I listened to my doctor from the first day of the informational seminar and followed his instructions to the letter.  His instructions included eating protein first, drinking 64 ounces of water, and moving my body every day, working up to 30 minutes per day, every day.  I worked diligently at all of it from the day after I had my Lap Band Surgery in 2004, sort of.

Did that mean I was non-compliant?  Not in my book.  I was writing down everything that went into my mouth, staying within my calorie limits, getting in my protein minimums, drinking my water and sort of moving my body - a little.  It was hard to do at 424 pounds.  My knees and my back hurt all the time, and walking 20 steps would get me breathing so hard I had to stop to catch my breath if the pain in my knees didn’t stop me first.  What a mess I was for sure.

What did I do then to meet my doctor’s 30 minutes of moving every day?  I tried.  I moved around inside the house for the first week after surgery.  Then I went back to work and moved around there, And then strange things started happening.  The weight was dropping off my body and instead of sitting and waiting in the truck while my husband got everything on the grocery list, I started going into the store with him, and getting some more walking done.  Then it was not only the grocery store, but Costco, or Sam’s Club as well.  I wondered if I could walk inside the mall without dying, so I tried that, and low and behold, I did it.  I could now go back to window shopping, and actually start real shopping as my clothes started falling off.

This continued and I became brave enough to walk to the park from my house, the closest I had been to the beach (just about 12 houses from my front door) in years, because of the small world my size had forced me to live in.  I DID IT!

These walks became walks down to the sand, and eventually on the sand.  Then my knee and hip began “talking to me” on a regular basis.  I have arthritis in my right knee and it is bone on bone and I was not ready for knee replacement surgery.  Uneven ground was not a good place for me to be walking as it stressed my joints too much.  Did I give up?  NOPE.

Next phase… swimming pool.  I have always been a swimmer.  I love the water, but the ocean here in Ventura County, CA is a tad too cold for my tastes.  I like Caribbean or Hawaiian warm waters.  I Found a pool and figured lap swimming would be moving my body.  It was and it is.  I was 100 pound lighter by this time and started by swimming one lap, then two, then three.  I didn’t die.  I started getting stronger, and I kind of started enjoying myself.  It became a contest with ME.  Could I swim more laps than I did yesterday?  Could I swim the same number of laps in less time than I did last week?  Wow, this moving your body stuff started feeling good too.  When I was done, showered and back in my street clothes I had what I can only explain as an aura of accomplishment around me.  Between the endorphins created by the exercise and my working on improving a little bit each day/week/month I had a new motivation level.  Eventually I was swimming 60 minutes 6 days a week.  When I am in the pool the only time I stop is if I somehow manage to try to drown myself by drinking pool water (yuck) or if my goggles didn’t fit properly and I had water in my eyes.  Otherwise I am a machine.  Not the fastest machine, but I keep those laps going until I am done.

All this time the weight kept coming off.  Somewhere in there I had 2 reconstructive surgeries (okay, plastic surgery), and was out of the water for about 12 weeks with the first, and about 6 weeks with the second.  I walked during those times and found out that I missed, truly missed, my time swimming.  ME - I was waiting with extreme anticipation for the day when I’d be released to use the pool again.  Not something I ever expected to do - Miss Exercise?  Why, when I could just chill somewhere, and do nothing?  Guess it got in my blood.

Somewhere in here I realized there was more to this exercise thing then swimming and thought I would pursue it a bit.  I hired a personal trainer, started warming up for 10-20 minutes on the treadmill and then worked on building muscles that swimming hadn’t developed yet.  I liked this too!  What was wrong with me?  I began alternating a swimming day, and then a training day, and this was great.  I watched new muscles develop on my body, I carried myself with more self-confidence, and it was a new game for me to play at.  Me, using exercise as a game to challenge myself to continue to do better than yesterday or last week or last month?  The ultimate competition for me fitness wise has become to challenge myself to do more, to get better, to try things I have never done before.

I am weight lifting 2 days a week, swimming 3 days a week and either walking at the beach, or getting a few miles in on the elliptical on day 6.  I take one day of rest now.  I love it, I don’t allow myself excuses to miss it.  I always feel better walking out the gym door having completed what I set out to do than when I walked in, typically still half asleep.

Here I am, 11 years later, still at the gym 5-6 days a week, still swimming, still weight lifting, still working on being the BEST me I can be.  I compete ONLY against myself.  I have watched my body shrink and change in so many ways.  It’s not just the number on the scale.  Muscle is denser than fat so the more muscle I create the smaller I look, and the stronger I feel.

ME - no longer 424 pounds, no longer unfit and unhealthy.  ME- 2015, 66 years young, building muscle and working on my race, my pace, and just getting better at life and fitness and this WLS journey every day.