40 and Reclaiming My Life

isislc
isislc Posts: 140 Member
edited September 20 in Introduce Yourself
Hi everyone, new to the board but not a stranger to weight loss. I am morbidly obese and a couple of years ago decided to lose weight because my mother needed a kidney transplant and I was going to be her donor. She passed away after fighting heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, you name it. It was horrid watching her suffer with all those diseases you can develop if you don't maintain a healthy weight. Ever since I then, I swore that I would not put myself in the position where my young children would see me suffer the way she did so I continued to lose weight.

Fastforwarding a year, I joined a boot camp and discovered that I finally needed to get my knee rebuilt. The program was great, they were able to adapt the program to help keep any pressure off the knee. It worked out great and I had lost 50 lbs by then and I was getting really strong then my knee finally gave out. Had the surgery and was given permission to do my own rehab. Due to all the complications I had, I was on crutches for 12 weeks but almost 100% rehabbed by 18.

Fastworwarding another year, started getting tired with boot camp, it was getting way to expensive as the economy was collapsing. I found a new love by joining a bike club. Did my cycling every weekend with them even though I was mostly left behind because my mountain bike could never keep up but that was ok. Also started doing charity rides like the Tour de Cure for the American Diabetes Association in memory of my mother. By the time I reached the Fall of last year I had now lost 85 lbs.

Well, that wasn't the only thing I lost. One day I was waiting behind some cars at a red light in the middle of a construction zone with my 2 children and babysitter in the car. Can you see where I'm going with this? I saw the person coming up behind me was not stopping so I helped brace everyone and brake as hard as I could so we wouldn't fly into another car or the machinery. We were hit from behind at 40 miles an hour and the person never tried to brake. Tried to get out of the car to get his plate number and found out I was hurt at that time. The guy said sorry I can't afford to put this on my insurance and took off. From then on it was a nightmare, I won't go into anymore details on that day.

It has been almost 10 months and had to have 3 neck surgeries, developed fribromyalgia, gained 40 lbs back, and couldn't even cycle anymore as a result. Even physical therapy didn't help. Well, I have been so angry that part of my life was stolen that I bought a new bike in the beginning of the year and a mag trainer. I had only been able to get on it twice for no long than 20 mins but it's better than nothing. I had also started to slowly working out a bit on my legs since they hurt the least. Building them back up for when I'm ready to ride again, not to mention setting a couple of goals this summer. These goals happen to be The Miller LIght Right for the Arts for 65 miles and the Tour de Cure for 35 miles. Ok, yeah these are big goals for a big girl but I'm pretty strong.

Saturday I finally took myself to the test! My bike club had a picnic ride for 25 miles and I decided to go. I'll tell you, it was tough but so much different in bikes. I only made it for 12 miles and couldn't do it anymore. I did have good reasons for that too! I worked a 12 hr shift the night before (3rd shift), was actually up at 3pm before my work shift of 8p so I really didn't get any sleep, and when I finally couldn't ride anymore and walked my bike, found that my hubby didn't tighten up the rear wheel so it was wobbly and I was riding on brakes back there.

Ok so it was a good attempt for 12 miles at least so need to get up to 65 pronto. lol. My doctor is going to kill me when I tell her, she wanted me to start slow well 12 miles IS slow for me. lol. I can kind of blame her though, she did give me extra pain pills, pain patches and muscle relaxers to use for my rides when I was ready. So yesterday I was ready! Every single muscle in my body aches but I can move and it does feel good! I can't even tell if it's the pain from the bike ride or the fibromyalgia so it's easier to deal with.

So I've reclaimed my life and ready to get back on track with my weight loss! Now that I can do things for myself I can take control and responsibility for my choices again. If anyone has any questions about nutrition or injury recovery feel free to ask. I've pretty much turned into an expert now since I've literally been to hell and back. I never gave up but it was definitely frustrating and depressing since I couldn't even play with my kids for a while.

Well, I probably overdid it with my introduction but I'm so proud of what I pulled off yesterday I just feel like I needed to share my story. Hopefully it will inspire any members here that may feel like they are ready to give up because they aren't seeing any results. Well, it takes time and sometimes the results will be slow but the changes will come if you stick with it.!!

