Benjamin Button Revised: The Curious Case of the Perpetual Teenager..... Episode 1

I have a curious case of Stacy Phillips going on in my life, and it is pretty much the REVERSE of mid-life crisis.  It is mid-life CELEBRATION!For roughly 18 of the last 20 years of my adult life I have been a morbidly obese individual.  Being 43 now, that means from age 22 on I have experienced about 3 years total of being considered a "normal weight".  The last year and a half are considered part of that 3 years.

During that time of obesity, I always felt old.  I mean really really old.  I mean joints ached, body hurt, back sore, huffing-and-puffing walking out to the car old.  I felt old inside, and I felt like I had an old body too.

Effectively, I went from newly married and healthy weight at 22 to gaining and gaining and gaining and gaining and eventually needing a cane at age 40 because my knees were hurting so much.

Now I have a new "problem".  That new "problem" is that I feel like a teen-ager.  I can run, jump, play, ride a bike, roller skate, dance, you name it I do it.  I am pain free and cane free. 

When I was in college I contracted mononucleosis, with accompanying EBV (Epstein-Barr Virus) to boot.  This left me with a condition called "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" which mystified Doctors at the time, and was not very well understood.  It was debilitating.  I couldn't study, I slept all the time, I was depressed because I didn't understand what was going on with my body.  There is no cure to Chronic Fatigue Sydrome, but my symptoms always disappear when I'm taking care of myself with proper diet, exercise, and sleep.

Wowzers!  Proper diet, exercise, and sleep!  All of which I have been getting for several years now on my journey to ultra health! 

After losing 130 pounds, I have to say that my energy level is through the roof.  Which allows me to dance, skip, roller skate, mountain climb, swim, you name it!  It allows me to be fully available to take care of my family and myself. 

Take Shape For Life, and all that it offers, IS my oxygen mask.  And I put it on every morning. 

So as I said, I feel like a teen-ager.  My husband says I LOOK like a teen-ager.  In fact, after years and years of saying "no" he has finally, FINALLY consented to "considering the possibility" of allowing me to get a (GASP) TATTOO! 

The ultimate teen-age dream.  Heh heh.

Rinse and Repeat!