Finding what drives you in 2018

The new year is coming…it’s tomorrow in fact! Many people are setting resolutions. The sad fact is that many of them will fail. The ones who succeed are the ones who found a driving force….a reason to push forward. Here is mine…..a long time ago in a galaxy far away….just kidding. Really though, 5 years ago, I was already on my weight loss journey. I’ve inserted a picture of me eating cake before I lost weight for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy because no living person will ever see that in real life again! So, I had lost weight, and was stalled with my workouts. A good friend of mine had been trying to get me to tighten up my low glycemic diet and go full paleo. I thought she was nuts! SO one day, while she was visiting at my house, she took my tablet and opened up my amazon account and purchased the e-book ‘The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf’…..on my account, with my credit card! Then she says “congrats, you just bought a book…now read it!” Let me tell you, that book changed my life. I changed my diet and felt even better! A few months into my diet change, my husband joined the diet after finding out his blood pressure was dangerously high. He was willing to give it a month. Well, he’s hooked now. A few months after that, my then 7 year old son ended up going blind for a week before having his first migraine. He had migraines every week or two and was practically nonfunctional. His migraines were rare and would likely lead to blindness. 2 months later he passed a kidney stone! He was hospitalized for a week, and it took 22 days to pass because they didn’t know what his pain was. His future looked grim. We meet with a nutritionist assigned by his kidney doctor who went over the recommended diet, which seemed pretty much like the paleo diet. I asked her if paleo would work for him and she said yes! The whole family switched and we never looked back. My son, who had been a very moody child, changed overnight and was a happy normal kid! His migraines stopped, and he never passed another kidney stone. My daughter, who had suffered severe joint pain, hives, tremors and heart rate problems her entire life also started improving from her symptoms. She rarely has symptoms at all now! With all the improvement, I was still in severe back pain. Something had to change! Cardio on my elliptical wasn’t really helping the pain, so a little over 2 years ago I started weightlifting with the help of my best friend. I fell in love with lifting instantly! After trying running (hated it, I don’t run unless I’m being chased by zombies), cardio (boring)…I finally found what I loved! And low and behold, my back pain started to get better! For the first time in years, I wasn’t in excruciating pain in my hips just from sleeping. I started watching powerlifting meets and knew this is what I wanted! Back when that doctor told me to become an athlete or end up in a wheelchair…you remember me talking about that? I was beginning to understand what he meant! SOOOOO try different forms of exercise. Try different sports. Find something you love and use that love to drive you and motivate you. And don’t just do it, set goals and challenge yourself to excel! Don’t be average…be more! Age doesn’t matter! I started lifting at 41. And remember that what you put into your body fuels it, so choose your food wisely! So what drives me?? Well, living pain free, and showing my kids how to be a healthy athlete regardless of having Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. That’s what drives me! Having them sitting in the audience watching their mom set national records drives me. Them telling their friends how strong their mom is drives me. I want to be the best I can be for them, and I want them to live happy pain free lives as well!