This is why Katelyn Block is a Gutsy Girl.

Why Katelyn Block is a Gutsy Girl

Many people don’t see themselves as spontaneous – daring – crazy – gutsy.

I do.

Ever since I was a young girl, I’ve known that I have a different way of thinking; a different way of seeing the world. Meet a hurdle, and I think about how to jump over it. Get an injury, and I begin planning on how to fix it. Someone tells me there’s something I can’t do, and I prove them wrong.

In the Spring of 2010, I decided to teach myself how to cook. I began making meals for my entire family, taking over the kitchen and having my own kind of Julia Childs experience. I fell in love with food; cooking, the aromas, ingredients coming together.

Gutsy decision #1.

Once I picked through every cookbook in my family’s house, I turned to the Internet. Turns out there were a ton of these things called “blogs,” with recipes using ingredients from every corner of the universe. Then, I decided to make my own. August 8, 2010, I started the best thing that ever happened to me.

Gutsy decision #2.

In high school, I rowed crew, played field hockey, and ran track. My senior year, I chose against playing my senior season of Varsity field hockey and decided to train for and run a half marathon instead. I also took on my first “real” job, and had my first taste of what it was like to live my own life.

Gutsy decision #3.

Since then, I’ve gone through a lot, both good and bad. I learned more about my gut, trying different diets (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free among them), and somewhere in the mix falling into a terrible eating disorder. To admit that I had a problem and take it into my own hands to make myself better — was more than gutsy. It took everything I had.

Around this time, my dad was hit by a truck while training for his umpteenth Boston Marathon. He suffered a traumatic brain injury. We struggled to be better, together. These don’t need to be shared in detail, but they are experiences that I look back on as ones that made me stronger, better and more determined to live a beautiful life.

Today, I am at Syracuse University, challenging the norm as I train to be a serious CrossFit athlete, blog, eat well, and get enough sleep; all while being a student. I’ve been having a lot of “mid-life crises”, deciding what it is I want to do with this thing called life. I’m trying to figure out exactly where my passions lie, where I can excel and what I love.

And I’ve gotten a taste of it -> What I love, what I want to do with the rest of my life and who I am.

And all of this because I was born gutsy. I have the guts to take risks; to take a leap of faith and run with it.

I know who I am because I am a gutsy girl.

xo,

Katelyn

p.s. CONTACT ME to share your own story!

Xox,
SKH

A Gutsy Girl