We will be featuring some of our past participants of the Burn Fat & Feast and Elite programs. We want to celebrate and share these amazing women with everyone. They have worked so hard on their journey to a healthy lifestyle! Today we are featuring Michelle. Read this Q&A about Michelle's fitness goals and how she tackled them!

Q&A with Michelle Peterson

Tell us a little about you, where you live, children, occupation, etc.

My name is Michelle Peterson and I am 35 years old.  I am a mom of two awesome boys (ages 7 & 4) a wife of 8 years to my husband Mike and a breast cancer warrior/survivor of 3 years.  We live in Franklin, TN and I work for a Southwestern Investment Group in Brentwood, TN as a Client Operations Director.  

Describe your nutrition before starting the Burn Fat and Feast program.

Before I joined BF&F my intentions were to always eat healthy and be consistent.  However, I would quickly make justifications as to why I deserved to eat that pizza, cupcake, cereal at 9pm.  It's amazing how you can justify something in the moment of weakness.  Also, breakfast and lunch were always decent, but I would come home and overeat at dinner.  The end of the day stress wearing off me and in comes that justification.  So, my nutrition was "ok".  

Describe your fitness routine before starting the Burn Fat and Feast program.

My fitness before BF&F was "ok" as well.  I have a new found love for boxing and I had a membership at a local boxing club, but was never ever consistent in my attendance and now that membership has come and gone.  I also enjoy running some, but again, NEVER consistent.  My intentions are always good, but I run out of motivation and the justification rears its ugly head yet again.  

What made you decide to join this program?

So, with all the justification I was doing and feeling pretty crappy about my overall health I knew I needed a change. I came across Sarah's BF&F program on a neighbors group page.  The first thing that caught my attention was how affordable the program was-check! Then, as read more I realized you didn't have to go to the gym to work out and it was only for 20-30 minutes 5 days a week in your own home--can we say convenient?!  Then, the nutrition! The nutrition was so much more than anything else I had done in the past.  I have had some amazing people in my life steer me in the right direction, but I always felt alone when it came to my nutritional choices.  Always, wondering if what I was doing was right and do I text my trainer at 9:30pm to ask about something? I always felt like a bother.  But knowing that I would be tracking macros and required to post them to our amazingly supportive group page, I knew this was something different.  You will hear it from all the trainers and nutritionist, "Nutrition is 80% of being healthy and losing the weight"!  So, finally I found the accountability that I was so desperately in need of!!!!  

How do you feel now that you have graduated?

Now that I have completed my first 6 weeks of Burn Fat and Feast, I know that this program is a realistic lifestyle that I can continue once I have completed Burn Fat & Feast Elite! I feel very much in control of my nutrition and fitness.  I feel like I finally have a map of what it is I should and shouldn't eat, with the exception of an occasional feast day.  For me personally, it is not just about the weight, it's about being as healthy as I can be to continue to fight a cancer re-occurrence.  Sarah has given me and so many other women the tools to be in control and that feeling is priceless!  

Share with us 2 successes, things you learned or what your biggest takeaways were upon completion.

My first success I would say was about 7 days in to the program.  It was a Monday morning and I was driving my oldest son to school and usually I have this horribly uncomfortable feeling around my waist from the weekend.  But this Monday was different, this Monday my pants were so comfortable and I felt good!  I really felt good!  No bloating and no beating myself up about how much I ate over the weekend!  That was just the first week!  It was working, already!   Another success is my growing desire to learn more and educate myself. Sarah is an amazing teacher!  She posts videos everyday explaining anything from what types of shoes you need to buy to the benefits of Intermittent Fasting. She plants those powerful knowledge seeds and you find yourself researching.  I also found more inspiration and direction when I immersed myself in the Netflix documentaries, Forks over Knives, Food Inc., You are What you Eat and Food Matters.  If you ever fall off track, just watch one of those for a quick fix!  Also, I was not as knowledgeable about Intermittent Fasting as I wanted to be.  I discovered this when I had some harsh push back from a family member and quickly realized I needed to know more! I re-watched Sarah's videos and reread her posts then just googled "benefits of IF". My personal journey of education lead me to feel confident about Intermittent Fasting! It was really about me feeling more confident about what I was doing and reading things like, helps fight disease like cancer, increases your life expectancy and promotes weight lose!  That's all this cancer survivor needs to hear!  But really the true success story is just being more in control and knowledge about what I am putting in my body. Sarah makes this incredibly overwhelming thing called nutrition so easy, she's like the cliff notes to healthy living!  She lays it out here for you and holds your hand along the way.  She has given me the confidence and education to really understand what it means to nourish my body so I can feel  like I am doing all that I can do to ward off a cancer recurrence...that is huge!!   And while I am nourishing my body, hopefully some of this weight will drop off (which 10 lbs already has).  In the end, I have to do my part for my family, and health then just let God do the rest!

Michelle, thanks again for participating in the Burn Fat & Feast and Elite programs.  

We are so proud of you, and we hope your successes will inspire others to begin their fitness journey! To learn more about the Burn Fat & Feast program, CLICK HERE. Save