Fashlete of the Month: Share Your Story!

February's Theme: SMALL STEP, BIG DEAL

It's important to celebrate the baby steps we take along the way to our larger goals.  Email me your story to enter February's "Fashlete of the Month" contest.

Maybe you just got your first pull up, or ran a mile without stopping for the first time, signed up for your first 5k, did your first "RX" WOD...  Write in describe the significance of this moment.  If you felt like throwing yourself a party after getting your first muscle up then I want to hear from you!

Your story will be posted on the Fashletics blog and you will receive a customized sterling silver necklace as a thank you for putting yourself out there and inspiring others through your hard work and willingness to share your story.

January's Fashlete of the Month: Sheron Smith
December's Fashlete of the Month: Lorraine Browne
November's Fashlete of the Month: Haley Sztykiel

Fashlete of the Month: Sheron Smith

The Athlete Within

If Sheron Smith does not inspire you to conquer your goals in 2011 then I don't know who will. Sheron is a hero (though she is so humble I doubt she would ever admit it).  I am very excited to take this opportunity to share Sheron's story with you and give her a much deserved moment in the spotlight. 

If you read this and it strikes a chord I urge you to leave a comment here for Sheron to read. A little bit goes a long way and even a few kind words from a total stranger are extremely powerful.  Trust me, after you read this you will want to give Sheron a big hug, a pat on the back, a standing ovation... but since we are all hanging out here in cyberspace you can give her the next best thing... a "virtual high five" in the form of a comment on this post.  :)  Enjoy!

Then (2007) & Now (2011)

My name is Sheron Smith. I am a mother, a grandmother, a wife. Until a few years ago I was on a downhill spiral of self-destruction. I was morbidly obese and my health was quickly becoming a problem.

The realization that I needed to drastically change my life hit me quite abrupt. I stepped on the scale on August 1st, 2007 and it broke at 300 pounds. I sat on the bathroom crying mostly out of shame but also out of despair! I didn’t know what to do or where to start but at that moment I knew that if I were to continue living I needed to do something.

January 7th is my anniversary. No it is not my wedding anniversary but an important one nonetheless.  On January 7th, 2008 I made a commitment to turn my life around and become a healthier, happier person. On that day I walked into a local gym and joined over one hundred other people signing up to participate in a “biggest loser” contest.

My life-changing journey technically began in August of 2007 when I weighed over 300 pounds. I began walking at a nearby community track with some friends and by the first official weigh in of Hanover’s Biggest Loser Contest I weighed in at 269 pounds, having already lost over 40 pounds.

I had never been in a gym before and found it all very intimidating. The people, the machines, the lingo were all foreign to me.  Dan Sell, who was running the contest and at that time was the General Manager of the gym taught me how to use some of the machines. His enthusiasm for fitness was contagious and was just the boost that I needed to get me started.

I also worked with a nutritionist, Brandy Schuster. Brandy taught me how to “listen to my body” and how to eat healthy.

As I began to lose weight I wanted more. I worked out harder and longer and craved an intensity that I could not satisfy in the gym.

As the weeks went by there were so many highs and lows. As I lost pounds and my body began to change on the outside it also began to change on the inside. Hormones were out of control and emotions were always on high alert! My team mates and I often joked about how we shared “blood, sweat and tears”! During those 6 months my way of thinking changed and I knew that I had made a lifestyle change. I became focused on taking this journey to the end!

Half her size!

The contest ran for six months and I finished in 10th place, weighing 213 pounds. I did not win the contest but I felt like a winner. I had gained some self-respect. I had motivation. I had found a great support system. I was on a mission and I was not nearly finished! I wanted more. It was at this time that Dan began coaching a Boot Camp. I so desperately wanted to try it but feared I would not be able to keep up with the group. It was tough and I struggled but did not quit. I found a part of me that I didn’t know existed. I loved the intensity of the Boot Camp workouts and I still wanted more.

Dan left his position at the gym to open his own and for a few months while he looked for a suitable space I worked out in his garage.  In March of 2010 Dan opened CrossFit Hanover.   I have learned so much since I began CrossFit. I joke that Greg Glassman invented CrossFit just for me. CrossFit has taught me how to deal with stress. There is nothing better after a stress filled day of daycare than to swing a 16# sledgehammer at a tire or flip a tractor tire for a mile. Pushing prowlers, doing kipping pull-ups, dead lifting chains, or swinging a Kettle bell………….have all made me stronger, has increased my endurance and has made me extremely happy. I always say that the best WODs are the ones that leave me breathless on the floor when I’m finished.

The CrossFit community has become my family. I have made many good friends at the Hanover box and have made many friends at the four nearby boxes that I have visited.

