instead we will start with baby steps such as reducing your 10 Dr. Peppers to 5. Our goal is to make dietary changes that are attainable and beneficial according to each individual. We will customize each nutrition goal by taking into account personality, schedule, budget, and personal physical aspirations. I want to provide our members with useful and easy to understand information, recipes, meal plans, and individual challenges that will make eating nutritionally simple and possible for even the pickiest and/or busiest individual or family.

And that is another huge part of our dream...FAMILY HEALTH. We want to see families change. We want to see a new cycle, a new generation of families that focus on preventative health, eating real food, engaging in physical activity together because it not only is good for each individual member but it also strengthens the family as a whole. We want to provide an atmosphere where grandma can work out with her nine year old grandson or where the new parents of an infant can come to get an hour of "couple time" while their precious little one is being loved on and cared for too. I want that college student who struggles to make healthy food choices due to lack of cash or time to learn some simple things to change in their diet and then be better educated about how he or she wants the direction of the health of their future family to go. I just really think the concept of FAMILY is so powerful and by empowering families with resources, information, and the bonding experience of sweating and having fun together just makes me kinda giddy.

I also want to take the fear out of CrossFit. Listen, I get it. I still get freaked out when someone lets out some earth-shaking groan followed by the loud pounding of 40,000 pounds crashing to the ground. That kind of fitness is just not me. I am not the chick that is going to pee myself just because I'm in the middle of a workout and I don't want to mess up my time. I am not going to lift super heavy weights and get all bulky and muscley. I have nothing against these athletes, I'm just not one of them. And I have an inkling that there are a lot of you out there that are more like me. You want pretty and toned arms and legs, a shapely bubble butt, firm tummy, increased energy, a feeling of strength, accomplishment, joy, "me time," a social outlet. I'm not saying there won't be tough, grueling, sweaty workouts...there most definitely will be and you will love it. You will love the feeling of accomplishment once you master ring pull-ups and graduate to doing pull-ups with bands on the bar. And you will love when you start to see muscle definition because of your hard work and diet. No one starts CrossFit doing muscle-ups (or even knowing what muscle-ups are). We want to focus on each person's individual abilities and to fine tune skills and technique while increasing level of difficulty only when it is healthy and safe.

I also want to provide a comfortable setting for women. That has been a HUGE part of this dream. We are going to have a "women only" class with child care provided for those women that think they have to lose weight before they start working out in public, or do not feel comfortable working out next to men, or who just wants to hang out with a bunch of cool chicks. But even for the women that work out in the mixed gender classes, we want there to be no question about the level of respect and value our coaches have for our members. We have put together a truly incredible team of coaches who share our values and understand the importance of this sensitive matter.

Our team is incredibly eager and ready to get started. We are all actually kinda buzzing around constantly with ideas and excitement and now that the cat is out of the bag hopefully we can start to stir up some excitement in the community as well. We move into our location in a little over a month. We will be located in the "Greenville Trophies" building on Mockingbird, right off of the very busy Wesley Street AND....we are moving the SUNSHINE SHOPPE in there too!!!! So I am pretty much stupid crazy thrilled right now because I just can't think of a better option for either business than to be paired together.

Before I close this post I want to address something that is incredibly important to me, Levi, and the rest of our team. From the beginning of this dream we have been concerned about the amazing friendships we have developed within the CrossFit community. This new venture of ours is not to create competition or rivalry but to provide a different health and fitness experience to our Hunt County/Greenville community. I also want to say that Levi and I have been members at our local CrossFit Downtown and we encourage you to drop in and check them out. The members and coaches there are phenomenal and from the second we walked through those doors we felt accepted and part of the family. This is simply about this nutrition crazy chick and the man that loves her wanting to make a difference in the health of the community they adore and have always called home.