I was not an athlete growing up. I didn’t fit in with the popular kids. I weighed all of 160 pounds my junior year in High School. Frankly, I was a bit lost. Then my best friend introduced me to lifting. You know, going from machine to machine making grunting noises (I am still known to make those same grunting noises sometimes). This was my first taste of the power of exercise.

A few years later, I found CrossFit. It only took one workout to realize I had found what I’d been looking for my whole life. I found a community—a second family, really—a group of people all striving to better their lives. That first workout felt like a war zone. My legs were shaking, I was gasping for air, and my heart felt like it was going to explode. But none of that mattered because a group of complete strangers were assuring me that I could do it. When I rounded the corner for the last time, and burst through that big bay door for the final time, everyone was cheering and screaming my name. At that point I knew, without a doubt, that CrossFit was for me. I’ve been all in ever since.

Being an athlete has been a part of my identity for as long as I can remember. Some of my fondest childhood memories take place on a field or court of some kind. During college, that passion for fitness was relegated to a ‘globo gym’ where I grew bored and despondent.

Then in 2012, a co-worker dragged me to her CrossFit class, where I fell in love (and not just with Adam). I resurrected my dormant athletic skills and felt that rush of competition I had been missing. I began to grow as an athlete, attaining an overall level of functional fitness that rendered me more prepared for the uncertain physical demands of daily life.

Then we got pregnant. Aubrey was born happy and healthy. After the standard 6 weeks, I returned to CrossFit, but something wasn’t right. I was experiencing issues with incontinence and an extreme pain in my back that didn’t respond to any of the usual mobility exercises. No one had an answer for why this was happening. Finally, I was diagnosed with diastasis recti and pelvic floor dysfunction; the doctor told me to “adjust to this reality.” If you hurt your shoulder, you’re sent to physical therapy, but damage to your body from giving birth is just something to accept? This triggered a journey that would lead me across the country and back acquiring the knowledge and training to enable me to change my own circumstances, and ultimately, those of many other women. I am now an impassioned advocate for mothers; I encourage new moms to  develop realistic goals and strategies that focus on healing, and disregard the trite notion of ‘bouncing back.’ You can absolutely get back to whatever type of fitness you want and enjoy. And I am always here to help.