There's no stopping her now!

My accomplishments are far beyond anything I could have ever envisioned. I rode a 75 mile bike ride for MS. I did “Grace” for Barbells for Boobs two times. Last month I reached my goal for 2010 by dead lifting 251#. But my biggest accomplishment of all has been to cut my initial weight in half. I have become healthier and happier! It hasn’t always been easy and there have been many road-blocks along the way but with the support from my CrossFit friends and Dan’s never ending patience and guidance I travel on.  I am not sure where or how my journey will end but for now I am happy to just enjoy the moment.

  

Sheron is receiving this customized gift from Fashletics as a thank you for sharing her story and inspiring others. Sheron chose to have the word INTENSITY to be inscribed on this sterling silver charm. She says that has been her word all along... and it has clearly served her well!  Congratulations Sheron!

Check out Sheron's blog for more about her weight loss journey, nutrition and fitness tips, and plenty of motivation.  http://next-level-weight-loss-support.com

Don't forget to leave a comment below for Sheron to read!! 

Who will be February's Fashlete of the Month? Email your story or nominate a friend. Submissions can be emailed to sarah@fashletics.com

Fashlete of the Month: You Can Call Her "Larrock"

Fashlete of the Month: Lorraine Browne
Age: 42

Occupation: English Professor at Nova Southeastern University

Lorraine is also a mother of two, a CrossFitter, and a Triathlete. I know, you're already impressed... but wait, there's more. Here's her story....

I found out about CrossFit in a pretty roundabout way. I’ve been at it about a year now.  A couple of years ago, my daughter was diagnosed with a rare disease called Cholesteatoma. This is when cysts grow in the middle ear and in worst cases, can enlarge and become fatal by getting too close to the brain. Since Brie had a very large mass on her right side, something that was growing unbeknownst to us for her whole life, she lost her hearing on her right side and her ability to taste. Although we were extremely lucky we got it out in time, I was devastated for her.

During the year of her first two surgeries, which had to be done through the back of her skull, the only way I could think of to deal with the stress was to go to a gym. Prior to that, I had been pretty out of shape while raising my young kids in my 30’s. I began at Shondelle’s gym, which is right by my house. I worked out like crazy. The timed workouts there resurrected my old athletic self and made me want to compete at something again, so I began to train for triathlons. In 2009, I went from a size 16 to a size 8 and lost 40 lbs.

Shondelle saw that I was trying to cut my running and biking times, so she introduced me to Tom and Fernando. I’ll never forget the day she took me to do my first wod. I was so excited, I almost beat her in a rowing/air squat combo wod! She was surprised and had to come back and outperform me at the very end to win, and we were both passed out on the floor with these funny smiles on our faces. It was literally like I had woken up from a long, boring past life. I felt at home at once in the CrossFit environment, and was so happy I found something that challenged me for the first time since I played basketball in college. Before CrossFit, I thought my competitive athletic days were behind me.

This past year has passed by quickly. Since beginning at SFCF (South Florida CrossFit Endurance) and sticking with the CFE (CrossFit Endurance) there, I’ve cut my mile time from 10:30 to 8:30, and recently held around that time for three consecutive miles. That’s the first time I ever did that in my life. I’ve done better in the last few triathlons in my 40’s than I did in my 20’s, and I’m continually improving. I have such a passion for CrossFit. I don’t know where I’d be in my life without it. I hear people say this a lot and I agree: I wish I had known about it sooner in my life. I am indebted to Shondelle for seeing my need to improve athletically and being enough of a friend to see CrossFit would be a good fit for me, even if it meant she would lose me as a client.

For me, CrossFit workouts pose the life metaphor that you need to be ready for anything. Whatever the workout is on the board, I will do it to the best of my ability, and love being competitive with myself and others, so I can improve and learn how to do new things. That carries over into every other facet of life, personally and professionally. Other Crossfitters, especially other women like you Sarah, inspire me a lot. I’ve gone from an out of shape, worried mother to a fit, capable person, ready to tackle any of life’s challenges. This is largely due to the attitude adjustment that occurs every time I achieve something I never thought I could do before at CrossFit. Two weeks ago I deadlifted 225 lbs. I began at 180 just a year ago.

 

Brie had another surgery recently, and we persevered through it. She knows that CrossFitting helps mommy be calm and strong for her. Whenever I complete an Olympic distance triathlon, I put the medals around her neck. My goal for 2011 is to get in the top five in my age group. After I do that, I’m going to train for the Ironman.


-Lorraine

When I asked Lorraine what she wanted on her customized necklace she chose "Larrock".  This nickname was given to her by her sisters when they were growing up because Lorraine and her friends used to lift weights in her garage and get "really pumped up".  Lorraine said that she had lost that part of herself when she left home but she thinks she is becoming "Larrock" all over again.  I couldn't agree more!  Go Larrock!


