Ok, here goes, the story so far.

 For those who don't know me in real life I'm Sue (Suzanne to the bank and Mum when I've done something wrong).  57, a slightly porky housewife from Bristol, south west England, married to Ade for 37 years, 3 grown up kids and 4 grandsons.  

To start(ish) on my story (sorry this is a long one) from housewife to personal trainer wannabe we have to go back to when I was about to hit the big 50 and I was diagnosed with an overactive thyroid.  

This was a massive shock as I'd assumed the smallish weightloss I'd experienced was down to a hugely stressful time covering my own customer service role and that of the operations manager, I was logging on from home at 5am, going to the office at 7am and rarely getting home before 9pm.  This I thought was also why my familial tremors (sister and dad shake like jellies in a wind tunnel at times) were so bad I was struggling to eat peas from a fork without resorting to stabbing them. My Dr insisted on a blood test and found I had a highly over active thyroid, he put me on tablets to take down my levels and told me this was going to be a long term problem and I probably didn't have familial tremors.

Within 6 months/a year I'd put on at least 6 stone, had the strength of a wet tissue and the motivation levels (to do anything) of a ten tonne rock.  If anyone is going through thyroid issues you have my deepest empathy, one small organ but omg the devastation it caused was beyond belief.  Ok I wasn't skinny or fit before the problem but when you can't lift a bottle of coke or have no interest in cooking xmas dinner (I looove cooking, its always been my favourite housewifey type thing and my go to stress buster) you know there's a problem.  I was upset about the weight gain and asked the dr for help to which I was told not to worry about it and when my thyroid issues were dealt with he would help me get it under control.  

 Eventually I was seen by the consultants and I elected to have my thyroid surgically removed rather than stay on the tablets (which were affecting my liver), the right decision for me as Graves disease was detected in the pathology.  Once the thyroid was gone I was put on thyroxine tablets for life, easy thing to take, 2 in the am at least half hour before I eat or drink anything, really isn't a biggie for me.  

My thyroid might have been sorted but I wasn't, over weight, fed up and stuck at home my bestie managed to convince me to come to the local gym with her and do an aqua aerobic class, fantastic idea as by now any other form of get fit was pretty much out of reach for me, my back felt like it was going to snap when I stood unaided, I had to shower propping myself against the wall at times and I got breathless quite easily.  Pretty much overall I had next to no strength and constantly hurt.

I loved aqua aerobics, when you're in the water it doesn't matter how heavy you are you can jump about like a normal person and your knees aren't going to explode or your feet break apart, it's unbelievably freeing for someone who was as fat as I was.  

Encouraged by my start to getting my health back I went to the GP and said ok you said you'd help, can you help me please.  He offered me the tablets that make you poo out any fat you consume.  Great, just what I want .. an oil slick following me around the pool.  I declined the meds and went home dejected but I did carry on going to aqua with my mate when she could take us (I wasn't driving at the time).  I was definitely getting happier, and a bit healthier as hubby had to go on a no beige carb or processed food diet so I was doing it with him.  Then Covid struck, lock down, no swimming pool and Gin O Clock really didn't help and any gain I'd made was long gone before the restrictions lifted.  

What had changed though was we'd bought a camper van and a couple of iSups (stand up paddleboards before all the restrictions where gone and normal life resumed.  I love the water, always have and always will and I desperately wanted to be able to stand up and paddle but I really couldn't even get my bum more than a few inches from the board before either my knees, my ankles, my back or my balance got the better of me.  Hubby was up, slightly wobbly but paddling and I was stuck on my arse paddling and feeling useless.  Huge decision time, the gym was open again so I rejoined and started back to aqua aerobics, I needed to get a bit fitter and stronger so I could stand up on the damn boards.  My mate couldn't come any more though and I had to rely on hubby dropping me there even though its an 11 minute walk away because if I did walk there (stopping 4 or 5 times) my back seized up and I couldn't do the class.  If hubby could pick me up afterwards he did otherwise I had to walk (or catch a taxi and I did that a lot more times than he knows about).  

A few months or so on and I'd lost a couple of lbs (nothing major and I couldn't say how much as I hadn't weighed myself since long before the thyroid issues were resolved, head in sand didn't want to know syndrome) when our youngest came to tell us she and her fiance had set a date (18months or so away) and were going to get married on a cruise.  Of course we were going with them but I didn't want to be physically unable to join in with any of the activities or hate seeing how fat I was in the photos, so..  a decision was made that I had 18 months to really knuckle down, lose the weight and get fit.  Now this wasn't going to happen with just a couple of aqua classes a week and I couldn't really afford taxis to and from the gym daily so I bought a mobility scooter.  The irony of driving a mobility scooter to get fit wasn't lost on my, hubby thought it was just going to be an excuse and I'd never get off it but hey ho.  It did the trick and over the next year I started going daily, not just to aqua but the trainer encourage me to do her lift class (variety of exercises with light weights or just body weight) and yoga classes.  To say I was in a poor condition at the start is being kind to myself, I couldn't even lift my foot backwards to do a quad stretch, I had to hold the wall with one hand and try to grab a bit of the trouser leg on my calf and hold that (if and when I could reach it) .  No one laughed, Donna (the teacher) encouraged me all the way, didn't matter if I couldn't do the full exercise or hold a small weight, she gave me alternatives or modifications when I couldn't do something, or encouraged me to just keep moving or doing something if that was still too much.  

