I am on a quest. A life-changing quest.
My daughter announced in October, 2011 that she was expecting. Yea, I was beyond happy. I was 55 years old and had already had four great-nieces from my three older girls (my nieces we helped raise) so my daughter Hope was the baby of the family, the last to have any children. We were and are excited to welcome this new child into our family. Thanksgiving came, with lots of joy and food. Oh my the food, the parties during Christmas, and the trays of cookies. I even broke down (Grandma Mode) and made a ton of goodies for the holidays. Eating, more eating, talking while eating, walking while eating, sampling goodies at the Mall and other stores, eating and eating. Man life was good. I knew I was putting on a few pounds, but what the hell it was the holidays.
One day just before Christmas, a friend and I were sitting down talking about her Grandson and the problems he was having in his life. I consoled her and we chatted some more. Then this friend, this awesome women, said something so profound. "He needs to make better choices, it's his choice in what happens. He is just making bad choices in his life." Well, I nodded my agreement, gave her a hug and she left. I continued to pick up the house and decided to get a cup of coffee and put my feet up. When WHAM, out of nowhere came this voice "You need to make better choices in your life, you are overweight, out of shape and have lost complete control of yourself!" Huh, "Weigh yourself and you'll see what I'm talking about. OK, I got up and went to the scale. HOLY SHIT!!!! I know I'm overweight but OMG....328 pounds!!!
What now? What is going on? I sank down and sat on the stool. How had I let myself get so out of control. I started thinking...am I going to be around to see my new grandson? Maybe not. At least I won't see him grow up, graduate high school, college, get married and yes maybe even have a great-grandson. It could happen but not with my health in the shape it was in. Then I started thinking, Connie was right I had the choice. I chose to eat junk and sit around on my fat ass and complain about how much pain I was in, yeah I have fibromyalgia, but what the hey, I'm not dead. Not yet anyway.
Talk about a life altering moment. Well to make a long story short. My niece Kalsy gave me the link to FITDAY.com. I started that day to track what I ate, my fats, carbs, calories and my activities. The worst part of all of this was actually putting down in black and white how much I weighed. Man, was that hard, but now almost 6 weeks later I have lost almost 20 pounds. Yea!!! I would love to say it has been easy as pie, but it has been hard. I crave, mentally, the fattening things I used to eat at a drop of a hat. But I also am finding that I love veggies and with smart choices (here is that choice word again) and starting to exercise (slowly) I am making changes and better choices in my life.
It all comes down to making radically different choices in my lifestyle. I need to be aware of what I put in my mouth and what I don't do daily for exercise. It is a conscious effort to totally change my lifestyle for the better, for the healthier and for a much happier me.
A bonus of all this is that my hubby, because he is following what I am eating (I cook!!!) he has lost almost 15 pounds too. He is a diabetic so this "diet" of mine will benefit both of us.
It will be a long haul trying to control my lifestyle of 55 years, but with God's guidance and my families help, I'll make it. I will try to post as often as I remember, I want to keep this blog as a diary of my journey. So until later, read a good book, make love and yes enjoy a small piece of dark chocolate. Because life is for the living and chocolate is a part of life, the dark and yummy part. But only in moderation!!!
The Choice is Yours!!!
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