Who will be January's Fashlete of the Month? Email your story or nominate a friend. Submissions can be emailed to sarah@fashletics.com

Fashlete of the Month: Share Your Story!

Fashletics is all about celebrating your commitment to health and fitness... but it is a celebration of more than just increased physical strength.  When I stared training I was simply interested in getting faster and stronger. I wanted to race and I wanted to win.  Most people who start a training program have some sort of tangible goal in mind - lose weight, increase endurance, build muscle, etc.

However, regardless of the initial training goal I am sure that at some point, like me, you realized that your training program was giving you way more than a faster 5k time, a new deadlift max, or a smaller number on the scale.

Quite often people realize the benefits of their rigorous training plan outside of the gym altogether.  Quite often the grueling workouts, the early mornings, the callused hands... it all adds up to something way more than nice legs and a tight stomach.

"Fashlete of the Month" is about recognizing the influence that your fitness commitment has had on your life outside the gym.  If you have a story you would like to share about yourself or someone else please fee free to submit it for "Fashlete of the Month".  Your story will be shared on this blog and the chosen "Fashlete" will receive a customized gift from Fashletics.

Don't be shy! Be proud of your success and growth and be willing to inspire others!

Email your story to: sarah@fashletics.com
Last Month's Fashlete: Haley Sztykiel

Fit Sister

My family is in town and so far my sister Natalie is the only one who has been brave enough to come do a WOD with me at SFCF.  She is a self-made bad ass and it was awesome to workout with her today. 

Nat has been doing CrossFit out of her garage for about a year and recently started working out with her fellow teachers on their lunch break in the gymnasium of Berkley High School where they teach. She posts WOD's for them on a daily basis and decided to share her especially excruciating/fantasic experience with them.  Her coworkers will love her and hate her for it... which is precisely how most people feel about their coaches.

If you need some motivation to stay in your workout groove over the holidays read Nat's post below:

Thursday, November 24 

I know, I know, it's Thanksgiving and I should just let you have another rest day. But as the holiday season approaches, it's important that we don't take it easy every time we find the need to celebrate. We don't want to get to January 1 and say, "okay, now I'll get back to working out." Let's not waste an entire month of health and fitness just in the name of stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, and 30 days of sugar cookie platters. Obviously, Thanksgiving is all about indulgence and spending time with the people we love, which is as equally important as exercise. But don't let this month get away from you.

Having said that, this WOD is in honor of that mindset. Thanksgiving is the symbolic entrance into the holiday season, so let this WOD set the tone for the last week of November and the month of December. Maybe you don't get to this on Thanksgiving day, so feel free to wake up early Friday morning and prove to yourself that you can indulge in a holiday, but not let it get the best of you. I am celebrating Thanksgiving in Miami, Florida with my sister and her family. Wednesday night we went to her CrossFit gym in Fort Lauderdale and did the following workout. I almost cried. No joke.

4000 meter row (If you don't have a rowing machine, do some sort of challenging cardio work for 16 to 18 minutes...biking with heavy resistance, running on an incline, etc.)

then...
21-15-9
Thrusters (men's Rx weight: 95 pounds, women's Rx weight: 65 pounds)
Burpees

Let's be thankful for family, food, and time to lay on the couch, AND let's be thankful for our healthy bodies!

Go Team Berkley!

More from Nat: www.teamberkley.blogspot.com

Fashlete of the Month • November 2010

I am excited to announce the very first Fashlete of the Month!  A while back I asked the Fashletics Facebook fans to write in with their favorite motivational word or phrase. Not only did I get a lot of great suggestions but I got a lot of great stories too. (Thank you everyone!!) This inspired me to start "Fashlete of the Month". Want to nominate someone? Yourself perhaps? Email me your story!

First up we have Haley (who happens to be my little sister and the youngest of  four siblings).  I didn't just chose Haley because she is related to me, I chose her because when she answered the question "what motivates you?" she wrote about something that she barely ever talks about even to her own sister.  Let me tell you a little of what I know about Hales before I turn it over to her: She never complains, she is always smiling, and although (as you will soon read) she has been told over and over again of her physical limitations I have never heard her say "I can't". I know there were a lot of "experts" telling her what she couldn't or wouldn't ever do. With a smile on her face and a spark in her electric blue eyes Hales went on to prove them all wrong. Thanks Hales for letting me share this, I hope you know how proud I am of you. Okay, enough of my babbling... here's Haley.....

Fashlete of the Month: November 2010
Name: Haley Sztykiel
Age: 23
Graduate Student, University of Michigan School of Social Work


Haley's response to the question: What Motivates You?

