Corina Noriega: The “Look Good, Feel Good” Spring 2015 Champ!

Corina Noriega: The “Look Good, Feel Good” Spring 2015 Champ!
Written by Cat Blatner

Meet Invictus member, Corina Noriega.

She commutes to Invictus from Tijuana where she owns her own CrossFit affiliate. When Corina first found CrossFit, she was a size 18 and was looking for a new weight loss activity.

“I read that CrossFit was this new amazing way of getting your body to perform to a greater level and reach goals in a short period of time,” she said. “And I heard that it was intense, that it was for people out of their minds – so that was definitely what I was looking for.”

Corina has a heart condition and an arachnoid cyst on her left temporal lobe that used to make her feel depressed. Because of this condition, she thought she was never going to be able to work out. Almost immediately after she discovered CrossFit, she realized that changing her lifestyle helped her feel better and she’s currently much healthier and happier than she had been in the past.

Corina has been training in the sport of CrossFit for almost three years and is a certified CrossFit Level 2 trainer. She has taken several specialty courses but her goal is to actually compete. In fact, it’s that goal that brought her to Invictus in the first place. She’s getting closer and closer to that goal every day.

“Invictus has helped me with my confidence,” she said. “I feel great following our coaches’ instructions. I’ve had some injuries in the past following wrong ones, so whenever I’m at CrossFit Invictus, I feel confident that I’m learning from experienced coaches and performing movements correctly.”

Just when things were going according to plan, Corina had an accident that led to a minor surgery and forced her to stop training for more than two months because she couldn’t get up or walk.

“I had all these feelings and negative thoughts going on in my brain all day,” she said.

But she decided not to give up on her goal of competing even though it would now take longer than expected.

“I promised myself I was going to come back stronger than ever, and I have,” she said.

“There are some days that I just don’t feel like training; maybe I didn’t sleep well, or maybe I didn’t eat enough, but as soon as I notice I’m feeling like not working out I remind myself of how hard I’ve been training and the goals that I’ve reached. Every time I reach a goal I think of a new one so I can keep myself motivated.”

Besides overcoming some physical and emotional trials, the fact that she lives and works in Tijuana means that she has to cross the border every day to get in her workout. “It’s not easy for me to close my business at 10:00 p.m. and get up the next day at 5:00 a.m.,” she said. “Making sure I have everything in place and ready to go for the next day is a huge battle. I have a super busy day but scheduling my appointments, classes and meals have been a big help to reach my goals.”

Corina recently participated in our “Look Good, Feel Good” Challenge to keep herself motivated and give her another goal to work toward – and she ended up winning the whole thing!

“We are all capable of doing something amazing,” she said. “My journey wasn’t easy, I had to change my lifestyle completely. There were a lot of reasons why I started to workout, but the most important one was me. I don’t want to die young, and I want more out of life! I wasn’t going to reach any of my goals if I kept up on my old habits.”

A great motto to live by and one she adapted from one of her favorite famous quotes:

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”  ― Marie Curie

Congratulations on winning, Corina! The Invictus family is super proud of all your accomplishments!