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Coach Anjo describes herself in three words: caregiver, listener, and CrossFitter. From starting her early mornings coaching all the way to cooking dinner for her family every night, one word she didn’t use to describe herself if grit. Taking everything in stride, she makes it happen, whether it’s taking care of her family or training for the Boston Marathon.
CrossFit Coach
Coach Anjo started by sharing her love of CrossFit because of the way it has affected so many people’s lives.
“What motivates me more than anything is hearing successes like ‘I’m not pre-diabetic anymore, I don’t feel my lower back hurting anymore, I had a better delivery this go round because I was CrossFitting’ … those kinds of stories give me chills because those kinds of successes change people for a lifetime- and I am very passionate about that.”
And then she moved onto another group of people near and dear to her heart, her family.
Family
“Just being with my family is always so rewarding and fulfilling to me. Just to sit at the table and hear everybody laughing, talking, taking jabs at each other and just being silly. To me, that just fills my heart. I can’t imagine that I need anything else other than that.”
While she describes herself as a caregiver, listener, and CrossFitter, what we took a focus on was her role as a caregiver.
Being the Example for Your Kids
As a mother of four, raising kids for the past 24 years, she has learned a lot along the way. Her biggest piece of advice was setting a good example for your kids.
“Being the example is the ultimate way to teach anybody. If you do it and you are willing to do it, whether it’s scrub a toilet, clean a kitchen, cook a meal, that’s what your kids see. And I think you are always teaching them because they see what you do. And they will do what you do. Even when you don’t want them to say the bad word or don’t want them to talk the way you do or act the way you do. If you do it they will do it.”
Disciplining Kids
Coach Anjo goes into the hard parts of parenting, like discipling your kids. She had Coach Mike as the “executioner” of the discipline, and says “It’s hard to know it’s hurting your child. It hurts the mom and dad too.”
She gives her take on spanking her kids, and discipling early and often. Even with babies at a young age you have to set boundaries and teach consequences. And as kids get older, the consequences may change, like taking away toys like gameboys.
What’s Next
As Coach Anjo’s kids grow up, the roles of parents slowly begin to change. After having four kids, she says she’s still surprised by her kids and learns from them as well.
“Just when you think you got this, you don’t got this. You never stop being a student of life.”
Her last piece of advice on family is “what’s so rewarding about letting other people into your life is that they are giving back to you way more than you could ever know. Whether you are giving to your family, your kids, your husband, your friends, your pets. The more you give, the more it comes back to you in ways that you could never measure or imagine. Keep giving.”