Team Leaders

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Check out your team leaders stories here:

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Jeliz1234 – BEASTS OF THE EAST

Hello everyone!

I am the Eastern #2 team captain. I am so excited to be a part of this group and can't wait till the Biggest Loser season starts!

Here is a little about me: My name is Jess, I'm 22 years old and I'm currently a college student taking classes in Radiology.

I've been overweight most of my life. I used to be really active when I was younger, but it changed when my family had to move when I was about 10. After the move, I didn't have many friends. I played outside less and ate more out of boredom. I can remember many times in school when I got embarrassed or was made fun of because of my weight.
I was the second oldest child of five. My family didn't have very good eating habits - most of my family is also overweight. We used to not have much money, so we just ate what we could - not necessarily being concerned with whether it was healthy or not.
Now that I'm older, the opposite has happened. When I work, I usually would spend the money going out to eat. My mom also keeps the pantry at home fully stocked with junk food.

Due to my weight, and a few other factors, I developed depression. With that came the emotional eating and more weight gain. I have also been diagnosed with severe sleep apnea caused by being overweight.

All of this at the age of 22! Everyday I think to myself - 'I shouldn't feel this way. I should be young and full of energy! But I feel like an old woman.' That's why I decided to lose weight - to get healthy. I hate feeling like garbage everyday, I hate having to wear a sleep mask to bed, I hate being this way!

I joined MFP about a year ago, I think. I don't have much self control, so my weight loss has been off and on. I started getting serious again about a month ago, and I am determined to make this the last time I have to start over. My highest weight was somewhere around 310. My current weight is 287.5!

I am excited about this Biggest Loser challenge. I have been needing some motivation, and this is just what I've been looking for. I am especially excited to be a team captain! I log in everyday, so you can friend me if you would like. I am going to try to be as encouraging as I can! I look forward to meeting the rest of my team, and everyone else!

- Jess

writemusic4him

LEEBETT - BEASTS OF THE EAST

Leebett –


Hello!

My name is Michelle. I'm 32 years old from OHIO! I own my own learning center. I teach preschool, private music lessons and academic tutoring. It keeps me busy, but I LOVE what I do!

I am so excited about this group and my chance to motivate all of you and myself along the way!

I'll start my "life story" in high school. I played basketball, softball and was pretty active. I have always been on the bigger side, but there was a lot of muscle and definition then. As I decided my college major, music education, sports became less and less important and hours of sitting and practicing soon filled my once active after school time.

College - Freshman 15? Absolutely! Sophomore 15? Yep! Junior 15? Yes, again! Senior 15? Whoa, wait a minute! I had a major weight check. I started working out and choosing salads instead of pizza. Got things under control to start job hunting and getting ready for life after college. Not that I wanted to! I loved this time in my life!

1st Real Job - Taught middle school orchestra, my dream job, at not my dream school, an inner city school with very typical inner city problems. A combination of overworking, stress, no friends, my love of food and lack of schedule lead to gaining back all of the weight I had lost plus some. (The Yo-yo begins)

2nd Job - Switched schools to a much smaller district. Joined "Thin & Healthy" a weight loss program, starting working out and watching what I was eating. Started to see results. At a weekly check in, they literally graded your food journal. The woman who I had not seen before, pulled out a red pen and started circling all over my lack of variation in food choices. I was making progress. She belittled my hard work and dedication. I never went back. Guess what?! I gained it all back plus some. My new principal was a horrible man who made fun of my weight and made my life miserable. I had stress hives for the last 6 months I worked there.

Met my current husband - He was on a low carb diet when I met him and I'm a vegetarian. We had a lot of adjusting to do and it all seemed to end up on our waist line.

My grandmother and mother passed away from cancer 364 days apart. Another balloon in the scale.

Started my business. Up again

Moved my business. FED UP!

This past June I felt awful. I had just turned 32 and my stress level was out of control. I knew something had to change. I signed up for MFP and 100 days later I'm 38lbs lighter and completed my 1st 5k yesterday! I am so excited about this challenge. I was ready to undertake another step in my journey and I think this is it.

Is it too early to trash talk? I know that I will have the best team out there! Can't wait to meet everyone on my team!

writemusic4him

SPRING423 - DROPPING DIVAS


Evening All!

Glad to see we have such a large contingency from the East. So excited to for the new Season of Biggest Loser to begin. I have been watching since Season 2 and yes I am still trying to adjust to the switch from Monday nights to Tuesday that happened last year. BIG THANK YOU to Melanie for putting this all together for everyone. I was part of last years group and my how we have evolved. I am looking forward to the changes and know that a little competition can be a GREAT Motivator!

So a bit about me as one of the Eastern Leaders... I am a 44 year old wife and mother of two from the great state of Ohio. Like many of the other group leaders weight has been an issue most of my life. I have always been a big girl, I am 5'10. When I was younger I always played outside and was active in sports. When I was in 6th grade we moved and with the change brought weight gain. I was 200 by high school and played softball until 10th grade. With the less active lifestyle and eating out with friends the weight continued to through college and an injury. By the time I graduated from college I was 290. About the injury, I tore my ACL sophomore year of college but waited til I graduated to have it repaired. So with a desk job and several knee surgeries later I was up to 335. Diagnosed with Diabetes at age 23 and after years of yo yo dieting I resorted to more drastic measures and walked the road like two other family members to have gastric bypass surgery. In less then a year I was down to 225. Life was in full swing. Fast forward 12 years and I married, had 2 kids, one with special needs and have moved twice. Life is busy to say the least. Over the years I regained about 30 pounds and hangout at 250. I have yo yo'd the same 10 pounds for the last 5 years. Not sure if it was hitting 40 but I go up and down not being able to break the 240 mark...very frustrating!

