Sick and Tired

Call me Tumie.

Might as well, my tummy is so large, I look 10 1/2 or 12 months pregnant. I am 60 years old, 5'2", 260 pounds, and about to get my 2nd knee replaced because there is no cartilage left in it. Having made those arrangements for the surgery, I went out of town for most of May, trying to relax for a time rather than get nervous waiting.

While at that vacation resort, it didn't take me long to realize I was unhappy with myself. Each glance in a mirror revealed a morbidly obese old woman, whose brown hair was drab and revealing quite a bit of gray. My face was developing jowls and tiny wrinkles that would not stay tiny for long.

I should have a lot more useful and fun years left. My grandmother lived to 99. But I wasn't going to get those years if I didn't address these problems I saw in myself. What was I going to do?

The first thing I did was color my hair. That was an immediate change that I could see with every glance at the mirror, and served as a promise to myself that other changes were under way, changes that would not be visible right away.

Other things I did:

1. Started going to the resort pool and working out. A lot of walking back and forth in chest-high water, which relieved a lot of the weight bearing down on my knees and also offered resistance. By the time I left for the trip home, I could feel the difference in how far I could walk before I needed to rest.

2. I read a fitness magazine, which I was afraid would make me even more depressed about my condition. But I did find a few snippets of things I could do to help my body. For instance, for each pound I weigh, I should be drinking an ounce of water each day. 260 pounds, 260 ounces, which is just over 2 gallons, which I guarantee you I have not been getting.

3. When I went to my pre-surgery physical, I discovered my doctor's office had a dietician in the same building, so I made an appointment that very day. She's going to help me figure out how to 'balance' my diet, and once I get the okay to go to the gym again, we'll tackle adding exercise to my routine.

So many of these processes take a long time to see any progress. I don't expect miracles, but by keeping this blog as a trail of what I have done, I'm hoping it will help me stay on the path. If my tale of a (probably rocky) trail to better health helps others face their issues, that would be the icing on my (imaginary) cake.