Catherine Moroschan

I walked into Motor City CrossFit at about 312 lbs and I was truly miserable. There was the physical side to the misery, like not being to walk up and down the stairs at home without being completely out of breath. It was embarrassing trying to fit in the seats of an airplane or places like a sports stadium. The hardest of all, was that I was unable to be the mother that I wanted to be, often times my weight left me on the sidelines watching instead of participating.

Then there was the mental side of the misery. I had been living with some pretty intense depression my entire adult life and it affected everything I did. It’s only now, after removing high-glycemic carbohydrates from my diet and following the Paleo eating plan, did I realize that my exercise and eating habits were slowly driving me insane. I now believe that the processed foods, carbohydrates and sugars I consumed at each meal affected me much like drugs and alcohol might affect an addict.

Today, one year after joining MCCF and after six months of eating Paleo, I am about 60 lbs down from when I first walked thru those doors. I say about because, I don’t know the exact number I’ve lost since I am not regularly weighing myself any more. That number on the scale doesn’t mean anything to my day-to-day life.

What does matter is that today I ran during my work out and I’m slowly closing the gap between me and the rest of the class. When I first started CrossFit I couldn’t even run around our building without walking half of it. What matters is that in the past week I purchased a pair of workout pants and a dress, sized XL. At over 300 pounds I shopped for my clothes not necessarily by size, but by how large it came in, I would just have to make the biggest size work.  What matters is that now I also judge my progress in terms of going down a band size for my kipping pull ups and by the lunges where my knee touches the ground and when I move the bar at weights that make me proud.

More importantly than clothes and numbers on the whiteboard, I’m finally out living my life and I’m too busy to even remember what it felt like inside to be hopeless and nonexistent in my own life. This past year has been undeniably the best year of my life now that I’m finally a participant, not a bystander.

I am so grateful that I found MCCF because without the structure of our classes, our trainers, the non judgmental atmosphere that I walk into every night and the amazing people that gravitate toward our box, I would have no idea what this feels like. Everyone who cheers me on during our runs or pushes me to put a little bit more weight on my bar, you are also part of my story. You help make our gym an environment where it is safe for me to walk in every night and give my best to each WOD.

My story though is nowhere close to being finished. Consider this a midway update, because there are many, many goals that I have yet to achieve. I plan to run a 5K this spring. I have an ugly overhead squat that needs lots of work and I haven’t even come close to seeing my max back squat. I’m not going anywhere and I look forward to sharing each of these milestones, and more, over time with my family in the box.

Click here for JD’s story. More testimonials to come!!

Click here for JD’s ‘Fran’ video featured on CrossFit.com.