52lbs gone - My story!

This is a bit long so please feel free to ignore.

I would love to be able to own the story – 50lbs lost in 6 months – or even a year. But I can’t – my story has been much slower and full of hills and valleys with a few flat prairies in between
I was a skinny child – known in the family as ‘Weed’ as I grew fast and was leggy. I loved swimming and horse-riding and, like most children I was very active. I was slim as a teenager and into adulthood – although being broad shouldered and ‘well endowed’ I was always a bit self conscious about my size – hey – it was the 60’s and 70’s and the era of Twiggy, burning your bra etc.
I was my ideal weight when I married and, with working full time, keeping a horse and swimming 4 miles a week I stayed pretty slim for years. Then, in my mid 30’s along came my children. After my second pregnancy (baby is 25 now) I struggled to lose weight. I was still riding but not competitively. I returned to work full time for a few years and so any leisure time was spent with my babies – swimming with children does not leave room for the lap swimming I had been used to. I then left a demanding job and my husband and I went into business. My weight burgeoned – I was sitting at a desk a lot and had to be on call for about 12 hours a day all summer (holiday business) Before I knew where I was I was nearly 4 stone overweight! My hips and back were very painful and I used that as an excuse to exercise even less.
In 2002 I decided I didn’t want to hit my fifties as a fat person. I wasn’t playing with my kids and while we had some fantastic winter sun holidays, I was just too big to enjoy them, I spent the 2 weeks at Disney watching my husband and children having fun. Even the water rides were difficult – all those ladies in elegant swimsuits under their shorts! I joined Rosemary Conley – a diet and exercise class – and, over the next 6 months or so I lost 43lbs. I didn't reach goal, or even a healthy BMI but I could wear nice clothes, I was receiving compliments and I felt good. No hip or back pain – it was amazing. I had done it – at my silver wedding anniversary I was reasonably normal looking and I was not ‘fat’ for my 50th birthday. My weight stayed pretty stable for a couple of years and, with my family I was walking and swimming and enjoying life. Then around 2006 I suffered excruciating hip pain again. I found every excuse to not be active but didn’t adjust my eating at all. I started to balloon again. We sold our business as both my husband and I started experiencing health issues that made running a holiday park difficult. Hip X Rays showed that the arthritis in my hips was not severe enough to be causing the pain and no-one was making any other suggestions. I tried going to keep fit but so many of the local classes centred on salsa or zumba and the pain in my hips was just too bad. Before I knew it I had regained all of those 43lbs and a bit! I then went through a period of several years when, by controlling my eating I would lose a few pounds then regain them and so on!
In May 2012 I was nearly back to where I had started ten years before. Our children were grown and we were starting to plan our travels and I dreaded long haul flights and the whole shenanigans of avoiding holiday snaps. At this point I discovered mfp. What a wonderful tool. I was VERY inactive – hip pain was the main excuse although to be fair it did make walking any distance very hard. I entered my stats, was given 1200 cals and had the encouragement of eating back my exercise calories – I only ever aimed for half of them, and yes, I did log anything that was more than sitting in a chair. By October 2012 I was back down to just above the weight I needed to be for a normal BMI. Great – I could wear my ‘old’ nice clothes, bought a new swim suit and lo and behold I was more mobile, hip pain much reduced. I wasn’t at my goal but I was close and life was good. We did a few trips – Munich, Isles of Scilly and then off on a 6 week road trip in the States. I wasn’t a bad weight and felt OK about myself. However, over the next few years I slowly but noticeably regained a bit. I didn’t look too bad for our first Australia East Coast Road Trip in 2016, was a little bigger when we went back to tour the West Coast in 2017. By the time New Year 2018 arrived I was around 20lbs heavier than I had been in 2014. Why? Why do I keep doing this to myself? Boy was I cross with me! Added to my woes – the hips killed me and I had also acquired sciatic pain which also made sleeping very hard! I saw another orthopaedic consultant – who again said that the arthritis in both hips shouldn’t be causing that level of pain and if I did have sciatica there was nothing he could do about it. I went back to my GP (a new one) who told me he thought I had piriformis syndrome and sent me off to a physiotherapist. Talk about a Lazarus moment. After an hour of being manually stretched and being taught some simple exercises my life was transformed. Walking/hiking/swimming etc all virtually pain free. In January 2018 I logged back into mfp and by the time we left for our 3rd Aus road trip at the end of January I was 7lbs lighter. At the end of the 7 week road trip I had put on 4lbs but those disappeared after the first week back. We had such a great time – hiking, snorkelling and just playing in huge waves. That was mid March – since then I have been losing slowly – oh so slowly – but steadily. I again worked on 1200 cals (less exercise) and aimed to eat back 50% of anything I burned. We walk daily, built a big shed/barn, have attacked overgrown bits of the garden and we swim. I took up Pilates to help with core strength and my hip muscles. I do still sometimes get some pain but am probably about 80% better than I was.
So here I am – 52lbs lighter than when I first logged on to mfp in 2012. I am now, for the first time in 26 years, within the normal BMI range. I now probably have about 5 or 6 lbs to go to hit my ideal weight but I have exceeded the goal I set myself way back when and am comfortable in my skin. I have lost and regained several s times and my fear is that, in being comfortable I may take my eye off the ball and let the weight creep up. My forward plan this time is to continue with my current regime of pre-logging, eating and being active. My weight -loss is slowing and I believe that soon I will reach a point where I will be more or less eating at maintenance (I may allow myself to eat whole piece of cake on my trips out as opposed to sharing one with hubby ). I do recognise that mfp will probably have to be part of my life for the foreseeable future.
I have written this long missive in the hope of encouraging others to NOT GIVE UP. There are so many inspiring success stories on here but many seem to be the story from start to goal. Many have gone on to successful maintenance and I drew encouragement from them (and still do). I just wanted to say to people, if you have lost a lot, gained some back, re-lost, got near healthy weight and then regained etc etc KEEP GOING. I intend to – and if I fall again – I will get back. Wish me Luck.

These are a couple of photos - the first was from summer 2012 when I was back on it and on my way down and quite a way below my heaviest, probably 195 lbs +- a bit (can't find any photos from my start weight of 212 lbs). Second was taken this week and I think I am about 5 or 6lbs from my ultimate goal.