Changing It Up!

Guess what? You never know what you like or what you don't like until you try it. Sometimes we choose to make a change and sometimes life just hits us like a sledgehammer and the next thing we know, changes have been made... whether we wanted them or not.

My friend, Michelle, actively chose to make a change. She's an amazingly strong woman, wife, and mother. Years ago, she was overweight. I'm not sure what changed inside of her to cause her to pursue a healthier lifestyle but one day she made the choice. I'll let the photo results speak for themselves. This was achieved by exercise (some CrossFit too but not entirely) and Paleo/Primal nutrition.

Michelle, before and after!

Here is Michelle's story in her own words.

"In December of 2000 I topped the scale at 328#, the doctor wrote on my chart "morbidly obese" in bright red pen. In January of 2001 I started following a program called Body-for-Life and slowly and at times VERY painfully losing weight. And when I say painfully I don't mean physical pain. The emotional process of losing excess baggage is far my trying that beating yourself up in the gym everyday. Two years ago I wanted to try something different as my workouts had gotten kind of boring. I started CrossFit. I'm proud to say that I love it, it scares the crap out of me more often than not and it's made me a better, tougher and more thoughtful person. A day doesn't go by where there isn't a struggle, whether it's with the barbell, some food I want to eat but shouldn't or whether or not I should enjoy a glass of wine. But compare those decisions with someone going into treatment for Cancer, having heart surgery or some debilitating disease, I've got it easy. Today, over 12 years later I wake up and see that father time is now chasing me down but you know what??? At 49 I am in much better shape that I was at 39! Chase on old man time, I'll keep running from you until I'm in the ground. For all of you ladies out there.... come on and run with me!! We've got nothing to lose but flab and we're never too old to reach for amazing!"

You can see why I'm so proud of her and why it is my privilege to call her a friend. Michelle's story isn't over... She recently went on a girls mini vacation with some of her healthy friends. Even while she was on vacation, she stayed true to her clean eating and exercise (part of their vacation was attending the CrossFit Games in the Southeastern Region!). On her second day there, she suffered from a massive migraine headache which she hasn't suffered from in years. The only trigger she could think of to cause it was a small "indulgence" in a single serving of greek yogurt. This event paved the way to her latest experiment in learning about nutrition... a cleanse.

Again, in her own words, she explains why.

"We are all clean eaters in some form or fashion and we pretty much stuck to our normal foods. However, on day two I began to break out in hives. I narrowed it down to the two foods I thought were the culprits. I left in Greek yogurt because secretly I adore it and refuse to admit I could have any type of food sensitivity. Well lets just say by Wednesday of the glorious vacation I was wrecked with hives. I ended up at the Minute Clinic and with a prescription for prednisone.

All that being said, my system has been completely out of whack for what is now my second week after returning from vacation. What to do, what to do?

After consulting a friend who is very well versed in the art of nutritional cleansing, I've taken the leap and decided to do a full nine-day cleanse. A cleanse you say? Yes indeed. At this point a cleanse simply cannot hurt me any further than what I'm already going through."

When she first told me this, I'll admit, I cringed a little. I was thinking... "Oooo... Really? What in the hell are you thinking? Where will you get your protein?" But being a good friend (or at least I'd like to think I'm a good friend), I fully supported her. After all, it is only nine days. Even if it was a COMPLETE disaster, it wouldn't hurt for too long.

Michelle's cleanse journey has been interesting! You can read all about it on her blog, "Garage Gym 107" . She's about done with it and while I don't know the full results yet (she'll be blogging about that on Monday), it has been successful for her. Her writing about the cleanse, life, and finding a pair of jeans that fit her has been entertaining and educational! She admits that even if this experiment had been a failure, sometimes you just gotta change things up to shock your body into adapting. Good or bad, you always learn something by changing your habits. It takes courage and Michelle is a courageous person.

Strong

Michelle at the CF South East Region Games