Danielle Paschka

Well if you have known me for the last almost 6 years… you know that I lived for Orangetheory. I had 1,735 classes to be exact. It was a place that changed my life. I went to it wanting to change my life because I was stuck, I wasn’t happy with how I felt or how I looked. It brought me back to life. To a place I didn’t think was possible. It made me a runner, it made me love working out, it gave me new friendships when I wasn’t looking for them, & it made me a better person throughout the whole process.

I forever thought that I would always be there. I honestly never saw myself leaving. When I broke my foot last November then having surgery in December— my fitness goals started to change. Honestly when I broke my foot I thought I wouldn’t be able to run anymore etc— thinking that was such a big deal. I slowly started to realize.. I don’t need to run 2 miles every single day. I don’t need to do cardio every day. I can do other things to get my heart rate up. I have always loved lifting & lifting heavy things. I just started not getting excited for the workouts anymore & not feeling excited about going like I once did. My mindset just felt like it shifted.

I had a couple friends/coaches leave OTF and go to a gym called SISU. I was always intrigued by it when following their social media & seeing my friends successes! I knew it was something I would probably love because those same friends/coaches were die hard Orangetheory people & said that SISU was unmatched. I was very scared to try SISU because let’s be honest.. go look at their instagram — so many strong & fit people. But I finally swallowed my fear & went to try a Saturday (Saturday’s are always free for everyone). It was so fun, motivating & hard! I couldn’t wait to go back & try a Monday + Wednesday so that’s what I did.

I instantly fell in love with how everyone was there to WORK. No one was slacking off or not giving a sh*t. You could just tell everyone genuinely wanted to be there to better themselves. Everyone has been so welcoming.. I thought the OTF community was amazing but the SISU community is unmatched! I honestly have never had more people ask for my name, how I’m doing, how it’s been since I joined, etc more than there. Seriously so welcoming especially after being so terrified for going & thinking people would be like “ugh why is she here?” OR “she’s not fit enough to be here” but it’s the complete opposite. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the sense of welcome I feel there.

So I decided to make the change. I decided to do something for me & my new goals. I felt like I was stuck in a rut at OTF with the exercises & workouts we were doing. I am always really good about my food, meal prepping, trying to get a good amount of protein but honestly nothing was working & I felt blah. We do a lot of the same things at OTF and nothing was challenging me anymore. I didn’t want to do a mile benchmark anymore, I didn’t want to row 2000 meters, I didn’t want to do any of that anymore because the feelings I was having for my fitness had shifted.

So it’s been almost 2 months since I joined SISU and honestly so happy with my choice. I had my last OTF class under my membership on Friday & definitely bittersweet as I’ll miss a lot of friends & 2 coaches but really it just made me very excited about the future & what that holds. I can already see changes in my body that I never saw at OTF — one being my cycle is way shorter now since starting not doing cardio everyday & the stress it was probably putting on my body. I took before pictures so I’ll definitely share after I get a good couple months under my belt. My goal is to see some good & positive changes by my birthday (March).

All in all.. I’ll forever be thankful for everything that OTF gave me, helped me, and so much more but it was time to move on. I’m so happy about my new “home” and I can’t wait to share more + more as time goes on. I hope you will stay on for the ride—like you did with OTF. As always, feel free to ask me questions if you have any & follow the journey on my IG daily!

I hope this inspires you to do something for yourself when change is so hard!

Xo, Dani