Replies

  • lhaycock
    lhaycock Posts: 17
    Wow what an accomplishment...I can't imagine having to battle what you have had to endure. You are truly an inspiration. I recently met another woman that is very inspirational, thought you might enjoy her story too. Here is the link. http://teambeachbody.com/connect/success-stories/details/-/winner-story/36794390
    Lois
  • Kath712
    Kath712 Posts: 1,263 Member
    Hi,
    Welcome to MFP! :flowerforyou: You will love it here, so much support and inspiration. I'm turning 40 this year, too! Thank you for sharing your story - you have been through so much, but your attitude is amazing! I have no doubt you will reach your goals!
    Good luck,
    Kathy
  • amtrust
    amtrust Posts: 178
    A ver moving introduction! Good for you in reclaiming your life. I'm reclaiming mine in various ways, too....nutrition a small part of that.
    Bless you and your family.
    You CAN do this. I'd love to keep in touch with you on this site; you are truly an inspiration.

    ~Alicia
  • Rebecca__Lynn
    Rebecca__Lynn Posts: 114
    Thanks for sharing your story....you're OBVIOUSLY a very strong and strong willed woman...that's truly inspiring. I'm with you...no better time than NOW to reclaim our lives, our health and our body. Cheers to you.......God handed you a big challenge and you WON!!! So proud of you. :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:
  • fiendiish
    fiendiish Posts: 186
    You have no idea how inspiring your story is! :flowerforyou:

    Welcome! Hugs to you!
  • isislc
    isislc Posts: 140 Member
    Thanks for all the cudos guys but with how rough my schedule is there are times that I don't deserve it.
    Alright, so sorry I haven't posted in a while but had lots of life come up. With it being summer and vacations at work in progress, this is the time of the year for me when I get to work a lovely 42-72 hrs a week, not a pay period, a week. As I messaged back to one of the girls that pulled me back in for a few mins, just that pay period alone I had clocked 120 hrs. So for the summer I usually average 100 hrs every 2 weeks so I try to sleep when I can and sometimes I fall off the wagon but get myself back up again.

    Well, in the last 2 months I completed my bike ride for the Miller Lite Ride for the Arts for 25 miles and completed my Tour de Cure ride for Diabetes at 35 miles. I'll tell you, with this neck and shoulder thing, I'm finding that 25 miles is definitely going to be my limit for a while. I had to cut my bike ride for MLRA from 65 miles and TdC was almost cut too after 8 miles because I got really sick but it was more that I didn't get to eat and take my pre-ride meds early enough before riding. I didn't want to give up on the TdC so after a report was taken, I had my hubby drop me off at the 16 milers route. It sure didn't end up being 16 miles though. During the time of the ride, some kids thought they were being cute and changed some of the route signs. At one point I ended up on the 75 mile route for a while and then back on the 35 mile route and eventually back onto the 16. I'm just really glad that I had my phone's gps on so I could see where I was to get back to the finish line since the ride maps were pretty useless.

    I did promise the girls that I would get back on here and start posting again since I need to get back on the wagon. Now that I'm sick I'm going slow to see what I can do since I can't do any real bicycling outdoors right now with the meds I'm on. After the TdC I was a burnt tomato, if I would go out today which is going to be 86 degrees of bright sunlight, I would be the color of barbecue beef. lol So for now I'm probably going to get a little bit of indoor cycling done. I've also found a club cardio class out here that meets once a week and they have a live DJ and serve smoothies and nutrition bars during the workout. They are like a dance aerobics type of class so I figured I would try it out and see how it goes.

    Other than that, i may be starting either my Chalean or P90X to start working on the shoulder. Although the neck and back are doing much better since I was last on here, my shoulder and clavicle are acting up and the doc said I have 2 problems going on so we started with 1 cortizone shot so far to see how it does at a high strength. It was good for only a week. lol. I need to see about getting a goal set for losing 10 lbs a month which should be really easy as long as I get my workouts in. If you do the math, 10 lbs X 12 months is 120 lbs, sounds simple, right? WRONG! It's gonna be a long summer!! lol
This discussion has been closed.