Fit Me Forever Podcast
Fit Me Forever Podcast
#28 - Become A GATEKEEPER For Your Health with Special Guest Michelle Hunter
In today’s episode, Coach Jodie talks with Michelle Hunter, a graduate of our flagship program, OMNI FIT 365. This is a beautiful yet raw story of success. Learn how one client used her personality to overcome seemingly insurmountable health challenges.
Coach Jodie and Michelle share a serious inside look through a year of real-life challenges and mid-life realities on a journey through recovery to better health.
Here are a few points that we cover today:
- How one life-changing event led to a new path - Heart Attack Alert
- A raw look at what it means to become a gatekeeper of your own health
- The sustainable effects of gradual habit change working out in real life
- How to navigate sensitive family dynamics when making personal health changes
Next Steps:
Receive updates and learn more at: AgingStrongLife.com
Send any questions or comments to: jodie@agingstronglife.com
Hi, welcome to the fitbit forever podcast, hosted by the Omni fit. We're about all things fitness. We help women get off the Diet roller coaster to find sustainable health, embracing life right where you are on the way to where you're going. Welcome to the podcast. I'm coach Jodie v, a certified nutrition coach who specializes in helping women become physically and mentally strong to regain energy for a life they love. I would like to welcome my cohosts Kayla Duncan, owner of the Omni fit and fellow colleague and nutrition coach Taylor blocks, and together we are the Omni fit.
Speaker 2:Hi Ladies. Coach Jodie, be here on today's podcast. I have the privilege of chatting it up with Michelle Hunter. Michelle has been one of the many clients I've worked with during the past year. She is a successful self employed businesswoman. We call entrepreneur who helps women business owners tell their stories so they can move from frustrated to fully booked. We'll learn a little bit more about her business later in the podcast today. She's joining us for casual casual conversation to share herself, her insights and the highs and lows of her journey. With the Omni fit, three 65 program, before we jump in with Michelle, let me give you some context about the program. Three 65 is a one year habit based approach to nutrition and fitness. It includes daily lessons and weekly or biweekly coaching and accountability calls. In the spring of 2017, Michelle signed up for the program and we began a relationship to move her towards her best self. The thought of a one year program may seem like a big commitment, however, it's quite a beautiful thing to walk alongside you in the real life stuff, the messy, the challenging, the crisis moment, and that Aha and the big wins towards sustainable health. Michelle has had all these things in the past year, so let's dive in. Michelle podcast takes. How could you be here? Good. Good. Right. It is a pleasure to have you and to catch up with you again, will you tell our listeners just a little bit about your background, who you are, what you love, how you got here.
Speaker 3:Sure, sure. I, um, I'm. Oh, my background. I don't know. I'm a, I'm a copywriter and marketing consultant and I got a most first introduced to Omni fit, um, because you are a client of mine and so I got to know everything about what you do as I'm an outsider looking in is I wrote website copy, that kind of thing for, for the business. And it's really interesting that we were brought together at that time because I had some significant health stuff going on and so it was just like perfect timing for me to get to know you and your heart and what you do. So I'm, I'm an older and by older I mean full disclosure. Right now I'm 50 so I have a grandson, I have adult children and I'm in menopause if that matters. So it's like a, I mean that season of life, that's what's relevant. So my world revolves around my business, my husband, my dogs, one of whom is here with me and she's sleeping and she stars occasionally. So you might hear that in the podcast and that's totally okay. Do real life here. Senior people, senior dogs, you know. Um, I, I don't consider myself a senior, my husband know is getting letters from Arp, so I know we're getting close. Um, okay. So what do I like to do? I love to read, I love to quilt. I love, excuse me, I love to crochet and knit. Mostly sedentary activities actually, but in the last year I've discovered I also love to walk, I love to do yoga. I enjoy going into German. That's been a pretty big transformation for me.
Speaker 2:Right? Right. And we, we follow that journey, you know, super close and it, it's, it was great, you know, being able to spend a year with you in a three 65 program because we're in the same stage of life and again, Hashtag I can totally relate. Um, and we're in that sandwich generation where we're taking care or we're responsible for older parents and so there's a lot of challenges and a lot of people and the fitbit forever facebook group and that listened to our podcast are in earlier stages of life where they have young children, you know, we've been there and done all that too. And so, um, you know, looking back, every stage of life has its challenges and I'm navigating nutrition and fitness no matter what stage of life we're in is what we're all about at the Omni fit. And so that's been, you know, it's just been a complete joy to work with you because we could connect on all kinds of different levels, um, even in our things from our past. So it was really fun. Michelle, painted picture for our listeners and tell them kind of a story about where you are at three years ago before you even ever encountered the Omni fit, you had done some dieting and some kind of intense things before and you had seen successes before you came to us and also some challenges. So why don't you go ahead and share where you are at.
