Fresh Start Fitness

My sister, Mandy, made a brave decision to pursue bariatric surgery about a year and a half ago. It was the right choice for her for many reasons: two young kids, including one who is on the autism spectrum and has exceptional needs. She works full-time at an impressive job (she develops costumes at Walt Disney World!), and has spent most of her life struggling to maintain a healthy weight.

If you’re reading this and you feel a judgemental reaction to “bariatric surgery”, I encourage you to pause and consider: our bodies and our minds are fragile, responsive to a number of environmental factors. The fact that obesity is “self-imposed” matters not: just because we subject ourselves to things doesn’t mean we don’t deserve help for them. And, if “just stop overeating” was a viable solution to obesity, it wouldn’t be an epidemic. It’s not easy for most people. It’s a convoluted, complicated situation.

My sister spent the first few months recovering from surgery and adjusting to her new normal eating habits. As the weight came off, she also needed to adjust to how the body she has known for 35+ years suddenly looks and feels different. She described her appearance as looking “ancient”, with loose skin at her belly, thighs, arms, and neck. Her hair thinned and fell out. She struggled to get in enough calories and protein, so changed her previous vegetarian diet to include meat. She would feel lightheaded getting up and down.

About six months post-op, my sister began to exercise, which feels completely different to a body without extra weight (can you imagine doing jumping jacks or holding a plank with a 100-pound weighted vest?). She started running and training for her first (but not last) 5k:

Now we both wear Apple Watches and it always makes me smile when I wake up at six in the morning to three fitness notifications: “Mandy ran .67 miles” (to her local Y), then “Mandy finished a functional strength training” (at the Y), then “Mandy walked .67 miles” (back to her house, with her coffee in her hand). Or I’ll see her get in a two mile evening walk with her kids and I know that they are walking and catching Pokémon, another feat that would have been unbearable in Florida heat with a hundred more pounds.

She turned her guest room at her house into her home office and gym, because her health is worth more than a bed for guests who come once in a while. Last time she was in Ohio, she came to Corefit and lifted a barbell for the first time.

Mandy is a real life fitness inspiration to me because she was brave enough to pursue something drastic because she believed her health was worth it. She knew that she was worth it, for her family but mostly for herself.