Six Months to ONEderland/Halfway Point (pic)

I started this healthy lifestyle journey with a lot more than three strikes against me. I started this journey with at least half a dozen really good excuses in my mind of how it wasn't going to work and how it wasn't going to even be my fault. I'm an eternal optimist tho, so I confess to also starting this believing I could somehow find a way to succeed. But here I am! Halfway to goal already!!

When I started, I had such a sedentary lifestyle that my feet hurt so bad I could hardly walk if I was on them for any length of time (more than half an hour!) A day out shopping always led to intense foot pain and a night with my feet up, aching and swollen. How can I work out with feet like this?

I started this after noticing that I could hardly breathe, or move, or get down on the floor and get back up... I noticed I was starting to move less and less because it was just getting too hard. I even avoided sitting down because the thought of getting back up just wasn't appealing to me... or my knees!

I started this after spending nearly six months mostly in bed because my feet had taken to turning all manner of shades from blue to purple and finally to black, which unbeknownst to me, my heart arrhythmia drug was actually causing. I went out and did things now and then during this time, but if I didn't have to be somewhere I was in bed with my feet up. I couldn't even sit at my desk and work on things during the worst of it. I even got a painful "foot infection" in my foot that was treated at ER, but most likely was not infections at all, it was probably gout, as it turns out. Around when I started MFP was the same day I switched arrhythmia medicine and the black feet went away and didn't come back. About a week later I got classic gout in my other foot, but after a few days it went away and hasn't been back either.

When I started I was over 50. A lot of experts agree that losing weight after 50 is really almost impossible for women. I think I've even read that in a magazine or two.

When I started I had had a hysterectomy the year before, and well... everybody knows if you've had a hysterectomy, you're probably going to gain weight, right? Everybody says so!

When I started this my thyroid had not been functioning properly for 15 years and I was taking a synthetic thyroid replacement tablet at about half the therapeutic dose because the full dose could cause my heart arrhythmia to trigger a defibrillator shock that could cause tissue damage and burns because I have a very powerful ICD designed to work the first time it fires.

When I started this I had had a defibrillator implanted into my chest the year before to restart my heart in case an arrhythmia developed into sudden cardiac arrest because I have a genetic condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy that can result in the heart beat becoming disorganized and confused and suddenly stopping.

And just yesterday I got a bad biopsy back - and have yet another incurable illness to manage for life added to my plate. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, so I sure didn't expect to reach ONEderland on such a low note as all that!

Oh - I'm an ex-smoker too - 12 years now!! And everyone knows ex-smokers gain weight - excuse number... what are we up to now? LOTS of excuses, eh?

Still - in my opinion, the combination of calorie counting, cardio workouts and strength training can bust up ANY excuse you can throw at it. Maybe not at the speed of a bullet but the tortoise catches the hare when it comes to weight loss and the tortoise is a lot more stable and steady along the way. Just call me Tortoise Deedee!

My MFP friends have really stuck by me... so many of them beat me into ONEderland that I was actually afraid they'd think I was not trying hard enough and drop me! LOL! But no - they've stuck by me when I really needed it, and I will always remember that and continue to need it on the second half of this journey to health and fitness (and skinny jeans, LOL!) Love you guys