A Short History

I'll start you off with a brief history of how this journey came to be. Last year was supposed to be the Year of Me. The year that I finally made strides in taking some of this weight off. 2009 started off with a bang, a membership at LifeTime Fitness, with an awesome and incredibly hot trainer DuWayne and a well educated nutritionist that gave me some great tips. The first two months went really well and I dropped 12 pounds. Then in early March I had a freakish back injury while in the shower. My efforts came to a screeching halt when I realized that discs between L3/L4 and L4/L5 were bulging. I saw my ortho, a couple of chiropractors, went to a little PT which made it horribly worse, and in the end I've just decided to live with it for the time being. It still causes pain, but seriously, after having 3 babies my pain threshhold is incredibly high. To this day I have yet to have an MRI, I loathe them anyway, so long story short...I'm in denial about addressing the injury any further and have decided that if I can just get some weight off the pain and pressure will subside somewhat.

I attempted to get back on the wagon several times last year, pushed myself to attend my appts with the trainer, but ultimately did myself no favors by avoiding the big issue, the injury. By May I threw in the towel and decided to enjoy the summer, albeit in a fat swimsuit. By the end of summer, after existing nearly every day in my comfy black dresses that never showed any sign of weight gain, I found myself with a renewed interest in my weight loss goal. My dear friend Kay and I started Weight Watchers together, the first time I've actually done it with someone.

Continued to spin my wheels and talk the talk for several months, losing and gaining the same 10 pounds. Then at the end of Biggest Loser season 8 I saw the add for Fitness Ridge and began to look into it. I saw that Mike's brother Max had gone to jump start his journey. I just loved Mike! But I digress. I said to my husband, "Wouldn't it be great if I could lose 50 on my own, then go there to break through any plateau or to renew my motivation?" He said, sure, lose 50 on your own and you can go.

Long story short, well, not really, but I called in early January and the first available spot was for the week of July 18. Of course I was hoping to go earlier, like say when the kids are on spring break in April. Being the control freak that I am, I feel that I can only go when the girls are out of school (summer, or break) so that Dave doesn't need to manage the whole school routine. I did it for those 4 weeks when he was in Finland/Israel/Australia. Not easy, and wouldn't wish it upon anyone....not even him! So I took the July date, wait listed for April 4, spring break week. The awesome Nancy at FR called with an opening for a shared room on the 4th, which of course I took. Then she called back with an available private room. Luck and timing were on my side. I have not lost the 50 pounds on my own, not even close, but alas my journey begins, weather I'm ready or not...here I come!