Hi all. My name is Ashley and I am 35 years old. I live in Alberta, Canada. I have lost 100 pounds this year through consistency, hard word, and habit formation. I have left behind morbid obesity and am trying to get into the normal BMI category. I am about 25 pounds away from reaching my final goal before switching to maintenance.

I have been with this group since mid-summer. The three goals are critical to my success. I love learning from everyone's journey and look forward to being with this group for a long time.

I'm Chris, I turn 50 next month, but believe it or not that truly is just coincidence. My being here and focusing on my health has nothing to do with that number.

I am currently 231 pounds (last weighed Friday) and am down over 60 pounds since early 2021. My "goal" weight is my ideal BMI weight of 180, but I will likely ride out the remainder of the year not focused on losing and instead focusing on staying near this weight due to restrictions on exercise (first restriction is healing a case of plantar fasciitis, second is weight restrictions from a recent surgery).

Last month I "relearned" that I first started trying to lose weight, get cholesterol numbers in line, AND prevent the onset of diabetes back at the end of 2006. I somehow blocked any memory of pre-diabetes from that time, but when I searched on the internet archives way back machine for my blog detailing a diet I took on to lose a lot of weight back in 2007-2008, there it was. I searched for the blog to try and find any reference to any success addressing cholesterol with that diet back then after an interesting discussion here in UAC about cholesterol.

Only reason I mention this is because I have said a few times here that my health journey truly started in earnest when I tried to tackle those same 3 things in 2014, the same year I discovered MFP, and started running, etc. It was a little mind blowing to me, particularly to see the attention to tracking what I ate at every meal on my blog, along with calories and macro counts, and how I matched up to my daily target numbers per the diet I was on. The only thing really missing then from what I do now is "exercise" (granted, no exercise for me since the November 8 surgery).

I've been in a 15 year long battle and blocked the memory of the first part of it because I always felt that was "just a failed diet". Turns out I may have been wrong. While the diet was ultimately not something I could maintain for life (never even wanted to, just wanted to lose weight), it was a lot more successful than I had been willing to recall, and even mirrored things I do now, weighing, tracking, etc. I was successful at getting my cholesterol in line to avoid being prescribed statins by my doctor.

Unfortunately, after that I ate with reckless abandon until I hit the point where I "started again" in 2014 with MFP, running, etc.

Whew! What a find! What a month! What a crazy 15 years!

My daily entries still reflect things learned this year with ketosis and well rounded exercise (cardio, strength and mobility), from primal dieting and weightlifting in 2017-2018, with running in 2014-2016, and even all the way back to going vegetarian, to vegan, to raw vegan back in 2007-2008 to lower cholesterol and lose weight! It's all been steps to here, each imparting new ideas, habits, etc.

With that, I look forward to getting to know all of our new members!

Hello. My name is Susan. December will be my third month of UAC.

I have lost a large amount of weight twice before, achieving my goal wieght, but eventually regained it. The second time around I worked hard on addressing emotional eating. This time around I am focusing on my metabolism: reversing my insulin resistance, improving the diversity of my gut microbiome, and trying a low carb, whole food, plant forward diet. I am also doing intermittant fasting (16/8). I plan to try some longer fasts after I consult with my doctor this week.

Since around August I have lost 23 pounds and now weigh 225. Last week got back lab results that confirmed that I am heading in the right direction with my insulin resistance. Between August 2nd and last week my A1c went down from 6.4 to 5.8 (lower end of pre-diabetic range) and my insulin went down from 26 to 11 (normal range).

I read a lot. Currently reading ¨Metabolical¨ by Robert Lustig and I highly recommend it. For exercise I swim a lot, lift weights and walk.

Hello, all. I am BeeJ ( @BMcC9 )

I used to be a long time UAC member, then I dropped off the face of UAC (and MFP itself) back in March of this year for ~ 7.5 months. But I returned to the fold Oct 30. My goal for Nov. was to become a Champion.

Just Show Up and gather data (no matter how good vs not-so-good vs downright ugly the data was if I assigned "emotional value" to any of it.
NO JUDGEMENTS. Just log / report / close.
After I had enough data to start looking for patterns, (and therefore some emotional distance) I would start making fine-tuning plans.
I even gave myself a "close to what maintenance calories would be" daily goal to start with, so as to encourage myself to "stay within limits" ... and took it from there.

Back when I was in the zone and a steady UAC member, I would pre-log for the day every day as soon as I had weighed my toast for breakfast, and then refine as I went along. I was hoping that it would kinda like riding a bike ... tending to come back quickly once you actually climb aboard.

What Gets Measured DOES Get Changed (because you are paying attention to it)

Turns out .... restarting the logging /reporting habit boot-strapped the self-awareness subroutines of "intentional activity" and "accountable snacking" Here I am, likely to have made "Nov Winner's Circle" after all! (being in Canada, I didn't have to face the Thanksgiving Day / Leftovers Grazing Days that US members did.)

Today (Nov 28) is 30 days consistently logging in to MFP (and may-as-well log food and activity while I am here anyway)

My goal for December is going to be to double-down and have a 60-day streak. That's it.
Be a Champion.

IF (despite the whole Holly Daze / Seasonal Celebration Stuff I STILL manage to come out ahead and end up in the Dec Winner's Circle, that will be a bonus.

I will AIM for that (as a wonderful side-effect) but the most important part will be the "60 consecutive days logged onto MFP (and may-as-well log food and activity / report in to UAC Central while I am here anyway)

Hello everyone. My name is Pam, I'm from Oklahoma, USA. I just turned 64 and need to lose 100 lbs. I'm hoping this challenge will help me stay on track with my weight loss journey. I really blew it last week (Thanksgiving week) and need to buckle down and get serious!

Hello Everyone, My name is Jill. I am 56 almost 57. I live in Montana. I just read Lynne's post and a lot of what he said describes my month. I have lost and gained the same 5 pounds this month and I am ending the month of November up 2 pounds. I am consistent with my exercise. My goal for December is to be consistent in tracking and limiting my processed foods and adding more fruit and vegetables.
Looking for to my second challenge.

Hi I'm Babs, and this will be my 4th month doing UAC.

Here is a little info about me:
*I'm 61 years old
*I've been married 34 yrs, we have 2 sons ages 27 and 30
*I've been a breast cancer survivor since 1999 (I was 39 when diagnosed)
*I've been a runner since 2007 (at the age of 47)
*Highest non-pregnancy weight - 175
*Lowest adult weight - 125 (not sustainable for me!)
*Height - 5'3"
*Was a Weight Watchers member from 2003 to 2014(?) ( I joined at 148 lbs and in 6 months I was down to 128 and Lifetime, but couldn't sustain that weight for very long)
*I've been on MFP since 2013
*My weight tends to fluctuate between 135 and 141, usually closest to 138, but I'm working on getting my set-point lower. UAC has been helping me with this!

*In 2022 I would like to get back down to around 133 lbs and then work on MAINTAINING 133-135 lbs.
But for this month my main goal is to not gain any weight and to perhaps be under 136 on New Year's Eve.

September 1st weight - 138.6
October 31st weight - 135.4
November 30th weight - 136.4

Welcome to all the newbies. My biggest advice is just keep showing up. Don’t get hung up on “more than 3 pass days” so I failed and I quit mentality. I joined UAC in January and have only been in the winners circle twice. BUT - I’ve lost about 20 pounds and KEPT it off. I want to lose at least 20 more and honestly I’ve been a bit discouraged lately. But then I remind myself how this is the first time in at least a decade when I’ve been below 200 lbs and stayed there! That really is huge for me. You’ll find so much support in this group and learn valuable information.