Oh my gosh, where has the time gone? I looked back at my blog and realized it has
been a long time since I have posted. I
am constantly getting asked “are you still hiking? How is your friend? Are you still losing weight?” Well how about we get up to date and I will
tell you what I have been doing, show you some pictures and then finish off
with my why. I think this story will be different than what I have posted
before and so I hope you all will understand me a little better at the end of
it. So let’s get the obvious questions
out of the way:
Have
I still been hiking? – the answer is yes and no. I have been going out occasionally to our
local lake trails but as for the climbing high hills in the gorge, no I have
not been out doing that. I loved it and
wouldn’t mind going out again but life seems so busy and my priorities right
now are very different. I have been
trying to do some organized walks when they come up….more about these later…I
know I know but you have to wait.
How
is my friend Laina? – she is still my friend one that I have
had for a huge portion of my life and one that will always be in my life. She has been hiking with a new friend and
having some health issues but she is still trudging along. No we are not mad at each other that couldn’t
happen, just life is busy for me right now.
She is still on her weight loss journey and although she has had issues
she continues to move along.
Are
you still losing weight? – Sort of to be honest I gained about 10
lbs over the winter back by not doing what I knew needed to be done. The bottom line is that I need to watch what
I put in my mouth and I need to move my body in one form or fashion. At this point I am still about 4 lbs up from
my lowest point but my dimensions are about the same and I am hopeful it will
be coming back down very soon.
The
Who What and Where ….
Organized
walks:
I started the
year on January 1st out on the dike in Washougal for a 5k, it was a
beautiful winter day here but bitterly cold.
Laina and I walked together and had a great time.
Laina and I then walked in the Fort Vancouver 10k in
March, it again was a beautiful but cold day out. This was the farthest, organized “walk” we
had done but it felt great to get out walk in our local area. This was such a well-organized walk with
timing of all participants, even the walkers and pictures that they emailed to
us after the event was over.
Then in May I headed off to Springfield OR to walk in
the Biggest Loser Walk it too was a 5k.
I was joined this time by two of my beautiful nieces Karissa and
Devann. Some very close friends Karen,
Angi, Sandy, Alex and Jessica. This was
probably my favorite of the year in that I got to spend girl time with my
nieces that I don’t get very often.
Devann, Karissa and I 
Crossing the finish line
Zumba:
Through the winter Laina and I took some Zumba classes
from a couple of local places and of course I really enjoyed them. If you have never done Zumba you should give
it a try, it doesn’t matter if you are coordinated or not as long as you are
moving.
Walking:
David and I have been getting up in what I call the
middle of the night and walking ok well 4:15 am. For those that know me I am not a morning
person but I have been putting my head lamp on and walk about 3.2 miles with
him. This morning walking has shown us some
wildlife that I didn’t want to believe was out in our neighborhood…aka coyotes
and possums
Golf:
In February, David went to a work meeting in TX, when he
came home he told me that he wanted to learn to play golf. I said I would like to learn too. Our other hobbies do not include each other,
he likes to fish and I like to hike, so I thought this would be something we
could do together. We began taking
lessons in March and since then it has been LOVE!!! We go practice or play golf about 3-5 days a
week. I knew my husband had a
compulsive personality but I really didn’t know what I was in for I think he
might even dream golf at night. I am not
complaining but I don’t think we will be going on the LPGA or PGA tours anytime
soon.
Other
Exercise programs:
I have also dabbled with other exercise programs as time
allows like Tai Chi and a cardio program.
Both of these programs are by Beachbody the makers of P90X, I joined
this company in April of this year and so far I love it….. this leads into my
why.
The
reason I am who I am today and why I want to conquer obesity.,…
My whole life I have had some extra pounds, and from the
time I was a teenager I was judged by some of my family for my size. To be honest I wish I was back to that size
again. As I got a little older I was
told that if I wanted to get a great guy the only way that would happen was to
lose weight. There was even a time in my
late teens that I would eat and throw up just so that I didn’t gain
weight. It was something that scared
me. After I decided that I didn’t want to
live like that I went the other way and throughout my life I was always worried
about becoming so consumed with losing weight that I would again go back to
making myself sick to do it. As you all
know that is not the way to lose weight or to live your life.
Laina and I in high school with our friend Michelle
In 2007 I met David and at that time I was in pretty
good shape I had been working out with a trainer at the gym and was doing what
I needed to do the right way. But like
most couples in love, we began to gain weight together slowly and the more
comfortable I got in the relationship the more I gained. There is a part of my personality that if you
tell me I can’t do something I will prove to you that I can….well I guess subconsciously
I was thinking look at me he loves me in spite of being fat. At the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010 I
started having stomach issues, this was literally the most painful thing I had
ever lived through. I would go to work
and come home to lay on the couch in extreme pain, for almost of a year I laid
on the couch and wanted it to end all of the time going to the doctors to try
to figure out what was wrong with me.
David and I got married in the summer of 2010 and at that time I was the
largest I had ever been in my WHOLE LIFE and guess what else I was the HAPPIEST
I had ever been in my whole life too. I
had found a man that no matter what loved ME!!!
