Originally Posted by midwife (Post 3891441)

Congrats!! You are such an inspiration!! This morning when my alarm went off for me to get up and go running, I wanted to turn it off and go back to bed. Then I said, "Um, excuse me, did you have brain surgery this week?" and I told myself, "Um, no." And then I told myself, "Even if you had surgery, Rhonda didn't use that as an excuse!" So I got up and ran. Cause if you can do what you did going through all of the stuff you went through....well, there is no plausible excuse that I can come up with to not do what I need to do. You just pretty much destroyed all of the excuses on the planet.

Originally Posted by milmin2043 (Post 3897247)

Thank you again to all of you. To the poster who asked about the heat here, I have been extremely cold lately. Not sure if it's the weight loss or my operations, but something is a little off. It was 111 degrees this afternoon and it's the first day in months that I haven't had to put a light sweater on. Crazy huh? I ran a 5k this morning and came in first in my age group of 45-49, with a time of 27:31. That is really good for me. I pushed it quite a bit harder than I usually would. I really want to break into the 26 minute range this year. Thank goodness it started at 7:30 am before the heat got too intense.

Thanks again for all of your responses.

Originally Posted by milmin2043 (Post 3890240)

Hello Friends,

Well, I made it. This morning when I got on the scale I weighed 134. I started out at 235 almost exactly a year ago. The date was June 15th, 2010. Today is June 13th. As so many others here have said, "I am so glad that I started a year ago and didn't wait".

Many of you know most of my story, but for the goal post I will retell a little of it. I was never overweight as a child. My mother was very strict with what we ate. That didn't work out the best for me because as soon as I went to college in the early 80s, and had a meal plan, I would pig out. I finally felt free as though no one was going to tell me "stop eating, you're going to get fat". Then we would drink beer and order late night pizzas, (it started out because my roommate and I were in love with the delivery guy). When I started college I weighed 125. I gained about 40 lbs. in 2 years. I got married a few years after graduating and starved down the 40 lbs. That was the first time I had tried to lose weight.

I gained most of it back within about 5 years. I weighed around 165 at that time. I thought I was as big as a battleship. So funny how our perception changes. I remember vividly how this time around, on my way down the scale, I was overjoyed at seeing 165 lbs. When I got pregnant with my first child, I weighed around 150. After delivery, I weighed 190 and seriously never lost another lb. I didn't gain much with my second child, only about 19 lbs. but I was still huge from my first. After my third child, I shot up again, and weighed around 240, my highest ever.

I was told I had early onset Parkinson's Disease in 1999. I have had 4 brain surgeries since that time to help control symptoms. I don't want to bore anyone with the details of my illness, I would just like to say that since losing my weight, my symptoms have markedly decreased. I have included a few pictures, some from this month (June 1st) when I had my last brain surgery.

I ran a half marathon yesterday. I have run 3 halfs so far, and I have already signed up for a full marathon on Dec. 4th. I start training for that 18 weeks before on Aug. 1st. (Yes, I ran the half marathon 11 days after a craniotomy). Amazing huh? Even with my Parkinson's, I have never felt better in my life. I eat mainly organic produce. About 75% of my diet is made up of food that grows in the ground. I love it. I was addicted to sugar and processed crap foods. I would have never believed that I would so enjoy real food that our bodies are meant to eat. I was the epitomy of a sugar addict. So, I am living proof that anyone can do this. I completely avoid my trigger foods and will always as long as I want to keep my new size 6 wardrobe. I started at a size 18W.

Well, if you have read all of this, congratulations for not falling asleep and thank you. Best wishes to you all.

Rhonda