Small Steps, Big Results: Carrie McCall PH 173

<p style="text-align:center;">“For all my friends who are struggling to find where to get started, just do something. Just find something you love. It does not have to be CrossFit. I love CrossFit, and I would love if you loved CrossFit, too, so we could talk that language together, but just find something. Just start. Baby steps. You’ll be far more successful just by taking baby steps instead of trying to do everything all at once.”</p> <p style="text-align:center;">- Carrie McCall</p> <p> </p> <p class="p1">“I knew I was overweight and it wasn’t healthy but I didn’t know what to do about it.”  At just over 5 feet tall and over 220 pounds, Carrie McCall spent the first 25 years of her life struggling with being overweight.</p> <p class="p1">Carrie’s childhood got off to a tumultuous start when, at just 18 months old, her mother passed away.  Then, as a young girl, her brother was diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes.  Too young to fully comprehend these illnesses, Carrie grew to be fearful and anxious of doctors and hospitals.  Says Carrie, “I lived in fear that something was going to happen to me and I was going to die early. I became fearful of going to the doctor. If I never went to the doctor, they couldn’t tell me bad news. If I didn’t know about a problem, I could ignore it, right?”</p> <p class="p1">It was at about this same age when Carrie began to notice she looked different from other kids and started getting teased for her size.  Her family was loving and encouraged her to take up physical activities, but Carrie continued to gain weight, and continued to grow more uncomfortable in her own skin.  She turned to food for comfort, and a habit of emotional eating began, fueled by her fear of dying young like her mother.</p> <p class="p1">Then, at age 25, Carrie had an epiphany.  She was severely overweight, on the couch watching The Biggest Loser while eating McDonald’s, and she realized she had outlived her mother!  Still fearful of the medical world, she knew she needed to make a change if she was g