That takes me to MFP story. I joined last November, the day after Thanksgiving. After the holidays I got serious and started training for a 5K. That was during the last Biggest Loser Challenge and yes I lost 11 pounds, completed my 5K on April 28th and then....CRASHED! I had worked so hard for my goal to complete the 5K. Now I've struggled for the last five months and its time to refocus and get back to the basics... track, eat less, move more!

Its exciting that we have the Biggest Loser Group to give us the push...remember, competition can be a GREAT Motivator So I can't wait to get started on this JOURNEY with all of you!

Let me end with the quote from last season's Lisa Rambo "I'm on a ME Mission!" That's right make yourself a priority and take care of you...I know that is my goal for this JOURNEY!

writemusic4him

MINDOFSHANNON - PACIFIC CRUSHERS

MindofShannon

Hey There!

My name is Shannon and I am Team Leader - Pacific #1.

A little about me:

I am 24 years old will be 25 next March. I live in lovely Los Angeles close to Culver City. I am a private duty nurse for a lady in Beverly Hills and I absolutely love it. I have a very supportive partner of 7 years. We are high school sweethearts and have lived together for 4 of those 7 years. He is one of my biggest motivations for losing weight, he lost 50 lbs a couple of years ago! No children but we have two fur babies (cats) that we adore.

How I got here:

I have been overweight since my pre-teen years, that much I know. I don't remember a lot about my childhood as I had some emotional abuse going on. I am adopted and not one of the lucky ones that get's an amazing family. My family loved me, that is true, but there was a lot of the aforementioned abuse. I didn't feel like I had any control in my life and the one thing I could control was food. As a kid I was very active in sports and dance so my eating habits didn't catch up to me until we moved during 6th grade, I was so depressed that I had to leave my friends I became a recluse. During that age I found out I had scoliosis and I had to wear a brace. I was teased and bullied for two things -- being fat and wearing a brace. High school I didn't have many friends but I met the love of my life there! As the years progressed so did my bad eating habits. I ballooned up to 215, my highest weight to date. I have tried pretty much everything (with in reason, yes some fad diets but no water diet etc.) I lost some, gained some over and over again.

As of today I am very motivated to do this for me, and not for anyone else. That was a motivator back then, I always wanted to please someone else. I am doing it for me. To be healthy and happy and to love my self for the first time I can ever remember. I am a very encouraging person and love to motivate people!

I am very excited to watch the Biggest Loser this season and implement some of their tips and tricks! I am fully aware that my weight loss will be a long time and it is a lifestyle change!

So, to all of you who will eventually be on my team... Let's Kick Some *kitten*!

writemusic4him

Andy_geek - PACIFIC CRUSHERS


Hi, I am the team leader for Pacific #2. Here's some info on me -

Summary of who i am:
My name is Andy, I'm 47 years old, live in the suburbs of Seattle Washington, USA. I'm a manager of a team of software engineers, many years ago I was in the military serving on submarines (lived on subs for 8 years!). No children, but I have a wonderful wife and two cats and a lot of my family is within a few hours driving distance. One of my hobbies is learning to speak and write Chinese (Mandarin), if you speak or write Chinese, maybe we can be language partners, too!

I've lost over 40 pounds since the spring of this year. I'm looking forward to watching the Biggest Loser this season to help keep me motivated and learn from the trainers to include tips/exercises into my own lifestyle changes.

My story in being unfit and fit:
I've struggled with weight since before i was a teen. From that point on the only time was really fit was a result of the Navy's bootcamp. The military really whipped me into shape. In the submarine force it's not uncommon that everyone has a little extra weight so i became somewhat unfit again shortly after my career in the military began. After leaving the military in 1994 i slowly ballooned up until i reached about 280 pounds a year ago.

At the beginning of 2013 i made a commitment to gain control over my weight and here's a timeline of my effort since January 2013:
- Jan 2013, i was tipping the scales at 270 lbs.
- Jan-April 2013, i half-heartedly invested in the lifestyle changes, i hadn't quite made the mental shift required to really turn my life around. I rarely weighed myself during this period
- Around April 2013 - thus far i hadn't made many changes to my lifestyle, once in a blue moon i ate a salad instead of a burger, but no real exercise or serious investment of myself to change...things were looking bleak. I happened to weigh myself one morning after months of not tracking my weight and i was surprised that with little effort i had lost 10 pounds， this motivated me to step it up into high gear!
- May 2013, although i was a member of MFP for a couple of years, it was this last May i dedicated myself to giving support and taking the support from others here to motivate me.
Also, i started using the MFP app religiously to make more cognizant of how food and exercise influence my life.
- May-Sept 2013 - Besides the MFP app, I also started using the Zombies, Run! app on my phone. This motivates me to get out - and walk so i can hear the latest in this 'radio drama' to evade the zombie hordes. This application really helped convert me to seeing exercise not as a chore i have to do, but something *fun* that i *want* to do.

I've steadily been losing weight since around May or June. I'm cooking most of the meals for me and my wife now, so i have had more control over using fresh ingredients and also using recipes from online and from the Biggest Loser cookbook, or choosing foods that are still tasty and interesting but fewer calories and sodium.

I'm sure that if we're interactive with each other in this season we can help each other succeed in our lifestyle changes.
-Andy