A Tale of Two Moms...

I'm still down in North Carolina, and I've had quite a bit of time to hang out with Ben's mom. I'm a big time observer, so here are some thoughts....

His mom:

I know that she is 67 years old. She is a breast cancer survivor. Until about the past ten years, she has weighed at the most 130 pounds. She currently weighs 170 pounds. She takes no regular medication outside of some vitamins. She has a great amount of energy, and appears to walk with great ease.

My mom:

My mom is 56 years old. She has had her gallbladder removed, some thyroid problems, and a knee replacement. I know she takes quite a few prescription medications, but I'd have to call my sister to find out what they were all for. (My sister used to be a pharmacy tech.) At our Christmas celebration, we watched a home video when my siblings were 2 years old. My mom probably weighed 150 in that video. I honestly never remember my mom being that small. I know she had lost a lot of weight (roughly 50 pounds) to get to that. I always remember my mom being over two hundred pounds. My mom is getting closer to 300 pounds now. She is pre-diabetic (having to closely monitor her blood sugar.) She has very little energy. She is always complaining of her back hurting.

And me....

I've been given a second chance. While there are genetics that I cannot escape, my health story doesn't have to go the route of my mother. I want to become more like Ben's mom....eleven years older than my mom, and so much more vibrant. I cannot help but believe that not having all that weight on her up until the recent years has affected her quality of life later in life. I don't want to blow my second chance. I spent from age 9 until age 27 from the ranges of overweight to super super morbidly obese. I don't know the long term effects of that. I do feel that I got my weight off "just in time" before long term adult things started to set in.