Gwenne Farrell – My Journey With Weight Loss

My Journey With Weight Loss, The Beginning

I didn’t really set out to lose weight. I am a middle aged woman and I had been obese for a long time. But, in the fall of 2018 I had decided to leave my job and go on pre-retirement leave. I was the Vice President of a union and to say my job was stressful is an understatement. It also involved very long hours and a lot of travel. Eating happened whenever time allowed and was usually done by going to a restaurant. International travel often meant eating at strange times and no home cooked meals. So, when I left my job it was an easy change in lifestyle, no eating out and keeping my meals to a fairly rigid schedule. On top of that, my brother had developed serious health issues that put him on a very restrictive diet. To help him maintain this, I agreed to to follow his diet. That resulted in me cutting out sugar and reducing both potassium and sodium intake (you would not believe the food that is high in potassium). That 1st year went really well and I lost 37 pounds. That put me at a weight I hadn’t seen in over 25 years and I was happy. I truly believed it was a much healthier weight for me and it was one that I could maintain. But, I was still obese just not quite as bad as before.

And then the pandemic hit, what a blow that was. For the first 3 months of the pandemic I barely left the house. I also admit there was far more wine consumed than normal and the isolation started to get to me. So, last June I thought I’ve got to get out of this rut. I decided it was time to start taking daily walks and try and get myself up to 10,000 steps a day. I started small, walking for about a mile but after a week I thought, this is too easy. I then started adding more steps each day and within a couple weeks I realized I was doing 12,000 steps a day and I got on the scale. My mouth dropped when I saw the number, I had lost 5 pounds! That is when it hit me, if I kept doing this maybe I could lose another 20 pounds and get my BMI within the overweight category. Wow, I thought, that would be so great an maybe improve my ongoing health issues. And so I doubled down, increasing my walking every few days until somehow I was walking 10 miles a day most days and hitting 25,000 steps. I got myself to the point where it became just part of my life to walk 3 hours a day. In addition I added weights and core strengthening exercises to my daily routine. I have now kept that up since last summer and when I hit the 25 pound weight loss mark I decided if I came this far (62 pounds in total) why can’t I go further, why can’t I get myself into a normal BMI category and be a weight I hadn’t seen in 30 years? I set my new goal of losing another 20 pounds and just kept moving. By Christmas 2020 I had done it, 82 pounds down and my BMI was considered normal. I was so proud of what I had accomplished.

But that is not the end of the story, it is only phase 1 of my journey. As 2021 hit I realized that this pandemic was going to be hanging around for a while longer and maybe I could take advantage of it and get myself to the best place I have been both physically and mentally than I have seen in a very long time. So, I upped the ante, I set a new weight loss goal of an additional 10 pounds and that by the end of the year I would be able to run 10k. I hooked up with a fabulous running coach who keeps my patience in check as she guides me through slowly building up endurance while making sure I stay safe and injury free.

So, here I am today. I am down a total of 88 pounds with only 4 more to go. When I get to that weight I will weigh what I did at 18. 2 weeks ago my doctor removed me from my medications which just blew me away. I do running interval training 3 days a week and have yet to have any injuries. I have a very arthritic knee which has been basically pain free for months as it no longer deals with the stress of my weight. Even better, my chronic back and neck issues have not caused me a single day of pain for the last 6 months as my core has become strong and supportive.

I decided to start this blog to help motivate others to start their own journey to losing weight and getting healthy. I’ll be posting about my learnings and the things I have done to just give me a better life. I know what I did may not work for everyone but maybe something in what I write about will give you what you need to be successful in your own journey.