Who We Are
Michelle
Hi, I’m Michelle and founder of Michelle’s Fitness and Wellbeing.
Welcome to my website. Having got here, it shows you are interested in your health, keeping fit, getting back to fitness or looking for help and advice on where to start or simply looking for something new.
I am passionate about health, wellbeing and fitness and believe that with even small changes everyone can make an improvement to their health and quality of life. Keeping myself, family and clients fit and healthy is my goal which is achieved through good diet and exercise and want to share my knowledge, experience, and expertise with you to help you live your daily life to the full.
For the past 17 years I have been a Fitness Instructor and Sport Lecturer teaching at FE, HE and adult education level which has included running and teaching individuals to become Gym Instructors, Exercise to Music Instructors and Personal Trainers.as well as running private exercise classes.
My personality and motivation provides learners with a quality experience, maximising their chances of achieving over and beyond their expectations.
I am now taking my experience to the next level to help you.
Qualification
Throughout my professional life I have undertaken a number of qualifications and extra curriculum courses and currently hold the following
-Certificate in Menopause Awareness
-College Guild of Graduates, Pilates Trainer Professional (Distinction)
-B.A. (Hons) Education and Training (1st)
-Certificate in Education
-YMCA Awards Certificate in Teaching Exercise and Fitness, Exercise to Music
-YMCA Awards Certificate in Fitness Instructing - Gym based Exercise
-OCR Certificate in Fitness Instructing (Children 4-16)
-Cardio Cycling Instructor
-Suspension Training Instructor
-Kettlebell Instructor
-Circuits Instructor
-Step Instructor
-This Mum Moves Ambassador (pre & postnatal mums)
-UK Athletics Level 5 Coach
-UK Athletics Run Leader
-UK Athletics Disability Inclusion Leader
-Level 3 Award in First Aid at Work
-Level 2 in Basic Life Support and Safe -Use of an Automated External Defibrillator
-Mental Health First Aid
-Safeguarding Children, Young People & Vulnerable Adults in Education
-Equality & Diversity
-PREVENT
Lifestyle
I have always tried to lead a healthy lifestyle and have imparted this as the norm for my husband, four children and dog; plenty of exercise and good diet which I am pleased to say they all now practice; the dog not having much choice! Don’t get me wrong, I love cake and I am a great believer that if you really crave something, it’s your body telling you it needs it.
I know how hard it is to keep healthy and find the right diet for you and when I talk about diet, I don’t mean what you are eliminating from what you eat and drink but what you actually eat and drink. I have had years of tailoring my diet to suit my intolerances to work for me. For a long time now, I have been gluten intolerant, but it actually took me years to find this out. I would get rashes, itchy patches, horrendous stomach aches and bloating but despite talking to the Dr and asking for different tests, it all came down to self-help and cutting different things out of my diet. It was a long process but finding what you are intolerant to and removing it from your diet, well the results are just amazing – you feel like a different person. It is also true what they say: ‘lose wheat, lose weight, although this was something I didn’t need to do, I did.
Since then and despite a good diet I have become intolerant to other things and thanks to the food intolerance test you can now have, I have found out that I am intolerant to apple, cow’s milk and swede (I loved swede with a roast!). I stopped eating apples a long time ago as they always had an adverse reaction by giving me heart burn and have never liked milk, apart from in a cheese sauce, hot chocolate and latte. I did, and still do, however love cheese. I loved any type of cheese, and this was a real blow to me but luckily I have found goats cheese as a great replacement and goats yogurt for my breakfast fruit.
I spend hours in the supermarket checking food ingredients. Luckily there is now such a great ‘free from’ range to choose from and it is getting better and better year by year. I do find though that they put apple juice and pulp in so many things, so if you have an intolerance just remember to check things out – it can be in the most random things!!
The reason for these intolerances, I have now found could actually be down to the menopause with my symptoms of bloating, itchy skin, and digestive problems now being classed as symptoms of the menopause. This would make sense for me as they would have started in the perimenopause stage and changed during my transition through.
A healthy lifestyle and diet is so important as it will help you through your journey of life and allow you to enjoy it so much more.
The lifestyle factors of alcohol, smoking, physical activity and diet are all modifiable that we are in control of and it’s keeping a healthy balance of them all which will help us with the remaining factor of stress.
I have been lucky that I have taught exercise classes for a number of years, and I am convinced this helped me get through the menopause, eliminating any mood swings due to the increase of dopamine and serotonin which is reduced when we start to lose oestrogen during the perimenopause. Don’t get me wrong, I still had the uncontrollable hot flushes, night sweats, brain fog, breast soreness, forgetfulness: saying the wrong words and completely forgetting what I should be teaching AND horrendous periods, but it helped me through it, and I still get some of these and according to new research may for the next 20 years!