Life has been cruel, but I AM going to finish what I started

Hi,

I am Lisa a 38 year old single mum from Portsmouth, UK.

Just wanted to say hello and introduce myself.

My Story so far:-

Back in 2007 I weighed in at over 200lbs and over approx 18 months I lost 47lbs getting down to a slim 160lbs in August 2008.

(Before and After Pics on my profile)

To celebrate my success I was invited to do a photoshoot with Slim At Home Magazine which gave me some great photos, a magazine spread and a great day out in London being pampered which was a nice reward for all my hard work!

I lost the weight back then by calorie counting and taking up long distance running. 50+ miles a week!

Unfortunately since then the weight has crept back on. I have had lower back issues on and off for 19 years, which were diagnosed by the physio as being caused by a lack of core strength. How wrong were they!!

In late 2009 I finally got a place in the London Marathon, one of my lifetime goals was to run the marathon before I was 40!! In January 2010 I started my training and over the next few months my back got worse and worse, finally giving out in June 2010. I had an MRI scan and it showed that I had numerous problems with my back which weren't going to get any better. I spent the next year in severe pain, laid up in bed, on strong doses of morphine and going nowhere fast. I was having carers come in several times a day. As a result I ended up losing my children for several months due to not being able to care for them. I eventually got to see a Consultant who told me that there were 5 levels of damage in my lumbar spine and basically there was nothing they could do! This left me completely devastated! Slowly I have managed to get my head round the situation, it's taken some doing, I just felt like my life was over! I realised my long distance running days were unfortunately over, but my life wasn't and this was the way it was going to be!

It's been a tough couple of years to say the least and my health will never be the same again, my head is now in a better place and I am now ready to finish my weightloss journey!

I have managed to lose around 25lbs of my weightgain in the last 6 months on my own, not really doing anything specific but I know to lose the rest of the weight I have to do something a little more structured than luck!

Here we are January 2012 and I am at a starting weight of 178.6lbs and 40% body fat, body fat has always been a bit of an issue for me, doesn't seem to want to go down, at my lowest weight I only went down to 35%.

Looking forward to the rest of my journey and finally finishing what I started!

Lisa