MICHELLE STEINKE-BAUMGARD
Hard times build, shape and reveal tough people. Grit and resilience are therefore often cultivated through challenging days, long nights and endless tears. One such human is Michelle Steinke-Baumgard, founder and creator of One Fit Widow.
Michelle has led a challenging life that has revealed in her the desire to help others become the very best version of themselves, especially when life has handed them the toughest circumstances.
Widowed via plane crash at age 37 with a one and two year old at home, Michelle dug deep and decided her formative loss was not only going to morph her into a stronger version of herself mentally but also physically. Michelle had faced many challenges before widowhood altered her life, from major surgery and a kidney removal at two, divorced parents before the age of four, a mother with mental health issues, multiple miscarriages and growing up in poverty, just to name a few. Despite so much turmoil in her young life, Michelle didn’t really tap into her inner resolve and strength UNTIL that fateful day in October when her loving husband took up a WWI bi-plane to build hours as a pilot, and never returned.
After the death of her late husband, Michelle, who was grossly overweight at the time, found her inner fire for life and realized that fitness was a tool that could not only help her deal with life changing grief but also a gift that needed to be spread to every person grieving in this life. It was in that rock bottom moment that Michelle realized she had to take total control over not only her life but her fitness and she found the burning desire to help others do the same. Michelle left her corporate job as a Vice President of Real Estate and became a personal trainer. On a long run, training for a marathon she would run in her late husband’s honor, Michelle pledged to spend the rest of her life helping people see the power of fitness to help reshape their lives.
Since creating One Fit Widow in 2010, Michelle has written a bestselling book for Harper One publishing. She has been featured in Shape, Fitness, and Woman’s Day magazine. She has been a writer for Prevention, Huffington Post and countless other publications and she has graced numerous stages with life affirming stories of life, love and hope after loss.
Michelle, along with her husband Keith, currently run MORE Fitness, an online virtual training company that has helped thousands of people worldwide, as well as MORE Adventures, an adventure travel business that helps people live their dreams by fulfilling bucket list adventures.