Speaker 3:Sure. So I'm, I'm a classic type a person, meaning I'm a perfectionist and really driven. I'm the person who works 14 hours a day and you know, I can sleep when I'm dead. Like that's who I been historically. So, um, it was a little, actually a little longer than three years ago, but I was, I had a fairly high level executive job with a big company that you would recognize if I mentioned them and I had a lot of responsibility. I had 19 people that reported to me, I had just a lot of stuff going on and so I was constantly working. My children tell me that some of their best memories of their teen and preteen years are moments when they knew I had left work to spend time with them because that was rare, which is unfortunate actually. Um, but I didn't have work life balance for me. It was all work with some life at the end and it was, as far as food I ate one, it was convenient. Um, and, and I, what was convenient when it was convenient. So, um, when I was an executive, I remember very frequently I would drive to work and my breakfast was a red bull and a donut. Like that was it. And so just that was my lifestyle. You can imagine like the fast, fast paced, I'm really tall, six foot two and I've always been heavy. I'm kind of, the joke in our family is I'm built like a man. And then when people talk about like their shape, there are some people who are, pairs are some people who are our glass, my children say I'm an oak tree because chest, waist, hips, all the same and usually have historically been big. So I've dieted all my life sometimes successfully, sometimes less so. And um, you know, when you get into this age bracket, things don't. Your body doesn't respond as quickly as it does when you're in your twenties. So I used to be able to do some crazy diet for two weeks and lose 10 pounds. Um, but I, that's not the case. So, so a few years anymore. So a few years ago I was seriously overweight, very stressed, very busy, and realized some things needed to change. Um, and so I had lost some weight. Um, I started diet plans don't tend to work for me because I'm very perfectionistic. And then when I don't follow the plan exactly because it's too constricting, then I quit. Like that's normally what happens. We've talked about this recently. It's said what the hell? The fact throw everything out the window email. It's like, Hey, even we'll talk about that a little bit later as we go on. But yeah, I continue on with that. That's so common. We know that it is super come. So I had decided to just kind of, um, do it on my own and I don't even remember any more specifically what I did, but I just tried to eat. Ha, yes, I do remember it's coming back to me now. I tried to eat half as much as I normally would, so I could just mentally whatever I normally would have eaten it in half. So half a donut and half a red bull. It's horrible. And a full doughnut. Um, and so I was able to lose a bunch of weight and, and buy a bunch, I mean about probably 80 pounds, which is hugely significant except that I was really super overweight before that started
Speaker 2:super overweight. Can you give our listeners or the audience, I'm like a context of that, like again, so you're a larger woman, right? But what do you think, um, maybe you were pushing at, at that point in time to put that in context?
Speaker 3:Um, I was, well I know that at my heaviest before I like quit putting my feet on the scale. I was at 3:27, so from there to know it was higher than that, 3:57 sad. So I try to not remember numbers.
Speaker 2:Um, it was a huge success to celebrate especially talk about what helps others held successes you've had along the way. So I just would like paint that picture for the audience. And so you had lost than about 80 pounds with that method. And what happened?
Speaker 3:What happened from there? From there? Well, I had, I had successfully kept that off and I just had decided that the way that I was asked them at that point was my new normal. I, I didn't, I've never thought of myself as a thin person. I never thought of myself as someone who could be thin and I didn't really want to try that hard anyway. Then a bunch of things started happening in my life. So, um, I left the corporate environment and that was kind of the um, challenging change rather abruptly. I started my business, I started having some issues with my adult children. If you have adult children, you know that sometimes it's smooth sailing and sometimes it's rough water. So we had some rough water. I have an elderly father who needs a lot of care and so I had that stress, um, and I still wasn't living healthily and I didn't even realize that I was a ticking time bomb. So in December of 2016, I remember I had done my holiday baking that weekend. This is a Monday morning, so I had done my holiday baking over the weekend and my kitchen has really high cupboards up by where people normally have soffits. And so I keep some of my baking stuff that only use once a year up there. So I had done a lot of reaching over my head. I don't need a footstool because I'm tall, but I was still reaching, you know, and so, um, Sunday night, early Monday morning, we are in the morning, I woke up and my shoulder hurt, my left shoulder hurt and it hurt enough to wake me. And I thought, darn it, this is real life. This is real life. We get phones anyway. I thought, well darn it, I pinched a muscle in my neck or I pulled a muscle in my shoulder and you know, when you're carrying a lot of extra weight and you have arthritis, which I do and you know, pain and stuff is normal and as a type a person. And um, I'm from a kind of a conservative Dutch background where, you know, you could cut off your own pto and you'd still keep walking, right? Like, just ignore the pain, suck it up, buttercup. So I was just like, okay, I have this shoulder pain, fine, I'll just, you know. So it took some, some aspirin, turned out to be a good thing and I went back to bed for awhile until I felt like I could go back to bed. I went back to bed a little. Did you know at this point it was a wake up? There was, it was, it was. So Monday morning I had a coffee date with a friend and I almost canceled because I felt light headed and I felt nauseous, um, and my shoulder was just really bothering me, but I went anyway because again, she will never admit that you don't feel like that doesn't happen. So I met my friend and I'm sitting there having coffee with her and she said, you know, you look really Pale. And I said, I'm not really feeling very well. And it was kind of sweating a little bit. I was having a heart attack and the only reason I knew that I didn't know it, she knew it. She had watched her elderly mother in law who's like 25 years older than me, have a heart attack recently. I'm part of that time. And so she said, I got to tell you, I think you're having a heart attack. And I said, I was having a heart attack. You're crazy. And she said, no, let's go to the Er. She ended up persuading me and when I got there, they admitted me right away. I was in the middle of an active part, attacked
Speaker 2:and, and little. Did she know she saved your life? She did. She got, she did. So, uh, I remember when we first talked about this, this, this conversation and the, just the emotion and the fear and the stress around all of it. It was a really, really stressful time in your business and in your life. And when you sit back in retrospect, you kinda just go, no wonder. Right, exactly. And that's what we do is type a personalities. We just, we, we keep going and keep going and don't give ourselves space to breathe. But after this event, you came into the realization of some things. And so what precipitated between that and the time that you had connected with us here at the Omni fit?
