Starting Over, Again

I started this blog one year ago, with dreams of being at my goal weight by now. Instead, I am 35 pounds heavier, and with a big piece of metal in my chest, also known as a pacemaker. So I deleted all of my previous posts because it doesn't really matter what I've weighed in the past.

I knew my weight was getting bad a few months ago. My stress levels were threw the roof and I fell into a lifestyle I haven't seen since 2003. Oh all things, I became a smoker again. Once the initial pacemaker surgery came and went, I spent the next three weeks trying to recover, only to find that one of my leads was too far into my chest and it was stimulating my diaphragm. Another surgery. More stress.

It's been 3 weeks since the 2nd surgery and finally I am almost out of the clear with my recovery. Another 3 weeks and I'll be able to lift my arm over my head and do whatever I want with it. I can lift weights again, including my children, do cheers with my little cheerleaders, and be back to normal.

I have since quit smoking, telling my husband over and over that I can never have one ever again. Now that that's out of the way, I can only improve my health from here. I have a lot of cardio work to do, sadly. Just one flight of stairs takes my heart rate from 75 to 135, leaving me panting and totally out of breath. I know a lot of it is probably the pacemaker, and my doctor still has some adjustments to make to get it completely right, but I know I do indeed have a long road ahead of me and I am going to have to work to improve both my cardio levels and my body weight.