About Me

I’m Michelle. I’m a 25-year-old personal trainer and have a Bachelor's Degree in Food & Nutrition. I am fortunate to have access to a wealth of knowledge in the health & fitness industry, but that doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to apply it to my own life. In April of 2011, I competed in the Silver & Black Muscle Classic in the Bikini Diva Division. 

me: approximately April 25, 2011 (5 days before my show) 

I was thrilled with the way that I was able to transform my body with consistent weight training and proper nutrition, but struggled to continue eating clean and managed to gain about 15-20 pounds within the first 3 weeks after my show. The night after I competed, I went and got a deep-dish pizza, ate it, then went to get a half-gallon of ice cream, and ate that too. That cheat night turned into a cheat week, which turned into cheats almost every day for a month… and then some. 

me: 1 month post-show

About 6 months after my show, I broke my foot running down some bleachers while watching a football game... yes, seriously... and no, I wasn't drinking.

me: using the granny carts at Walmart while dealing with my broken foot 

So, in addition to eating poorly (or, at least, not as good as I would have liked) I was unable to work out with the intensity I was using to compensate for my poor food decisions. I managed to pack on another 10-15 pounds while my foot was in a cast/walking boot. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect to maintain a stage-ready body year-round, but I’d like to be able to wear my own jeans (from before my bleacher incident), and, ideally, compete again at some point.

I started trying different programs about 2 years ago. Since then, I have seen my body change here and there, but no matter what plan I start, I just can’t seem to stick with it long enough to see the long-lasting results I’m truly looking for. I never have an issue making it to the gym, but I don’t always change things up like I should. I also REALLY struggle with cheats. To this day, I can’t quite make it through a day without having a couple bites of this or that here and there. You’d think that it wouldn’t matter, but when a) your metabolism is destroyed from competition diets and b) you have multiple cheats EVERY day, it really adds up! For the next 90 days, I’m going to challenge myself to post pictures of me (every day), my food (when it looks socially acceptable), my workouts (when I can actually remember what I did), etc. In that time frame, I plan to drop at least 15 pounds, decrease my body fat percentage, and be able to rock my short-shorts, swim suits and dresses with confidence!

“Before” pictures, measurements, my first workout and my meals for the day will be posted tomorrow!