I’m so thrilled to share that I’m finally going to be back on the coaching staff at CrossFit New England starting in April. Yes, the Home Goods Marathon is over…and, I’m committing to using the tiny intellectual side of my brain again. It’s actually terrifying and wonderful all at the same time. One of the perks of being back on staff is that I get to start attending the weekly Coaches Meetings when the entire…

One of my very favorite things that Ben does so well is something so simple, yet such a game changer for why I love our relationship so much: he makes me feel wanted. I think it’s something that a lot of people who have been together for a long time tend to lose sight of, but it’s something so basic and necessary that it’s worth investing some thought into on a regular basis. What I…

I’m one of those people that doesn’t react well in unexpected situations. Like, I react in ways that, if you were watching me, you’d be like, “Why are you doing that?” So, I get home from the gym and go upstairs to shower the other day…on Ben’s birthday, so he was actually home doing some work downstairs. Now, if I weren’t as civilized as I am, I could definitely have fallen into the life of…

When I met Ben over 10 years ago, I knew he was different. He was was special. To me. In so many ways. He told me these ridiculous, Dad-level jokes that made me laugh. He left me a message on my voicemail about a mushroom being a fun guy that I saved on there, and listened to regularly, until my phone provider switched systems and it got erased. Which, for the record, was more recent…

In the CFNE locker room, there is this wonderfully huge wall mirror that is, somehow, the first and last thing you…well, at least I…look at when I’m in that room. But, it sadly got moved to a far less prominent spot that has sort of ruined my locker room routine. It’s not that I can’t wait to look at myself every chance I can, but it is. But, it’s not because I love what I…

How ass-backwards is the phrase, “Do as I say, not as I do?” Totally fair if your coach has mobility issues and is trying to demo overhead squats to a class and wants them to know that he or she is doing their best, but is moving poorly. But, in most other cases, it’s the opposite of the life lesson that I’m currently trying to drill into my young kids these days. “Lead by example.”…

While we’re on the topic of empathy, I think it’s more than fitting to address the age-old difference between “empathy” and, what I consider, it’s ugly twin sister, “sympathy”. Sympathy isn’t all that ugly; it’s better than not caring at all. And, it’s a totally fair reaction to those commercials you see on late-night TV asking for donations. But, sympathy is a very disconnected version of caring. It’s having pity for someone who is struggling…

I may not be on the coaching staff at CFNE right now, but I still can’t get away from the perspective that a coach has when taking a class. As an athlete in a CrossFit class, I notice EVERYTHING: the way a coach moves around the room, how they use their voice and body language, whether they actually make quick corrections while running through warm-ups, if they use people’s specific names when addressing them, the…