Our Athlete of the Month for October is Anna Davis! Anna is one of the strongest strong moms at FitTown Jupiter that you’ll ever meet. She has been at FitTown for over two years and has racked up more than 400 workouts. Some of those workouts have recently consisted of Anna entertaining her
daughter Coralynn in the carrier as she works out during non-class hours.
Her journey to become a mom wasn’t easy, going through two discouraging miscarriages in two years. Says Anna, “(A month after trying BeachFit, but not signing up yet) I found out I was pregnant and I was filled with so much joy. Very quickly that changed at 10 weeks, I miscarried, I was crushed. When I asked the doctor that I was seeing at the time was there anything that I could have done to prevent this, she said, “you are a bit overweight, you could lose 10-15lbs” …and with those words… the next day I went into FitTown and signed up.”
“I began my journey of losing weight so I could have a baby. I also stopping seeing that doctor… fast forward to about 1 year later I have lost about 10 lbs and feeling great and boom I find out I am pregnant again. I felt really positive about this time. I lost the weight, I felt great and my life was pretty much perfect. And then the unthinkable happens again around 10 weeks and we miscarried again.”
“Again we were crushed but this time I asked the Doctor if there was anything I could do and she said no, miscarriages are unknown and unpredictable. It takes so many right things to align for a baby to work. After recovering from that mentality and physically, I really got into BeachFit and really paid attention to what I ate and lost another 6 lbs. Fast forward 6 months and I felt like I was at the peak of my athletic self. Found out I was pregnant again, felt positive about this one this time, and I had many friends at the gym to support me through this. This time I carried baby Coralynn to term and didn’t miss a beat at the gym still showed up and did the work. Well with some modifications.”
Watching Anna’s journey to become a FitTown Strong Mom has been incredibly inspiring. Anna says, “You always hear moms/dads say ‘I would die for my child’.. well I want to live for her. I want to be around for a very long time.”
We are so proud of you Anna and are grateful to have you and your family in our FitTown family! We will see you in the Better Half Battle again in one month 🙂
Here’s Anna to tell us more about her story:
I grew up in Michigan I was the average girl. I played sports soccer, cross country and golf. I always stayed pretty active through high school and college but didn’t really find my love for working out/ fitness/ health until later in life.
I went to Culinary school and was a chef/pastry chef for over 15 years. Being around not so healthy food all the time lead to me gaining some weight. I had a huge food obsession, I couldn’t control myself around food. When my husband and I got married in 2018 we moved to Jupiter. Raul’s family lives here and we knew once we got married we wanted to start trying for a family. That’s when my interest for health and fitness started. I quit being a chef and found a job at Starbucks which was better hours to be with family and focus on what I want to do.
My hobbies and interests have changed over the past year for sure. Since having my daughter I love love spending time with her she is the ray of sunshine in my life at all times. I love cooking still and I love baking. Around the holidays what’s when I shine I grab all my old recipes and just bake up a storm. I also love spending time at Fittown it’s my favorite hour of the day.
I started at Fittown because Vickie Partlow my sister in law had such great results from here and has been bugging me and Raúl to come to the Beach WOD. We gave in and we loved it. But in my mind I couldn’t afford it so I didn’t become a member just yet. It wasn’t until after my first miscarriage that I decided to join.
My health and fitness has changed so much since joining Fittown I am 100% stronger each day. Pre- baby I was crushing workouts and moving up in weights really starting to consider going over to the FTX side. During baby it really brought me back down to earth. I had to take a step back and do lighter weights and watch my heart rate and do things that are safe for me and the baby. It made me focus on technique and form. I am so grateful for this! It made me the athlete I am today. Sometimes you have to take a step back to take a step forward.
Post baby…. Wowza again taking a step back to better myself. I am 8 months post baby and I am just now starting to get back to where I was pre baby. I was just telling Amanda a couple weeks again I am a better rower today than I was pre-baby. When you are pregnant you don’t want to fully extend forward and backward you need to keep a straight back and need to learn to use your legs. Now that I am post baby I use my legs a lot more and get a lot more power. To this day still I am having problems with lunges so that’s the next thing to work on.
Any new beliefs/mottos, habits, behaviors that you formed since you started that have most positively impacted your life?
This one is a good one.. Some come to mind.
Fitness is not about being better than someone. It’s about being better than you used to be.
If you are persistent, you will get it. If you are consistent, you will keep it.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Trust the process.
I have been reading up lately on Lindsay Shutes story she has honestly been my inspiration lately.
Do you have any memorable moments/workouts at FitTown that you’d like to share?
Haha I like the workouts that hurt. I love cardio. I may complain that it hurts or say no way I don’t want to but, I love the workouts that you look at and think this is gonna hurt. Recently we did BF Coe and I felt like I was going to die half way through but then I just tell myself just one more rep, breath, one more rep, breath.
I really enjoy the beach WODs too.
What keeps you motivated? What do you remind yourself of on days when you don’t “feel” like going to the gym?
Coralynn is 100% my motivation.
You always hear moms/dads say I would die for my child.. well I want to live for her. I want to be around for a very long time. I want her to change my diapers! LOL I recently found out that Cora actually likes to see me workout so on the days that I know I can’t make a class I go upstairs on the FTX side and do the workout in front of Cora she laughs at me. It’s not as fun as being in class but I get a good sweat in and entertain Cora at the same time.
What advice do you have for the person who’s hesitant about starting a fitness program like this?
This gym is filled with people who have been in your shoes. There is at least one person that can relate to you. Just do it, it’s totally worth it. The community here is like no other I have ever been to.
There is modifications for everything. When I first started BeachFit, I could barley even do a burpee. Let alone knew what it was and so I modified to the no push-up burpee and worked my way to normal burpees. No one here is going to make fun of you for modifying something or not knowing how to do that movement properly.
What do you like most about FitTown?
Can I say everything?!? I feel like I am family here. I love how all and I mean all of the coaches including Andrew and Tony are knowledgeable. If you go to anyone of them with a question no matter if you think it’s a dumb question they will answer it and explain in detail. They take the time out to care.
And don’t get me started on the members here, they are my gym family. When I was in my last couple months of pregnancy I reached out to a couple of the moms here and asked them all sorts of questions and every single one of them helped. They where so nice and caring.
