Back on my feet, time to get them moving.

[Ãœberleben]

PREWARNING!: This may get long, I have a tendency to ramble a little bit.  Dive in at your own risk!

 

Hello there! 

 

So yeah, I'm Uber.  After lurking around here for a long time being slightly surly, I've finally reached my time to throw myself in feet first!  Therefore, introductions are in order!  Okay, so to know me and why I'm here, there needs to be a little backstory I suppose.  Let's start at the beginning, and when we reach the end, stop.

 

To start with, I was always incredibly active.  As a teenager I did trampolining, swimming, and played tennis, hockey (the kind on a field, not an ice rink), and basketball.  I was also an avid hiker.  I love to hike, I love the peace and quiet, the nature, the survival of it all. That's actually what my name means, for those not familiar with German.  Survival, survivor.

 

I kept this going into my 20s, and life was excellent.  I was a 21" waist, and I practically lived on mountains and in forests.  And then I took a tumble.  By tumble I mean I lost my footing on a narrow footpath and went head over heels rolling about 30ft down into a valley.  Had to be airlifted out.  I broke my leg, my arm, dislocated one hip, fractured four ribs, my cheekbone, severe concussion, dislocated seven fingers and fractured three vertebrae in my lumbar spine (That's the bottom of my spine, for those not as familiar with medical stuffs).  I spent 6 weeks in hospital and another three years in physical therapy.

 

So, overnight my life pretty much changed.  I spent 6 months basically lying in bed, trying to remind myself of the point of everything.  Everything I knew about being healthy went straight out of the window, my weight skyrocketed.  I started physiotherapy and we learned after a while that I actually had rheumatoid arthritis in my knees, hips and hands.  So that was another setback.  Weight continued to stack on as I came up against so many hurdles that I just wasn't prepared to handle.  My mental health suffered, so my physical health suffered even more.  I wanted to be one of those amazing success stories of people who meet hardship and don't let it bring them down, but I just didn't have the strength to fight, and I failed myself, in a nutshell.

 

So, skip three years down the road and I'm still in physiotherapy, because my core muscles basically stopped working.  I'd spent too much time feeling sorry for myself and sitting on a couch eating cookies.  And now I've toppled over the 300lb mark on the scales.  For me this was absolute disaster, nothing in the world could have prepared me for how devastating that moment was.  I had to change it, whatever the cost was.

 

Which bring me here I suppose.  Where I live in the UK, I don't exactly have friends.  I have a partner, but he lives in Germany, we don't see each other as often as we'd like.  And the one thing I knew I needed was basically a support group.  I needed people to celebrate successes and console failures with, and doctors aren't always the greatest at that. 

 

So I'm giving this a shot.  I'm hoping I can stick with it here (I can be a bit hopeless at staying on track with forums sometimes), and get my feet moving again. 

 

My goal is the Southern Upland Way trail.  For the non hikers, the SUW is a 340km hiking trek from the Irish Sea to the North Sea across Scotland.  It's heralded as one of the most gruelling trails in the UK.  And I want it on my accomplishments record.  But I have a long way to go between here and there, hard work and dedication are the only option.

 

If you made it this far, here are your complimentary bacon strips and gold star sticker.  And thanks for taking the time to read my rambling

[Ãœberleben]

Oh, I know what I forgot to add.  The problem with rambling, you always forget something. 

 

My geekery credentials are pretty wide ranged.  In a nutshell, if you can name it it's likely I love it.  Except for Game of Thrones, I haven't seen the tv show and I couldn't get along with the writing style in the books.  I'm a gamer, mostly RPGs, I don't like FPS.  I love to read and I write fiction when I'm not glaring at the wrong side of writer's block.  I also do a lot of craft hobbies.  I sew, embroider, knit, sometimes I draw, I do dressmaking AND I can construct IKEA flatpacks!  I want to learan basket-weaving, crochet and leatherworking, but all in good time!

[Chris56Ryan]

Whoa now that was a nasty fall and a heartbreaking story. You haven't failed yet though. It might have taken a while but your on your way back to you and it's going to be great. You've come to the very right place for a bit of support there are loads a peeps from the UK here so no doubt you'll find some local friends afraid I'm Irish and will be spending the next few months between there and Houston working. You've even come just in time to get a challenge together for the next six week challenge and join all the rest of us starting out and taking our steps to being who we want.

 

It's great to see such a big goal with that hike and how you realize it's going to take time to get there. Also massive cudos on being able to get back hiking after such a bad accident. You've decided to get started so now figure out how your going to do it and just post anywhere here and I guarantee all the advice and encouragement you could need.

[Ãœberleben]

Whoa now that was a nasty fall and a heartbreaking story. You haven't failed yet though. It might have taken a while but your on your way back to you and it's going to be great. You've come to the very right place for a bit of support there are loads a peeps from the UK here so no doubt you'll find some local friends afraid I'm Irish and will be spending the next few months between there and Houston working. You've even come just in time to get a challenge together for the next six week challenge and join all the rest of us starting out and taking our steps to being who we want.

 

It's great to see such a big goal with that hike and how you realize it's going to take time to get there. Also massive cudos on being able to get back hiking after such a bad accident. You've decided to get started so now figure out how your going to do it and just post anywhere here and I guarantee all the advice and encouragement you could need.

 

Thanks Chris. I shall get there in the long run, I'm positive of that.

 

Hah, yes, my timing is pretty perfect, I noticed that one!  Should be interesting, and a good test of my ability to posts regularly on a forum too!  I'm looking forward to it.

[MogiShade]

You haven't failed until you're dead!  So by that logic, falling off your mountain and surviving can be considered a success.  You successfully fell off a mountain!  Congrats, because if you can fall off a mountain successfully then you're probably capable of anything.

 

Best wishes from across the Pond!