Happy New Year lovelies!

I'm Casey. I live in North Carolina with my hubs and my boys. I'm a teacher and I love to hike, golf, and do fiber arts.

I first joined the group... back in Dec 2018 I think? At that time I was at my heaviest w/o being pregnant, and I knew I needed to get on the ball. I lost about 25 lbs that year and was able to maintain fairly well.

I joined Noom in 2020 during lockdown specifically so I wouldn't overeat - I lost 10 more lbs! Yay, right? Then I got overconfident with myself. I stopped Noom, stopped the group, stopped MFP because I HAD this.

I did not have this.

So I am back, but this time, I'm not trying to fast or cut carbs or even do a bunch of workouts. My January goals are super simple:

1. Add at least 1 serving of fruits or vegetables to every meal.
2. Get in at least 20 minutes of EXTRA movement a day.

I plan to add to these goals in February, but for now, this is what I need.

I'm so glad to be back here!

Happy New Month/Year, Everybody! So happy to see all the new faces in the chat (and the old ones too, not that I'm calling anyone old, I swear)!

I am minstrelofsarcasm, also known as Minstrel, also known as Ashley, also known as "that sweaty girl in the corner"... I am one of the co-captains along with the ever-marvelous @melaniedscott. My role here is to provide some real talk, some good motivation, and a few too many jokes about stress eating for anyone's comfort levels.

The Basics:

I am 26 and currently living in Ohio. I work as a combustion engineer for an industrial manufacturing company (I set things on fire for money). I am fascinated by all facets of science, whether that be nuclear physics, nutrition, geology (I hear it rocks), chemistry, etc. Feel free to ask any of your questions when it comes to the science of things. I can't guarantee I'll know the answer, but I can definitely figure it out and provide an answer in a way that's (hopefully) understandable.

Why I am Here:

I love numbers, and when I discovered that I could get healthier (as my doctor told me I absolutely had to do) by keeping track of numbers, I signed up for MFP. My original weight was 8lbs 2oz, and while I don't think I'll ever make it quite that low ever again, my goal is to never be above my highest weight of 234 (September 2014).

Despite having joined this wonderful community, I didn't take my weight loss or my health seriously until after I graduated college in May 2017 and was told by a different doctor that my eating and (lack of) exercise habits put me on the road to diabetes. I'll admit, I was terrified. I grew up with a diabetic parent who took no actions towards improving their health to reduce their dependence on insulin and is now facing some very serious health complications. I didn't want that to happen to me - I wouldn't want to put anyone through having to worry about me in the same way I worried about them.

So I searched "gym" on Google Maps, and signed up for a free class with the first place that popped up in the results, a spin studio. Since July 1st, 2017, I have completed over 1,000 spin classes. I guess you can say they hooked me.

In other news, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in December 2019 after an arduous journey from doctor to doctor, through several misdiagnoses (why is it that the first thing a doctor will suggest is anxiety if you're female and show emotion in the doctor's office?), 14 vials of blood drawn for blood tests, 3 weeks of being unable to consistently feel the left side of my body, 2 MRIs, 1 spinal tap, and a partridge in a pear tree. I could go into a long rant about everything, and I have, but there's no need to fill my introduction with things I've written time and time again (I'll post a link to my blog, for those of you interested in my madness).

In Summary:

Since joining MFP, I have lost over 70 lbs, regained about 15 while on a three-month business trip in France (wine and cheese is my weakness), lost 5 of them, gained 5 of them, maintained throughout 2020, yo-yo'ed for the first few months of 2021, and here I stand (sit) at 170 lbs, a good 64 net lbs lost. I don't have a goal weight anymore, since BMI was developed by a mathematician and not a doctor, and as long as I feel healthy, I can weigh whatever I want (somewhere in the 150's sounds pretty good right now, but I guess we'll see).

As for exercising, I do regular functional training HIIT classes to build up some resistance training on top of my strong cardio background. I’ve recently left the spin studio for a number of reasons, but may return at some point in the future.

If you want to know more about me, or my journey, feel free to ask questions, or you can find my blog here: LINK

Blog posts I’m especially proud of:

• Creating a Sense of Accountability - This is my first blog post ever, and I’ve grown a lot since then, but so many of the same factors are still present in my life
• Timeline of a Post Vacation Bloat - Follow how my weight fluctuates throughout the week after my return from a short vacation, and the factors that I believe played a role in each shift
• BMI is BS - I essentially wrote a history lesson on BMI and why you shouldn’t base your self worth on it. Most likely, your BMI is misrepresenting you.

I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you even more as we work our way through the month!

Congrats on completing yet another month with Fat2Fit! You can see the results of Week Four and the month of December by clicking the links below...

Here's a sneak peek into how your team did...

Week Four-


December -

Steps...

Sun- 9,960
Mon- 10,649
Tues- 12,295
Wed- 6,558
Thurs- 3,402
Fri- 10,653
Sat- 10,113

Hi everyone! I missed the last week in December as I was traveling for the holidays. I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year.

I weigh-in Mondays, so I’ll be posting tomorrow!