Our Second chance at life...my story

Good morning. My name is Sandi and I am a 45 yo married mom of 3. I joined MFP exactly one week ago today. Id like to tell you what led to this. Here is my story.

The Old Sandi
Old Sandi eats whatever she wants with no regard whatsoever for her health. Old Sandi is a busy Mom of 3 always on the go and uses that for her excuse/reason for her poor diet choices. Old Sandi is 5'9 and weighs 201 lbs, the most shes ever weighed aside from when she was pregnant. Sometimes people still think she is pregnant,,,,and ask when she is due? This infuriates Sandi. But old Sandi carries most of her weight around her midsection, hips and rear end. Old Sandi gets up in the morning and drinks a bunch of coffee, skips breakfast, most days. She goes through the day drinking nothing but coffee (double double with cream) and smoking cigarrettes and consumes absolutely not a stitch of water. Old Sandi will usually be running the roads on errands so she will opt for a fast food lunch and has absolutely no shame of sitting in the parking lot of Wendy's scarfing back chili cheese fries. Old Sandi makes sure her kids eat optimally and get their vitamins and nutrition but she herself cares nothing about her own body or wellness and thinks she will live forever. She wonders why she feels like **** most days and has developed medical issues earlier in life than she anticipated, things like osteoarthritis all over her body. Old Sandi continues to take her life for granted. Soon she will find out this was a big mistake.


Enter Sandi's Husband. He is also an overweight smoker, 42 years old, 5'9 and 297. He makes the same ignorant lifestyle choices as Old Sandi and has absolutely no concern that he could lose his life one day too early. His younger brother died at the age of 42 from prostate cancer. He is a busy manager of an office, a high stress job, and also suffers from severe sleep apnea in which he stops breathing up to 37 times per night. He takes meds for high blood pressure. He also, like Old Sandi, eats whatever the hell he feels like putting in his mouth with no regard for the consequences.

One month ago today, on January 14th, my husband had a stroke. 42 years old and he had a stroke. He presented with a slight blind spot in his right eye and I made him go to the family doc who then suggested a trip to the ER. They performed a CAT scan and discovered he had suffered a brain hemmorage. Old Sandi was absolutely devastated and thought she could die right then and there when the doctors told her that her husband had either suffered a stroke or had a brain tumor. The next day we were seen by a neurosurgeon and the next 2 weeks were followed by an seemingly endless amount of poking and prodding and testing. Cats, angios, blood, MRI, etc. Yesterday we were told all the tests came back normal and that the reason for his brain hemmorage was "unknown" but most caused by his terrible lifestyle, smoking, untreated sleep apnea and high blood pressure. We waited 3 weeks for these results, not knowing if they were going to tell us he had a brain tumor and ultimately would be taken from our children at 42, like his brother. Thank God above this did not happen, that was ruled out and he has been told it was a hemmoragic stroke. The only thing that was affected was his vision, and that was mild, and has now returned fully to normal again. We would not have even known that he had a stroke if this vision problem had not surfaced.

Waiting to find out if your husband is going to die changes a person. It changes them in a BIG way. It opens their eyes, puts things into perspective and gives you a swift kick in the butt of reality in a HURRY. Old Sandi suddenly found herself begging the higher powers for a second chance, a chance to change her life, her husbands too, to start over and stop taking life for granted....promising that if they were given this one last chance they would both be forever grateful and would make the necessary changes in life to prove them worthy of the chance. Our prayers were answered and we were given that chance!!

New Sandi

New Sandi had a rude awakening and is feeling like a new woman! New Sandi (over the month of waiting for a diagnosis) realized she had to change her life and so started on a new journey. She started implementing many different ideas to help her do this. I will refer to myself as I now lol.....I (with my husband by my side fully on board with me) decided it was time to quit smoking (we are committed and working on that), get him a cpap machine for his sleep apnea (which we have and its working wonderfully) and most of all, change our terrible eating and excercise (or lack thereof) style. A whole new lifestyle change was in order, not just a "diet"....we had to change EVERYTHING, including our attitudes, and embrace our chance at new life together. I started researching and spent a month educating myself about food and nutrition and learned SO much!!! During the month we also discovered this wonderful website...and have since implemented the plan into our lives (we use the app)....we have both started brisk walking 30 mins on the treadmill every night...(its a start) We began eating healthy as soon as we were told he may be dying...but REALLY got into it when we discovered this website and started using the app 1 week ago today. I am permitted 1510 calories per day and follow it religiously and honestly. I have lost 3 lbs. I am proud of myself!

New Sandi wakes up and eats a nutritious breakfast with her kids, healthy snacks, a great lunch and dinner. Meals full of whole grains and low fat and LOTS of vegetables and "super foods" (which she learned was NOT a big mac )....New Sandi actually works up a sweat on the treadmill and her kids look at her with admiration in their eyes as she does it....New Sandi continues to research nutrition and now seeks the advise of a nutritionist at the local grocery store. New Sandi thinks Old Sandi was SO stupid. New Sandi loves herself now. And loves her husband and kids...and will NOT take this second chance for granted.

I wonder what the hell Old Sandi was thinking? Im shocked im not worse off or even dead after the way I abused my health. Sigh. That is behind me now, and I am looking ahead to a healthy happy future as an educated person who will never allow herself to become that old person again. I appreciate my life. Finally.