Speaker 3:Sure. Um, well, the biggest thing I realized immediately. Well, when you have a heart attack, it's, it's kind of an interesting time. So I want to take a moment right here and pause because I think a lot of people listening to this podcast are women. So what I want to say is that I did not have high blood pressure, I did not have high cholesterol, I did not have a family history of tests, cardiac issues, and yet I had a heart attack and I did not have chest pain, not until I was already at the hospital. So stop a moment and listen to the symptoms of heart attacks so that if you have one, you know to go get help. Women feel it as pain in their shoulder, pain in their jaw, nausea, fatigue, dizziness. We don't feel the chest pain usually until much later. So know that. Okay. So I was laying in bed in the hospital. They would not give me my ipad. They would not let me have my phone. They would not let me do anything except lay there and stare at the ceiling tiles. Which for an a type a personality, it's like it was like a hellish, you know, like they would let me watch television. But really, I mean, I don't watch television, so there was just not, um, I laid there and really kind of took an inventory once I got over the shock of it all and I started thinking this is happening in my business, this is happening. Oh my gosh, these things are gonna happen. And I realized as I started to relax that I probably hadn't relaxed in 15 years, um, that, that I'd been killed. This stress that I've been carrying was not normal, but it felt normal to me because I had never. It had been so long since I wasn't stressed. So when I got home I could only work instead of working 14 hours a day. I had stamina to work about four and I'm not even for everyday. So I had to refund a bunch of money and cancel a lot of contracts. Was disappointed a bunch of clients. I had to lay off an employee. I had to. I wasn't sure my business when even been continue. Yeah,
Speaker 2:I mean that it's a pinnacle moment, a pivot moment, really a life in that moment. And the cool thing though is what I know on the other side of it, you didn't say you, there, you walk the journey out, um, the lowest place you probably could ever have thought of being that point in time. And that's what I love because that's what makes you so strong and so tenacious. But I think you're smarter, strong, and the smarter tenacious today. Yes. Then where you were at that point. And it's crazy how for us women sometimes it takes 50 years to get to that point. Right? You know, so. So we started working together about a year ago. I have just had the privilege of helping guide you, but your success, Michelle, is because you took ownership of that success and you know, I had the, you gave me, you let me into your life to challenge you and to hold you accountable. And I'm at, it took awhile to get to that point because we are, we're strong personalities. And so there were some things or it's okay. Okay, what about this, Michelle? Let's kind of push into this. And I loved you, challenged me as a coach and I challenged you as a client. It was just a great growth experience. I'm one of the things about one year ago that we, well, a couple of things that we kind of bumped up against is for you, I'm recognizing and naming the struggle was really hard. Like we had to kind of dig super deep because as strong women, we don't want to admit that we have those weaknesses or a chink in our armor or you, you know, what I'm talking about. Let's talk a little bit about that. Like mentally we've talked about where you were physically, but mentally, where were you at with this, this whole game of really wanting to take ownership of making change? Yeah. Um,
Speaker 3:it's interesting and I don't know, I'm just going to go with what's coming to mind right now as you asked that question. And that is that the biggest thing for me mentally, I think was to realize that I had full control. Um, I've, I, because I'm a strong person, I have a take control, take charge and the leader, but only in certain. Historically only in certain areas, so I control my business, et Cetera, but I would in my family life, no. Yeah, I just was the fixer. The doer. I let my life was full of shoulds and oughts like, shouldn't you do that? You have to say yes to this. You have to say no to that. And as far as my health too, it was not an area where I gave myself permission to take control. So I'm one of the biggest shifts was realizing that I have agency over everything. So I know a story. You're, you are wanting me to tell this true. So I'm one of the few women probably I'm about the only woman I know who's husband does all the cooking and it's not because I can't, it's because he just likes to. And I remember us talking about that and just go,
Speaker 2:girl, I'm loving your life and your business.
