Botox and Burpees
Botox and Burpees
S05E107 PR Yesterday, Flares Today: CrossFitter Laura "Legit" Romanek's Rollercoaster with Rheumatoid Arthritis
What happens as an athlete when your own body becomes its own worst enemy? In this raw and powerful conversation, CrossFit athlete Laura "Legit" Romanek @mcskins opens up about her journey with rheumatoid arthritis, a diagnosis that threatened to redefine everything about her athletic identity.
From waking up with a mysteriously swollen wrist on Open Quarterfinals day to navigating a complex web of medications, Laura shares the physical and emotional challenges of living with an unpredictable autoimmune disease. Her story reveals the frustrating paradox of an "invisible" illness – how someone can perform bar muscle-ups and heavy lifts one day, then struggle to open a door the next.
Laura's brutal honesty about her condition cuts through common misconceptions about chronic illness. She doesn't sugarcoat the reality of flare-ups. Yet her approach to living with RA challenges conventional wisdom about chronic disease management. Rather than completely overhauling her lifestyle or letting her diagnosis become her identity, she follows a philosophy of "do everything you can when you can do it."
The conversation delves into the complex relationship between stress and autoimmune disease, the grief of losing physical capacity, and the challenge of maintaining relationships when energy must be carefully rationed. Through it all, Laura's resilience shines through – not in a sanitized, inspirational way, but in her unflinching determination to remain herself despite everything her body throws at her.
Whether you're living with chronic illness, supporting someone who is, or simply interested in stories of human resilience, Laura's journey offers valuable perspective on what it means to adapt without surrendering your core identity. Subscribe now and join the conversation about strength in all its forms.
#AutoimmuneWarrior #RheumatoidArthritis #FitnessJourney #CrossFitLife #ChronicIllnessAwareness #AthleteLife #MentalHealthMatters #StrengthInStruggle #InspiringStories
All right, welcome to another episode of Botox and Burpees. I'm here with Laura Romanek legit. She's my special guest today and we're going to be talking about her experience. She is a longtime very dedicated fitness enthusiast, athlete, crossfit athlete, recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and I wanted to talk to her about her life, her experiences with that. This is something that I think, honestly, a lot of people, more than I think we probably know out in the surface. You know shallow area that deal with autoimmune issues, things that are very difficult to handle, and so I really appreciate you, legit, for coming and willing to share and speak. I know you're like, oh, time to be vulnerable, and I was like, yeah, I know it's not easy. So I want to thank you, legit, for coming on and talking today. Yeah, no problem, okay, so I've known you for a long time I want to say at least 10 years or plus, maybe.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, it's been a long time I've been in CrossFit too.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, so tell me your um your background. So what do you want to share with people about you, um like who you are, um your life?
Legit Romanek:Yeah, I mean, we could just start from CrossFit right Started CrossFit in 2013.
Sam Rhee:Okay.
Legit Romanek:Um, I actually lost a bet to my brother and I had to end up trying the class.
Sam Rhee:He's a pretty good CrossFitter himself. He used to be.
Legit Romanek:I'm kidding. I had to end up trying the class and I never looked back 2015,. I got my L1. I got my L2. I coached for seven years and, yeah, it's just been my life ever since. I was like an athlete growing up.
Sam Rhee:I played every single sport.
Legit Romanek:You know, no to man. Then in my 20s I moved and I just kind of lived my life and did what I wanted to. And then I came back and I got right back into it. And here I am 11 years later, you know, at Bison.
Sam Rhee:Where did you grow up?
Legit Romanek:I grew up in Fairlawn.
Sam Rhee:Oh, okay, so not far.
Legit Romanek:No, not far at all.
Sam Rhee:And do you remember your first CrossFit workout that you ever did?
Legit Romanek:Oh God, it was kettlebell swings. I think I used like a 20-pound kettlebell. I could barely lift it over my head. Burpees, maybe, and lunges Something easy. It burpees, maybe and lunges something easy. It was like an on-ramp class.
Sam Rhee:Um so it wasn't anything crazy, but and what appealed to you that first time. When you were doing it Like what was it? They were like ah, this is something I like. I like it just felt like a gym class, yeah.
Legit Romanek:You know, everybody was together, everybody was doing the same thing. Yeah, yeah, you were coaching at Hawthorne and you were there for a long time. I was there for a long time, yeah.
Sam Rhee:And actually I think the guy who, one of the guys who owned it, is now part of.
Legit Romanek:Station Athletics.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, station, and I actually see him he's podcasting. He's doing a great job there. Do you miss that? Like that old gym, like you know Hawthorne, and the full crew?
Legit Romanek:like that old gym, like you know Hawthorne, and the full crew, because CrossFit's changed over the past 10 years. Yeah, I definitely think that. Um, I wouldn't be the coach I am if I didn't coach there. Um, dave was awesome. He was an awesome guy. Dave Whitson right, yeah, yeah, um and I definitely met, like the most amazing people there, um, so I so I definitely, uh, I definitely miss it, um, but yeah, it definitely uh brought me to to be who I am now, for sure.
Sam Rhee:What are the proudest moments? That or the things that you, a couple moments you remember most vividly about your CrossFit sort of experience so far.
Legit Romanek:I mean like anybody can say like oh, I PR'd my snatch or I got first place in a competition.
