Before taking the stage at Toyota Center Saturday night, former first lady Michelle Obama met with 20 women of the HTX Book and Brunch book club at Grace’s on Kirby to talk about her New York Times best-seller, “Becoming.”

She shared with the women about how she learned to carve out “me time” during and after life in the White House. (The book club was selected to meet with Obama through an online contest.)

“We would start at the beginning of the year putting my life first. I put my kids on the list first. …I had to put exercise on my list. Then my relationships with my girlfriends,” Obama said.

“We lived in such a bubble, I had to make sure people knew I was still accessible to them.”

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Obama’s Houston visit is a part of her sell-out “Becoming” book tour, which continues to Europe and finishes in Nashville in May. On Thursday, Obama packed Austin’s Erwin Center for the onstage conversation with Food Network host Rachael Ray, who guided Obama through the highlights from the book.

At Toyota Center, she was joined onstage by author and former NPR Host Michele Norris.

Since the tour started last fall, Obama has had a community outreach component at each stop. She has read to 4-year-olds in Los Angeles, had lunch with young women in girls’ club in New York and talked with teens about leadership through performing arts in Dallas.

While in Houston, Obama also visited students at Worthing High School and gave each a copy of her book.

joy.sewing@chron.com