Are we caught up yet?

And so to go on! Once I had gotten my diabetes diagnosis, I knew it was time to get healthy! Once again I headed to Weight Watcher's, and this time I knew I also had to add some activity to the mix! I was already a member of Women's Premier Fitness through my job, but knew I had to step it up, and actually GO to the gym. I decided to pay for a trainer and started to workout with Jana Chantabane. She put me through the paces, and I was exhausted after each and every workout. But I was actually feeling, well, good! Like I was doing something to help myself live a much longer and healthier life. Granted, when I first started, I just knew I was gonna pop the big stability ball! And crunches...I started those on an incline bench that was practically sitting up!!! When I did stepping, it was only on the step itself, no risers at all! Then I added a fitness class to my routine. It was called Premier Fit, and the first class I could only get through about 20 minutes of it. I remember how cool it was to have a guy instructor at a women's only gym!! His name is Josh Keemun. But he was so good to me! I always felt such an incredible amount of support and encouragement from not only Josh, but from the other instructors also!! I never once felt like I didn't belong there, and never felt like people were watching me, wondering why such a really fat woman was at their gym!!

After two years or so, I was down about 80 pounds. It was right around that time that I decided to retire from teaching and do something different! I decided that the fitness classes I was taking had helped me so much, it was time for me to give something back! With support and encouragement from Jana and Josh, I went through an organization called Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA) and got certified in Group Exercise Instruction, and was able to teach some of the Premier Fitness classes as a sub! That was so incredibly awesome, and I knew I was showing others that you can do ANYTHING once you put your mind to it!!!

Today, it's been 3 and 1/2 years since that phone call from my doc. I am now down 100 pounds, with about 40 to go! This time I know I'm gonna make it!! The blood work I had done showed a large drop in my "bad" cholesterol levels, and my A1c had come down almost to the normal range! My goal all those years ago was to 'reverse' my diagnosis, and it looks like that just might happen sooner rather than later!! I'm still certified through AFAA, but I have also taken training to teach Les Mills BodyVive, and am currently waiting for results of that assessment! My next endeavor is to become certified as a personal trainer and work specifically with obese/overweight and older women! Cause I'm here to tell ya, if I can do it, ANYBODY can do it!!!!!

...continued...

Once our girls were here, life was pretty cool, except I was still fat! When both girls were very mobile, is when my weight came into play. The girls wanted me to play with them, run, hide and seek (have you ever seen a fat woman try to hide under a side table?), push them on swings, take long walks, go swimming, and so much more! I suddenly became a failure in my own eyes! I couldn't DO anything, and I knew I was an embarrassment to my whole family! I certainly was to myself! When the girls were in grade school I decided to give Weight Watchers a try again. The program had changed a lot, and seemed easier to follow this time. I suppose I did pretty well then, but after awhile it got old and I quit, gaining everything back. I went on this way for quite some time, rejoining, losing some, quitting, gaining it back and then some, rejoining,...you get the idea! Not a great time in my life! The only good things were my daughters and my husband, and there was a time I had decided they would all be better off without me! Fortunately for all of us I didn't act on that thought!

Fast forward to about 3 years ago. I knew I was at my heaviest all-time weight, though I hadn't been on a scale in a looooong time! It was time for my annual check-up and physical, so I made the appointment, knowing the 'talk' I would receive from my doctor! (Don't get me wrong, I have a fabulous doctor that I love, it's just that when you're fat you get the 'talk' every time you have an appointment!!). Anyway, I had all the blood work, the physical and the 'talk'! I went home and packed for my trip to visit my family in the Midwest. I was at my sister's when I received a phone call from my doctor...I had Type 2 Diabetes!! WAIT, WHAT?? No, that's not right? Of course, it was, she had been telling me for years I was on the borderline for developing it! I made appointments for when I returned to see my doc and also Diabetes specialists. Once home I went to my appointments and found out what I needed to know about having this disease. Of course, number one on everyone's "Top 10" list of things to do...you guessed it! LOSE WEIGHT!!!!! So, once again I hightailed it WW. This time though, it seemed a little bit different. Different, within me. For the previous year I had also been going to the gym and working out with one of my coworkers at the Preschool I worked at. Granted, it wasn't consistent, and it was only about 7-10 times a month! Once I got the diagnosis, though, I hired myself a trainer to help me! ~Interjection: I did discover that my diabetes could be controlled by diet and exercise, so I wouldn't need to give myself insulin injections! That was a HUGE relief!~ I started training with Jana on a twice weekly basis for half an hour each session. Let me tell you, how hard that was! I WAS 297 POUNDS, PEOPLE!!!! I was totally wiped out, sweating like a pig, and ready to cry! Except, something else was happening, too. I felt really good!

In the Beginning...

I suppose I should go back when it all started.  I was a Senior in High School, with your typical teenage body issues.  I look at pictures from then, and realize I really looked pretty good! I wasn't fat, but I must have thought I was, because my sister, Mary, and I decided to join Weight Watchers. What was I thinking, I was 18! Anyway, that was the first step of my journey. From that time on I was never satisfied with the way I looked. And there was always 'something' I needed to lose weight for...Prom, Graduation, boyfriends, college, marriage, and finally motherhood! Before I got pregnant with M'Lissa, my firstborn, I think I went on a thousand different diets. If you have ever been on this trip you know them all, too.  The Grapefruit Diet, Hard-Boiled Egg Diet, the Olympic Diet, diets from friends, diets from books, medically supervised liquid diets (that was the worst!!), I tried most all of them. Then the highlight of my life...I was pregnant! (After the first highlight of marrying my best friend, of course!)  From that time on, it was a free ticket to eat anything and everything I wanted!  I was eating for two, right?  I went on to gain more than a hundred pounds before my beautiful daughter was born! That started the spiral downward, emotionally. I suffered Postpartum depression, that went on to eventually lead to full blown chemical depression. It took a long time, and a whole other story to get all that straightened out, but eventually I was hooked up with the right meds, and was on my way to some semblance of "normal".  I did what I felt I could do to be the very best mom I could be. But being a 'fat mom' did do a number on my confidence and self-esteem.  I was still extremely obese when I became pregnant with my second daughter, Anna, but managed to only gain 18 pounds during this pregnancy. When she was born our wonderful little family was complete!  But I was most certainly not!!

...to be continued...