I believe being healthy goes hand in hand with feeling good about yourself and being happy. If you’re not happy, then you’re most likely not exercising and eating healthy. Ever since I started working out, I’ve felt more happy and everyday I know that my body is looking better as a new day approaches.  So I really hope that you enjoy my site and feel free to contact me for any reason.

Who am I?

My name is Michelle and I created this blog, Top Secret Fitness. If you’re reading this I’m glad that you want to learn more about me. I’m 30 yrs old and my job is working as a Realtor. For a long time I never thought I would need to exercise because growing up I was always too busy hanging out with my friends. I remember that my parents would always tell me that I ate very bad and I needed to look “healthier.” Nonetheless, as time went by I eventually looked “healthy,” and I was happy with my body. This was throughout high school and so on. I never had issues about the way I looked, I just was not happy a lot of the time.

I’m originally from New York, Brooklyn & Staten Island. I moved to South Florida back in 1998 and since then it’s been a total life change for me. Before moving to Florida working out & eating healthy was the last thing on my mind. Even though I was pretty active, I can remember waking up some mornings eating chocolate pudding, bowls of cereal, bagel with tons of cream cheese on it for breakfast. Lunch would be fast food, junk food, pint of pork fried rice (I’d eat it all). Dinner would mainly be pasta and bread, I come from an Italian family, so you know just how much pasta I was eating. My God how did I do it? I think of it now how I used to eat and I still can’t believe it. HORRIBLE!!

When I moved to Florida I knew my wardrobe would consist of shorts, skirts and tank tops. Oh yeah, can’t forget the bikini.. So that right there gave me a wakeup call and got me motivated to get in shape. Not knowing where to begin I finally decided to join a gym & hire a personal trainer for 6 weeks to help me get a program going and teach me what I needed to be doing. I told him my goals were to lose weight, tone up and eat more healthy. I told him what my eating habits were like & right there as I saw his face in amazement, I knew I had to stop eating all this crap. That was my main problem. So, he designed a workout program for me and gave me some nutritional information like what foods to eat and all that good stuff.

After 6 weeks of training with my trainer and my dedication to eating better I saw some great results and from that point on I was hooked. So, now I’m on my own and I have to go to the gym all by myself, I was scared at first but I kept telling myself it will get easier. I remembered all the workouts we’ve done, what body parts to train, on what days. I was now eating egg whites for breakfast, if I ate a bagel I’d make sure I scoop out all the dough, Low Carb protein shakes, lunch would be grilled chicken , salads, vegetables. I love broccoli, never ate it before but I love it now. Dinner would be grilled chicken, lean steaks and my veggies. I was really strict in the beginning, cut out white bread replaced it with whole wheat bread, no fried foods, all the bad stuff you can think of I stopped eating it.  It wasn’t easy at first, I messed up a lot, trust me at times I wanted to give up. But as time went by it just became a lifestyle change for me, I stopped worrying about the word “Diet” . I am so much more happier when I am eating right, I wouldn’t want to feel any other way.

Cardio was very important in the beginning, I was doing 30 mins 5-6 days a week. And I was killing it, I wasn’t doing no easy cardio, I was sweating my butt off. Running on the treadmill, doing the elliptical machine, climbing the stair climber (StepMill) always upping the resistance making it more challenging.

I got so into fitness I started reading every fitness magazine, buying every book you can think of. I got so into working out that I went and got certified to be a Personal Trainer. The changes that I saw inspired me to want to help others.

I workout now because it makes me not only look good but it also makes me feel so good on the inside. When I leave the gym I know I’ve accomplished something. When I miss a day or 2 I’m not so happy. But I’ve learned that I worked very hard to get to where I am today and now it’s all about maintaining it and staying happy.

Being in shape is something I believe we should all be doing because we only live once in this world. Eating healthy while enjoying the taste of food is also important to me. I’m totally against deprivation and crash dieting. Eating is good for you if you choose the right foods! Feeling good about oneself is another thing that I deeply believe in, because if you don’t feel good about yourself, you don’t care what you consume into your body which then leads to living an unhealthy life. So with this blog I really hope to help those who feel unhappy about themselves get out of that and feel good about themselves.

Please note: I may not be a professional, but I’m very passionate about the topic of health and fitness. I recommend a lot of things on my site, and will never promote anything that will hurt myself thus others. This blog is purely for informational purposes only and should not be used as medical advice. Always go to your doctor should you decide to participate in any of the workouts I discuss on my site, for your benefit.