Thought it was about time to start writing down some of the thoughts rolling around in my head.  Where better to do it then here !

I’ve been fat for as long as I can remember.  When I was 18 I went to the Dentist to see about my wisdom teeth being pulled and they wouldn’t do it in the office as I was over 300 lbs.  That’s really the first time I remember actually knowing how much I weighed.  I’m now 43 and since then I’ve always been as fat as I was at 18 or fatter. 

2 1/2 years ago I was diagnosed as being diabetic.  I’m sure I had it much longer then that but was too scared to go to the Doctor.  When I think about that now I’m like WTF was I thinking !!  Isn’t a Doctor there to HELP you.  I didn’t want the whole ‘you must lose weight’ speech.  NO DUH !!  I didn’t wake up today thinking I was skinny. 

I was extremely lucky to get an amazing Doctor !!  It was TGH (The Gorgeous Husband) who found him.  TGH was so amazing….  he talked to the Doc before I went in and explained the situation and asked him if he was comfortable with my being his patient.  Right after being diagnosed I hit the health bandwagon.  Mostly with eating habits but also a bit of exercise.  Got feeling pretty good.  Started out at about 425 lbs. and got down to about 340. 

Then I started slipping a bit at a time.  Wasn’t long until I was right back to my old habits.  Got back up to 425 lbs. and felt horrible.  So began the journey as it is today….

At the end of February of this year I knew it was time to change what I had been doing for the past 43 years.  I had to look at my food, beverage and movement choices and make a drastic change.  I could hardly get up off the couch, my knees hurt so bad, I couldn’t walk more then 20 feet before i was huffing and puffing, don’t even think about going up more then one flight of stairs, and feeling hot and sweaty all the time.  I want to be around to be a pain the TGH’s side for a long time so things had to change !!

I’d like to say it was hard but it was actually pretty easy.  Well, the eating healthy was easy.  I have a couple of amazing Diabetic cookbooks and decided I was going to cook at least 6 days a week.  The recipes are so tasty I didn’t even miss going out and I feel so much better when not eating all that ‘heavy’ food.  The movement part was a bit tougher at first.  Walking more then 15 minutes at a time was really difficult and ‘yucky’ feeling.  I kept telling myself to keep pushing Leslie !!  It will get better and easier !!  Slowly but surely it did.

It’s only been 5 months but last weekent TGH and I celebrated our 12th Anniversary by going up to Vancouver and walking to the Aquarium and around the city.  We walked about 8 miles and I still had energy to keep going !!  What an amazing weekend we had.  No more feeling like I was going to keel over at any second, saw some really great sights, and spent the time with the most important and best person I have ever known. 

As of today I am now 330.4 lbs (gotta love those digital scales) but more importantly I feel so much better.  TGH says I’m much happier now, and I know that’s true.  I believe when I started in February I was 425 lbs…  didn’t have a scale to weight myself then.  The Doctor’s scale only reads to 400 so I can’t be positive but I know I was over that when I went there in the middle of February. 

Now that I’ve written a book I shall be off to take the dogs for a walk then we’re having company over tonight for ‘bad movie night’ which is another story entirely !!  I’m going to cook a yummy lasagna from one of my Diabetic cookbooks and a banana bread dessert from the same book.  Should be a great day !!

Until next time…  always look forward, never look back and take one day at a time.