by Lizabette » June 21st, 2006, 10:04 am
JUNE 21, 2006.
I go away from the boards for awhile and come back to discover this wonderful new thread. How terrific...a place to put into words whatever one feels, and with pictures, even.
I loved the beautiful pictures of Diana and Mike on their wedding day and her amazing story of their ongoing weight loss experiences…so touching and inspiring. Others I have read, but not nearly all. I look forward to reading them all soon.
My special wish before I reach my goal is to see the gorgeous (yes!) faces of each one of you on your avatars. Then as I check back on the forums, I can see something more than an emoticon or graphic, etc. (nice as they are). I truly feel closer to you all when I can match up your face with your posts. Sentimental, I know, but hard to love a faceless person!
May and June has been a harrowing two months in many ways…the loss of a beloved older sister, trips, reunion, much company, etc. Through it all, I can proudly say that I held my ground. No, I could not be perfect, due to scheduling, water issues, many other circumstances, but I landed on my size 7.5 feet, having maintained my weight and even losing a few pounds
That tells me that I do not have to allow pressures, emotional and otherwise, to cause me to go berserk and stuff myself with unhealthy food. We know for a fact that excess food does not satisfy the hurting soul, or relieve our emotional and stressful issues. Just the opposite!
Now on to my journal. If you can’t or don’t care to read it all in one sitting, maybe you can come back some day and read again. I think the idea is to add to it when the spirit moves. It might be a great tool for me to remember my faithful supporters and journey by.
I am 76 years old, and to my knowledge the most senior person on MF. My husband Bill and I will be celebrating our 60th Wedding Anniversary this October 2006. I don’t mind saying that I gratefully celebrate my age and longevity of marriage.
As a naïve youngster, I saw the 60’s and 70’s as being near life’s end, having one foot in the grave and the other foot slipping on a banana peel! But somehow, I’m still standing tall at 5’1’’!
And, hey, we older folks ("experienced", as Nancy often says) can get away with saying and doing what other unfortunate souls might not be excused for doing. We can be eccentric, grouchy, forgetful, obnoxious, stubborn, hard headed, etc. and people will simply raise their eyebrows, shrug and sort of overlook us…you know ‘senility’ and such.
Our life has been one long adventure after another. We have been so blessed to have served in the ministry for over 50 years, served as missionaries for a number of years, traveled to almost every nation, and through every state in the union, and including all the provinces of Canada. I have shared some of this with Nancy, whom I consider my “soul-sister” having much in common with her and Terry, concerning the ministry. (Hope she doesn’t mind) Truth be told, “We’ve been around the block a couple times!”
Since our retirement about 12 years ago, and relocation from Oklahoma City to beautiful Hot Springs, Arkansas, my weight had kept rising until I was stopping just short of 200. Whoa! My husband was becoming seriously concerned about my health. I weighed 10-15 pounds more than he did and that was embarrassing enough. Like so many, I was a yo-yo person, adding weight and losing weight on diet after diet, with only short-term success. What terrible trauma we perpetuate on these God-given bodies of ours!
“Where is that 16 year old bride that I married?”…He would say …really a tough love statement showing great concern for my deteriorating health. Besides being obese, high cholesterol and too high blood pressure and worst of all sleep apnea. I was quickly heading downhill.
So at some point, I told myself that I wanted to give that neat trim girl back to him, as a 60th wedding anniversary gift.!
And that’s where Medifast came in. As a stroke of destiny through magazine ads, we decided to give it a whirl.
I began this MF journey with a hefty weight of over 195. At this point in my trip I have temporarily lost over 47 pounds of hateful, unhealthy fat. Temporarily, of course because my goal is 135 or less, depending on how I feel when I reach that lofty place…
More later...
Lizabette
195/135 - Reached goal, Aug. 31, '06