Bill asked me when I joined your group today if I’d be interested in telling my story and if I had any tips to share with the rest of you. I’m not sure how interesting my story is and you may already be doing the exact same things I’ve done to get where you are but here goes….just in case it helps someone out a little. Therein lies the beauty of MFP.

I started here in Sept of 2013, at the age of 63, about 70 lbs overweight. I’d been suffering for about 6 years at that point with 3 herniated discs from a bad fall, and then in 2012 I became ill with a nearly deadly intestinal bacterium (salmonella). Because of the back and my lack of movement I’d gained weight for the first time in my life and then BOOM, when I got food poisoning, I lost 35 lbs in about 6 weeks. The bacteria got into my bloodstream and went straight to my liver, very scary and I was very sick. Once they cured me, a long process, the weight came back on like gangbusters in addition to a few extra unwanted pounds. I think it's called comfort food!!!

Something finally clicked for me in the summer of 2013 and I started swimming every day in our pool in an attempt to relieve the back pain and possibly lose a little weight. Some little part of me felt so grateful to be alive I thought it might be time to begin taking care of this old body. Sept rolled around and our pool got cold so I joined a gym in order to keep swimming. I was a swimmer in high school and had continued swimming off and on over the years, but not like this. I was possessed!

Then another click, or maybe it was just a brain fart, and I decided I wanted to try some of the gym equipment. My husband wouldn’t let me do it without a trainer so I hired one. They called her “Doc”. She worked her magic on my back, with a lot of hard work on my part, and a year later I was no longer suffering with back pain. I was lifting free weights, rowing, stair climbing, bike riding and even playing basketball and doing pushups. I felt like I was back in high school. And I’d lost almost 50 lbs. Exercise had become a habit and I was eating differently too, less junk and sweets, more protein and veggies.

I probably haven’t missed logging a meal more than a handful of times since I joined MFP. To date I’ve lost 64 lbs so I’m getting pretty close to my goal. My goals have changed a little though. Last Sept I hired a new trainer, a former Marine….OMG. He saw how much I enjoyed the weight lifting part of my workouts and so we’ve been focusing on that. Right now I’m dead lifting 165 lbs, my bench press is 85 lbs, OHP is 50, I squat 125 lbs, and I can do single arm rows with a 40 lb weight. You might be shocked to discover that I can leg press 510 lbs.....I know, I can't believe it either.

I eat protein like it’s going out of style and crave my morning smoothie if I don’t have it. It seriously has spinach and ground flax seed in it and is just a gawdawful color. All the things I wanted to do, I’ve been doing, and now they’ve become a habit. Give yourself the time it takes to create new habits and take control of the things you actually have some control over.

My best tips are log, eat a bit healthier, move a little more, find something you really enjoy that gets you out of your fitness comfort zone. You might be surprised at the skills you develop. Don’t let age hold you back……it’s just a number and don’t allow anyone to tell you differently.

Aging doesn’t end our forward momentum; it might change it a little, but there are still uncharted waters for each of us and now is the perfect time to explore what those might be.