Hello! My name is Cati. (Like "Katie," it's just that my parents wanted to make sure no-one ever said my name correctly)
I'm new to Steemit. In a few words, I am a rebellious homeschooling mom of 4, a bellydancer, a Jill-of-Many-Trades, an entrepreneur, a former YouTuber, an aspiring homesteader, a food enthusiast, and a lover of learning new skills. Ok, that's slightly more than a few words. Ha. 
There's so much to say about my journey, but I'll spare you mundane details and share only the bits that might be useful or perhaps even inspiring to open-minded thinkers just like you.
So, I spent ten years of my life growing and nursing babies. I've got four of them. From the age of 20-31, my body went through the ringer. 7 pregnancies, 72 total months of nursing, weight gain, a little weight loss. I had accepted that the cost of growing my family, was my body. Because you see it happen all the time. And if you've ever started a family, I'm guessing that even you men out there found that YOUR body also changed along with hers. 
Yes. That's me. That is how I thought that I would always look. I came to the point in my life that I wanted to stop loathing myself EVEN IF I looked like that for the rest of my life. A decision to love myself. All 194lbs of me. It wasn't easy.
That decision, to love myself, was the most crucial. It sounds so flowery. It's freaking NOT FLOWERY. It's freaking hard. Every one of us has this picture of who we want to be. That person who has their shit together. A person who knows their strengths and actually uses them. A person who knows their weaknesses and works EVERY DAY to overcome or minimize them.
After my fourth baby was born, I was at the point where my body (yes, the size of it) was dictating not only what I physically COULD do, but also what I wanted to do. I was not calling the shots anymore. I was in a constant state of fatigue, and was quickly becoming withdrawn from social situations. God, I was frustrated.
But listen. I said, "screw that." I'm only 30 fucking years old. This does not have to be my fate. I love myself enough not to give in to complacency. I love my mind enough to let it be the ruler of my body, not the other way around.
But it was this decision that was the beginning of something fucking beautiful. A remaking of myself.
I signed up for, trained for, and completed a 5k. BAM. Mind blown. 
I ALSO signed up for bellydancing classes. Once a week, for the first time since having kids, I was carving out time for MYSELF. Sure, bellydance is maybe an unconventional hobby, but I was in LOVE with it. It awakened my senses. It reconnected my mind and my body and allowed them to work in harmony. I felt ALIVE!!!! 
Do I still have you? I'm about to get to the meat of the story.
Here's how I finally got my shit together:
FOOD
All these positive changes I had made to my life. And still, my body...looked like this. I'm not shaming myself. And I'm definitely not shaming anybody else. But seriously. My body didn't fucking match my life anymore.
FOOD was what was undoing my goals. It was plaguing my progress. I had this "aha!" moment when I realized that FOOD was the most frequent choice I made. Four times a day, it could either be bringing my body towards life, or it could strengthen my bond with a fucking COUCH.
And listen. There's no way in hell I'm going to try to sell you any product. I don't pledge allegiance to any diet or any product. Technically, I did the method I used (Whole30) WRONG. I broke rules. And you know what? I'm freaking glad I did. Because every friend who did the Whole30 with me, exactly by the rules, gave it up the second the 30 days were over. Ok?
A year and a half after starting Whole30 (which again, I did "wrong), I have lost 40lbs. 40lbs doesn't sound like much. But for God sakes, it has changed my life in an absolutely profound way. Here's what 40lbs looks like on my face alone.
Are you still reading?? If you're still here with me, I'm going to ask that you hang on. There's going to be a part 2 to this story. I hope you'll come back to hear the rest.
I want to get to know you! As a former YouTube creator, Steemit feels like a more organic, less "forced" way for people to connect with each other and to share ideas. But I'm new here, so I don't really know what to expect. Will you leave me a comment to say "hey?" I look forward to hearing from you.
To be continued:
--Cat
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