By Ryann Checchi
Crystal Waltman, a fourth generation Arizonan, has been nominated for a 2020 Author Academy Elite Award for her book, “Quitting to Win,” as one of the top ten health books of the year. It was also No. 1 on Amazon’s new release list for five weeks. “Quitting to Win” is about her triumph over tragedy story through sports, spine surgery, addiction, and sobriety.
Waltman started playing softball at age four and training competitively at age 10. She became an all-around collegiate athlete who gave her body and soul to softball. She had the “play hard, party hard” mentality, and at the age of 14, Waltman began abusing alcohol. When she was 18, she started having back pain and turned to painkillers and other substances. The combination of factors – back pain, alcoholism and prescription painkillers – was a recipe for disaster.
She abused alcohol for 20 years and couldn’t imagine living past 40. Now, Waltman is 42 and sober. Making it past the milestone she never thought would happen, she felt a calling to share her story in the book, “Quitting to Win.”
“I never imagined myself living past the age of 40,” Waltman says. “But after overcoming alcohol abuse and losing my best friend to mental illness, I recognized that there are so many people suffering in silence and have been impacted by similar situations. This book is my message of hope to those struggling.”
“Quitting to Win” was published earlier this year and Waltman has received daily messages from readers about how it’s helped them start the conversations of uncomfortable life lessons and topics with family members and friends. With her book, she aims to get it into substance abuse and addiction recovery centers throughout the nation and help remove the shame and stigma that’s attached to addiction, alcoholism, as well as raise awareness to mental illnesses.
“I wanted to share my raw story about physical and emotional trauma, substance abuse, mental health and overcoming them,” Waltman says. “I hoped it made my readers feel safe enough to start the dialogue and have those uncomfortable, yet important conversations. In addition to my story, I designed the book to act as a guide for small groups with discussion questions in the appendix.”
Waltman has continued to coach nutrition and fitness for the past twenty years and eventually found her calling to spiritual fitness. In her book, she shares her proven plan of how to find and keep emotional sobriety for those suffering from anxiety, depression and addiction. In addition to “Quitting to Win,” she will be releasing a digital course called “Eating to Win” and has plans to write a book in correlation to the online course.
For more information and to stay up to date with upcoming courses and books, visit crystalwaltman.com.
