Hi- Newbie from Chicago-land area!!!

Hello to all!! My name is Natalie and I am from the North-West burbs of Chicago. I am a nursing student and graduating in June 2011!! Nursing school takes over my life so I do not have too much time for much else. Otherwise I enjoy spending time with my fiancé, family and friends, skiing in MI during the winter, wedding planning, and going to our family lake house in the summer.

I recently got engaged in June and that currently is my biggest motivator to lose weight for our Sept. 22, 2012 wedding. I found out about this site through message boards from a wedding web site that I use. There was so much talk about myfitnesspal.com I wanted to join!

I started losing weight 1 yr ago from Oct due to severe GERD and just wanting to become healthy. I have lost about 27lbs since then and my GERD is almost gone! My biggest downfalls are: portion control, eating out too much, family gatherings that revolve around food and a dear love for ice cream, pizza, and pasta. I have tried to cut out fried food as much as possible (which has really helped with the GERD). I started doing hot yoga back in May and love it! I have had recent difficulty with the heat and not being able to finish workouts Other wise I use my local YMCA for workouts. I am still on a family membership until I graduate which means group fitness classes are not included in my package. I really like group classes but it is just too expensive for me out of pocket.

I am looking forward to using this board and hopefully making some friendships to help me along in my weight loss goal of 33lbs!