Imagine the feeling after a particularly good work-over by your favourite massage therapist/physiotherapist/chiropractor. Perhaps they found that stubborn knot and worked it out. Something that was tight and painful is suddenly released. You sit up and give yourself a gentle stretch, and now you can move! Oh, the freedom.
That about sums up what this year has been like for me. Experiencing a life-changing surgery and the correspondingly significant weight loss has lifted a painful burden I was barely aware I was carrying.Through the year I progressed from not-falling-down, to a twenty-one day treadmill challenge (offered by my fitness instructor Angie), my first 5K walk for the Pregnancy Care Centre's Walk for Life, and my first walk after surgery, a 5K walk at the CIBC Run for the Cure. After that walk, barely winded, I needed a fresh challenge so after some thought I signed up for the Running Room's Learn to Run program. In eight weeks through the dead of winter, I progressed from one minute running to twenty minutes, or 2.5 K of running.
Art has followed this transformation with bemusement. He got inspired early in the year to join a fitness club and sign up for personal training. I've continued as he has slid back in to genteel semi-retirement.I've come to appreciate how his plain acceptance is a gift all by itself. Art and Crystal also helped coordinate a move back to our old neighbourhood, which just happened to be right after surgery. All I could do was supervise. We now have room for an impressive set of fitness equipment in our basement recreation room.
In August mom passed away, necessitating a trip to Vancouver. Thank you dad, for the road trip. Four days of touring and talking, unforgettable. Sheila and I teamed up to put the apartment in order and gather up family mementos (especially the photographs). We do work together so very well.
Naomi and I squeezed in a pumpkin carving and jelly-making in to our busy schedules.
My greatest cheerleader, my daughter, has worried over some of my choices. She was opposed to the surgery, preferring I lose weight naturally. She also feared injury when I decided to begin running. The running class was an appeasement, as to learn how to run without causing injury.
I am me in a different body and a different sort of life. I have energy and confidence for new projects, and I look forward to greater challenges with the company of my niece this coming year.
