My inspiration…
Happy Sunday buddies! First I gotta tell you, I kind of feel crappy today…I think I have strep throat and actually, my husband is getting ready to take me to the Urgent Care in our area here in about a half hour…I am miserable…
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But I thought I would share this story with you…
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My older sister Michele, lives in Japan with her Military husband and my BEAUTIFUL niece Whitley…(Yes, I am probably biased)…
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My sister is actually one of my biggest cheerleaders and supporters, and has kind of been a trail blazer of sorts for me even thousands of miles away…
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See, like me, she has always fought the battle of the bulge…Unlike me, she has lost LARGE amounts of weight on at least 3 seperate occasions, but has always gained it back…
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Well, in August of 2005, she decided to try again, and in one year, she lost 95 pounds…The RIGHT way…By exercising and changing her eating habits…
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I was sooooo proud of her I couldnt even stand it…Couldnt beleive the before and after pics of her…Now she has been maintaining for about 6 months…
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Well, due to her distance and the time difference (They are 14 hours ahead of us) I dont get to talk to her nearly as much as I would like to…
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So I finally talk to her last night after a month of not talking to her…
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Boy, was I stunned..
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Apparently, she did NOT call me for a month, because she was embarrased…She had gained about 7 holiday pounds already, when the doctor put her on some new medications…These new medications, apparently, made her gain some serious weight in just 3-4 weeks, and her total regain was 22 pounds!!
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She was sooo depressed and humilated that she withdrew from the family and kept it to herself because she thought we would laugh at her…
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WHAT?! First, I told her that was absolutely ridiculous. Its not like she ATE her way up 22 pounds. Not only that, but now that she is OFF the medication, I have no doubt she will get the weight off again in 2-3 months…
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I guess my point in this story is two fold…First, I have admired her from a distance for sooo long, that I often forget it is just as much a struggle for her as it is for me…See, she made it look sooooo easy, that I truly, in my brain, thought it was no big deal to her…Boy, was I wrong…You never ever truly know until you walk in anothers footsteps, for sure!!!
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Second, I guess it hit home to me that now matter when, why or how we reach our goal weight, our battle is NEVER going to be over…We are always, ALL OF US, one step away from going BACK to where we came from…
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And I guess, thirdly, sometimes, if someone is too sad, or afraid to reach out for help, sometimes, we ahve to be able to see beyond the happy picture to see whats going on inside, and leave OUR comfort zone to reach out to them!! I should have done this for my sister, and I am very sorry I didnt see her pain…
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So this one is for my sister who I LOVE…I MISS HER SOOO MUCH (Havent seen her in THREE YEARS!!) and who I am soooo very excited to see when they finally come home for good this June…I am sooooo proud of you Michele for being such a great role model to your little sis…
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Take care all!
I totally understand where Michele is coming from. When I was first diagnosed with Fibro, they prescribed some meds that caused me to gain 45 lbs in one month!!! This was after having just lost about 60 lbs! I stayed on the meds and continued to gain. Unfortunately, after I quit taking the meds, I didn’t lose the weight. I’ve been fighting to just get back to the pre-meds weight.
You’re right…we can never understand another’s struggles until we walk in their shoes!
To put things in perspective, YOU make weight loss look easy to us.
One of the biggest epiphanies I had was when I realized that noone else was given a ‘rulebook for life’. I always thought everyone else seemed to know what they were doing and it was easy for them. Then I realized we were all trying to figure it out, and they were as clueless as I was. It really put things in perspective. Gave me a lot more confidence. I figure my guesses to life are as good as anyone elses.
Well, I really hope you feel better and fast! Congrats on losing 59 pounds!
Hope you feel better soon!!!
Dawnie,
It’s so wonderful that you do eventually see these things that affect people and share them with us.
I’m kinda bummed that the struggle will never be over but don’t you think if we truely change our lifestyle we can be a little safe from the bulge coming back?
I hope you feel better very soon. Get lots of rest!
Tammy
thats wonderful that you support your sister, my sister (who happens to be skinny!) is supporting me and it brings you closer x
I hear you!! You are absolutely right!! We have so much to learn from Michele too!! Thanks for sharing your sister’s story with us Dawnie!! And I hope you feel better soon!
Dawn,
Hope you are feeling better very soon…Great story about your sister it sure does open ones eyes…Thank you for sharing!
xoxoxo
Becky
Dawnie, you have made an awesome point in your blog. I know I do and probably more people as well think when someone looses weight very fast that you think wow there lucky, look how easy it was for them. But I think you learned something new about your sister that you look up to is that you and her are even more alike as far as your weight loss battles, and everyone here on buddyslim is as well too. Losing weight is very hard. I will know better next time to not judge someone so quickly as well, because we really don’t know there true battle. Just imagine once we lose our weight people will probably think the same of us, man there lucky there weight just flew off of them lol
Oh, and I wanted to say one more thing, Get well soon
and get some rest 
It’s so awesome to see how close you are with your sister. But you know what else I thought of in reading your blog, was how this battle always seems to have it’s challenges….when you’re getting started it’s about sticking to it and getting to goal because you don’t feel comfortable in your own skin. Then when you reach goal it’s about maintaining and the pressure of keeping yourself as a “success story” that are not very common. Like you said, sometimes we forget the struggles others go through!! I hope you feel better!!!!
Thanks for the blog Dawn…..that’s really moving about your sister, and I’m glad she was finally able to tell you and look to you for your support!
It’s true isn’t it, that we’ve got to change our way of looking at things forever. We’ve got to always be dilligent about keeping the weight off. I always tend to look at it as if my life will be perfect if only I could get skinny. I overlook the fact though that this is something I will have to deal with forever. It’s been the same thing with me and not smoking. It’s been almost two years since I quit, but I know that if I have just one cigarette I’ll be right back to being a smoker.
Glad to hear that you and your sister have reconnected!
Great blog!