Mieke Corriveau has been a member of the gym for a year and a half, and is a regular in the 7:30pm (and sometimes noon) class, and always has fun with her training. Mieke is a nurse on labour and delivery and the postpartum floor, and as a shift worker, it is super impressive that Mieke continues to make her health and fitness a priority. Read below to learn about how Mieke achieves balance, how she plans around a crazy work schedule, and her recent double under success!

What do you eat on a typical day? Eggs for breakfast are always a must! Usually eaten with toast and some tomatoes. Lunch is almost always some form of leftover sitting in the fridge. Dinner varies, and this depends if I'm working a night shift. If that's the case I'll wake up around 4:30-5pm after a nap (or a full day of sleeping) and make myself eggs for "breakfast". Then I'll bring a dinner which usually consists of some sort of vegetable (roasted veg, salad), meat protein (fish, beef, sausages, chicken), and let's not forget a tasty carb! Love me some pasta or rice dish. I really love to cook so whether it be at home or at work, my dinners are usually a combination of whatever I can find in the fridge.

Have you changed the way you eat since you began CrossFit, If so, how? Honestly, I haven't changed my eating habits too much. Because I love to cook, I'm able to include lots of veggies and healthy foods in my diet and experiment with different spices to make them super tasty! However, I'm a firm believer in eating a varied diet, without restricting yourself of all treats. To me that's no life to live! So, you will definitely find me eating a big bowl of pasta or a delicious baked good on any given day.

How long have you been doing CrossFit? 1-2 years

How does training/CrossFit fit into your life? CrossFit is just part of my routine now. I usually take a class before or after I work and it's great that there are so many classes available, especially since my work schedule is all over the place.

What reasons did you have to train when you started CrossFit? Have those reasons changed? If so, how? When I started CrossFit, I was looking for a type of workout that would push me to learn new things and that would be sustainable over the long term. Having swum competitively for over 10 years, I wanted to get back into shape and find something with a bit of a competitive outlet. 1.5 years after joining and those reasons haven't much changed, but I've also been lucky to find people here that make it so fun to keep coming back.

What improvements have you made in the past 6 months that you are most proud of? Over the last few months I've seen better consistency in movements that used to be super frustrating for me, such as stringing together multiple butterfly pull ups and those pesky double unders! Just this week I surprised myself by doing 25 DUs unbroken!

Do you currently have a main focus or goal(s) with your training? I'd like to incorporate more stretching and rolling into my daily routine, whether it be doing the ROMWOD at the gym or using my foam roller at home. I'd also like to get back to doing more extra work outside of class that would help improve gymnastics movements.

What would you consider to be your greatest strength as an athlete? I'd probably say that it's endurance. During workouts, I don't like to rest much between movements, which means I focus a lot on pacing myself, so that I can go from one part of the workout to the next without feeling completely gassed.

What is one thing that you do every day that you feel is essential in contributing to your success in the gym? Despite working shiftwork, I make sure that when I do sleep - during the day or at night - I can get a good 7-8 hours. This helps in my recovery so that I can usually feel good going into the next workout.

If you could give yourself one piece of advice when you started CrossFit, what would it be? Be patient.