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.
For months now I have been talking to my very overweight friend and trying to get her to eat clean so that eventually she could get to a gym and get her life back. I have NOT succeeded in moving her even one iota. Very depressing. However, her housekeeper that comes in once a week has told her that my progress is so dramatic and inspiring that SHE is going to start eating clean and going to the gym! Yay! lol At least someone is getting the message 
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