Michelle Lost 70 Pounds, Gained Muscle, and Transformed Her Body With Diet and CrossFit

Michelle told POPSUGAR, "I was a bigger adolescent for sure," but she was into sports like baseball, softball, soccer, and basketball, so she was always active. In high school, she played softball and did track and field. She added, "I was also a smoker from my early teens until five years ago."

When she was in sixth grade, during a doctor's office visit, Michelle found out she had high cholesterol. She was shocked; she was 113 pounds and had to go on a diet.

Michelle began drinking alcohol a lot more when she turned 18. She was in college and had a waitressing job, and that's what the crowd she was around did. This went on for several years; then her father passed away suddenly when Michelle was 22.

"I literally took my last final as a college student, and the next day he passed. I took over the family business and began a downward spiral of just eating garbage, drinking heavily, smoking half a pack to a pack of cigarettes a day, and not exercising," she said. "I led a sedentary lifestyle, I was beyond stressed, I drank alcohol to cover the mess of life and ate to comfort everything else."

Here and there, Michelle would get on a kick and try to diet, drinking light beer thinking that would do the trick or switching to Jack Daniel's and diet soda because it was healthier (she said this makes her roll her eyes at herself thinking about that now!).

Michelle started her weight-loss journey at 198 pounds. She was introduced to CrossFit in 2014 but smoked and drank for the first year. In August 2015, she tried Paleo and got bloodwork done. "I was two months smoke-free, a month or so into Paleo, and I wanted a baseline of where I was at. Well, I was way worse than I anticipated." She found out she had high cholesterol, high triglycerides, and a high fasting glucose and was prediabetic.

"I was on the brink of 30; this could not be happening," she said. "This got my ass in gear, and it has led me down one of the greatest journeys of my life to date." Diabetes, heart disease, and other diseases run in her family, and Michelle didn't want to end up with the same health issues.

"When I hung up the phone with my doctor after he gave me my bloodwork results a few years ago, I burst into tears, and I knew then and there I had to make a change," Michelle said. She was uneducated at that point but researched, tried new things, created new habits, and stuck with it. "I put a belief into myself and started to work on me," Michelle said.

It's hard for Michelle to measure how much weight she's lost now since she's gained quite a bit of muscle. But she said, "I'm 70 pounds down on the scale since I began, which may not seem like a whole hell of a lot considering it has been about five years, but pics say it all. It still blows my mind to see where I was not so long ago."

Michelle added, "This process has been long and difficult at times, but it has shown me what it takes to love myself and to be my best me for me."

Michelle started with eating Paleo for a few months, then moved on to a Whole30/Paleo approach. To keep track of her food, she kept a food journal in her phone and did that for a year or so. She saw some results, but then in January 2016, at 178 pounds, she found Renaissance Periodization (RP) and never looked back.

Michelle did the templates on her own for her first cut in 2015 but then got a coach in 2016 — she's so thankful for her help and guidance these past few years. "Counting macros has been what has shown me my greatest success. I like the regimen of a schedule for myself and have found what works for me," Michelle shared.

RP has also taught her how wrong she was regarding serving sizes, especially of peanut butter! She said that many people think it's overly complicated to count macros or to follow a lifestyle such as RP, but she insisted it's not that hard.

Michelle keeps her diet pretty simple and finds that's what works best. "The KISS method is a favorite of mine (Keep It Simple, Stupid) as it takes away complications of trying to figure out what fits and what doesn't," Michelle said.

Here are some go-to meals and food Michelle eats:

Michelle has been doing CrossFit for the past five and a half years, dabbles in weightlifting, and is also an avid rower and certified rowing coach through Concept2.

She went to CrossFit about four to six days a week. Then she upped her training and began lifting a lot more before or after classes. For about a year, she'd have three-hour sessions, four days per week. "That put a lot of stress on my body, and I had to back off a little bit," Michelle said.

Michelle said it became easier to maintain her weight as she got leaner and didn't need to exercise as much. She also incorporated a lot more rowing into her regimen and even bought an indoor rower and some other equipment so she could work out at home when she didn't feel like going to the gym.

"Rowing really helped me get superstrong and maintain strength when in a cutting phase as I was able to still get a great workout in, utilizing key muscle groups, especially legs, so I was able to keep my numbers up for squats and deadlifts," Michelle said.

"I began to see how much easier it became to love myself from my dedication and hard work. A shift in my mindset, through a shift in my approach to how to fuel my body, changed my life," Michelle shared. Quitting smoking five years ago in June and not drinking for 18 months have been huge.

Michelle learned that she has a real passion for helping people, so she's earned several certifications over the past few years, and she's now a personal training and nutrition coach. "When we help ourselves, we in turn help others be better, too," she said.

"I am addicted to my progress. I love seeing how I can improve in so many areas — not just fitness," Michele said. She also loves seeing how her journey has inspired so many other people. "When they tell me they made a change because of something they saw me post or because they see how far I've come, it's truly inspiring," Michelle said.

"I keep going for myself, first and foremost. But others keep me going, too. I don't want to let them down. I want people to know they will always have someone on their side, through good and bad times."

Her discipline and dedication to herself is also a huge motivator. "I cannot let myself down ever again like I did in the past. Life is short, and my yearning for longevity overrides everything else. I also respect myself too much to treat me any differently than the best," she said.

Michelle said to love your journey. Never give up on yourself since you are all you have forever in this life. Make yourself the best you can be, and life will be amazing.

"I want people to know that anything is possible at any point in life," Michelle said. She believes that once people stop making excuses and start accepting their actions, changes will be easier to make and love for themselves and life will be easier to achieve.

She added, "Our mindset shapes our lives. If you are always negative and cannot see the good in anything, you are setting yourself up for a tough life. It's not an easy road. There will be struggles and points where you ask, 'Why?,' and I hope you find the strength to say, 'Because I have come this far and I love me.' Keep going."

Michelle recently posted transformation pics on her Instagram page with this caption, and she wanted to share part of it here:

"I don't believe when people say you can't change. Yes, you can. You can do whatever you put your heart and mind to. If you want something bad enough, you will do it.

Evolving requires removing certain things. Whether it be people from our lives, negative thoughts from our minds, or shitty food from our diets. No one has a map for the journey or when you will hit a bump. Life goes on. If you fall, get the fuck back up and move. Excuses do not get you anywhere. Do not enable bad habits, disable them and create new ones.

Is it easy? Nope.

If you are willing to try, you are also willing to fail. Failure teaches us what to fix, not to give up!

Doing things that make us uncomfortable make us better. Posting this pic makes me a little uncomfortable. I think a lot of people think (not that I care!) that I want attention... I post these things to show people anything is possible, transformations take years, there are highs and lows to every story, and sometimes people need a little inspiration. I have received some wonderful messages from posts that someone needed to see it that day. If I can help anyone make a change or take a leap of faith on themselves, then why not?

Always want more."