Speaker 3:He just loves it. He loves. I do all the baking, so I bake, called the sweet carby stuff, but he does all of the cooking and not just grilling like he makes. I'm Italian recipes that are intricate. He makes seafood. He makes these intricate vegetable dishes and blends and easily, he's like living with emeril Lagasse, so like this, this is what he does and he's a very strong person too. So when we first started working together, I had no say in what we had for dinner like that I would show up to dinner and here we're here. It would be whatever it was. And so I felt I had, there was nothing I could even do to change that. So as we went through three 65 and we started talking about dietary choices and you know, maybe I should sell this car for something less carby or maybe I could have a greater portion. Vegetables. I kept saying, I don't even play my own food. Like I, I can't, I just eat whatever's put in front of me. And I like food. It's all delicious. So tell me. I remember saying and, or at least thinking, tell me what I can do in the rest of my day so that I don't have to mess with dinner because I didn't want to talk to him about dinner. Um, I just wanted. He does this as a service for me and so it's a, it's whenever I, if I critique it, he's sad, like he's failed. It's like his gift
Speaker 2:to me everyday. We talked about that too, like his, one of his love languages for you is that acts of service. So how to navigate the, that real life situation of love, relationships, food, you know, all the things that can get. It gets so complicated. Right? But together together we did that.
Speaker 3:We did that. You really encouraged me. You actually opened my eyes to the fact that I could, you know, hello, talk to him about that didn't even occur to me. So you encouraged me to talk to him and, and do it in a loving way. So rather than saying to him, I can't eat this, I need you to do something else. I was able to say, you know, this is great and I love this, but for my heart I need to try and shift to eating more seafood. Can we do more seafood? Oh, you know, this portion is a little bit big for me. Can we cut that back? I don't know that I'm going to have a potato tonight. I'm really feeling like I'd like to have more vegetable. These are so good. And so through little things like that with him, he's actually lost weight, although he's not trying to because he's, he now has I think six or seven different ways to make salmon that I love. So he's like, I think today we're going to have grilled salmon. Okay, today we're going to have salmon, Caesar Salad Grand, you know, like I don't have to worry. I still get cooked for.
Speaker 2:That's wonderful. But it seemed like a really dumb. That was one of the first things we talked about and it was really, really daunting and, and some of the other things that you had more control of what you ate for lunch or how you portion your breakfast or whatever kind of things. Those were just more a matter of saying, yes, I want this, yes, I'm going to do this. And, and you just exercising some discipline to make those happen. But when you start involving other people and, and what are the other things that we talked about along the way too is just food related to experiences with family and that comes up more often than not with so many ladies that I coach and not only with immediate family members but you know, like I'm like dad and like when you're in a big group of the get together in the barbecue with family. And so talk a little bit about how you learned to navigate that as well.
Speaker 3:You know, I think it is true. So I, again, my family is very midwestern. Everything centers around food, food is love and if you don't participate in the food, you don't like it, you don't love the person, you're not grateful. Like there's just all this stuff. And so that was a stress point for me. Um, and then I have, as I said, I have this elderly father who is, you know, I get my strong personality from him and he doesn't really listen that well, so you could try to explain and he's doesn't believe it. So there's conflict there. It just felt like this huge thing, like I would create all of a big conflict with everyone in the family if I did what I wanted and what I've discovered is that number one, they really don't care like they, they mostly don't notice. In truth, if everyone's passing around birthday cake and you have a small piece, if you don't say something about, oh, cut me a really small piece. I'm dieting. If you just take the piece, they give you an eat three bites and throw it away. No one notices. They don't care soon. So that was the misperception that I had. The other thing is that it's okay for me to say yes, sure, sounds great and still do whatever I want, like I don't have to. It doesn't have to be a big deal. The bigger thing though, I think as as we're talking, the thing I'm thinking about is beyond any kind of strategy or even particular situation thing that I learned in the last year, is that I'm the gatekeeper for my own health and love. Can we just stop right there? I love that. I love that. I know that like every woman is the gatekeeper for their own health, but we let things get in the way of. I do. We do. I absolutely cannot. I absolutely cannot blame, accuse, or feel constricted by anyone else's desire for what I eat or don't eat. That's a lie. I'm telling myself. The truth is that if I choose vibrant health, then in the moment I get to decide is this choice going to move me in that direction or not? And sometimes like we spoke, the last time we spoke Jodi, my husband had had kind of a difficult situation and he's an emotional eater and he said, can we go to this establishment and have ice cream? I just want us to sit and talk to you and have ice cream. I want to eat my feelings. Like he was just really obvious and in that moment he needed me to go with him and he did not need me to sit next to him not eating ice cream and just judge him for the fact that he was eating a big concrete mixer. Like he didn't need me to do that for him. So I went with them, I said, sure, we can understand what with him. He made his choice in, ordered his ice cream and I ordered a little tiny baby cone and I ate a little bit of it and I throw it away the rest and that was fine. I could have eaten a big concrete mixer with him too, and you know that that would've been fine. Also, if that was a choice I made in that moment to do that, that would have been fine, but I didn't because I don't want to feel the way I feel after I eat all that sugar. Exactly. That's the thing is we talked so much about it. Take ownership, take ownership. If you want that, then take ownership, but recognize the consequences of that or if you don't want that, it's okay to say no and nobody can impose their own consequences on you because you don't have to accept that. Right, right. Yeah. And the other, the other big Aha that I think it's time to, to mention is that when we started working together, I still felt like a victim with regard to my heart attack. I felt like this unforeseen thing came and happened to me and I didn't see it coming and I couldn't necessarily prevent it. I had a lot of fear