As most of you will know, we are in the middle of a nutrition challenge and we couldn’t think of anyone more fitting to to be a feature than an athlete who achieved and continues to achieve great things since participating in our last nutrition challenge – please enjoy getting to know Nikki Civitarese. Tell us a bit about yourself: I am 34, I currently work as a Contracts Administrator in civil engineering for Shadforths Civil Engineering Contractors, I have been with the company for almost 4 years now. Prior to this I owned my own construction company building new homes and doing commercial refurbishments. I was born and raised in Griffith – NSW and moved around a lot when I was younger but did most of my schooling in Coffs Harbour and spent a lot of my younger years on the Gold Coast. I come from a big family, being 1 of 10 children and am the proud mother of a 13 year old boy, Sam. How long have you been doing CrossFit for? I started CrossFit briefly back in 2011 for about 4 months, when I was living in Mackay. I found it helped get me into the right mind frame as far as being motivated goes, however the box I went to were very competition orientated, so when I joined Coastal CrossFit in June 2013, I was blown away with the dedication Chris and Marie have to each and every individual member, ensuring that the movements were scaled to meet our abilities and correcting our form where required. This is what really made me want to keep coming back as it showed me that CrossFit wasn’t just for elite athletes, it was for everyone, even me. How did you first hear about CrossFit and how did you get started? After my marriage ended in 2011 I found myself extremely depressed, overweight, lacking self-esteem and having no control over my life, anything that could go wrong – went wrong, not long after my separation I was diagnosed with a malignant breast tumor, which was really a blessing disguise. It made me snap out of my world of self-pity and self-sabotage and realise the importance of my health and that I never really had been the best person I could be physically or mentally, and as long as I continued on my path of self-destruction, I was only going the continue to develop health problems, I also realised I needed to be a better role model for my son, I didn’t want him to learn my bad habits and think that was normal. Seeing a close friend of mine transform herself dramatically after only a year, it was incredible, she wasn’t just leaner and smaller in size, she was strong and she beamed with confidence, I wanted to be able to achieve the same thing, so I got in touch with her and she introduced me to CrossFit, this really was the turning point in my life. What is your favourite Movie? My favourite movie of all time is Pulp Ficton… very iconic. What is is your favourite Band/Musician? My favourite band of all time – Beastie Boys. What are your interests outside of CrossFit? Im a very social person, so I spend a lot of my weekends catching up with family and friends and I love to get outdoors whenever I can, especially if its taking my son down to the lake to fish or taking our kayaks out onto the water. We conducted a nutrition challenge last year which you achieved, and continue to achieve very good results through – can you detail your experiences and any advice for the members on our current nutrition challenge? The nutrition challenge was really what I call a “light going on” moment, what I took away from it was very invaluable, it made me realise that my preconceptions of what was “healthy” were actually doing me harm. After my body got past the initial shock of not being fed the “bad foods” it was used to in the 30 Days of the challenge I started to feel less fatigued, clear headed, my skin started to clear up, and I started to lose weight. After completing the challenge last year, it really inspired me to learn more about how food interacts with our body, so not long after I started a Diploma of Nutrition and Naturopathy, it certainly has been a learning curve, through this I have learnt what is right for my body. Since this I have managed to lose 9.5 kg in total, and am in certainly the best health I ever been in. It really is one of the best things I ever done and would recommend anyone take up the 30 day challenge, it really is life changing. We saw a shift in your training some time ago and you’ve made very good progress since this point. What was the trigger for this increased enthusiasm and what goals have you set yourself for the short and long term? I guess this goes hand in hand with the nutrition challenge, once I was starting to see results and starting to feel better within myself I wanted more. One of the best feelings in the world is being able to achieve something you previously never thought possible, and the more I pushed myself and changed my mindset, the more I could see what my body was capable of achieving, and then it just became addictive. I am inspired every day by the people around me at CrossFit, people that I see making massive progress and hitting some great PB’s, it drives me to continue to do the same. My favourite part of CrossFit is the weight lifting, so my ultimate goal is to be able to perfect the techniques so I can lift heavier weights and achieve some great PB’s.