Sam Rhee:Like awesome. Right.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, I think for me, like, some of my proudest moments are just being able to see people that I coached accomplish things that they couldn't accomplish before, inside and outside the gym. I think that's what kept me going all the time is just seeing other people thrive and be able to better themselves just made me happy. So it wasn't always about me, you know. It was a lot of times about just other people and what they can do.
Sam Rhee:So. So let's talk about. You've been at Bison for how many years now? Like three, four.
Legit Romanek:I think we're going on four. Wow, yeah, that's really.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, you're. You've been here for a long time and I've watched you and you move so well, like obviously, I think probably barbell movements, I mean you're good at everything. Mean you're good at everything, like I've seen you with your bar muscle ups and you know your gymnastic work and you have a motor and and um, obviously you have a mental push and drive, uh, which you really need to perform well in crossfit workouts. But like I really think your barbell movements you're really good at lifting snatch work. You know super fast in terms of accelerating and all that. Thank you. What division are you competing at?
Legit Romanek:I am now in 40.
Sam Rhee:Wow, that's crazy. Does that feel weird?
Legit Romanek:Being 40?.
Sam Rhee:Absolutely.
Legit Romanek:This is my second open in the 40 category. Does it feel weird? Does it feel different? I thought I was going to be at the top.
Sam Rhee:Yeah.
Legit Romanek:And I was.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, the worst yeah.
Legit Romanek:And then this year wasn't so bad.
Sam Rhee:Yeah.
Legit Romanek:But it definitely wasn't the trail I wanted to go on.
Sam Rhee:So you were diagnosed you just told me with rheumatoid arthritis in March, which is like two months ago.
Legit Romanek:No, no oh.
Sam Rhee:March of last year. Yeah, wow, so it's been like 14 months. Yeah, when did you first notice that there was something going on with your body?
Legit Romanek:So I mean we all have like aches and pains. I've been in CrossFit 11 years right, you're telling me. So you know a little bicep tendonitis or elbows Right, right, right. Something like that. But one day it was the day of the quarterfinals, the first day of the quarterfinals, and I woke up and my wrist was blown up and it didn't feel like an injury, you know. So I immediately texted Dave and I'm like Dave, I don't think I can do quarterfinals.
Sam Rhee:Dave Syvertson.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, and I did so good in the open and I'm like, okay, here's the here's the next step, um, but I'm like an all or nothing person, right, like oh yeah. Even if I'm not feeling great, I'm still going to push it.
Legit Romanek:I know it's going to be worth something for day. I'm like praying, like please go down, please go down, please go down. It doesn't. So at nighttime I'm about to do the workout and I wrap my wrist and then I wrap it with a wrist wrap and I think the workout was snatches and I'm like this is gonna be great for me yeah. Right. It's not gonna be great for me if I don't have a wrist Right, so I sore.
Sam Rhee:Yes.
Legit Romanek:And that I go to sleep, wake up the next morning it's like it never happened. But then my left wrist blew up and I'm like OK, something's wrong. Right Like I can't have pain in my hand for or my wrist for 16 hours.
Sam Rhee:Yeah.
Legit Romanek:And then all of a sudden it goes away like never happened. And now it's on this wrist.
Sam Rhee:That's really freaky.
Legit Romanek:Right. So I'm like hello Google, like let me see what's going on.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, so what did Dr Google say for?
Legit Romanek:you that I'm dying?
Sam Rhee:No, that's what it always says.
Legit Romanek:I mean, I really like I get into things when I need to figure things out.
Sam Rhee:Okay, you know what I mean.
Legit Romanek:Like I'm going to get to the nitty gritty bottom of it, and the first thing that popped up was like rheumatoid arthritis.
Sam Rhee:Really, yeah Migrating like joint pain, wrist pain.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, Once it pops from one side to the other side, it's pretty well known that it would be RA. But of course you have to get tons of blood work and tons of tests and rheumatologists and the whole nine to really get a full diagnosis.
Sam Rhee:So just from the fact that you had an episode of wrist pain that migrated to the other side, you're like I need to go get evaluated for this.
Legit Romanek:My aunt and my uncle both had autoimmune diseases. Okay, so I knew it ran in the family.
Sam Rhee:Yeah.
Legit Romanek:So I'm like okay, well, if it runs in the family, let me see if Google says it runs in the family. You know what I mean.
Sam Rhee:And then I was like, yeah, it's probably that I wanted to prep myself before I went there. And he told me Right, or I got the blood work and they told me, oh, so you, so did you make the? Appointment with the doctor, or yeah, and then and get blood work at the same time, yeah it was all like.
Legit Romanek:I went to my primary.
Sam Rhee:Yeah.
Legit Romanek:Primary was like all right, we got a rheumatologist in the same building. Let's go to him. Went to him, told him my symptoms. He's like let's go get blood work.
Sam Rhee:And there were no other symptoms at that time.
Legit Romanek:Not that I could really recall in like that type of pain. I know that like the beginning sorry, the end of 2023, I was getting sick a lot and it was taking me a long, long time.
Sam Rhee:Like colds and stuff.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, colds and like ear infections and stuff. That's just like crazy and I was just not getting better. I would be on bouts and bouts of like even prednisone and antibiotics and I just wouldn't get better. So that's the only thing that I could think of that like was the beginning that I didn't really notice.
