My first encounter with CrossFit happened sometime in 2009. My big brother made the introduction and contrary to most “you had me at Fran” anecdotes, my CrossFit testimony developed at a much slower simmer. I trained haphazardly at first at a friend’s garage box, eventually found CrossFit Santa Clarita, moved, took almost a year off, then stumbled upon BeachSide CrossFit in Ventura. It wasn’t until I got to BeachSide that I started to train fairly consistently and was finally convinced by Coach Nathan to go “Paleo.”
Being that sometimes a full meal would literally consist of a few spoonfuls of peanut butter and jelly (I pretty much ate garbage for most of my adult life), giving up peanut butter altogether was near-traumatic for me (peanuts are legumes and one of the foods you avoid on a Paleo diet).
Thus, I began making my own paleo trail mix due to a lack of truly clean sources of healthy fat to supplement my diet and to help fill the peanut-void. When one fateful day out of sheer curiosity, I decided to throw it into my Vitamix and blend it into a nut butter, and to my surprise found it to be quite tasty. I brought some to Coach as a gift and he loved it and convinced me to make it for our box members. Somehow, in a matter of months, by word of mouth, news of this nut butter spread, and continued to spread to the point where I was using vacation days from work to fulfill orders! (I guess it’s safe to share that now LOL.)
Suddenly I found myself standing at a CROSSROADS. It was now or never. I took the leap of faith, quit my job, and in January 2012, I became a full-time-nut-butter-lady. Countless recipe revisions and sleepless nights later, what began as a creative by-product of personal necessity, is now being made available to CrossFitters at large and beyond. I am and will forever be amazed and in shock over this whole process. I owe it all to God’s sovereignty in my life and to the support of all my loyal fans! By the way, your MeeNut Butter is NOT currently being made in a Vitamix blender. However, every single jar is still handmade fresh start to finish by yours truly!