IFBB Competitor Jessica Reyes Padilla in Two-Piece Workout Gear Shares "Inspiration and Motivation"

She Struggled with Her Weight and Had Unhealthy Habits

In an interview with Joe Wicks Melissa reveals she was an “unfit, super broke” waitress living in Brooklyn, who gained 70 pounds while pregnant. “My entire life I’d been yo-yo dieting,” she said. “I always had low self-esteem. I was big, then small, then chunky. I would starve myself. I didn’t do it the right way.”

She Drinks Coffee and Meditates

Melissa starts her day at 4am with a cup of coffee and a meditation from her favorite book, Living a Life of Awareness: Daily Meditation on the Toltec Path, which helps her “start the day off right.” “When you meditate, you may clear away the information overload that builds up every day and contributes to your stress,” says the Mayo Clinic. Benefits include:

• Gaining a new perspective on stressful situations
• Building skills to manage your stress
• Increasing self-awareness
• Focusing on the present
• Reducing negative emotions
• Increasing imagination and creativity
• Increasing patience and tolerance
• Lowering resting heart rate
• Lowering resting blood pressure
• Improving sleep quality

She's Recently Debunked

Melissa recently debulked her body. “No matter what I do I will always have an athletic build, it’s just the way I am naturally (genetics),” she wrote in a post, revealing what she did over two years to slim down to 140-pound figure. “Lift 3-4 times a week, not 6 like I used to,” she revealed. The second thing Melissa did to bulk down? “Not lift as heavy,” she writes, “mostly with upper body exercises,” she says. She also put more of a “focus on lower body exercises,” she writes. “I’m way more muscular upper body.”

She Chose Herself

Melissa took charge of her life, starting with waking up at 5am every day to exercise. “It morphed from me just wanting to have abs to me saying ‘yes’ to myself, choosing myself, and putting love into myself every single day,” she told Women’s Health. “And that was a whole new ball game for me.’”

She Changed Lifestyle Habits

As for her diet, Mel changed it up. “Eat intuitively, lots of rice and chicken and some drinks here and there,” she says. “More resting and sleeping and less stress,” also helped Mel achieve her body goals, she writes. “Basically, I’m just living life doing other things than lifting weights and being in the gym,” she concludes.