around what if I get sick again? What if from out of the left field comes more cardiac issues? Like what if, how can I even live my life? Like I just had this fear that I'm. Every decision I made was colored by this fear that something could happen and that has completely changed for me. And so what I have realized is that yes, unforeseen things happen to all of us and there are things that happened that we're not in control of anything but I am in control of every aspect of my health and if something unforeseen like another heart attack would happen, my recovery is firmly in my control. I can get past it, overcome it, have a good outcome, and if I should get a cancer diagnosis and find out I have two weeks left to live, not to be negative, I can still do things within that situation to improve my quality of life. So my, when I say my health is in my control, what I mean is my choices directly impact. I'm not a victim. There are things I can do and I know that's true because when we started working together, I had chest pain. Everyday I have, I'm the type of cardiac issue I have means that when things are out of whack, I get a warning sign and that warning sign is chest pain. It doesn't mean I'm in a cardiac like I'm about to have a heart attack situation. It just means that something's off and I have done adjust it and we should point out that that's your physiology and that may be something different, you know, for other people through the process you've recognized that that's your physiology. And I know that when we started out one year goals was to have less chest pain and the idea of having no chest pain was impossible of warren concept. Right? But what has happened, I had my most recent episode of chest pain was in mid April and we are at the time that we're recording this, we're in mid June and so I've gone from having chest pain multiple times a day. Do you having that really be an outlier? And so when I had the chest pain and mid April it was because I was upset about something and I got really angry and so dire stress created that. And there are lots of different kinds of heart disease. Mine is this way. Um, and you know, anyway, so I'm a diabetic so when my blood sugar gets too high, when my stress gets too high, if my blood pressure gets too high, I have chest pain. So since we've been working together, I am off all of my heart medication. Something that the cardiologists thought would never happen. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And, and originally you thought would never happen. It's kind of that mentality of our medical system and it, and I say this with caution as listeners hear this, you obviously work with your doctor, but you have to be an advocate for your health. You have to be educated about what medications you're taking, what you need at that point in time, and really push into that so you know, don't stop taking your medications without, without position. Um, but over time, Michelle, you really did push into that as your health improved over the last year. There were some events and things that started to happen and um, and even like totally surprised your doctors did was which such a celebration. But the idea, you know, what happens is so often you're, you have an event, there isn't a crisis you put on medication and you think that, you know, that's a life sentence in many cases that may not have to be. So when you begin to clean up the other areas of our life and not only, you know, with nutrition and fitness and training for you, but also in your business, there was, there was some cleanup on some of that stress. But let's, let's really go into how an nutrition and fitness side, how that started to change things and as those medications started a plr off. That is. That is such a huge win. Super exciting to watch.
Speaker 3:It is exciting. I think so when you go through Omni fit three, six, 65 is awesome because rather than getting a huge plan, you get one habit every two weeks that you need to master and then move onto the next one. And the habits are kind of layered to give you success. I don't know. Well I do know, I was expecting when I came in that this was going to be like the quick fix, right? This is going to be the answer. It was going to work. That's the way to type a people are. And so, um, the first block of habit was select your own habit. I thought, I don't want to my own habits. My own habits aren't working. So I, I thought, well, okay, what's one thing I need to do I need to do? And that was stay hydrated. So I selected the habit of drinking and appropriate amount of water and um, I've mastered that. I'm drinking water now. That was pretty easy. Then came the foundational habits. So the ones that meant the most to me, I think, I don't think. I know the ones that have meant the most to me were eating slowly. That took me forever to master. I still struggle with it sometimes because your husband is such a good cook. He's a good cook and he's a fast eater who was in the military. So He's like, I've never done before. He is that and he's like done. And he's asking me how was your, how is your fish? And I haven't started the fish yet because vegetable, you know, like, it's crazy. So that's taken me a bit of time and then I'm eat until you're 80 percent full. And I didn't even know what 80 percent full felt like. I always eight to 120 percent full. And so there was some learning around that. Um, and then then there are habits that move on that are nutritional and I have to tell you that I got just really honestly, I get kind of bogged down with those because what I love about the program and what I love about your coaching is that there's flexibility for me to listen to my body and make adjustments. So because I'm type A and I'm a perfectionist, what I thought was, if I don't follow the program exactly the way it says, like every single day, four ounces of blueberries, six ounces of tuna or whatever, you know, if I didn't do that, it was going to be horrible. I was going to fail, felt like failure and beyond the fact that I'm a gatekeeper for my own health, the next biggest lesson I've learned is to really, truly and clearly listened to what my body is telling me. Right? Um, so what I found, and again this is not medical advice, what I found for myself is that the medication I was taking was masking what my body was trying to tell me. The insulin I was taking was a crutch so that I could eat poorly and then deal with my blood sugar. So as I started eating more healthfully, eating less, losing some weight, being more active, my need for insulin wind down. And I started through you. God, you really encouraged me to test a lot more often than I wanted to. So anybody who's diabetic testing is poking your finger and it's painful. I'm sorry. He did like opening push. So nobody wants to do that. Plus it's annoying. Like, well I'd really like to eat an apple. I better test first. Like it's, it's just a pain. So I had decided I wasn't going to do much of that. I mean, who needs to. And jodie really encourages me to test. And so when I would say I've made a choice here, there, you'd say, well, have you been testing? And um, I found that accountability and annoying.
