A bit like deja vu.

[srslysavvy]

Hello! My name is Savannah and I've actually introduced myself before. 2 years ago. I need to start over. In bullet points, because I like them.

 

• I am a 28-year-old wife and mother. 
• I had a very active childhood filled with running and swimming and dancing and horseback riding, up until I began college. 
• My college years were less active but I was still relatively fit and healthy. 
• Then I got married and had a kid.
• Two years after my daughter was born I was diagnosed with Grave's Disease, an autoimmune condition that makes my thyroid over active. 
• August of 2013 I began a new, active job working with children. I was doing pretty well, even started a journey toward lifting weights. 
• A few weeks into weight lifting I had some nerve problems in my shoulder and was forced to take a break...that never ended because we were buying a house and I was taking on more hours at work and still trying to be a wife and mother. It was really easy to make excuses. 
• In October of 2014 my doctor decided I could try for remission, so heck yeah! 
• In December 2014 my health began to lag and by January I was sick with hyperthyroidism and had to go back on my meds. 
• Just as things were looking up in February, however, I was hit with a bout of the respiratory flu. I missed two weeks of work, was incredibly weak and fragile for the two weeks following, and generally had never been so sick in my life. It caused the Grave's disease to do crazy, wild, and altogether terrible things to my body, leaving me feeling like a shadow of myself. It wasn't until June (and I had been forced to choose between my health or my job) that I began to feel like I could be a real girl again. 
• Amidst this all, my blood sugars began acting fishy. As the sister of a Type 1 diabetic and the daughter of a medically-induced Type-2 diabetic, I got tested. My numbers came back as possibly pre-diabetic (this is a little more complicated because of my thyroid right now). 
• In June, my health began to improve and something in me snapped. I want to be healthy. I want to run and play and enjoy my life. No sugary food or laziness was going to stop be this time. So I began to cut out processed sugars, lowered my carb intake from the ghastly amounts I was eating, began Couch to 5k, and started to lift weights again. I've had set backs aplenty: side cramps that will send you to the grave, muscles so sore I can barely move, and the fun addition of blood sugar that plummets the moment my workouts are over. But this time is different, because I'm still going. I'm trying to figure out how to prevent and work with the issues that crop up and I keep pressing on. 
• Tomorrow morning I'm going on a run at 7am. (I'm telling you this in the hopes that it will make me ACTUALLY go. I hate running. My runner sister tells me it's because I'm not running far enough to hit the runner's high yet. I'm holding her personally responsible if she's wrong.) 
• Friday I am starting the Strong Lifts weight lifting program from the ground up. I mean the lowest you can conceivably go. I can't yet squat my 15lb pipe. It's all I can do to squat my body weight. (And that really isn't very much because I am a small, thin, but incredibly weak, person.) 
• This time I want to do this right. I want to succeed. But now I realize that I need a community. So here I am.

 

TL;DR: Despite an active and healthy childhood, I have Grave's disease and some junk, I am now maybe the weakest person you know thanks to stuff n things, and I am determined to get strong and healthy and active.

 

Thanks for reading, if you did; I totally get it if you didn't. See ya around!

 

Savannah

[Yraen]

Welcome to the Rebellion. Seems like you've had a hard time the past few years, but you're here now and working on getting accountability so you're doing good there. Good luck with the running and working out, and have fun.

My sister is a type 1 diabetic with Grave's disease so I understand a bit about it. It can be tough to workout with health problems and all to easy to use them as excuses so congratulations on taking the harder, better path.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome to the rebellion. Good on you for kicking adversity in the gut then putting your heel on its throat while it's down.  Your determination is an inspiration.  You will overcome, you will lift, then lift some more, then you will be stronger than you can imagine.

 

You rock!

[srslysavvy]

Thanks! It's great to see what an encouraging (but also level-headed and realistic) community this is.