My Beautiful Niece Lindsay and I on wedding day 
David and I on Wedding day 2010
Finally in the beginning of 2011 the doctor determined
that I needed to have my gallbladder taken out….which I did but the pain still
did not go away completely so she sent me to a nutritionist to see if it was
diet related. The first visit with the
nutritionist I had already started Weight Watchers at work so I was feeling
great I had lost a little weight…hahaha it was then that she told me how much I
had weighed just a few short months before that. I was at 271 lbs. I said you must have the wrong chart there is
no way I weighed that amount….ugh are you kidding me. I realized then that I have to do this in
order to be healthy and to live a long life with the man I have always dreamed
of. I would have to get healthy, I know that
health is not the number on the scale but at that weight I was not
healthy. I also learned from the nutritionist
that I was lactose intolerant who knew that all of those bowls of ice cream was
contributing to my stomachache, I thought ice cream was supposed to make you
feel better…well not in my case. So I
started changing my diet, slowly at first but in time it was getting better.
In the summer of 2012 when I met up with Laina and we
started going out hiking together I also started to look at my life and figure
out what made me who I was and what was going to drive me to be different.
We both talked about how eventually we would like to
help others lose weight but there was a part of me that thought who would look
at me for inspiration look at how far I have to go. It was Laina that was on the journey to lose
270 lbs, me I just had……oh wait I had 111 lbs to lose in total…..oh could I do
this?? I was going through the motions
and I was losing but I don’t know if I truly believed I could do it, but I was
going to try. Well as time went on I
started to do more self-analysis and what was going to drive me and I have now
thought about people and situations in my life that has prepared me for this
journey. Let me briefly tell you what I
have come to realize.
People
matter -
My grandma always used to tell me that I could be
anything I wanted to and to never let anything hold me back. At a time while my other grandmother was
telling me to lose weight because I wasn’t good enough. I remember the day like it was yesterday
because she was dying at the time she told me that and to be honest, I always knew
that she was always there for me. It was
after her death that my eating disorder got out of control for a while.
The next person to shape my life was my Aunt Sandy. She is not someone I was close to in my life
and to be honest she was someone who kind of always scared me. However in 2009 at the age of 54 she was in a
motorcycle accident that left her in a coma.
Her helmet was split right behind her left ear and she had a brain stem
injury. The doctors told us that she may
never wake up and if she did they didn’t know what kind of condition she would
be in. Well about 8-9 weeks after her
accident she did wake up. She had a LONG
road to recovery and although she did die about 8 months later there were things
in her journey that they said she would never be able to do and she did. They told us she would never be able to walk,
or feed herself…when she did wake up it took a long time and a lot of care but
we got her up walking, she was able to go to the bathroom with help, she was
able to feed herself and she was able to know that we all loved her. It was during this time that I learned the
importance of family. It literally took
all of us to help her recovery and if it wasn’t for us all working together who
knows what shape she would have been in.
I also learned that you can overcome the worst with hard work.
This situation reminded me of a time when I was a
teenager and we had racehorses. We had
one name Skybo and during one race that was a 400 yard sprint, he got knocked
to his knees coming out of the starting gate then the two horses on either side
of him closed the hole. He not only got
back up but he went to the outside and ended up coming in second place by a
nose that was determined in a photo finish.
I too remember that race like it was yesterday because it taught me to
be tough no matter who knocks you down you can come back and win the race.
In 2012 when Laina and I started our hiking adventures and
our weight loss journeys together I learned to not say no to her. I thought if at 300+ lbs that she wants to
climb that hill that there was no reason that I couldn’t do it too. We climbed many heights together and did
things that I never thought were possible.
It was about that same time that I got reconnected with my
friend Shelly. She has been a friend for
about 15 years and we took a little time apart due to life just getting in the way
but now that we are back together I couldn’t love her more. I do things because I know she can’t and I
share my story so she can experience it too.
This blog was started so she could see where I was going; my posts on FB
about my travel adventures are so she feels like she is there too. She is in her 40’s and has a muscular issue
that even going to the grocery store causes her to be in extreme pain for
days. I realize that like my aunt,
Shelly’s life turned unexpectedly. I
want to live life to be healthy and to not wonder what if or if I would have
just done …..
So in April 2013 I joined the Beachbody team, they are a
wonderful group of coaches, who are really just people like you and me. The company’s main goal is to end the trend
to obesity.
What better company to be associated
with, they want people to live their best lives. So I too am a coach, am I skinny, NOPE but I
am working on it. Am I going to get
there overnight, NOPE, am I perfect with my diet NOPE but I am working on changing
my life and each day I try to be better than the day before. I realize that I have a lot to learn but what
I know is that I want to share with people what I do know. I want to help people to live their best
lives. So if you or someone you know
wants to have me help encourage them on their fitness journey’s then email me
or call me let’s work together to fight obesity and the health problems caused
by poor nutrition.
I am going to be changing my blog a bit I am going to start blogging about the excerise program that I am currently working on plus the golf courses that David and I are playing at. I want to leave you with one last picture that resinates with me and I hope she inspires you too.
