My path to fitness

Happy_mom2026

Hello all. I'm a 65 year old female. I started exercising because after COVID nearly killed me I kept having to be admitted to the hospital for other things like pneumonia and UTIs. I was so weak for years. I came to the realization that if I didn't do something to regain my strength I was going to die. I found a you tube exercise program called yes2next. The instructor is a 55 year old woman and she is joined by her 84 year old mother. It was just what I needed. The mother would sometimes do the exercises sitting down. At first I could only do the warmups but I got stronger over time. I have now joined a exercise group at my local gym. I went from weighing 199 to my current weight of 180. My goal now is to shed some more fat but I seem to be stuck. I did gain a few pounds over the holidays. Even before that I can't seem to see any more progress. But I'll keep trying.

AnnPT77

Hello, and welcome to the Community!

We have a somewhat similar back story, but on a different timeline.

I started getting routinely active after stage III breast cancer, full-bore treatment (surgery, chemo, radiation, other medications), and a subsequent diagnosis of severe hypothyroidism. I was very physically depleted. I realized I needed to be more active if I ever wanted to feel energetic, strong, or even happy ever again. I started out with gentle yoga a couple of times a week at a school-system community education program, and gradually moved on from there to other things as I gradually got fitter and stronger. The timeline difference was that that happened in my late 40s/early 50s.

Despite getting active enough in my 50s that I was working out pretty hard 6 days most weeks, and even competing as an age-group athlete (to my own astonishment, to be frank), I stayed overweight to obese for another dozen years.

I got some health benefits from improved fitness for sure, but my health markers were still bad, including cholesterol/triglycerides. My doctor was increasingly encouraging me to take a statin, but I kept refusing. It has a reputation for possibly having brain fog as a side effect, and I felt like I'd already given up enough cognitive bandwith to chemotherapy.

I tried various changes in what I ate, or supplements, without much benefit. Finally, I decided I should try to lose weight for serious. By coincidence, I was around your current weight, 183 in my case. I was 59. I started eating less, rough-counting calories, and lost some pounds, about half of what I wanted to lose. To make weight loss more predictable and steady, I joined MFP and started logging food. In a bit under a year, I'd lost from class 1 obese (which 183 is at my height) to a healthy weight, about 50 pounds. All my health markers were solidly normal.

I'm now 70, still active as a senior athlete, but not competing anymore. I've been at a healthy weight and in the same jeans size for roughly 10 years.

For me, getting my eating routine in better shape was what I needed to do to get my weight and health markers where I wanted and needed to be, and - so far - keep them there. The process was surprisingly more manageable than I'd expected: Not psychologically easy every single minute - I think changing habits never is - but the logistics were simple. I think if a hedonistic aging hippie flake like me can do this - a woman with a near-zero budget of discipline - I'd bet you can, too.

I'm cheering for you to succeed: If your experience is like mine, the quality of life improvement that results is more than worth the effort it takes to achieve!