For a long time I had been dissatisfied with my appearance and with my rapidly deteriorating health. I had an arthritic knee, a badly scar-tissued right ankle, and degenerative disc disease in my neck. I could only walk very slowly and I was in a lot of pain. I was crying in bed every night for up to 4 hours because my neck was hurting so much that I couldn’t sleep. I knew that I would either give up trying and end up in a wheelchair or I would have to do something extreme to improve my condition. I made a decision that would alter my life forever. I decided to do everything possible to improve my health no matter how hard it seemed. I decided that I would have to lose weight and strengthen my muscles in the weak areas.
Knowing that I would become discouraged if my efforts didn’t give me some rapidly noticeable improvements I decided that I would fast for as long as I could on liquids alone to kick-start my weight loss program. I fasted for 10 days straight on juices, homemade vegetable broths, coffee, water and multivitamins. I walked all over the city every day and I had a real boost of energy from not having to metabolize food. I lost 10 pounds and was so excited that it motivated me to work harder to lose more. I put myself on a very strict diet of vegetables, skinless boneless chicken breasts, salmon, coffee with honey, muesli with skim milk, rice cakes, sprouted grain bread, and fresh fruit. I ate no fat, sugar, oil, or anything else outside of the above list. I used only lemon juice as a condiment. Later I added other foods such as egg whites, no-fat yogurt and tomato sauces.
The day I stopped fasting and started eating I joined the gym. I was weak at first so I used the treadmill for cardio and took yoga classes for strength. It wasn’t long before I had an appointment with the trainer and was following his expert advise on the machines and with weights. I saw rapid improvement in strength and was consistently losing weight. It was very encouraging! I started reading everything I could find on eating clean and was slowly adding foods to my diet that I really needed. I started reading weightlifting books and decided to use the barbells and dumbbells more than the machines once I understood proper form. I added more protein to my diet and I was still losing fat but now I was slowly gaining muscle. The muscle gain increased my metabolic rate and helped me to lose more weight. Over a 3 month period I threw out my complete wardrobe and bought a new one to accommodate my thinning body 3 different times. I worked hard on my ankle and broke down the scar tissue. I strengthened the muscles in my back which relieved the pressure on my spinal discs. I was feeling stronger, healthier and 99 % pain free. I no longer had to wear fat clothes and felt good about my appearance.
My typical week has gone from 7 days at the gym to every 2nd day training all of the muscle groups with weights and doing abdominal exercises as well as cardio days outside on the alternating days. I power walk all over the city, skip rope, sprint every now and then, and anything else that I can think of that will burn fat. Next week it’s the Grouse Grind! I have lost 31 pounds so far and I’m stronger than I was 15 years ago. Weight training has become a way of life for me now and it’s definitely given me my life back and instilled a sense of pride in accomplishment. There is more weight to lose and more muscle to gain but I am hooked.
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