ME? LOSE 100 POUNDS? Impossible, but I did it!

WARNING…This is long; but I think that you will enjoy all the photos.

There is no way that a woman in her late 60’s who must live in a wheelchair, because her knees have been ruined by osteoarthritis could possibly lose 70 pounds…let alone 100.

Everyone knows that post-menopausal women can’t lose weight. Their metabolism is about zero. As for exercise, what could I possibly do in a wheelchair?

NO! That surgeon was crazy, when he suggested that I lose 70 pounds to qualify for double knee replacement surgery back in November of 2012.

Sure he offered to refer me for gastric surgery, but I had no delusions about that ‘easy way out’ of my pounds. I knew that the risks far outweighed the successes with that type of surgery. So, I just sat for that long month of November, trying to imagine any possible way that I could drop 70 pounds.

I grew up as the chubby kid who secretly consumed huge amounts of candy from age 10 on. I would make money babysitting or illustrating book covers the other kids at school. All of that money plus what I stole from my Mom’s purse went into candy. I would stop at the local hobby shop each morning on the way to school to load up my purse with my large stash of candy for the day…or at least the hours during school. Then, I would fill up my purse again on the way home. Is it any wonder that I went from 97 pounds in the 6th grade to 157 pounds in the 7th grade. I was 185 by the time I graduated from high school. Yeah. I was ‘the fat girl’ in all my classes for all those years.

In college, I decided that I wanted to ‘get away from my home’ and escape the effects of my parents’ divorce. I thought that I would join the Vietnam Era Navy, but they had a strict weight limit. I put myself on a diet…a very strange diet of watermelon, radishes and diet cola. Yep. That’s all I ate for most of a year. I actually lost 52 pounds and got down to 134 on the day I was sworn into the US Navy. I passed out at my first meal at boot camp. One whiff of food, and I totaled blacked out. The Navy doctor gave me permission to eat again and gain 7 pounds over the limit. Sure. I gained that 7 pounds and a few more pounds in the first week of eating regular food. Now, I was on the Pudgy Platoon for the overweight Waves. (groan)

I was discharged from the Navy in January 1966, a pregnant, unwed mother; but none the less, I was honorably discharged ‘for the convenience of the service’.

During my pregnancy, I went over 200 pounds for the first time in my life; and that set a presentence for the rest of my life. Rarely after age 21 did I get below 200 pound again. In fact 240 was now my average weight in those years, when I was in my 20’s and 30’s.

In the 60’s and 70’s, I tried all kinds of diets (Mayo Clinic, Adkins, Weight Watchers and Overeaters Anonymous) plus some other outrageous creations of my own, like eating one orange, Slender and diet cola all week long and having a single meal of Thursdays of each week that consisted of BBQ Ribs, cottage cheese and lima beans. Yep. That’s bizarre, but all those diets worked…at least a little bit.

My most successful weight loss occurred in 1979. I joined OA, stuck to my diet religiously and actually lost 99 pounds in one year, going from 284 to 175 pounds.

This is a photo of me and my son Brian in the fall of 1979. I have not weighed in the 170's since this time...so many, many years ago.



That was a great year that ended with the adoption of my second child, a little boy named Charlie in January of 1980. This next photo was at my baby shower . I was a happy, healthy, new Mommy at 175 pounds.



To the folks in OA, I was the example of real success and standing high on a pedestal for all those ladies that I was sponsoring in the program. In October of 1980, my baby Charlie got really sick and almost died. I broke down under the stress and fear of losing my precious, little boy. That hospital stay ended in a massive binge of candy from the vending machine at the hospital. Once I started that crazy eating, I just did not stop, until I gained back almost all of the weight. I went from a total success story and admired speaker in OA to complete failure in just a few short months.

Any attempts to lose weight after 1980 were pathetic efforts that failed miserably. At age 35, I decided to just give up and be a fat lady for the rest of my life. I couldn’t wait to be a chubby, old, gray haired lady. After all, grannie are supposed to be cuddly and a bit on the round side. Aren’t they?

30+ years went by, and I was now much older, much fatter and not very healthy. Both my knees were shot; and it really hurt to stand, walk, climb steps or just about anything. I kept getting blood clots in my legs and finally ended up with a serious infection in my left leg that started to break down the tissues in ankle. I was borderline diabetic and realized that things had gone way too far.

By November 2011, I knew that my weight was beyond the 280’s. One day, I stepped on a big scale in a basement lobby at the VA hospital and watched the numbers rapidly climb over 280. I got off quickly…not wanting to know the ‘true number’. My gut told me what I didn’t want to confirm. “I was heavier than I have ever been in my life. I was being crippled by my weight and could die soon of a heart attack or stroke, if the blood clots continue to form in my legs.

I didn’t want to see photos of me at that obscene weight. So, I destroyed any snapshots that were visible evidence of the truth.

In the summer of 2012, I decided to try and drop a few pounds (10 or 20 at the most), then ask my Kaiser doctor to refer me to a surgeon for help with my wrecked knees, but I didn’t own a scale. Honestly, all I wanted to do was stop the pain in my knees. I was tired of being a cripple who couldn’t go anywhere or doing anything, because of my swollen knees and relentless pain.

The night before I went to the appointment with my Kaiser surgeon I went to a party at our Church, and someone took this unfortunately, ‘all too accurate’ photo of me. It was almost a year later, when I found picture on the church website. If I had seen it sooner, it would have been destroyed.



The Kaiser surgeon was NOT impressed by my small weight loss. He gave me some really bad news. Though I was a great candidate for double knee replacement surgery, I had to lose at least 70 pounds. He also ordered me to stay in my wheelchair at all times. Why? I had so many small fractures in the heads of the leg bones. Any fall could lead to a long bone fracture which would keep me from having surgery for many months, even years.

Now, it was official. I was a FAT, OLD, CRIPPLED WOMAN. How in the world could I lose 70 pounds? I just couldn’t do it!!! At least, that’s what I thought at the time.

A year and a few months have passed, and surprise...surprise. I did it!!!

I have lost more than 100 pounds, since I set my goal to get those new knees. I learned how to exercise in wheelchair and took up swimming again after many years out of the water. I stuck to a healthy food plan with the help and encouragement of my MFP friends and saw miraculous amounts of weight come off my tired old body. I went from 4X to size 16 in tops. My pants size went from 32 to 16. My old lady metabolism worked. My old lady body rediscovered long overlooked muscles, and I even got those knees replaced in the past month.

Here is a comparison photo showing the changes from November 2011 until this week.



Yes, here are a couple more photos of me, taken on Sunday, January 12th.







I am still using my walker; but not for much longer, as my legs are stronger with each passing day. I am only 5 pounds away from that 175 pound weight that I was in 1980. I plan to reach that weight and keep going. Eventually, I would like to get down into 140’s. I’ve decided that I don’t want to be the chubby grannie anymore. I want to be the healthy, happy grannie who can go and do just about anything that she can imagine. I will be 69 years old in February, and my old metabolism is chugging along really well. I may not be running for miles or lifting weights, but I can swim laps in the pool for hours with no effort at all. I can do so much more than I thought possible in November 2012.

I no longer say, “I can’t, because I am too old and in a wheelchair.” Instead, I say, "I can do what I choose to do; and that wheelchair is about to become a thing of the past." :happy: