I joined TITLE in April 2014 when things were first starting up in Kettering. I was a member for only a few months and was still learning the techniques and building up my intensity. I liked going to a gym that both kicked my butt and made me feel more confident as a woman. I have been a teacher for 12 years and work with students who have emotional, social, and behavioral challenges. Every day is different and some days are extremely hard. TITLE was a positive outlet for my stress as a teacher.
Unfortunately, before I could get full-swing into things, I had to cancel my membership due to 2 pregnancies and the births of my sweet boys, Hudson (4) and Luca (2). The pregnancies themselves went without a hitch and each birth was a true blessing!
However, just as I was getting ready to renew my membership with TITLE after my first baby and lose that dreaded mommy fat, I sustained a serious injury while teaching during my first week back from maternity leave. I had a severe concussion with bleeding on the brain. I spent a few days in trauma before I was cleared to go home. I was unable to care for myself, let alone my 3 month old baby. I was not allowed to drive for 3 months, lost my senses of taste and smell, and experienced the long term effects of a traumatic brain injury. It took at least a full year before I started to feel more “normal,” but I still have some difficulties today.
Shortly after I regained some courage to try TITLE again, I became pregnant with my second child. We were extremely excited for another addition to our little family! Everything regarding my second child was picture perfect. However, tragedy struck once again! Like a bad coincidence, I became seriously ill just as I was getting ready to return to teaching and to the gym. I was hospitalized many days and underwent several surgical procedures. I was extremely weak and worked hard just to care for my little boys.
The gym had to go on the back burner. I went through severe postpartum depression and had to dig myself out of a pretty deep hole. I realized I needed to do something for myself. Something to give me mental and physical strength. It took me quite some time to officially be healthy and medically cleared so I could resume working out at the rate and frequency I desired. But with time, that’s where I am now!
I rejoined TITLE at the very end of January 2018 and have been a regular ever since. I love it more than before and more than I ever thought I would. I rave about the trainers, the classes, and the empowering feeling it leaves you with! I feel a sense of pride in my dedication to make time for myself and to give myself one truly powerful hour of simply sweating it all out! Now that I have been on a consistent path towards staying healthy myself, my husband and I are currently faced with serious medical issues with both our boys. We have been to numerous doctors and specialists, tried countless medications, endured painful hospital stays, tests, and surgical procedures.
We have exhausted our finances as well as ourselves as we continue to find a path towards improving their health. It is extremely scary to be faced with such fear and unknown when it involves your child. For us, it’s doubled.
With the medical challenges that my boys currently face, I have truly counted on TITLE as my punching bag. There are days when I just want to go home and cry or I want to scream at the doctors who say they can no longer help us. I want someone else to have to feel what it’s like to be going down this dark, unwanted path. I want to give up and accept that things will not get any better for my little boys and they will live a life we never wished for them. But, I know that they deserve more and nothing will improve unless I advocate and fight for them. They need to see their mommy as a strong person in their lives who faces challenges with courage.
These are the days that I go into the TITLE gym and take all my stresses and fears and give them all to that heavyweight bag. I listen to the trainers’ encouragement and praise as the power hour goes on and I’m sweating and thinking about giving up. Remembering my little boys and I continue on. Squeezing in an extra sit up, get my knees just a little bit higher, punch harder, and listen to those chains clang. Glorious!!! I am reminded that I am powerful, and I need to be powerful for my boys. I can “hit it hard” so that, together, my family can “hit our boys’ challenges hard,” too.
Thank you for not only being a fun place to work out. But, for also being a place I can walk into with heavy stress and leave with a clearer mind.
My boys always hug me as I walk out the door to go to TITLE and holler, “Do a good job mommy! Get strong and get big muscles like us! Have fun!” And…to that….I DO!