I was going back over my blog and realized that I had received some comments to previous posts. Haven't figured out how to get an email notification when I receive a comment, so if I haven't blogged in a while, I'll miss some messages.
Well, there was one comment that seemed to need a clear answer. "What's your story?" and was that a picture of me in the hospital bed?
Yes, that's me and here's my story.
In 2004, I weighed over 300 lbs. I'm not sure how much more than three hundred, because I pegged my scale at it's limit: 3-0-0 solid. The needle on the scale buried into the side of the scale. There was no bouncing around 299.
I wasn't always heavy. In fact, I started bike racing in the mid 80's at a race put on by Velo Bob on the Berkeley Hills course. It was only five miles long and was run in the opposite direction of the usual race over the three bears. I finished second in the public category (out of two people) at nearly 15 minutes back. The guy who beat me (Garth Williams) gave me his prize which was a very cool Avocet cyclometer. I still have it. I was 15 years old and completely humbled by the experience. And I loved it.
The next couple of years saw me race a few times with enough bright spots to keep me hooked. Raced against the power house juniors of 7-Eleven and Plymouth Reebok with the highlight being a 20-ish placing at the junior districts won by Paul Willerton.
Eventually upgraded to a 3 in my first senior year and then I stopped racing.
My life took a different turn. I kept in touch with cycling for a while, but in a support role. I was a soigneur for Team Shaklee for a little while and worked on starting a pro women's team for a couple of seasons.
All the while, my weight went up and up.
People often ask, "How did you get so heavy?"
The simple answer is that I ate for comfort. Years of this led to 10 to 20 lbs. of weight gain per year for about a decade. I went from a racing weight of 128 and 5% body fat to 300 plus at 55% body fat in 15 years.
The next question I'm usually asked is "How did you lose the weight?"
The first thing I did was look at my options. I was very sick because of my obesity. I couldn't breath without a machine. My joints were damaged from the load. I had suffered a heart attack when I was 28. My blood glucose levels were a mess as were my cholesterol levels. I was told by my doctor that if I didn't change the way I lived, I would die by the time I was forty. These health issues along with the accompanying depression made exercise incredibly difficult.
I have five daughters and there was no way I was going to let that happen.
My best option was Gastric Bypass Surgery.
In August of 2004, I had an Open Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass. I was given a small pouch to hold food that I eat, my stomach was bypassed along with a 90 cm section of small intesine. This bypass limits the absorption of certain types of foods. The procedure was a success and within 5 months, I reached my goal weight of 150 lbs.
One thing I try to make sure that everyone understands, GBS is a tool. It allowed my to get a handle on my obesity. However, the long term success of my weight loss has come from a complete change in lifestyle. From the moment I began the recovery from surgery, I have been dedicated to living a healthier, active life.
Once I saw that I was meeting my weight loss goals, I promised myself that I would no longer pursue things in life that did not make me happy. Life is too short to accept misery. Whatever I did, I was going to do my best at it and make sure that it made me happy.
I returned to things that I had long forgotten. I resumed teaching, a job I had loved. I resumed riding and racing, an activity I had loved. And I surrounded myself with people that were positive and shared my dedication toward the pursuit of happiness.
***
When I was really heavy, cycling had become a memory. I even started to forget the actual feelings of the sport. The wind on my face. The burning in my legs. The sense of speed. I would close my eyes and imagine throwing my leg over my bike, clipping in and pushing off. I'd try to feel the wind on my face- even sitting in front of the fan to get that feeling again. My legs seemed to remember the effort. They would get hot as I imagined climbing the roads of the East Bay. Then I would open my eyes and the feeling of regret would hit...
Life is too short to let regret win.
(this is me chillin' on my pink 80's Serotta the day before surgery. I had lost 50 lbs. as part of my pre-surgery plan)
