40 and Reclaiming My Life

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.!!