CrossFit, Kismet Meetings & Being Ready for Change (& the Fabulous Roni Noone)

In July I was lucky to head to Chicago for the BlogHer conference. I had been there 4 years before for the exact same thing, as well as the first TBEX conference.

While in Chicago (in 2009), I took advantage of some professional photo opps being offered by photographers for some free headshots. My headshot and photos of myself from that event are still some of my worst “Before” pictures.

One of the very excellent things that came out of that event is I sat next to a “Roni” at BlogHer during a food blogger dinner. I didn’t know who she was, but we chatted and I remember thinking she was nice. I took her card, and I went home and started reading her blog.

She had a food blog, and a tech/biz blog (starting to sound familiar? we are definitely two peas in a pod when it comes to our sites) but she was most well-known for her lifestyle / healthy living site. I started glomming onto the site. I liked her voice, and her practical advice, and the proof that she wasn’t living some sort of perfect healthy life, but a real and attainable one.

I kept reading, as an observer, thinking, “this is really good advice. Someday…” I was pretty unhappy with how I looked then, and I needed to change, but I guess I wasn’t ready yet. I wasn’t ready to stop making excuses.

Almost two years later, when I started getting serious about getting healthy, that content I had been observing then gave me quite a bit of inspiration. In fact, one of my first posts on this site was inspired by Roni. Later that summer, I headed to BlogHer in San Diego and we were both there as speakers, and we ran a slow (because of me) 5k together and chatted quite a bit. She had just had her second child and was sharing her struggles and victories during the whole thing.

This year we met up again, at BlogHer, and I was happy to be able to visit a CrossFit box with her. Even though there isn’t a CrossFit box really close to me, it’s exactly the reason I did the CrossFit fundamentals course – so I could do it with friends, colleagues, and family when I travel.

I don’t think I would have gone if she hadn’t been there – I almost said no because I was intimidated by the thought of showing up and seeing the WOD written out on the board. And I’m glad I went. We ran the mile over to River North CrossFit and got ready to get our butts kicked. The team there was super welcoming (shout-out to John!) and our fee even included a free t-shirt or tank which was great (and I have worn it a lot this summer).

The workout was one of the “girls” – Eva, and it was pretty brutal, and I did finish, even though it was not in the time allotted (I believe they had a limit so they could get another class in there, but maybe in another box I would have had a final time. But I’m glad I didn’t give up! I realize I really need to work on those pull-ups now – I’m pretty comfortable with push-ups but haven’t been messing at all with pull-ups! Time to find some bands and practice.

But most of all I was happy to spend some quality *healthy* time with someone who’s been a big inspiration to me. You rock, Roni!

And lady even showed up on Good Morning America yesterday, she’s such a rockstar. 🙂