I grew up on a dairy farm in southern Michigan … the most wonderful place to be raised. The experience created a bond with agriculture and nature that is forever a part of me.
I was fortunate to work alongside my parents and sisters, caring for the cows and land every day. My companions were bovines, barn kitties and an occasional stray dog. My playground was the haymow and the farm fields and pastures.
This is where I learned to appreciate home grown food, ripened on the vine and enjoyed as a morsel of delicious sunshine. My mom tended a huge garden, growing and preserving nearly all the produce the family consumed.
My love of baking sprouts from childhood as well. My sisters and I were entrusted to baking goodies and supper every day after school and making bread on weekends. While my sisters were more inclined to cook meals, my passion was baking. I exhibited baked goods at the Hillsdale County 4-H Fair from the time I was 10. I earned blue ribbons each year, several Best of Class awards and the top prize – Best of Show – in my last year of eligibility.
In addition to helping Mom with the veggie garden, my sisters and I were given a small plot of our own to tend and grow whatever we wanted. A highly anticipated event was the trek to the local nursery each spring, where we carefully chose annuals for our little gardens.
These projects certainly left an impression on us girls. Even today, we schedule nursery visits for our get-togethers and exchange stem cuttings and perennial splits every chance we get. Many of the 150-plus varieties of plants and shrubs in my garden today are “freebies” from family.
The hobby of beekeeping was an addition for my little garden in the burgs in 2018. Though I think this an unusual undertaking, no one who knows me is surprised. Their usual comment: yeah that fits you. After all, I was also the one who cared for a small flock of chickens at my previous home, also in the suburbs.
I now manage about five colonies of honeybees in my backyard apiary. I sell raw honey and other bee products through my shop, Blondie's Bees & Balms, and write a blog, The Bad Beekeeper.
It was my farm roots that also laid the foundation for my healthy lifestyle. Here, I became physically fit and disciplined. I was expected to do my share of the farm labor every day, moving bales of hay and straw, carting wheelbarrows of silage and mucking stalls. The eldest of three sisters, I learned early, chores are not gender specific and it was my duty to set the standard.
I began lifting weights at a gym for women right out of college while doing an internship in Denver, CO. I loved being strong. My heart raced at the thought of being able to lift a big stack of weights or a heavy dumbbell. I became a "gym rat" then and there.
I faithfully read magazines like Muscle and Fitness cover-to-cover to discover all I could about exercise and training and became a food label expert. My infatuation with fitness gear also developed early. I cannot fathom how many leggings, capris, sports bras and tops I've tried on over the years to find physique-flattering outfits that also do their job in the gym.
Outside a few months here and there, when I changed jobs or moved, I have faithfully trained with weights for the past 30-plus years.
Physique competitions, first in bodybuilding and then in figure, bikini and power body, were an outgrowth of my years in the gym. The discipline that brought me to the gym every day brought me success on stage as well. I learned how to bring up lagging body parts to improve my physique, lose body fat to look more conditioned and present my best physique when standing in the spotlight.
An expensive hobby, I also learned how to do much of the work on my own. Today, I bling my own posing suits, apply my own tan, do my own hair and make-up and travel to venues largely by myself to reduce overall costs of competing.
I became certified as a personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine and a nutrition coach to help others become healthier. I developed a line of fitness products to help them celebrate achievements, stay on the path of fitness and motivate their peers on the journey.
To learn more about my fitness competitions, visit Fit by Michele. To learn more about my fitness products, check out my online shop.
