Getting Fit Enough To Play

Let me tell you a neat little story.

My husband has always been a huge fan of playing outside.  Skateboarding, mountain biking, hiking and all forms of getting dirty.  A few years back we decided to go snowboarding, I had tried to ski as a child and really just enjoyed riding the lift so I thought I would be fine.  Well Robert and I rode to the top and I couldn't get down.  A combination of a badly damaged back from a recent car accident and 80lbs of extra weight and I got hurt.  The ski patrol had to sled me down because I was scared, hurt, balling and causing potential for injury to other people coming down the hill.  I spent the rest of the day in the lodge eating Norco and nachos.  That was about 3 years ago.  I vowed to never go again.
Me at the lodge before the snow disaster.  220lbs

Flash forward a few years.  I went snowboarding last weekend.  I absolutely hated having my legs fixed, I was super nervous, but my husband kept assuring me that I was stronger now.  I have been avidly lifting for the last 9 months.  I'm 50lbs less than I was then and there has been some definite healing to my back since then.  We paid for a lesson and I was sure that I wasn't going to get it.  Before I even got to the bunny hill, I fell on my butt- Hard and I was sure this was a repeat of the snow disaster of 2012... but I was okay.

2nd attempt at snowboarding, not dead though


I got on the lift to the bunny hill and I mean I wasn't going to have the snow patrol save me on that little thing... and I made it down! I didn't fall!  I could squat enough to control my body and my board.  6 year olds were smoking me but i was doing it!  The only things that hurt were my calves from working and my fingers because it was 20 degrees.  I made it down the bunny hill 10x and I had a great time.  I ended up with a banging bruise and a minor case of whiplash from that first fall, but I am fit enough to play.  We forget how much fun playing is when we get sedentary.  3 years ago it was nothing short of humiliating torture, and today it was fun!  We are going to go again this season and maybe I'll make it off the bunny hill but a huge part of my goals is being able to live.  I've spent years being too heavy to live.  Too heavy to play, so heavy that all I could do is stay heavy and today I am truly able bodied- nothing close to a great snowboarder though.


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