Before I tell you the quote that motives me, let me do a little explaining. The day I was born, the doctors told my parents “You have a beautiful (I may have added that) baby girl, but you might want to get those legs checked out.” And that is what I have been doing for the last 23 years, getting my legs “checked out.” If you were to see me, it would be obvious that I have a different walking gait then what is considered normal. To this day, doctors have never been able to understand why I walk differently. But, there has always been this underlying idea that something is wrong. Everything from clubfeet, scoliosis, and so many other medical jargon words have been tossed out and ruled out. For most of my life, doctors settled on the name “unknown neuromuscular disorder.” In other words, something was wrong with the nerve firings, and muscles were underdeveloped.

Although doctors didn’t know what was wrong, they always had a plan on how to “fix” my legs. And very few of their ideas involved anything with in my control. I have had surgery to shorten a tendon, to remove a growth plate, and to realign my hip. For a period of time growing up, I slept with electrical stimulation pads on my legs, hoping to spark nerve firings. All of this I am sure beneficial, but nothing changed the way I walked. And throughout this time, I continued to defy this “medical mystery” by pushing the limits of what a doctor told me. “She’ll never walk,” they told my parents. Obviously, not true. “You won’t be strong enough to drive,” doctors told me as I neared my 16th birthday. But after completing all 50-practice hours of my driver’s education training, I got my license. At 16.  I swam competitively starting at 7 and into college, played water polo for a few years, and went to horseback riding camp every summer for 7 years.  I never let “unknown neuromuscular disorder” stop me.

Last year, I moved to Ann Arbor and started graduate school at the University of Michigan. With such a great hospital so close, and it being so long since I had seen a doctor, my parents and I decided to make an appointment with a top neurologist. Like many before him, the doctor had no quick answers. So, he ran a bunch of tests to see the actual speed at which the neurons in my legs fire. Then, “listened” to my muscles, using a needle at different points in my leg. The results were something I had never heard before. Everything was normal. There was nothing wrong with my nerves; they fired at exactly the right speed. And if he were to test my parents, because of my age, I would look better. He couldn’t explain why I walk differently, but he was sure that everything was working the right way. And again, like all doctors, he had an idea for how to make me stronger. But this time, I was in control. His prescription: Exercise. 

He explained that I was the only one that could make me stronger. And if I wanted to see improvements, I could make that happen. I didn’t need to be poked, prodded, or taken into surgery. There was nothing to shorten, lengthen, or remove. I already had everything.  And with that, I entered the world of Crossfit. And even though I am not yet doing sprints, jumping on boxes, or lunging across a room, I’m working on it. But, I can do a solid push up, have already gotten better at air squats, and am proud of my pull-ups.


So what’s my quote that gets me going?
    “Everything you need is already inside.”  

The New Look

BAM!  Here it is my sporty friends, the new face of Fashletics.  I may have just given Fashletics a makeover but let's not forget, it's what's on the inside that really counts... 

It is nearly impossible to sum up the essence of a brand in a simple symbol.  It is especially difficult when this brand encompasses so much that I love and so much that defines my own life.  And beyond wanting to express myself and my own passion for athletics I am trying to create something that is meaningful to others.  

So beneath this clean, fresh and flashy new blue logo lies the Fashletics mantra: LIVE • LOVE • LIFT.  Fashletics is all heart and it exists because throughout life I have constantly been encouraged to do what I love.  Ultimately, pursuing what you love in life will never fail you.  You may have to work harder, it may take longer, and it may not pay as well but I think the reward is far greater than anything else and the journey is more exciting.  Trust me, if I were only interested in monetary success I would have not gone to art school!

So all this living and loving, it's hard work!  It is hard to stay positive in the midst of heartbreak, failure, or tragedy.  It is hard to overcome physical and emotional obstacles that seem to stand in the way of our dreams and goals. Sometimes its hard just get out of bed in the morning and sometimes it seems impossible to fall asleep at night.  So where do we find the strength?  

For me, physical and emotional strength go hand in hand.  Achieving  physical goals, building strength, and learning new skills gives me the confidence to take on challenges outside the world of fitness.  And I know it's not just me.  As a CrossFit coach it has been incredibly rewarding to watch others gain strength and confidence by challenging their physical ability.  

So when I say "LIVE • LOVE • LIFT" - yes - I am referring to the actual physical act of lifting your body, lifting weights, or simply lifting yourself out of bed when you would rather not.  But the reason I am so passionate about physical lifting is not only because it makes you fit and healthy, it's because of the profound effect it has on your mind and spirit. So lift away my friends! Clean and jerk your way to happiness... I have!