A Year Has Past, And So Much Has Changed

With all that has happen lately, I lost track of the days. Finally coming out of the post knee surgery pain, meds and confusion, I realized that I had missed out on the passing of Christmas, New Years and my first anniversary with MFP.


My sweet hubbie and I didn't even open our Christmas presents for several days after that Christmas had passed, because I was so tired, sore and in a fog from all the pain meds. New Years Day came and went, but all remember was being awaken by small explosions of fireworks around the neighborhood. I made a mental note that it must be midnight, but the coming of 2014 didn't register.


Today, I went to my profile and found several sweet messages from friends, wishing Ed and I a great New Year. Today, I suddenly realized...It is 2014. Wow! That is a big anniversary year for me. 20 years ago, my life changed more than any other time.


In January of 1994, my father and stepmom died in the Northridge earthquake. On the day of the funeral, I realized that my marriage of 22 years was over. My very unloving husband was lusting after my own sister. She was falling for him, and I was just an obstacle in their path.


I asked for a divorce and had to rediscover who I was after years in loveless marriage. I learned to love myself again, to make choices 'for me', to manage money (sometimes well and other times poorly) but a learned. During those first years, I met some good men but not the right man for me.


In 2004, my life changed again. That was the year of bigger changes. I had become a Christian in August of 2002 and been learning how to live my life in a new way. That year, God sent me to Silver Springs, Nevada. I sold my childhood home and simply asked God to give me ‘a teacher’ in my new home in the high desert. He gave me so much more. That was where I met Pastor ‘Special Ed’ Curry.


He knew that I was the one for him and proposed within days of our first meeting, and the past 10 ten years have been filled with his love in my life.


In November 2012, the years of carrying anywhere from 240 to almost 290 pounds caught up to me. I was borderline diabetic and confined to a wheelchair with severe osteoarthritis in my knees. That’s when a Kaiser doctor offered me help, double knee replacement surgery; but I had to do ‘one important thing’. I had to lose at least 70 pounds.


Like many people, I thought that was an impossible task. I mentally tried to find ‘anything’ that could make that goal seem REAL and ATTAINABLE. I even pondered the idea of gastric surgery, but witnessed too many failures within Ed’s family and our friends to consider that surgical option, because it seemed to offer with more risks and successes. The only other choice was the good, old fashion DIET. How I hate that 4 letter word.


After one month of only meal supplement shakes and bars, I was losing weight; but my doctor insisted that I must eat some ‘regular food’.


That’s went My Fitness Pal came into my life. Late in December 2012, I went looking for a free calorie counting program to help me ‘diet’. I FOUND SO MUCH MORE. I found people…loving, understanding, wise friends who were engaged in the same battle to lose weight and get healthy. They were also there to for me, :flowerforyou:


2013 was a marvelous year, I saw my weight drop by more than 90 pounds. I overcame my fear of letting people see me in a bathing suit and rediscovered my childhood love of the water. Swimming laps toned my body, strengthened my now 68 year old frame and muscles. I dropped clothing sizes so quickly last year, going from size 32 to size 16 in pants from 4X to size 20 in tops.


Throughout all of this, my beloved Special Ed has been at my side, encouraging me and joining me, as we both got healthier. He became a curious companion on my MFP journey too, always asking about my friends online and asked what they were posting. They were his friends too.


Almost 3 weeks ago, I finally got my double knee replacement surgery which offers me a future free of wheelchairs and walkers…a new life with my wonderful husband that will let us do so much more, because I will be able to stand, to walk, to run, to ride a bike or doing anything that I haven’t been able to do for so many years ago.


I won’t say that this past month has been a happy. No, it has been filled with pain; but I am getting better; and soon, I will be healed; and the pain will be gone.


I can look back and see where I started. I can look forward and see the future without pain in a healthier body. I don’t even know where my final goals will be. That is still for the future, but I feel better today than I could have hoped for myself JUST ONE YEAR AGO…when I found MFP online.

I thank God for MFP, for my sweet friends in this wonderful place and for a future coming true.