Sam Rhee:I see.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, but it came on very quick.
Sam Rhee:And then you got the blood work and what did it show you?
Legit Romanek:So I had gotten blood work in December of 2023. I got blood work in 2023, in December of 2023. And I don't know why. I mean I think it might've been just a routine blood work. Um, my life had been a whirlwind in the last year and a half, so, like timing is just a little off for me.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, yeah.
Legit Romanek:And it said that I had a low positive ANA.
Sam Rhee:Okay, which is the antibodies like anti-nuclear?
Legit Romanek:antibodies.
Sam Rhee:Antibodies which show that your body is sort of attacking itself.
Legit Romanek:So that pretty much told him that something's hanging out right, but we don't know what it is Right, right.
Sam Rhee:Some sort of self-inflammatory condition, but that's very nonspecific. Right, could be all sorts of stuff and you can have that and be healthy. Right, right.
Legit Romanek:You can have a positive ANA and not have anything Right. So March comes, I get blood work and my anti-CCP level Right. You should be under 20, I believe, to be negative. Right Over 60 is positive. My number was over 250.
Sam Rhee:Wow, and that's a pretty specific test, that's not a general like non-specific test and with that test came like the RF factor. Right Rheumatoid factor, which was negative.
Legit Romanek:Okay, but because my anti-CCP level was so high. That's what they really use to diagnose RA with. Is that number? It has nothing to do with the RF, or a lot of times.
Sam Rhee:Right, because that's variable. It can be up, it can be down.
Legit Romanek:Right.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, oh, my God, I can't believe I'm remembering this stuff from like 30 years ago in med school.
Legit Romanek:So it was over 250. Yeah, but some tests will give you the number.
Sam Rhee:Yeah.
Legit Romanek:Right and other tests won't. So if you're over 250, it's more progressive Right, it's faster onset and it could be more erosion. My last blood work I got I got an actual number which is 597.
Sam Rhee:Whoa, that's pretty high. It's really high, yeah, it's really high. So when you got this information, how did you feel? What was going through your head at that point?
Legit Romanek:I was like this sucks Okay yeah, yes, for sure. Yeah, I didn't really know what to think of. I knew that I was having terrible flare-ups. Right? Is this going to be my life? For the rest of my life? How am I going to feel better? I'm not feeling better, right? And when it first happened, they put me on prednisone, right, because that's the only thing that they can really put you on until they start putting on all the other things.
Sam Rhee:Right, yeah, they got to put out the fire first.
Legit Romanek:Right. So it was on prednisone and obviously it didn't work.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, okay.
Legit Romanek:And then that's when I started my whole journey of all the medicines that I take now.
Sam Rhee:So you got diagnosed. You're having these symptoms, you're feeling terrible.
Legit Romanek:Terrible.
Sam Rhee:Was there anything that helped you sort of get through this phase in terms of supporting you or feeling like you know you had things to rely on, people, anything Like. What was it that sort of was in your life at that point?
Legit Romanek:I think like the scariest part for me was that, like you can have predisposed right, you can be predisposed to RA for sure, but something needs to trigger that in order to come out right. Really emotional time at the beginning of last year and the beginning of this year, which set off RA, which I still haven't come to terms with, that the stress and the emotional turmoil that I went through, is what brought this all out. So I was in fight or flight right, and when you're in fight or flight right, your cortisol levels are usually an anti-inflammatory.
Sam Rhee:Correct, right yeah.
Legit Romanek:But when your body is in fight or flight for so long, right, it does the complete opposite, correct. So now my body is attacking my body, right. And how do you tell your mind? Right, to tell your body to calm down when your mind's thinking one thing and your body's doing another, right? So that's what brought on all the flare ups was the stress. So once I could bring the stress down right, the flare ups start to go away a little bit. So that's kind of how that is.
Sam Rhee:How do you deal with the stress? No idea, I'm still working on it Okay, because you're a fighter, like I know you, like I've known you, and it's not easy to get to know you. Let's put it that way like you're I won't say you're prickly, but like thanks you're good, you're a good needler, like every time.
Sam Rhee:Uh, I see you, like I know you now and so like I take everything. Uh, well, but you always got that little like you know. Uh, you know you jab people that you love. I know that, I know that, and so so it's but, but if people don't know you.
Sam Rhee:It's. I know that, I know that and so so it's. But but if people don't know you, it's not always so easy to get to know you. So and I know that you are a fighter, you are a pusher, you are someone who takes those prisoners a lot of times and so like that's not a calming, zen kind of mentality to have, of mentality to have so but you now know that stress, you know of all forms, can be very unhealthy. Right, so you've got to be doing something to help yourself.
Legit Romanek:No, I mean, when you're in it, it's hard right, because you could be stressed out about one thing. And then you're stressed out, that you're stressed out, right, right, and then you're like you know, how do I, how do I get out of this?
Sam Rhee:Right, stop stressing out.
Legit Romanek:Stop stressing out, right? So I mean, unfortunately, I've been in like a two and a half month flare up this year already. Okay, and like I told you before we started the podcast, I think the last five days have been good for me. I haven't really felt any pain.
