What a difference a decade makes!

Now that my birthday is fast approaching, I have looked back at where I have come from and it has been a crazy ride.
I remember my 30th birthday was spent at Ector Elementary School.  I came to work and there was a sign and balloons on my classroom door.They sang happy birthday to me over the intercom, the kids all wished my happy birthday and I had cake.  The year I turned 30 is also when I started to fall apart.  I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and started to take medicine.  I had been on anti-depressants for years before hand, so taking medicine was nothing new.  I have to admit it did scare me a bit.

A couple of years after that, I got the news that scared me.  I was told I had Type 2 Diabetes.  This added yet another medication to my list and a new lifestyle, in theory.  I admit that I made tons of mistakes and did not take care of myself like I should have.  I fully admit that I ate too much and all the wrong things.  I did not exercise at all.  My school at the time had stairs and sometimes I had to climb them to get places.  I hated that I had to wait at the top for a couple of minutes to catch my breath.  I was a complete wreck.

This went on for a couple of years.  I kept eating and not exercising.  I kept getting bigger and bigger.  I don't like to admit it, but I think I hated myself just a bit.  I had always used food as a comfort and friend.  I also blamed the food for making me fat.  The food did not make me fat, I did.  I made myself fat in an effort to crush the hurts that I had held inside for so long.

When I turned 40, I decided enough is enough.  The doctor, that I had had since I was at least 12, was not really working for me.  You had to wait for hours to get into the office, you never got a copy of your lab results, and heaven forbid if he prescribed you a new medication, because they would never let you know that you needed to take it.  I asked around school and go the name of a doctor.  I have to say that I love her.  I don't have to wait forever and I can even email her a question.  She, as you know, got me connected with TFN, and through her Camp Gladiator.

Let me tell you an honest answer, without all of those things happening, I would not be here today.  I have a great support system, that I did not have before.  I am changing my bad habits into good habits and actually look forward to sweating my buns off 4 days a week.  I have lost weight, gained muscle, made friends, made lifestyle changes, and I am becoming the true me that I hid under layers of fat and blubber.

It is not easy.  Sometimes it is not fun, like when I went to the hockey game and wanted a Nestle Tollhouse cookie so bad I wanted to cry.  It is all worth it though.  My only regret is that I did not start sooner.

Peace out peeps.  I have to go get ready to get my gladiator face on so I can take on the world.