Athlete Spotlight: Meghan

What made you choose CrossFit True?

My husband likes to joke that he is the reason I ended up at CFTrue 🙂 I was dismayed at trying gyms that felt like they weren’t a good fit so he jumped on Google and found the listing, which had pictures with groups of women lifting together and looking strong! In my initial meeting I met Lilly the gym dog, who was so sweet and welcoming. In the first few sessions with Coach Mia, they were encouraging, skilled, and informative – from there it’s been an easy choice to continue!

How long have you been training with us?

What has been your proudest moment in the past 90 days?

Showing up after or before work is the hardest part! I give myself regular kudos for coordinating my day to be able to exercise and am always proud I make time in my day for it!

When you’re not at the gym, what do you do for work? What do you do for fun?

I’m a physician in the fourth year of psychiatry residency at Yale! When I’m not with my patients, at the gym, or learning psychoanalytic theory I love to spend time in the kitchen (ask me for my bean soup or chocolate chip cookie recipe), read for my bookclub, or make mosaic glass art.

How is your nutrition? How has it changed since joining CrossFit True?

Being a busy resident means I have become a HUGE meal-prepper and make 30 breakfast burritos at a time each month for the freezer. I like to make somewhat elaborate dinners (with lunch leftovers): lots of chicken recipes from Molly Baz, Indian dishes from Priya Krishna, and (especially since living on the East Coast) Italian dishes from Carla Lalli Music. (Plug for their blogs, youtube channels, and cookbooks – all excellent!)
Since joining CFTrue, the protein and water intake has become more important!

What are your 3 favorite movements/exercises?

Deadlifts (anything glutes oriented, love fire hydrants with the band too)
Bike for cals (obvi)
The body hold on the ground where you freeze in a tucked position and rock back and forth! They’re silly! When everyone does it together, we all look like Mexican jumping beans. 🙂

What is your favorite style workout? (AMRAP, EMOM, Rounds for Time, etc)

I like a long AMRAP if it’s a chill day, but if it’s a harder WOD, make it an EMOM so everyone is sync’d up and struggling through together 🙂

What about your favorite workout?

I love dancing! A short run with great music when the weather is beautiful. For the routine though, I love a WOD and social hour with my CF crew.

Any favorite workout songs?

Mirror Muscles by Soft Play
Drinkee by Sofi Tucker
Suffer in Silence by Rezz
Pancake (feat. Ashnikko) by FADED
Captain Hook by Megan Thee Stallion (honestly anything by Megan Thee Stallion)

Have you changed physically or mentally since you’ve been working out with us?

I have never felt physically stronger or faster! I have been a runner and a dancer in the past, but never so balanced and overall strong before. My sleep is better, my posture’s improved, and I have stamina to do (and lift) most anything I want to do!
As someone training to be a psychiatrist, it was easy to put together how joining a community-oriented gym would theoretically help my mental health. Even knowing how good it’d likely be, I was surprised at what a positive impact joining the CFTrue community had on my mental well-being! It’s a solid friend group, a community of support through life transitions, a place of growth, and finishing a WOD feels like an immediate (then lasting) mood booster and anxiety cure. If I could prescribe a place like CFTrue to my patients, I would 🙂

What are your current goals?

Maintain and hydrate through the summer! More specifically, go to 13 classes a month, listen to my body, and stay socially connected.

How have your goals changed since you joined?

Some eras of my time at CF have been about lifting heavier and getting faster, this era is about maintenance because the rest of my life is where I’m doing the real heavy lifting 😉

What has been the biggest surprise since joining CF True?

What can you do now that you couldn’t do before joining?

Lots of consecutive jumping chin to bars! I remember I could baaaarely do one in my first month, and now my upper body strength is (slowly but surely) getting stronger 🙂

Say something else, Anything!

Thank you to every high five, “nice job,” and “how’s it going” from y’all in the CFTrue community. It has meant so so much!!