Legit Romanek:Um, I always have tingly pinkies and fingers, but yeah, uh, there's always something brewing, Um, but yeah, I've, I haven't been in much pain, I've been able to really like execute at the gym, um, which is awesome. Um, but yeah, I, I mean I I'm falling off track. What was the question?
Sam Rhee:Oh, so other things to deal with the stress.
Legit Romanek:I know gym helps you yeah the gym is great but unfortunately sometimes, you know, I go to the gym and I can't do everything.
Sam Rhee:Right, and then it's frustrating.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, talking to my friends is great. Still very hard for them to understand. It's very hard for people to understand.
Sam Rhee:It's a complicated issue.
Legit Romanek:And sometimes you know it's like oh yeah, my grandma has arthritis. I'm like I am. I'm not going to go into what it is, you know yeah.
Sam Rhee:So have you changed other parts of your life? I mean, I want to get into the medications a little bit, but I want to talk about, like, what other parts of your life have you changed, like diet or sleep or anything like you know? What else do you find helpful or not helpful in terms of trying to manage, like, your overall health at this point?
Legit Romanek:Yeah. So getting to the gym, you know, excites me, makes me happy, which brings my stress level down.
Sam Rhee:OK.
Legit Romanek:I eat very plain, like rice and meat. I don't even eat a happy, which brings my stress level down. Okay, I eat very plain, like rice and meat. I don't even eat a vegetable, which I probably should.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, you should.
Legit Romanek:Every now and again, but a lot of times it's just salmon or steak or chicken or you know the normal things. Yeah, I don't really.
Sam Rhee:Do you do anything else outside of, like, what are your interests outside of?
Legit Romanek:Oh, I mean I love hanging with my friends, okay, music, but like I'm very simple, you know, I'm like a very like go with the flow kind of person, but it's like the gym it's eat, sleep, gym and repeat. You know, when you get to this age it's like you know you can't go play with your friends. You can know you can't go play with your friends. I can't bring a doorbell and tell your friends, you know so uh.
Sam Rhee:So what medications have you started and are you on now, and what have you found that has been helpful for you, because there's so many new medications out there?
Legit Romanek:yeah, when I first got diagnosed um, they put me on prednisone. Yeah, very, very high doses yeah, how high.
Sam Rhee:Just do you remember how high is? It 40 yeah that's pretty solid 20 20 in the morning, 20 at night.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, and then I got put on Plaquenil.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, that's pretty, like almost everyone I know on here.
Legit Romanek:Two times a day. Yeah, and Methotrexate pills.
Sam Rhee:Also fairly toxic.
Legit Romanek:Like there's some side effects to that. Yeah, and that's the problem, right, is I mean?
Sam Rhee:it's literally an anti-cancer drug, Like it's chemo.
Legit Romanek:Right.
Sam Rhee:Both of them are yes yes, methotrex is a little more toxic, I would say, than the Plaquenil that I've seen, but go ahead.
Legit Romanek:And then I got diagnosed with high blood pressure because of the prednisone. Yeah, so I'm on high blood pressure meds.
Sam Rhee:Which one are you on now?
Legit Romanek:I am on amlodipine.
Sam Rhee:Okay, I think it's called yeah, yeah, yeah.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, and I also have to take folic acid now.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, for yeah.
Legit Romanek:It's always, you know, take this for that.
Sam Rhee:Right yeah.
Legit Romanek:And then so the methotrexate pills. Yeah, bothered me, Really bothered me. I think I was like four days tapped out at a seven, feeling crummy.
Sam Rhee:Like just crummy overall or GI symptoms.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, GI symptoms tired, just aggravated you know, so I got put on injections.
Sam Rhee:Oh, okay.
Legit Romanek:So now I do a methotrexate injection every Monday. Okay, every week and I take Humira now, okay.
Sam Rhee:Injections every two weeks, self, or you go someplace. I do it all myself. Okay, you found that scary to inject yourself.
Legit Romanek:No, okay, no, in your belly or I can't do my belly, I do my legs.
Sam Rhee:Oh, like your quad.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, my quad. It's not bad, it's really. It's better to do it myself than to have somebody do it, I think.
Sam Rhee:Really yeah.
Legit Romanek:Okay, yeah, and then now I'm of course, back on the whole time I was still taking. We were trying to wean myself off the prednisone, because I really shouldn't be on that a long time, of course. So I got myself down to like five milligrams.
Legit Romanek:Okay, at the beginning of this year, everything ramped back up and I had emailed my doctor and said we got to get on something else and I need to up this prednisone because I need to get out of this. Like it was mentally and physically exhausting being in a flare up every day.
Sam Rhee:What is the worst symptoms with a flare up, when you're really flaring Like what do you feel?
Legit Romanek:This is like the hard part. This is like the hard thing to explain to people.
Sam Rhee:Yeah.
Legit Romanek:I've never broken a bone, but I've, like, sprained my ankle like playing basketball and stuff like that, or I jammed my finger, that initial feeling where you have no stability.
Sam Rhee:Yeah.
Legit Romanek:Right and your finger, your ankle, swells up, yeah Right. It feels like that. It's like a deep throbbing pain and sometimes it feels fiery, like your joints are on fire, and as the flare up continues, as the hours go on, you lose your range of motion or your mobility. You get a lot like pinching right Because the swelling is now pinching on everything else.
