I loved going to the gym, I loved hiking around. I really enjoy challenging myself physically – I did the 3-day breast cancer walk in my mother’s memory and walked the entire 60+ miles. But I was fat and getting fatter, and all those physical things I enjoyed were becoming harder and harder to enjoy.

Each milestone going up I’d make the same promise… Well, 160 isn’t that bad. As long as I don’t get to 170 I’m ok.

180 isn’t huge, as long as I don’t get to 190.

OK, as long as I stay below 200, I’m fine.

I’ll lose the weight before I turn 50.

I woke up 50 years old at 233.6 lbs! My back, hips, and feet always hurt. I got out of bed groaning every morning. I had turned in to an old lady at 50 and it was horrifying.

I had seen the Arthur videos in the past and thought it seemed great but I didn’t follow through. One day on reddit I saw something about DDP Yoga again. I did some more looking around and found “The Resurrection of Jake the Snake”. *Click* Something switched on in my mind. I’ve been sober since April 5, 2011 and watching this just made me think maybe this *is* for me.  I took a look at the DDPY website.

Oh, There’s an app?
I can get points for working out?
This is like…”competitive yoga”? Sign. Me. Up.

I got started. Slowly. I missed enough workouts that I got email reminders through the app that I should try to be consistent. As I became more consistent, my pain was decreasing. I started doing what Dallas said to do. Got a goal? Something I need to conquer next? “WRITE IT DOWN!”

I started logging all my meals. I weighed my portions, planned my meals and weight started coming off. It was simple. NOT easy, but very, very simple.

I went for my annual physical and my family doctor told me he was proud of me.

Then I hit a roadblock. On 4/1/18, I wrecked my knee. After an MRI, my doctor was pretty sure I’d need surgery but gave me the option to try physical therapy first. I did DDPY in a chair & I did my physical therapy. On the days that the pain was too bad to do anything, I watch Motivational Monday & re-watched Arthur and Jake’s videos. 6 weeks later was cleared by my doctor to resume normal activities. My physical therapy team was shocked at how fast I recovered, which I attribute to doing DDPY.

I feel the best I have in many, many years. I am down 42 lbs. I have a way to go but I know if I stick to the program and keep putting in the work, I’ll get to my goal. I also know, when I get to my goal, I get to set new goals and keep living an awesome life.