Member of the Month & Clean Challenge Winner: Jilmarie Stephens

Jilmarie Stephens is both the winner of our recent Clean Challenge and also our member of the month! Jilmarie has been a longtime member of CrossFit Sanitas and recently sat down with Giancarlo to chat about her experience doing the Clean Challenge, what keeps her engaged in the gym and to plan her upcoming member of the month workout which you’ll see in April.

GC: First off, congrats on winning! Can you talk about your experience during this Clean Challenge?

Jilmarie: Thanks! Yes of course. I’ve done a few of these now but this was the first one which I won. I remember doing one years ago that was very restrictive: no sugar, weighing and measuring everything and that was really hard to complete. I felt like after it was over I didn’t keep too many of the habits. This one was a lot more about building sustainable habits and I feel like I will be able to keep some of the things that I’ve learned with me for the long haul, so I’m excited about that.

GC: How did you get started with CrossFit?

Jilmarie: I started CrossFit 3 1/2 years ago when I moved to Colorado. I had wanted to try CrossFit for many years before, but as a graduate student in Vancouver, I thought it was out of my budget. So I spent a lot of time watching the CrossFit Games and a lot of other CrossFit on YouTube until I was finally doing CrossFit myself.

GC: Rapid fire round now to prepare us for what to see in your Member of the Month workout in April - top 3 favorite movements and 3 movements you dread seeing come up in a workout. Go!

Jilmarie: Three favorite movements: power cleans, double-unders, and bar muscle ups! I love BMU but I'm not great at these and currently trying to get better! Three least favorite movements: thrusters, bar or dumbbell, doesn’t matter they’re the worst, handstand push-ups and ring muscle-ups because I can't do these yet and want to so badly!

GC: Maybe we’ll see some bar muscle up work in Week 3 of the CrossFit Open and you’ll get your chance to shine!

Congrats to Jilmarie! It’s always so nice to see her smile around Sanitas.