Sam Rhee:Right, because the tissue is so swollen at that point.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, so that's yeah.
Sam Rhee:And which joints does it affect the most for you?
Legit Romanek:So in the beginning it was just my wrists and my fingers which I was like all right, this isn't terrible, but it's not great, right, like I have very good range of motion in my wrist. When I'm in a flare up, it's like this you can't turn a knob or anything. As it progressed it goes to my hips now my knees, my ankles, my shoulders, any joint that's a joint. I think I've probably had a flare up in.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, and this disease can be erosive. So do you feel like you're losing function?
Legit Romanek:I was so scared about that, yeah, so how do?
Sam Rhee:you feel about that?
Legit Romanek:So every time you're in a flare-up right, it's eroding at like the synovial fluid which is around your joints.
Sam Rhee:Right, the fluid that's cushioning your joint and it's like lubricating the joint. So that's why, like back in the day, you see a lot of people with their fingers because there wasn't medicine to like help that. Oh no. I remember doing surgery where we did joint replacements for, like, finger digits and stuff like that. Right.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, I am very hypermobile too, which is more susceptible to joint issues.
Sam Rhee:So I lost my track, so you're losing function. You're afraid of losing yeah.
Legit Romanek:I'm really afraid of losing function every time I'm in a flare up, and since I've been in a flare up for two and a half months, I'm like what is happening?
Sam Rhee:Have you noticed loss of function yet though?
Legit Romanek:you know, one day you feel like absolute crap, right, right. And then the next day you're like well, nothing happened. You know what I mean. So I don't know, and the only way to really tell is to do like x-rays and stuff like that, yeah, yeah, to see what the joint looks like yeah and have they looked not yet when I'm they haven't taken any yet. Um, but when I feel good, I feel good, so maybe there's nothing wrong. Like I, I don't want to Right.
Sam Rhee:Check until you, until I yeah, I'm sort of the same way. I don't want to look Any more stuff. Right, I don't want to look, unless I actually have to do something about it. Right, right, I don't want to know. So then, at the gym, how has your movement patterns been? What's your performance been like?
Legit Romanek:been like like, what have you been doing? With that, so I try to bike on the c2 a little bit before and after the workout. Okay, just because I've had a lot of like hip and like groin pain in the joints, yeah, so I just try to keep my legs moving yeah and stretch a little bit. But like, honestly, like do I need to do that? Like I don't know, you know I don't, because it's not an injury. So like I don't want to treat it like an injury I see you know right um, scaling like.
Legit Romanek:I think I scaled so much and I was still in a flare-up that I eventually just said I have to rest, I can't do anything right, because when you work out your body gets inflamed. And if I'm already inflamed, right now I'm inflaming my body even more.
Sam Rhee:Right.
Legit Romanek:That's just a recipe for disaster, so I rest usually.
Sam Rhee:Do you take NSAIDs or anything else at all? I can't. I can't with all the medicine. Yeah.
Legit Romanek:I think I'm already destroying my liver and my kidneys with everything I'm taking Right, and that's just going to do more damage.
Sam Rhee:Did you work out this week?
Legit Romanek:I did.
Sam Rhee:How many days? What day is it today? Today is Thursday.
Legit Romanek:Two days. I took yesterday off.
Sam Rhee:Okay, so you worked out Monday and Tuesday and you did both workouts and did you RX them, did you scale them?
Legit Romanek:Oh, I RXed them yeah.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, and how did it feel Monday?
Legit Romanek:was great. Yeah, and how'd it feel? Monday was great.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, I loved Monday's work. Which one was Monday again Double unders. Oh yeah, the 75 double unders. Was it burpees?
Legit Romanek:No double unders, dumbbell snatches, Double snatches and bar muscle ups yeah.
Sam Rhee:And you did all of it.
Legit Romanek:I did, yeah, not level one, level two.
Sam Rhee:Right the bar muscle-ups and 35-pound dumbbell snatches and you got through it. Yeah, and your time was good.
Legit Romanek:I think so.
Sam Rhee:So that's where someone would be like okay, you have RA, you're dealing with all this stuff, but you're not flaring up. Right now You're feeling pretty good and I don't think I would finish that workout and I don't have any autoimmune issues. So someone might look at you and be like not really understanding what's going on. Like how do you deal with that? Like that you could actually perform on a high level like that, because I don't think I would say half the gym, would RX ever finish it?
Legit Romanek:I think a lot of people don't think it's believable, right? They don't believe me.
Sam Rhee:Yeah.
Legit Romanek:Which is fine, right, you can see my medicine cabinet if you like, all my needles and all of that stuff. But, like I said, it's not an injury, right, and you might not see it on the outside, but internally that's where it is right, that's what's going on. So you can't really judge somebody by their performance one day, because there's been times that I've done a workout and I pushed it too hard and I was in a little flare up and I was out for like a week, right. So you really can't, you can't tell, and I think that's the scary part and that's why I kind of like give up sometimes talking to people about it, because it's I, I can't drill in in your mind enough Like, yes, I know that I'm a good athlete, right, and and I'm pretty high in the chain at the gym, right, in performance wise.
Sam Rhee:Yeah.
Legit Romanek:Right, but that's maybe just on one day, right. It's not an everyday thing anymore.
Sam Rhee:Has that been important to you your whole life in terms of how good you are compared to everyone else at the gym? I think it is.
