Sunday, March 11, 2012

Family Trips

Family trips aren't as fun for me as they used to be. The one thing we pride ourselves on in our family is trying to stay busy and show our kids as much culture and fun as possible. There was a time in our lives where we rarely stayed home...we were always going somewhere. Road trips are the best! But over the last few years as I've been become bigger, I do not enjoy going on many of these trips anymore. My husband and I have always been a go, go, go couple. We love to be outside. It probably has something to do with the fact that in Ontario, Canada you have to enjoy what you can from the summers because they are short. I come from Louisiana where it's warm pretty much year round and I endured quite the culture shock when I moved North and discovered it's not that warm all year round!

We are a family that goes on a variety of trips. We generally go for longs walks in the park or along trails, we go on bike rides, we go for walks along the beach, we go to many different places like museums, hall of fame buildings and libraries; the list could go on and on. One of my favorite places to go is Niagara Falls! We only live about 45 minutes from the Falls and I love to go there as well as few places in between such as Niagara on the Lake and Welland Canal. We've been all over; Ottawa, New Brunswick, camping and beaching all over Ontario. We've been quite a few places south of the border. All of these places require a lot of walking and hiking but the kids always have such a fantastic time and that is all that matters; good memories for them.
Here is my hubby and our two boys when they were younger (2003)in Ottawa :)




I have enjoyed every single place we have been to but I have gotten to a point over the last few years that I am not enjoying the walking and hiking as much. My back and hip can't stand the extra weight I have put on and I am always hot and sweating :( It's just no longer fun for me. Last year, every time my kids and husband got on their bike and went off on their little excursions around our town I would sit at home...sometimes crying. It made me sad that I was missing out on the little things in life that I should be out enjoying with my kids.


Me and my boys in Ottawa 2003

It seems like my 30s have been very trying. I've had many health problems which I attribute to my weight gain. When I was discharged from the military I weighed approximately 140 lbs. That was in 2002 when I was 30 years old. Since then I have managed to balloon to 260 lbs. I know that it is my fault. I comforted myself with food when I quit smoking and as well whenever anything goes wrong in my life. It didn't help that I was taking university courses that didn't end until 10pm at night and then eating a big meal before bed.
All of this has made it difficult to enjoy my life over the past few years. I finally decided about a year and a half ago to go to my doctor and find out about the weight loss surgery. My doctor not being up to code with technology in his office did not know how to go about doing the paperwork to get me started. So finally a year later after him dragging his feet, I looked it all up and got all the information and paperwork started and gave it to him. I will discuss all the ins and outs of this in a later post regarding all the time spent getting the process started.
So this surgery is going to be a big turning point in my life. I have been miserable and sad during the majority of my 30s since I have put on all this weight. I have grown tired with being so sweaty and out of breath on any family outings that we go on. I look forward to my 40s where I am hopeful that weight loss will occur and I will be able to enjoy going out with my family again. I will ride a bike and hike a million stairs to see a beautiful waterfall and run around the park chasing my children! I will enjoy them before they grow too old to play with their old mother ;)
 Cheers and Much Love! 
           Ellen
Our family Christmas tree trek Dec 2010 :)



1 comment:

  1. Hello, Ellen! I just noticed you started following my blog. So happy you've decided to follow along:) I am interested in reading up on your surgery and everything. My mom had this procedure done about 8 years ago and has been happy with the results. She still struggles with food portions and has gained and lost a little weight on and off more recently, but it's more manageable now.

    Good luck to you! I'll be following along and praying for you.
    Kaylan
    http://krmccord.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete