"CrossFit has been nothing but a blessing in my life. It has taken me further than I ever thought it could."
Jess Thurman has an addictive personality.
As an overly anxious child, she turned to sports and food as a way to cope with stress. Although Thurman played youth soccer, softball, basketball and volleyball, she was always overweight.
When she entered high school, she replaced sports with alcohol and cocaine. Her senior year in high school culminated with a 30-day stint in rehab.
“Coming out of rehab at 17, I created a motto in my head, ‘Food is my friend. It is always there when I need it,’” Thurman says. “I flat out didn't care about my nutrition or pay any attention to what I put into my body.”
Two years later, a 5-foot tall Thurman was tipping the scales at 245 pounds. She tried a low-fat, low-carb diet, but was unable to commit. She was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome and was considered pre-diabetic — a condition her doctor attributed to poor eating habits and a lack of exercise.
“Finally things got real and I knew I needed to make a change,” Thurman says. “A friend of mine used to tell me about CrossFit and I had finally gained the courage to research it. Just by looking at videos, I felt I finally found what I’d been looking for.”
Thurman joined O-Side CrossFit in Oceanside, N.Y., and started following the paleo diet. Affiliate owners Hank and Ian Berger did their best to accommodate her, breaking down all the movements and easing her into it. It didn’t take long before she couldn’t get enough.
“Moving around 100-plus pounds of extra bodyweight should be a sport of its own,” she adds. “Being a former athlete definitely helped — just having the coordination and balance helps a lot when learning new movements and having an athlete’s mentality seemed far more important than muscle memory.”
“Both Hank and Ian are constantly inspiring me to do better, go faster, lift heavier, jump higher and just be better than I was yesterday,” Thurman says.
Today, the 21-year-old is 87 pounds lighter and gearing up for her first CrossFit competition. She’s thankful for this new obsession.
“This is beneficial,” Thurman explains. “CrossFit has been nothing but a blessing in my life. It has taken me further than I ever thought it could. Everyday, I put in work and everyday, I reap the benefits. It has helped not only my physical health, but my mental health. CrossFit helps me stay clean and sober.”
As part of her recovery, Thurman still attends 12-step meetings regularly. She sees CrossFit as a chance to be in the moment.
“It’s the only time in my day when I can think solely about what I'm doing in that exact moment. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but what I'm doing right now,” Thurman says. “Today I live, breathe and sleep CrossFit. It has taught me such a beautiful way of living and for that I am forever grateful to the Berger family and everyone at O-Side CrossFit. My success would be nothing without them. They're my other family.”