Speaker 2:Yes, I remember some pushback on that. That's the thing I did try to share with you. It's just data, Michelle and, and, you know, just learn from the data and then adjust accordingly. And, and I think you did fine that over time they did. That'd be same joyful because you knew what to expect us realize, oh this, I know it's gonna probably be this. And so,
Speaker 3:so then my doctor and I. So my doctors did walk with me through this process. Um, and I had to, I had to be a pretty strong advocate, but because I'm a strong personality anyway, that's easy for me. So eventually we got to a place where my doctor said, you know, let's stop the insulin. And that was when I really realized what a crutch it was because now I don't have a prescription anymore for insulin, so I don't have any insulin. I can't use insulin. So if I eat a piece of Pie and then decide, oh, that was really good, I think I'll give myself permission to have a second piece that blood sugar goes up and I can't bring it back down. I have to let it like naturally resolve and I have to deal with how it feels to have it be so high. And so I realized, and I remember the moment a few, probably six months ago when I realized that I have to. It's not just something I'm doing because I think it's a good idea. This is what I have to do to stay healthy. I have to be intentional about what I've put in my mouth because I can't use a crutch of medication to correct it. Now, could I call my doctor and get that crutch back? Sure, I could, but I don't want to go that direction. That doesn't align with my goals. So I don't know if this is sounding clearer if it's just sounded crazy. But that gives me the motivation.
Speaker 2:It, it, it, and there's a deeper why there. I think we should share that too because, and the deeper why is you've got grandchildren, you know, and that I remember us talking about this like you want to have the energy and in life where you can watch them grow up and enjoy them and have a legacy impact on their lives and, and spend time with your children that maybe you aren't able to spend time with them. And they were younger. And so there's so much more, you know, packed into all that. And what I love is just like, just seeing you are, you're so vibrant and compared to, you know, a year before because you were struggling with so many things in that internal struggle. So a lot has changed with your mouth. I remember when you had said, okay, after the water, the hydration habit, you said, I am going to try to start walking a leverage day everyday. I walk everyday. And, and in your mind it was a search like this big walk, this, you know, big Harry Walker. I'm like bitch out, let's just, let's just a couple of steps further each day you'll get there, you know, type of thing a little bit at a time. And so you chunk that thing down into, I don't know how far it was the first time you walked with them instead of it feeling like a chore, it became a joyful experience for you. It became a time of stress, release time to think and I know a time to pray and just, um, it, it just turned into instead of that half to, to the I want to. And I know that you had to really look forward to that and then as that grew, you look for a little bit of a change and I think you started with a trainer for awhile and just seeing tremendous success with that. So it's these little habits built one upon the other.
Speaker 3:Hi can system things really changed a physics. So really I think the biggest shift his mindset. So I would, if you had asked me a year ago or any time previous to that, if I could ever just do 100 squats in a day, I would have laughed at you. I would have said there is no way this body will never do 100 squats in a day. And why would I want to anyway? And I have no problem doing 100 squats. So I'm not saying that my legs aren't tight at the end of that, but I'm saying I never thought that was possible ever. One of the things that my initial goals was I'd love to go kayaking. And I did. I've never learned to Kayak because I didn't think I physically could and I still haven't gone. But I have plans to go this summer and I'm no longer afraid that I can't. That is so cool. When I worked with the trainer, I don't work with him anymore because we, I do stuff on my own now and, and there were some reasons why that didn't end up continuing to be a fit. But I worked with him for about five months and you know, I really can lift. I really can have good form. It's true that my body will get stronger. Um, these are things that I, it's, it was a mindset shift, like if you have been heavy and not active your entire life, who you think you are is not a healthy, active person. And so that has to shift in order for this to be space you live in. Right. But now I don't even keep track. It's not a rule that I follow. I walked daily except I don't walk daily because sometimes it rains. I live in Michigan, you know, the weather's not always, but the perfectionist in me does not keep track. So it's not a matter of. Well I don't know. It rained on Wednesday, so I only got six days of walking this week. I'm a bad person. That whole thing has shifted and now I'm a person who enjoys walking and I have the privilege of walking today because the weather's good and you can walk. I can walk and it doesn't hurt and it doesn't bother me and I can chase my grandson and it's okay. And, and you're walking with that