Legit Romanek:I wouldn't say like compared to everybody else. Everybody has their own standards where they're at across the career. I think I'm hard on myself and there are people that I push to go against. But I think, as I've grown up, I'm not so much about let me be the top scorer, it's more about moving well and knowing what I can do. And just because I could do it doesn't mean that I'm snotty about it in a way.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, but let's suppose you get to the point where you're sort of having chronic issues, can only do single unders, 20 pounds, snatches 15, and ring rows, and that's sort of where you are every day. Would you come to the gym? Would you do what you do like in terms of working out? I'm just saying because, like that's the mental part of it. I mean, eventually we're all going to get there at some point, but we think it's not going to be until we're 80 or 90 or something like that.
Legit Romanek:No, I mean you're right, right. So the other day we had front squats, right, I think my old one rep max was 190, 195, right, I was also 140 pounds when I got.
Sam Rhee:RA, where are you now?
Legit Romanek:120.
Sam Rhee:Okay.
Legit Romanek:When? How old are you now? 120. Okay, when I got RA, I lost 20 pounds within a month. Okay, just depleted everything, yeah, yeah.
Legit Romanek:Right. So the workout which was the wall balls and the burpees I crushed, right, get me on a heavy barbell now. And I couldn't even front squat 165 pounds, and so for me that's like wow, right, look what this has done to me. Right, and people will come to me and be like, oh well, pound for pound, you could still lift more than me. It's like great. But right, where you thought you were at, and now where you're at now is like a completely different.
Sam Rhee:That's where the mind games come into play. You don't know how this condition is going to progress. It could remit Right, and you could have a complete like remission right, you could. It could be much worse. Like is that uncertainty?
Legit Romanek:like it's scary.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, yeah, it's really scary because so much of your, uh, who you are is tied up with your ability to perform, and you're basically not knowing whether or not you could perform a month from now, right months from now, six months from now it's like the being unreliable, in a way too right, like I don't know, I don't know what the next day is going to bring, right, right, and it's.
Legit Romanek:it's frustrating and it's like mentally exhausting and emotionally exhausting Because, like I said, it's a lot of the stress that brings it on too, like how do I stop that? You know what I mean. Like you could meditate and you could take a walk and you could do all this.
Sam Rhee:Do you do those?
Legit Romanek:I do, but when you come back, it's still all there.
Sam Rhee:Yeah.
Legit Romanek:You know what I mean.
Sam Rhee:Right.
Sam Rhee:So it's just getting yourself out of that mental, that mental thing. If I was a psychologist, I I mean, or I imagine a psychologist would say, okay, legit, but maybe you need to like not have your self-esteem and and your identity bound up in what you're doing with at the gym and maybe you need to find other ways to define yourself. Like, have you thought about that in some way? Like who am? Who am I? And if I am not a crazy elite RX athlete at this point, maybe I have to find something else that really validates me at me as just an athlete at the gym.
Legit Romanek:So there's definitely depth in me. Outside of the gym there's definitely a legit. There's definitely a Laura outside of the gym. Legit's in the gym, Laura's outside of the gym.
Sam Rhee:I almost forgot. Why are you nicknamed legit? That was something that I think I asked a long time ago. I forgot, maybe, what the answer was yeah.
Legit Romanek:So, like you said before, like I hone in on my technique and and my movement patterns and standards, and early early on in my CrossFit career I was snatching at night. And I'm snatching and I put it down, somebody goes that's legit. And I'm like what they're like, that's it, that's your name, that's what we're gonna call you from now on. And I'm like legit. They're like that's it, that's your name, that's what we're going to call you from now on. And I'm like legit. They're like yeah, legit, I'm like okay, and it's just stuck the whole time. I mean, there's times still now, 11 years later, where people will go hey, laura, this and that who Legit? Oh, legit, okay.
Sam Rhee:So nobody calls you Laura anymore. Your mom, dad, I don't know, family, I mean half the time my brother calls me legit.
Legit Romanek:You know it just depends People that have known me for my whole CrossFit career and inside and outside they'll call me Laura.
Sam Rhee:Okay.
Legit Romanek:But yeah, it doesn't really matter what I go by. You know I like legit though.
Sam Rhee:You do yeah, yeah.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, but I didn't think it was going to carry all the way to 41 years old.
Sam Rhee:But it sticks out, I mean it's memorable, nobody forgets that nobody forgets, do you? Care if they give you shit for it or anything like that. You never care. I know you don't, I you do and you don't.
Legit Romanek:Sometimes yeah, yeah okay.
Sam Rhee:So, um, what is it that you think people don't effing know about ra that they really ought to know, like Like you know, because I figure people would be like you know what it's autoimmune. Have you tried this? Have you tried this nutritional therapy? Have you tried this alternative? You know way of doing things. Have you tried all sorts of offbeat type things?
Legit Romanek:I think there are a lot of people that get diagnosed with autoimmune and immediately are like what are all the things I can do that are anti-inflammatory and that will help me so I never have to take medicine?
Sam Rhee:and this and that.
Legit Romanek:I don't want to define my life saying I have RA. Unless I really need to change something in what I'm doing, I'm not going to change it.
Sam Rhee:I don't think my diet's that bad, so I'm not going to change so you're not going to be like doing the green smoothie floated with like this.
