Member Of The Month – June 2022
Our March MOTM award goes to our very own bread lady – Liz Easter.
Liz is one of a kind. A brilliant person who often pretends she doesn’t like CrossFit or working hard, but on the other hand, loves to push herself, learn new things, go after her goals and frequently undersells herself and doesn’t realise how amazing and capable she is. She is also a great team player – she loves encouraging people in class, welcoming people and making them feel involved. She is really supportive of everyone and a pleasure to have around. She has a brilliant sense of humour, very dry, and has a great deadpan face. She also often sounds like she’s moaning about the class or the workout but we’ve just learned to ignore her because we know she loves it really haha! Recently she has been putting herself out of her comfort zone more and more, and has made loads of improvements! She is nailing her gymnastics, recently linking together numerous kipping pull ups. She is lifting heavier and heavier, and she has taken part in 2 of the M Squared “feMale” competitions with her “Mums on Tour” partner – Kate, and also went to compete at District L Lift in the Lakes too! She does all this on top of having a full time job, and being mum to 2 children and 2 dogs too, she is superwoman! She is doing brilliantly and we are all really proud of her, so we felt she deserved the member of the month award. Read on to find out a bit more about her…
M – How long have you been doing CrossFit?
LE – Three years (wow).
M – What class time do you usually attend and why does that work for you?
LE – Evenings 7:15, I have a full time job and two kids I also travel from about 25 mins away so I can’t really do many other times. 
M – What is your why? Why do you put yourself through it each day? Do you have goals you want to achieve?
LE – Firstly, I don’t do each day (I would be dead), but I have been coming 3 times a week for the past 3 years. I come for a few reasons:
- To get out of my house (I work from home which can be really isolating).
- To see all you lovely people (I genuinely look forward to saying hi to people).
- I like learning new things, I have learnt so much since starting and I can do things I couldn’t do before and whilst I defo can’t keep up all the time it feels good to learn.
- I read somewhere that if you lose motivation – keep consistent, and that’s what I am trying to do.
M – What advice would you give anyone wanting to start CrossFit but is either unsure or nervous? We get people all the time saying they need to get fit first or they could never do what we do? Any advice for those people?
LE – Just start, turn up and try it, but try it a few times, don’t walk in and then walk out… it is scary, I found it really intimidating, but don’t, everyone is so nice and we all just want to support each other… yes that can feel weird sometimes. I thought it was super strange that these people I didn’t know would be clapping when I managed to pick something up, but now I love it and I think supporting each other shouldn’t feel weird it’s just a nice thing to do.
Just get used to the idea that no one has any clothes on (this is optional, I remain clothed at all times!). Also know that on Friday nights we have the best music… fact.
M – What is your biggest achievement so far in CrossFit and what are you most proud of?
LE – Again a few things…
- Wearing shorts, I hadn’t worn shorts for about 20 years (not even joking) I just didn’t have the confidence to, which is ridiculous… and now I wear them ALL the time, I think it was Lisa K who kept saying “JUST WEAR SHORTS” and so I did, now I wear them everywhere (sounds crazy, it isn’t).
- Getting pull ups for the first time, this was so so hard my head wouldn’t work with my arms and legs and I genuinely tried for months and months… When I got a few it was almost relief, then I lost them a few weeks later… it takes time to get consistency and I am learning that is ok.
- Doing comps… so putting yourself out there and going for it, me and my fellow “mum on tour” Kate have done two now and I even squeezed in a not so enjoyable performance at District L… well I didn’t die so I’ll take that, it was almost fun but I love seeing how hard everyone works and how much support there is, it warms my heart.
Other things that went well or didnt… - I fell off the seat of the rowing machine whilst remaining fully strapped in with my feet, witnessed only by Ruth Heg. I was genuinely stuck.
- I will never forget the horror of shaking Richie’s hand when he came in for a high 5, I shook it like we were in a business meeting… he looked very confused but I was new and he was too polite to ask what the hell I was doing… yes I also went in for the strong business meeting eye contact.
- On occasion I have had a bit of a meltdown, Gage seems to be best at getting the balance between not taking any shit and knowing when I could either burst with tears or rage.
- I am the bread lady.
M – Yes, you are! And you make the best bread around! Thank you for all the bread deliveries over the past few years! And thank you for being such a kind, lovely, funny, brilliant human and for always getting involved. We all love you!