Gradually I got fitter, a bit more flexible (still couldn't quad stretch) and confident so I added in a pilates class to the mix.  My diet was now pretty much proteins, fruit, veggies, limited dairy with next to no beige carbs (spuds, pasta, rice and flour) and no ultra processed foods (although I did occasionally nail a Muller Lite yoghurt or have a sweetex in my cocoa if I didn't have baileys to go in it).  

I weighed myself at home every Saturday am and made a note of it, didn't matter if I didn't lose anything or if it was just 1/2lb. I took on the mindset that if I was eating healthily it didn't really matter what the scales said, i was getting healthier and at some point they would show that.  In all fairness if I'd been s skinny size 0 I wouldn't have given a toss what I weighed, weight to me now is just an indicator of whether I'm eating healthily or not.  

Probably about a year in and I was down about 4 or 5 stone and fit enough to walk to and from the gym,  I still used the scooter on an evening but only if I had to bring back lots of kit or shopping.  Life happened and I had to start driving again (I hadn't drove for several years) and my time at gym classes was severely limited for about 9 months but during that time my daughter got married and although I wasn't as slim as I'd like I knew I'd done almost all I could diet wise.  So I was happy enough with that.  I was also really happy to be able to stand up on a paddleboard now, although I have to admit the board we bought turned out to be the real problem, cheap and cheerful but cheap and crap.  Ade was massively generous and bought me a Red Paddleco board, good enough to do yoga on and definitely easier to stand on, albeit takes a lot of effort to paddle.  The mobility scooter was given to my sister in law who'd had to give up driving after a stroke and boy was I happy to see the back of it.

Life got back to normal after the wedding and I could get back to the gym and my mates at the classes.  I have to admit I did go a bit OTT and when Laura the manager at the gym signed me up to a spin class she was teaching I turned up and gave it a go.  I couldn't stand and pedal and no way could I do the "jumps" but I did my best and I booked another class, and another and another.  Before I knew it I was doing pretty much every type of class they offered (bar Zumba that's so not my cup of tea) and not just one a day, sometimes I was doing 2 or 3 in a row.  17 in one week was my record!

About 10 months ago hubby suggested we take 3 of our grandsons to a weekly kickboxing class, it was a big hit with them so out came his plastic and we signed them up at Bristol Mixed Martial Arts.  They had an absolute blast on the mats and I was a bit envious of them having such a good time so I signed up and had a go one week.  OMG it was so much fun, hard but fun so I signed up as well.  8 months on and I'm now working towards my orange belt along with my oldest grandson, the other 2 have fallen by the wayside, and loving it.  As a reward for his yellow belt I took Nate to watch the European championship in Barnsley a few months ago and we had a fantastic weekend away with the tournament team.  I really did regret not starting the kickboxing years ago as all of the fighters looked like they were having an amazing experience.  When I mentioned this to Sensai Sean and my regret that by the time I get to black belt I'll be in my 60s and too old to have a go myself, he told me that I didn't have to be a black belt, I could fight next year if I want to, even at my level.  Well I went straight up to Sensai Curtis (operations manager) and said put my name down for next year.  Soooo, this still slightly porky middle aged bird is going to fight in a tournament, yes I know I'm going to get my rear end handed to me by someone 40 years younger but I don't want to regret never being able to experience it.

It's odd how random conversations can spark things as not long after telling Donna about fighting next year we got on the subject of  aqua classes and she laughingly said I've done enough that I'd be able to teach them myself.  That got me thinking, yes I probably could teach a few now, I certainly know the regular exercises we do and I started to think maybe go back to school and get the aqua qualifications, maybe even do a body pump instructors class. Talk about falling down the rabbit hole, what with researching online, chatting with my class mates and the gym staff it got me thinking perhaps not just classes but go all in and study to be a personal trainer and some of the more specific instructor courses.  

I've gone from being an unhappy  morbidly obese couch potato to someone who's not just at a healthier weight and able to live life fully but someone loving not just being active but also the social side of classes.  At this point I honestly don't know which way I want to take the personal training just that I want to be able to help people do what I've done with their fitness or weight.  So as a start I thought I'd post here and as I complete the training (will probably take best part of a year) I'm going to use the blog as a sort of weekly diary.  I'm intending keeping a weekly post where I talk about what I've eaten that week, what classes at the gym I've taken, how kickboxing is going, maybe talk about things I've learnt during the PT training course.