Legit Romanek:That, unless I want one, just to have one right right, but I'm not gonna um base my whole life on it. I can't. Right, then you become consumed in your disease. I don't want to come become consumed right, because then it takes over, right, and that's that's what I don't want it to do is take over my life.
Sam Rhee:So what else have you done to sort of live a quote normal life at this point, anything else?
Legit Romanek:No, not really. I mean, I'm still living my life the way I am, I'm just, unfortunately, Do you go drinking, do you? Yeah, I definitely go out and enjoy myself, for sure, but I know I'm still living my life the way I am.
Sam Rhee:I'm just, unfortunately. Do you go drinking, do you? Yeah, I definitely go out and enjoy myself, for sure, but I know I'm going to pay the price, do? You pay it more now. Wait, do you wear a whoop? By the way, I don't anymore.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, you know you used to like shit on me for my whoop because I had the worst stats always. I probably would have the same stats as you had back in the day. Now I think I got rid of it because I was like I've been in the red for two months. I don't want to keep being in the red.
Sam Rhee:Right.
Legit Romanek:You know I'm paying $30 a month and I'm not doing anything with it anyway. Yeah, and I'm still doing the same thing that I do every day and it's not changing, so no point.
Sam Rhee:How many hours of sleep do you get a night?
Legit Romanek:Now, um, now that I'm on prednisone, not much.
Sam Rhee:Really yeah, why it gets you all jittery and stuff.
Legit Romanek:Oh yeah, it gets me jacked up. I think this morning I woke up at 510.
Sam Rhee:Wow, and I was ready to go Really. And what time did you go to bed? Uh, 1130.
Sam Rhee:Wow, yeah, that's not awesome, and I used to go to bed at like you're a fighter, so you're almost resisting the fact that, like you don't want these things to change. Like you are, like you're taking all the medications, you're doing all the things that you need to do, but you're also like not going to like if there's a pot. Like you don't know if some of these alternative things might help or not, but you're not going to try them.
Legit Romanek:I just want it to go away. To be honest, you know what I mean. Can I manifest it to go away Like totally?
Sam Rhee:You think you could.
Legit Romanek:No, absolutely not. Okay, it was brought on my stress. You think I could manifest it out of me. Absolutely not. Yeah, I mean I don't want to change anything, you know, and like maybe that's defiant of me.
Sam Rhee:It is defiant of you.
Legit Romanek:Right, and that's fine. But you know I'm a single person, I live on my own. You know healthy stuff costs a lot of money too. Right, and I don't know. I just I don't like failing, so I don't have to try something and it fails, and try something and it fails.
Sam Rhee:You know what I mean?
Legit Romanek:Yeah, I get that if I can stick to what I know and it's working right now, then like, let's just continue on with that. You know, uh do you have pets I do.
Sam Rhee:I have a dog oh yeah, and has that dog been a rock for you uh, he's lazy oh, okay yeah, he just, she's just chilling, he's just hanging, you know so has there been anything bright like in the past year and two months that you could say you know what this was like? One of the best things, that like not RA, but like something within it that, like you, were like you know what this, this was. Out of all the crap I had to deal with, this was something that really stood out as good. Nothing.
Legit Romanek:You know I'm alive, right I'm. I'm dealing with this. I've been so intertwined with what's going on and like trying to figure it out and trying to get myself better.
Sam Rhee:That like just being able to wake up on a day and not feel pain is like is good for me I don't want to get into your personal life, uh, but obviously a lot of emotional stress is due to relationships and other issues. Has how have your relationships with people changed? Do you have anything that you could give in terms of advice in terms of people with relationships or how you've coped with that, like what? What could we learn from your experience in terms of that, because I know that that gets super complicated.
Legit Romanek:I mean, I think number one be kind to people, right? You don't know what somebody is going through at all. I think that I'm going to lose my train of thought here. You can only control what you can control, right, right, so I think the best thing is just to not to let things get to you. I'm still losing my train of thought. How?
Sam Rhee:do you approach your relationships with people differently? Now, because of that, Like because you know, obviously some of this is all the stress due to all of that. So do you do anything differently? Do you approach people differently? Do you see people differently? I don't know Anything that from this experience that you would give advice to.
Legit Romanek:Yeah, so I think that was always a go big or go home, right, put everything I have into somebody or something and don't keep anything for myself, right, and that's blown up Right, because when you lose that, you just lost your whole self Right, because you put so much into that Right, whatever it is.
Sam Rhee:Right. So I'm definitely learning to lose that. You just lost your whole self right because you put so much into that right, whatever it is right.
Legit Romanek:So I'm definitely learning to. I think it's bad right. I was very anxious in relationships and I think now I'm very like I don't. I'm very dismissive about it now, right is that good? No, it's terrible, right you? You want to be able to give somebody something of you Right. Right, and I used to do that all the time, right, but now I just feel like I got to focus on myself.
Sam Rhee:Yeah.
Legit Romanek:Right and I have to have or keep some things to myself.
Sam Rhee:Yeah.
Legit Romanek:Right, because when you give it all out, yeah. And you get.
Sam Rhee:Right you know, right you know, and you lose it and you lose it.
Legit Romanek:You're like, wow, where's my right?