Speaker 2:extra 100 pounds on your back. It's just seeing the freedom that has come over that. So let's talk about one really cool event. Scary but cool event that happened with your trainer. Um, you were in the gym working out training and you've had a little bit of a crisis care. What happened and what you found out by that? Um, well I was, I was working and we were done lifting and it was time to start. If I'm remembering this all kind of a wishy big event. You can't see me, but I'm like high level detail, high level detail. So I was, I was on the, I was doing cardio and my heart rate kept climbing, kept calling, kept climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing, and it wouldn't come back down and it was getting, my heart was racing and I'm, the trainer came over and whatever and we determined that it was way high and I and I started feeling lightheaded or now, okay, so backup. What first started was I started feeling dizzy, we were doing some things and I started feeling dizzy and I, because my trainer had kind of a strong personality, I didn't feel like I could tell him, so I just kind of push through it and I felt sick. Did I tell you that? Yes. And I went home thinking, oh, something's going on. Um, I thought I had, I thought I was nauseous. I thought I had like flu or something. And then I was light headed. Eventually I couldn't even stand up. Right. I called the cardiologist, I thought I was having a heart attack. I started having chest pain, I started sweating. I'm like started having issues. And what it turned out was that it was very scary. Would it turn out however, was that I no longer needed my heart medication, so I was on a lower dose, but it was time to just get rid of it. And so the combination of exercise and the medication was almost mimicking a heart attack. My heart wasn't beating well, and without that medication you probably would've responded normally to that. With it was that it became the revelation that right too much and you no longer needed it, which was again, it's that scary thing. I think it was a pinnacle moment because you were put back in that place that you had to face. Oh my goodness. Yeah. You were almost back in December of 2000 guess again. It was terrifying. Um, but what we realized through that and what happened with the cardiologist is like, no, Michelle, you don't need this medication anymore, is that you were number one stronger than you thought. You definitely learned how to listen to those cues and recognize that those cues always need to be put in check. You need to ask those questions of yourself and your nursing cardiologists, you know, make sure that everything is okay. But a huge revelation came out of that for you and
Speaker 3:that you, you really had overcome something that a year ago or two years ago you didn't ever think was possible. It has been such a privilege to work with you in this journey. Um, incredible. Let's celebrate too, like that's a high point for sure. Let's talk about the scale and let's talk about clothes a little and then, then we'll wrap this thing up. I mean we have hit, we assume high points solo ads. Yeah. So I had a battle with the scale. I've had a battle with the scale my whole life and finally I have victory over the scale and it's not because the number has changed, although I'm confident that number has changed. But what I realized was that the scale is huge demotivator for me because when I put my feet on the scale, no number is the right number. It's never low enough. It doesn't matter. I could put, I could stand on it right now and it could say 100 pounds and it would be the wrong number. Like mentally in my head, the scale. And I don't like each other, it doesn't work, it doesn't work. So I now have freedom from the scale. So the only time I put my feet on the scale is when I go to the doctor and he makes me stand on the scale. And honestly, I can't even tell you right now what that number is because I don't know. Um, I've decided that that's not a good relevant marker for me for my success. But clothing is. And so when we started this program, I was wearing, um, 24 women's size, 24. So if you're a thin person, what you don't know is that women's size 24 is like a 24 only extra curvy so you can be even bigger. And I had to shop at the plus size stores and so there's always like ample room in the size and whatever and it accommodates back fat and the whole deal. And I was okay with that. That's who I've always been, right. Um, I have bought new clothes, bought new clothes, bought and close and close. And I've recently started trimming it even more. And so I realize I'm going to need to buy some more clothes, but um, I am now. I am now wearing a 14. That is amazing. And I remember when you said to me, I was having dinner or lunch with my daughter and she said to me, mom, don't you think it's time to buy some new clothes? And that might've been the first time you, you shared with me or that you're like, maybe I think I need to. And then the hot little dress that you bought at the beach and has been thought about that. And it's just, oh my gosh. So I. So I, you know, again, I've been having my whole life. So have you people don't shop at Finn People's stores we shop at in my family would call them fat stores. We shop at the fat store. So my daughter and I were at a well known retailer who sells to large women plus size women who won't mention the name. So we're standing there and she brings over the stress and it's a, um, 18 size, 18, 20. And she said, I think this will look good on you. And I slept, I said that skirt is short, it's like four or five inches above the knee and it's, it's like lower cut with a lace overlay. So it is modest but still like a little lard cut. And I said, I think that's too young for me. She's like, seriously? It's maybe put it on. I'm like, wow. And then I said it, that's too small. Besides, she's like, shut up, just put it on. So I, I put this dress on and I said, this fits me. And she said, no it doesn't, it's too big. Let's go get the smaller size. I said, you're crazy, like it fits me. Look, I have room. She's like, yes, you have room. It's a form fitting dress for. And so we really talked to each other like funny. So she goes in, she gets the one that's the 1416 and I put that on and it fit and you know, it was a 14, 16 women's size and now I'm a 14, not women scientists. So I bought that dress and now it's too big and it was just like amazing. So I come home with the stress and I'm showing my husband and he says, who's dresses that? I said, well, that's mine. And he's like, are you sure? And I'm like, yeah. He says, it looks a little short. I'm like, Huh? And so I put it on and I come out and he's like an amazing dress.
