Birthday Mahalo to Crossfit Upcountry
Instead of throwing a big birthday bash for my 1 year old baby boy, I am taking the time to thank this special community for giving me the space to be the strong mom that I always hoped to be.
The amazing coaches and members of Crossfit Oakland helped me find a love for kettlebells and box jumps. They also kept me sane while my husband worked in Maui and I was working in the Bay Area. Their love, support and help to scale workouts helped stay strong through the first 7 months of pregnancy, until I moved back to Maui. I know in my heart, Crossfit gave me the physical and mental strength to embrace the challenge of natural childbirth. It was the toughest WOD I’ve ever encountered and I wanted to get a PR, dammit!
At 2 months postpartum, I came to CFUM and knew I was home. Everyone was so kind and friendly, even though my body was a much softer version after all of the physical changes of becoming a mom. Instead of looking at a scale to see how much weight I was losing, I gauged my success on how much weight I was lifting instead, which made all of the difference in the world.
Needless to say, getting myself to Hali’i Maile for class wasn’t always easy due to sleep deprivation, breast-feeding and 2 hectic work schedules, but the sacrfices were well worth it . As expected, Crossfit pushed me to my physical/mental limits, made me sore all over and without focusing on losing weight, I was back into my favorite pair of jeans, 5 months after giving birth.
So, thank you CFUM, for giving me a place to forget about stress, money, EMT school and being a mom. You have given me space to simply take care of myself, which in turn, makes me a better, healthier, kinder human and mother. So on this April 8th, I wanted to share… (CFU)Maui No Ka Oi!
With much aloha,
Maren