Losing Weight With MS
I am a 35 year old male from a small city in North Carolina called North Wilkesboro.
In 2006 my mother died from complications of Primary Progressive MS. Not very long after she died I began to have my own symptoms, blurred vision, muscle spasms, tingling, and a major loss of balance. It had gotten so bad that I could not even walk without assistance.
After hundreds of tests, and Dr. Visits, I was diagnosed with MS myself in 2007. I was also told that it was possible that I would never regain the balance to walk again, So I did the wrong thing I gave up. I went through a severe bout of depression. I began to pretty much let my life go, smoking, eating unhealthy food, not even trying to exercise. I figured what's the point. As I lived this way my weight began to increase I gained from 190lbs to a huge 290. My life was getting out of control. But my life was about to change...
In 2008 just a few months before my daughter was born my balance began to improve. I went back to the Dr. and was told that my MS was found to be better than they had originally thought. I only had the Relapsing Remitting form. Which means that my health could improve! Even though this was great news I still continued to struggle. Mainly because I believed there was no way possible that I could lose all of that weight. But my life was about to change again.
In late 2009 my older brother committed Suicide. My world was shaken and for another 2 years I lived in my self-pity. Finally in May of 2012 I was tired of living this way and knew I had to make a change. I had two beautiful baby girls, and I was not only wasting my life, I was wasting an important part of theirs. In June of 2012 I put down the cigarettes for the last time. An after making two weeks smoke free, I thought to myself wow... Now if I can do that..... Hummmm. So I started searching for something. Anything that would help. I found a company called Beachbody. And in July 2012 I started Tai Cheng and P90X. I asked my Dr. and she really advised against it, but I was fighting back against MS, Depression, and Obesity and what she said wouldn't stop me. So late July I started. I had to push myself so hard to keep going because not only was this program hard, But Hot and MS don't mix. I kept going through with every ounce of energy I had I was going to fight this. There were days I had to lay on the floor for 15 min after the workout but I was doing it. After making it the first 90 days I had lost 28lbs. So I started again. Still struggling some but my strength was increasing and I could see I was going to be able to make it again. After those 90 days I had lost 30 more lbs. And so I started again and after finishing this time, I had made it down to 196 lbs. Not only was I feeling better, off BP medicine, lowered my heart rate, I had lost 100 lbs.
Today as I am sitting here I have lost 111 lbs., my quality of life is so much better. And there is so much more of this I can tell but I am trying to keep it brief I have realized that I can do anything I set my mind to. I have also realized there are a lot of people out there that need motivation and help. An there are people with disabilities that need someone to inspire them to try. I honestly feel like God may be inspiring me to be that person. He has given me the opportunity to at least share this with others and given me the strength to do it. I want to open my own Gym for them, but will never be able to afford that. So I am trying to spread my story to millions of people, and be that Inspiration.
Thank you so much for your time and for reading!!
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