Meet Your Coach |
Drew Michelle

Hi!

My name is Drew

It is my deepest purpose to guide you on your wellness journey. One thing you'll quickly learn about me is that my fixation on wellness is... well, relentless. Pun very much intended. A life of optimized wellness is not simply a destination, but a relentless pursuit—one that’s worth every ounce of effort.

In today’s world, it can be hard to prioritize our wellness. We are busy and tired, constantly told to produce more. But how can we give to our jobs, our families, and our communities if we can't first give to ourselves? Over 15 years, both through my personal journey and my experience training clients, I’ve learned that the most important pieces of the wellness puzzle are about sustainability and self-worth.

While it looks different on every plate and in every body, the foundation of wellness is created by sustaining four basic habits. This is the Relentless Philosophy. Built on four essential pillars of wellness that are key to finding balance in your world.

I’m here to share everything I've learned about how to implement these pillars in your life in a way that is sustainable and creates excitement around the lifelong journey of truly loving ourselves and investing in and valuing our health.

I believe you deserve to feel well! Don’t you? I’m here to help you get there.

The Relentless Philosphy

My Wellness Journey

My personal wellness journey began when I was 21 years old. Having "retired" from my life as a broadway babe, running up and down the streets of Manhattan and long outgrown my high school sports teams and activities, my life had become sedentary.

Wake up. Sit to eat, sit to drive, sit to work, sit to drive home, sit to have dinner, lay down to sleep. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Sound familiar?

All of the sudden I found myself in a shape that I had never been in, paired with an equally misshapen mindset. To top it all off, my fiancé at the time had vanished without a trace, leaving me with 36 pre-paid personal training sessions to get in shape for a wedding which I would never attend. Cut to me literally sobbing on the gym floor.

It was markedly the lowest point of my life. I still have no idea why I showed up for that first session. But I showed up completely sick of my own sh*t. Sick of my excuses. Sick of my unhealthy lifestyle. Just plain sick. But lucky for me the wellness gods were on my side when they put that first coach in front of me. He pushed me, he made me uncomfortable. But his most important quality was that he believed in my ability to transform. He saw something in me that I wasn't ready to see in myself. Something I didn't know I had. And no matter what state I showed up in, he was there to continue bringing me back to the path. Back to myself.

So I kept showing up and I kept moving.

CrossFit Merrimack Driveway days, IYKYK

Oly Training Risto Sports, 2015 (above)

Oly Lifting Competition at Mr Olympia in Las Vegas, 2017 (left)

A year in I couldn't believe the transformation. I felt stronger. Had more energy. More confidence. My mind was clearer. At that point all I had done was commit to at least 3 workouts per week. But I wanted more. So I got curious... What else could I improve?

At that point I hadn't touched what was my very sad SAD (Standard American Diet). So I went all in on my eating. Another key moment. I got better sleep. I went back to school. The ball really started rolling. I changed jobs to doing something that I loved. Working with organic foods in a small vegan vegetarian restaurant (shout out to Life Alive Cafe!) and feeding people nutrient dense deliciousness!

But it didn't stop there.

I continued training. Over the next two years I was doing CrossFit 5-7 times a week and I started competing in Olympic lifting. I was eating whole foods based, delicious, nutritious meals every day. Teaching myself to cook from zero and becoming a master of all things meal prep. I started my own meal prep business, creating delicious, whole foods meals for my gym companions. Then I partnered up with a good friend on her plant forward catering business and we served up incredible, beautiful, whole foods recipes to our clients across the city of Lowell.

But the wellness kept expanding.

One day, my business partner said what would turn out to be the magic words... "Want to assist me on a retreat in Nicaragua?" Having recently injured my hip I wasn't training, so I said, "Why not?!".

Little did I know, the journey was about to get even deeper.

10 years later I am still here living in Nicaragua. I have spent my time building a women's wellness non-profit as well as my own personal training and yoga business, teaching nutrition education and food preparation, collaborating with yoga retreats to build community projects, continuously expanding my wellness into areas I never thought were possible. Seeing each day as an opportunity to learn new ways to feel well and to share that wellness knowledge with my community and the world. An opportunity to move closer to myself and find that sustainable balance in my personal wellness.

While I have certainly veered from the path on more than one occasion, the time and hard work I have invested in myself, in understanding what creates wellness and in building sustainable habits, has taught me how to bring myself back. Each time I catch myself slipping a bit earlier and each time I am able to decidedly bring myself back into balance a bit more quickly.

This lifelong push and pull has also taught me that perfection was never the goal. I have never claimed to be perfect and never will be. In fact, I believe it's part of what makes me such a great guide when it comes to figuring out what sticks. I have repaved the road to balanced wellness more times than I can count. When it comes to wellness, perfection is the enemy of progress.

Progress and a mindset of growth are the only wellness goals worth pursuing. Building a life of sustainable habits, one intentional choice at a time.

Investing in my personal wellness is the single greatest gift I have given to myself and by extension my family, my loved ones and my community. It has given me the tools to develop healthy coping strategies that keep me focused on my deeper purpose. To know myself through wellness and to bring wellness to others.

That is the gift that I wish to share with you.