Oh no Diet Woes!!!
First off, let's not call it a diet!!! If we just rethink our eating patterns and choose healthy foods, it is not a diet. Dieting makes me think of starving myself, then when the weight is gone, going back to my old way of eating. We are striving to get FIT, not skinny. Well maybe a little thinner. But when you hit the 40's, it gets much harder to take off what you have eaten all these years. And if your weight gain was caused or helped along by various medications that have a side effect of weight gain, you are well on your way to really tipping the scales. So what do you do? Do you go cold turkey off the meds, and hope your health does not spiral downhill? Do you starve yourself? Do you become an exercise fanatic? Wait!! Can't do that when you are wrought with arthritis and various orthopedic problems. Well thank goodness the warm weather is just around the corner, and swimming will be the exercise of choice--if I can make that one lap to the end of the pool!! What happened to those days when I could do 20 laps in an Olympic size pool? I know!! They are lost with my youth. I better get that pain medication prescription refilled. Lord knows, this getting fit thing will cause more aches and pains than I already have.
Let me tell you, in 1991 I broke my left leg, shattering and rotating it. I needed three surgeries and had to learn how to walk all over again. That year I was dead set against gaining weight, being laid up with a broken leg. Well I really changed my eating habits and ended up losing 85 pounds that year. I kept that weight off for many years, then in the last five years, the weight came creeping back. Medication was one of the culprits, along with a more sedentary lifestyle, and lack of exercise. Now I am paying the price. But if I could lose 85 pounds in 1991, I can do it again. Maybe I need to break the other leg............or not!!
I guess what you really need to know is that I am a 48 year old mother of two adult children and grandmother of two girls. I currently weigh 280 pounds, am 5'11" with a large frame. I would like to lose about 81 pounds, putting me at the 199 mark. For my body frame and height, I would be happy with that weight.
Let's get started!!!!!