Speaker 2:That is the greatest affirmation. And what I love about that and Shell is that it's just a testimony, but the scale is one measurement and you know what, if you never have to step on that again, you have learned through this process, this process that you've learned how to listen to your body and you know how to tweak and adjust and hear that. And it's like you've just grown into a whole nother level of maturity. You know, with all of it. It makes me so excited. I think the thing I love too is you've also learned you are in business for me has empowered you even more so in your business. You've shared some recent successes and successes that you've had in the last year because she got really intentional about eliminating stress from your life and really valuing yourself and causing other people to value what you deliver. And so tell us a little bit about that and then where our listeners can find you at your business and we'll, we'll call it a wrap today. I think that our, our listeners are going to be so encouraged by your story and it just, it just lights me up.
Speaker 3:Well, you're a part of it, a huge part of it. So we did this together. This is us together.
Speaker 2:You did the work well. So,
Speaker 3:so stress, uh, I now have what I call my red rope policy. So if you look at like, um, this is not my original idea either, so I want to say that I don't remember whose original idea is or where I got it from. But if you watch the Oscars, there's a red rope and the crowd stands behind the red rope. And only if you're really famous and specialty, you get to be on the other side of the red rope. I have a red rope policy in my business now and so people I am no longer trying to get people to work with me. Instead, I'm, I'm filtering them to see if they qualify to work with me. If they can get across the red rope and get into the red carpet where they can work with me and the main filter for that is stress. So I had to really realize that I'm going to stand as an expert. I have a process that works and people who want to work with me are going to follow my process and if they. If they don't want to follow my process, that's fine. I wish them all the best, but they're not qualified to work with me because I can't have stress and that causes me stress. So we're either going to do what I know will get results for them or we're not and they can choose to work with me or not. And that is really something that came about during our year when we worked on that whole agency. Again, I have the power to whatever to put it in my mouth and also have within my control, certain circumstances and certain systems in which two to allow me to have health and so that was a huge revelation and it has brought you great success. It has and so this is so this is what I do and okay, so I gave myself permission throughout this year to make healthy choices for myself with food, to make healthy choices with myself for movement and to make healthy choices for myself with relationships and with my business and what that means is that I have talent and ability as a copywriter and a marketing consultant and I am going to work and, and use my talent to, to benefit people within the scope of things that I do well. So if someone asks me to do something that I can do, but that isn't necessarily the gifting I want to focus on, then I say no where in the past I said yes, you know, whatever. I'll do whatever you want. Out of that fear, fear, you know, if you have money I need to make, I need to sell a certain Melissa talk candidly, businesses about money, right? So if you have money and I need to pay my bills and you're willing to pay me to do something that you know I really don't want to do, but whatever, that's okay. If I'm afraid that I'm not going to have enough money, that's like a scarcity mindset, right? But if I believe in my own value, in my own worth, if I believe firmly in the results I can deliver for my clients, if I see those results, if I'm disciplined in delivering them, then I should charge commensurate with that. And I should only operate in that sphere of influence. So I. This is what I do, the tagline for my businesses, really self promoting. I don't normally do that, but the tagline for my business to stand confidently in a higher level of success because I work with established business owners to refine their marketing strategy, refine their website, copy and move them from where they're at now, breakthrough pluto and move them to a place of success that they've only dreamed about. It's almost like an Omni fit, three 65 program for your business. I charge, I charge a lot for it and I am fully booked new right now through the end of August. My business is more profitable than it's ever been and I am. I have almost no stress actually now and I am busy, but I don't overwork. I work from 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM Monday through Friday. That's it. I don't work on the weekends. I don't do an early morning thing. I don't work past 6:00 PM in a crisis setting. I might make an icon. I'm an allowance and work into the evening, but then I take the next morning off like this is it. It's a hard and fast rule.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I love how this, the three 65 program has just just totally reshape your life in so many different ways and it is, like I've said before, 100 times since we've started this conversation, it has been an absolute privilege and I just want to thank you for being on the show today because I know our listeners are you from this and tell us where we can find you if anybody's looking for these types of services.
Speaker 3:Yeah. My website is Michelle Hunter, creative.com. Michelle with two l's. So there's a reach out, there's an apple just reach out and just do a. let's talk. I do an inquiry call for people, um, that's not on the obligation and I give value on that call and then we see where we can go forward if we can or, or whatever. And I'm very, very candid and very, very honest. So if my program is not a good fit for you and I am aware of that, I will tell you and I'll tell you what you need to do next to get ready.
Speaker 2:And Michelle helped us at the Omni fit, do some copywriting services and um, you know, we're all about that too. We want to help people, we want to be the right fit for people and ultimately we want you to experience the type of success that Michelle has experienced with the Omni fit three 65, and that is ultimately and fully sustainable change. And in my tagline is to have energy for a life you love. And that's just one little component of what we do at the army fed, uh, Kayla Taylor and I, we are all about ultimately, uh, you ladies your success. That's what we want most of all. So thanks so much for joining us on the podcast today and we'll see you around next time.