When I first moved to WA state I thought I was "fat".  I'm just shy of 5' 4" tall and weighed in at 125-lbs and a jean size of 5 back in those days.  I was bummed about my weight back then 'cuz I didn't weigh as little as I did before I had my first child (which incidentally was 99-lbs and in retrospect I was grossly underweight!).  I led a very active lifestyle tho'.

As time passed, the weather  of WA (rain, rain, and yet more rain) got to me.  I'm a sun worshipper.  I thrive on H-O-T and sunny days!  We're talking Phoenix, AZ in the summer and out hiking-in-the-blazing-sun blast of energy...  I love the summers here, but they don't get hot enough for me and by the time I'm feeling that old surge of positive energy again, the summer is gone and the gray skies and constant drizzle are firmly back in place.  WA weather makes me want to hibernate.  As a direct result, I started putting on weight.  

Blah.

Over time, I started having additional issues - health related, but not weight related - that compounded the weight gain.  I also got remarried to a not-so-perfect man but who's perfect for me, we started trying to have children.  We weren't having any success on our own, so I started taking fertility drugs.  Lots more weight gain.  After 3yrs of this, I gave up on the fertility drugs only to get pregnant.  We were so very excited, but knew this was a high risk pregnancy from the get-go.  More weight gain, but I only put on 24-lbs during the whole pregnancy.  

My top weight overall ended up being 214-lbs and I was squeezing into a size 18 jean!  Holy cow!!  That's just shy of a 100-lb weight gain since I moved here, right?  

UGH!

I've learned over the years that dieting has never worked for me.  I'd lose some, gain even more back.  So I started working on "lifestyle changes" instead and started dropping the weight.  I had a game plan... drop one bad habit, gain a good one, drop another bad habit, gain another good one.  I was on a roll and losing weight!  Mind you, it wasn't a fast weight loss, but it was weight loss and I was keeping it off!!  I was working up to the "become more active" parts of the plan when that part of my plan had to be put on a shelf for awhile.

I was in a lot of pain and didn't know why - only knew that it had to do with my uterus (or actually, in my case the plural form "uteri" since I was born with two).  During my attempts to get pregnant, I had more than one miscarriage and my periods eventually became extremely heavy and seemed never-ending (if I was lucky, I might get 3 days out of the month without bleeding)!  I was diagnosed as having adenomyosis in BOTH [which is a very painful condition] and had a hysterectomy of BOTH.  Wow.  What a difference that made in how I physically felt overall!  As soon as my incision was healed, I was back on my plan of "become more active".  

But, alas, fate would deal me yet another blow when I was in an auto accident shortly after I started implementing it.  Someone decided to switch lanes while my vehicle was already there.  I ended up with massive headaches after that, once again, I had to put my "become more active" plan on hold.  

After a year of the headaches and chiro treatments [instead of taking prescribed potentially addictive painkillers], I was again ready for the "become more active" phase only to be in another auto accident [again, not my fault] which caused a herniated disc and radiating constant pain up and down the right side of my body!  Yet, again, the part of becoming more active was put on hold for another two years.  

Mind you, I continued with other phases of my "lifestyle changes".  Such as phasing out soda... Where I used to be able to drink several cases a week, I am now down to one case a month!  YAY me!!!  I don't drink coffee, so soda is my ice-cold "Coke-accino" in the morning.  I know.  I know.  Still not a totally healthy choice, but I'm still a work-in-progress.  I also increased my intake of fresh fruits and veggies, cut out most all salt from my diet (not because of high blood pressure, but because of water weight gain), and drinking more water.

Two years after my second auto accident, I had Total Disc Replacement (TDR) surgery to correct the herniated disc.  Within the week of surgery, I was released to go back to my "normal" life.  I was in shock!  Just a week after surgery and I was released?  Had I had the plate and fusion surgery instead, I'd have been wearing a neck brace for a minimum 3-mos.  I'd have had to endure physical therapy to build my strength back up.  I would have lived with a permanent disability for the rest of my life with limited range of motion.  But with a TDR, I had none of that!  I went into the hospital by 11am one day and back in my driveway and reading my son his bedtime story by 8pm that very night!!  Worst pain I felt was a sore throat and liquid OTC lozenges helped more with that than the prescribed painkillers...  Incredible, huh?  True story...   

But after all this, I wasn't sure what "normal" was for me any more tho'...  Where did I begin after living on the sidelines of my life for so very, very long?    

So I started with taking over mowing the lawn.  Not a small easy task for us, as we own a couple of acres and mow almost an acre of it.  [Yes, we use a riding lawn mower, but there's a lot of vibration from those machines and that's not easy to endure when you've been in pain and out of commission for so long!]  Then it was weed-eating around the fence...  This was the first time in 7yrs my hubby didn't have to see to these chores after he got off work!  Now he had more time for his ever-growing "honey-do" list.       

A few months after my TDR surgery, I took the leap to get back into horseback riding.  I've always loved riding and took proper English lessons back in the '70's when my father was stationed in England.  However, I hadn't ridden English since we moved back to the states.  It was rare for one to ride in that style here in the states when we came back, so switched to Western without lessons.  Took a bit of adjusting and I picked up some bad habits in the process.  Haven't even rode in the Western style tho' since 1999... that was the last time I ever sat in a saddle up until now.    

In my humble opinion, riding English style is much like learning how to drive a stick shift vs an automatic.  If you can ride English, you can ride anything.  So, I decided my riding lessons should be focused on proper English style again and found an instructor who shared my philosophy.  Started out with lessons one day a week, one hour in the saddle each time.  I am now up to two days per week, one hour in the saddle each time.  I've taken two falls from the horse, but got back up in the saddle again right away.  [First fall after all these years was the scariest!]  

Life happens and getting old(er) sucks.  No doubt about that!  LOL