David and Holly Darsey
Holly’s Journey…
I’ve always been a “big” girl growing up. Playing softball for 18 years always kept me “in shape,” or so I thought. As most college students and newlyweds often do, I gained approximately 100 pounds by the age of 24. Working night shift and going back to school for my Master’s degree, I gained an additional 50 pounds, due to lack of interest and time to exercise. And needless to say, my food consumption lacked a lot to be desired. For example, my husband and I would have a date night in front of our TV and consume and entire package of Oreos. I was at my heaviest ( just over 300 pounds)when we tried to start at family, ended up at fertility, and we’re blessed with a perfect, beautiful little girl. I was also diagnosed with high blood pressure. She has changed our lives in every way. Two months after my C-section, my husband decided we had to change our lives so we could be around to watch our little girl grow up. We decided to try “gluten-free” lifestyle and I lost approximately 70 pounds and my husband approximately 100 pounds! Woo hoo! I felt so much better, but needed to get in shape. So my husband got me in touch with Eric Bland and I started CrossFit in August 2013. CrossFit has turned my life and my body completely upside down in the best way possible! I feel so much stronger and have nearly endless energy. I sleep better every night, and I have no more chronic lower back pain. Now I have “good” pain from daily workouts! Before I started CrossFit, I was wearing a 22/24 or 2X and it was uncomfortably tight. Currently I wear a 16 or XL, and want to wear them a little tight because I have a curvy body for the first time in my life! Everyday I am working on toning and tightening my loose skin that I acquired by poor diet and lack of exercise. My resting heart rate before CrossFit was in the 90s, and now since being at CrossFit DGA for over a year, my heat rate is in the 50s and I have almost taken myself off of blood pressure medicine. My family follows a very high-protein Paleo diet approx 90% of the time and we love it, knowing we are not eating processed crap and hormone-fed meat! I feel amazing for rhe first time in my life and CrossFit has made the difference! You can turn your health around with a little bit of will power, determination, and great exercise programming, like CrossFit DGA! CrossFit DGA is a close-knit family atmosphere where you encourage everyone else doing the same workout, to get the same results. And everyone is rooting for you to keep going, when you feel like you can’t do another burpee, power-clean, or wallball! Onward and upward!
BEFORE…
David’s Journey…
I’ve always been a bigger guy. Just accepted that I was supposed to be that way. When my daughter was born, I was 403 lbs, and I decided that I needed to turn things around. My fitness pal was an awesome start, just keeping track of what I ate I lost around 25 lbs in two months. Then I went gluten free and quit eating so much processed foods, and started doing a yoga program (ddpyoga). It felt good to be moving again, however I tweaked my shoulder and after a couple months of pt, I had surgery, which stopped the working out for two three months. I feel that if I would have had a coach, or at least a watchful eye on me rather than just doing a video series, I would have avoided surgery. Luckily though, I was able to stick to the gluten free lifestyle and continued to track what I ate on my fitness pal. At this point, I was 9 months in and 80 lbs down. Now, cleared by the doctor, I started “running” (mostly walking)with a 5k trainer app (Zombies, Run) and finally hit the hundred pound mark. At this point, my wife started personal training with Eric Bland, and we went from gluten free to eating clean and low carb, high protein. I did insanity and started lifting at home. 4 months went by and I was down another 20 lbs. I started Crossfit DGA in January of 2014 at 285 lbs and wearing a 52 pants. I have “onlylost” another 25 lbs in a year, but I have also lost 12 inches of waist and am wearing a 40 pants.