One of my FAVORITE activities my husband and I do together is crossfitting. No, just working out together is great. I don’t care if we are kayaking or running, or swimming, it’s all better with him. I sometimes feel like we courted during working out. When we met 15 years ago I was training for the Sheriff’s academy and he was a mountain and road cyclist. During much of our dating time we were both spending time physically training. It really was something we had in common and something we liked about the other.

When we work as a team, like kayaking, we work really well together. However, when I went through three hand surgeries after being married for five years I feel like all of that came to a halt. We didn’t share any of it because I was either, healing, casted or then “disabled”. I lost so much skill from having both hands fused and I also lost desire to do things because it hurt or I was just bad at it. We lost the team part of being fit. Steve went on working out and ridding his bike while I sat at home feeling sorry for myself because I couldn’t “do” anything.

In 2013 Steve was assigned to the Sheriff’s Academy as a Tactical Sergeant. As part of this position he was sent to a Crossfit level one training course and became certified in Crossfit instruction. He drank the kool-aid and became obsessed with the program. He kept telling me it could be scaled to my level and I would love it and for about a year I ignored him. I would casually walk away every time I heard him talking about it to someone, which was often. It was just one more workout that took him away from sitting here looking at me feeling sorry for my out of shape fat self. Don’t get me wrong, I tried stuff, like running. I trained for and ran the Disney Half Marathon with my sisters. You don’t need hands to run. The only problem is I hate running and I’m terrible at it. Who wants to do an activity they hate and are terrible at? Me! Yay….

Anyway, after losing 20 lbs from diet and running, I wanted something more. I was looking for something I could do and would enjoy. I still remember laying in bed one morning and telling Steve I would do a workout with him that day. He chose “fight gone bad” as the workout. Of course he did, but this part of the story will have to be an entry of its own. You see, we don’t like to do anything the easy way, it’s just how we roll. Anyway, we did the workout and I was hooked! I did the same workout three more days that week on my own. I had finally found something I could do. I scaled all the movements to fit where I was physically and to my ability. In doing this, I felt like I was growing and building and accomplishing something great. I’ll never be able to lift the same weight as Steve. I’ll never be as fast, but I’m in the mix again. I love getting out into the garage with him and busting out a workout. I love complaining to him as we are both suffering together. My favorite part is when we are done and he gives me the celebratory fist bump. Haa haa, no, really. We’ve even had days when I’ve spurred him into pushing farther or doing more. Just like the good ol’ days. It’s corny sounding but Crossfit has given me back a piece of my life I thought would never be here again, and a part of romance with my husband I thought I’d lost forever.