We haven’t always felt the way we do now when it comes to food and nutrition. We used to eat whatever, whenever. It wasn’t uncommon for late night trips to Taco Bell, a stop at McDonald’s for breakfast on the way to work, pizza delivered multiple times per week, or a trip to Cold Stone or Dairy Queen because dessert is life.

We both decided to get serious with our fitness and diet (by counting macros) during the summer of 2015 when we began competitive powerlifting. Our powerlifting coach also programmed our macros (macronutrients = protein, carbs and fats) and as long as our food fit within those macros (IIFYM), it was fair game. Ingredients didn’t matter, quality didn’t matter. We ate lots of baked chicken, rice and broccoli. We were super strict and obsessive with “hitting our numbers”. We squeezed in ice cream and ultra-processed foods when they “fit our macros”. We got stronger. We lost lots of weight. It worked.

Still, even though we were looking healthier on the outside, we weren’t getting healthier on the inside. We ate fast food, sugar, and everything else in between, just in amounts that allowed us to drop fat. But our metabolic health was struggling. We both had digestive issues (more on that in a minute), and our bodies didn’t handle stress or training well. We looked good, but didn’t feel good.

Let’s fast forward to the beginning of 2020, two months after we started CrossFit. Our gym did a “5 Ingredient or Less” challenge to kick off the new year, and we decided to jump in. For the first time (perhaps ever), we were looking at ingredients of the food we ate! Karly’s digestive issues cleared up almost immediately, and Tom was starting to feel less rundown and more energetic. We were onto something.

Then, in February, Karly was diagnosed with Celiac disease - an autoimmune disease in which the body does not tolerate gluten and attacks itself if ingested (the small intestine is damaged severely and inflammation is caused throughout the body). We were shocked and thought it was the end of the world as we knew it. Boy were we wrong.

What did we do? Carried on. Kept eating food without really looking at ingredients (beyond gluten), kept eating fast food (as long as it was gluten free), and kept neglecting what our bodies were craving - truly nutritious food. Nagging injuries continued, inflammation remained out of control, and stress was still not managed well. Our sleep suffered, our metabolic health wasn’t great, and our bloodwork was showing warning signs. Like everyone else in the world, we just kept doing what we were doing, assuming we’d get medical care when we needed it. What else was there to do?

‍Our Backstory - Now

The last 2 years of owning CrossFit 605 has been an incredible journey - not just with our fitness and building our dream of owning a gym so we could help others become the best versions of themselves, but also by becoming the best version of OURSELVES. We started learning more about movement and fitness, but also nutrition and fueling properly.

We now prioritize food that doesn’t have labels (whole foods), and read every single ingredient label for things we buy that do have labels. We scrutinize every ingredient we put into our bodies, and make the best decisions we can, for us and our bodies, every single day.

Our blood work has never been better, we recover better than we ever have, and we’re getting faster, stronger, and fitter every day in the gym. We don’t get sick as often, and when we do, we get over it quicker. We have truly taken back control of our health, just by being informed eaters and being very picky with what we eat.

What we do and how we eat isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay. However, we want to help you understand what it means to eat well, and how to do it, so that you can be informed about what you put into your body and how you can make yourself feel your best.

We know eating well in the society we live in is HARD, and we want to help. If you have questions about how to eat healthier for you and your family, we are here to answer them.