Sam Rhee:you know so do you feel like at some point in your life you're going to get back to that point where you can do that?
Legit Romanek:yeah, I mean, I would hope so, right, but I'm really just focusing on myself right now. Yeah, um, I can't worry about other people. Like I really can't worry about what other people think of me or what they've heard about me, or or or, if you want to be in my life, right, like I have friends that are really there for me and have been there through everything, right, and those people are my rocks right. If you want to come into my life, come into my life. Right. And this is where you're going to say I'm like brash right. If you want to come into my life, come into my life. But if you don't, I don't care.
Legit Romanek:Right, I don't have. I don't have the mental and emotional capacity right now to deal with anybody else by myself. Right, and that might sound really bad, but no, absolutely not.
Sam Rhee:I don't think anyone who's dealing with something like this would have the bandwidth to like be a Mother Teresa or like somehow, like be expansive to every one of them.
Legit Romanek:I mean there's some people that really don't like me, and that's fine, right. But I am probably one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, right, and I'm very just, open and honest and real with people. You know that's just who I am and that's how I was raised, you know. So if you don't like me, like that's on you. That's how I look at it.
Sam Rhee:Yes, your personality is such. Like I said, you're prickly to begin, so you got to kind of kind of push through some of that.
Legit Romanek:I mean, I think that's how it's been my whole life. You know, like I I obviously I'm gay, right? So growing up is very hard as well.
Sam Rhee:Of course yeah.
Legit Romanek:And you have to make people like you Like. Why don't you like me? Because of this, this and this, you give up at a point. Yeah, you know.
Sam Rhee:I think that's the biggest part that I have found. That makes me angry is that if people judge people, especially about sexual orientation or just because they're different, and I think the thing that I have liked about you is like you didn't hide that you were prickly, like you didn't cover it up or try to say something just to get people to like you, like I mean, you are very prickly but that's who you are and you just sort of like leave it out there. And so I kind of knew what I was getting when I would talk to you about stuff and it was open, honest and, like you said, it's like olives, like you can either like them or not like them, but we're not trying to pretend that the olive is like we're not buttering it up with like honey and trying to make it taste good. Like you're just, you just are who.
Legit Romanek:You are no problem taking accountability. Right, and I think a lot of people don't do that nowadays. Right, and they run from it. Right, it's not going to solve your problems. I'm that person that's like like like, let's nip it right now and then move on Right, and I think that's how I've always been.
Sam Rhee:So at this point, for someone let's suppose someone was just recently diagnosed with RA like they just had it, like they're scared, they got the, they got the test, the blood work, and they're like you know what. This is starting to happen for me at this point. What would your advice be, now that you've sort of dealt with it for a year plus at this point, I mean, everybody's going to go about it their own way, right?
Legit Romanek:So I don't want to tell people like what they should. It doesn't matter.
Sam Rhee:Just give your advice, the way you would do it and like or if you went back and had to do it, like is there anything differently? Is there different that you would do? Or or tell people, make sure you do this.
Legit Romanek:No, I would literally say don't change your life. Do everything you can when you can do it Right, and unless you have to change it, just keep doing you Right. Don't let it define you Right. Even though I have RA, I'm still an athlete. You know what I?
Sam Rhee:mean Right.
Legit Romanek:I'm not an athlete with RA Right.
Sam Rhee:At some point you're going to possibly deal with the fact that it's never going to get better.
Legit Romanek:No.
Sam Rhee:And you're on these, possibly deal with the fact that it's never going to get better and you're on these medications for a lifetime and you're young, you're 40. So what are your goals in the future?
Sam Rhee:Even though you don't know what's going to happen, you must still have goals right For your life, for what you want personally, relationship, wise, professionally, anything like athletically. So what are your goals? Even though you have this thing sort of obscuring your future at this point, what is it that your goals are right now, at this second? What are you working towards?
Legit Romanek:I mean, right now I'm really focusing on just getting better.
Sam Rhee:OK.
Legit Romanek:Right, I'd like to get back into the gym. I'd like to go, be able to go hard again.
Legit Romanek:Yeah get back into the gym. I'd like to go, be able to go hard again. Yeah, um, I just friends and family and love and all of that. That's what I want, right? I was brought into the world to love somebody and love people and be there for people and like, if I can keep doing that, I'm going to keep doing it and that's what makes me happy and that's what makes me keep going. You know, um, it's not about a job, it's not about like any of that. You know, it's just being there, showing up and doing what I can when I can do it.
Sam Rhee:I don't think that's any more than what anyone else could ask for at this point. Yeah, laura, legit, romantic. I really appreciate the time that you spent. I know it wasn't easy to share and I've learned a lot just listening to you sort of talking to you about your life. Can I post your Instagram handle if anyone wants to talk to you about like RA or any other experiences that they have? I'll put that up there. And, like I said, you're still beating 90% of the people at the gym on a good day and I've seen you and I always love watching you move at the gym. You are a great mover. Your mental attitude in the gym is as good as anyone bar none Like I've seen you push and I really, really hope that the future holds good things for you. That's, you know. That's what I you know. That would make me so happy to be able to see you do what you do at the highest level.
Legit Romanek:Thank you, I would hope that too, for sure.
Sam Rhee:Yeah, thanks, all right, thank you legit.
Legit Romanek:Thank you, Sam.