Decisions - Part 1

My journey started in late January 2016. It was the thousandth time I'd attempted to lose weight since I was six years old. I had gotten to such a dangerous weight that I couldn't even clean myself properly in the shower. I was carrying 156kg's around with scoliosis, sore knees, heavily breathing and not an ounce of self-respect for myself. I'd come to a conclusion that I needed to act. I organized a consultation session at my local gym. How I got to this state in my life starts with a bit of a back ground.

So there I am sitting in a consultation room at my local gym and the scales read 156kg. I'm thinking "oh my god I could be dead really soon". I could feel the strain it had on my joints with each step I took and yet I was determined to lose weight. I started with my personal trainer writing up a program for me at the rehabilitation weights stations and built up from there to free weights. I didn't have the money to follow-up or change the program really so I began following people on Instagram and watched YouTube clips, read articles and found support groups online that could help me achieve small goals consistently and keep my accountable. When I was twenty-three I almost completed a certificate three in fitness which gave the some advantage in terms of correct form when doing weights resistance and knowledge about weight loss but not enough that I knew exactly what I was doing. All I knew was that I had to change it up every three to four weeks. And sometimes I got really comfortable sticking to one program and not changing for up to six weeks at a time which in some ways hindered my progress. But I persisted.

Along the journey one of the personal trainers came along and offered to train me. He is an MMA fighter and is quite knowledgeable. He used to drill me in training which was great. Nothing fires me up more than a good challenge. Especially during boxing and mixed martial arts he would shout out "Come on Liz, you need to DIG DEEP!" That mantra has always stuck with me and I am ever so grateful for his help. Whilst training with him I saw a change of fifteen kilo's over five months dropped. I could have lost it quicker however that was more a reflection of my eating than his training methods.

Overall, between January 2016 and April 2017 I had lost roughly 29kg's. Then a life changing opportunity came up that I could not refuse.

I'd been paying for private health insurance for the past two years hoping that one day I'd be able to have an operation called a "gastric sleeve" also known as a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. I'd gotten a pay out from the government regarding the abuse that I went through and decided that I was going to dedicate a sizable amount to have this life changing procedure done.

Re-winding back to two years prior to my decision to lose weight for good I'd started bipolar medication for the first time in my life, had kicked a drug addiction with marijuana and a short relationship with Ice and spent a year in family court fighting for custody of my new-born child after a nasty breakup with my ex fiancé. I had never been exposed to any drug culture prior to 2013. I grew up in an ethnic bilingual family in inner Sydney. One of the poorest areas at the time and had grown up in an extreme amount of consistent, dedicated, terrifying and traumatizing amount of domestic violence that spanned twenty-four years. The abuse was so bad that I eventually claimed a sizable amount of compensation for some twenty years later.

To be continued...