fit_grandma

fitte_Oma

Hi, in my younger days I was reasonably fit and not overweight. Unfortunately both changed over the years, partly also due to illness. Now I am a happy grandma and want to get fit enough to play soccer, roll on the floor with the kids and be able to get up from the floor without help :-). Is anyone here in a similar situation? It would be great, if we could share success and failure and support each other. I want to be a "fitte Oma" (German for fit grandma).

fitte_Oma

My name is Svenja, by the way. And I am still quite confused as to how to correctly use this "community" thing and the discussions. :-(

AnnPT77

You're using the Community correctly. :flowerforyou:

I'm not a grandma, and my history is different, but I'm grandma-aged at 68. There are quite a few grandma-aged people here who have lost weight and become more fit.

I wasn't mostly reasonably fit or a good weight during most of my adult life, maybe was for just a few years during college and a bit after. Then I started gaining weight and being less active, to my detriment. In my mid-40s, I was diagnosed with stage III (locally advanced) breast cancer, and went through the better part of a year of treatment (surgery, chemo, radiation, medications).

I'd been in deplorable physical condition before that, and the treatment really wrung me out. That was when I started gradually getting more active (in my late 40s), just to try to get back some energy, strength or sense of well-being. Within a couple of years, I found a sport I enjoy so much that it motivated me to work out regularly, even doing other things to get in better condition for that one. I actually got reasonably fit.

Stupidly, I stayed overweight for another dozen years: The semi-mythical pretty-fit fat woman. Finally, at age 59, I had to admit to myself that my health wasn't what it needed to be, and committed to losing weight to see if that would help. That's when I joined MFP. In just less than a year, I reached a healthy weight, and have been at a healthy weight for 7+ years since. I'm still very active.

I can get off the floor by myself, I could roll around with the grandkids if I had any (have done it with my great nephew). I don't think I could play soccer, but that's not because of a fitness deficiency, it's because I have a knee that will need replacing (mostly from all those years of fatness), and I'm trying to defer surgery as long as possible. I walk, bike, row (my main sport), among other things. I can row in with much younger folks, and not hold them back.

There are people here and in my life who are older who've achieved much more, and who can do much more. You can get there, too.

Wishing you the best!