I am a 59 year old widow. I lost my husband two years ago from lung cancer and from then to now is the second part of my fitness story. The first part started after my son was born 23 years ago when I was 36 and realized I would turn 50 the year he turned 13. That was the first time I had thought about being 50 and decided I wanted to be the best 50 I could be. So I gave up my bad habits. including drinking and smoking. At the time I felt like I was giving up something and it took awhile to fill in the holes with new life. I was single, had a baby and a demanding job. I had to take care of everything myself and it was exhausting.
I decided I wanted to be fit. I bought a rebounder at a garage sale and started bouncing on it. I bought a Jane Fonda workout video and started doing it. I slowly began to develop an interest in fitness. I decided to start running because I had always been curious about runners. I started running around th e house while my son napped. When he got older I would get up early in the morning and run. There were even mornings when he would want to come with me. I got married to my husband when my son was 7 years old. My husband had COPD and emphysema, but he was supportive of everything I wanted to try. I became a scout leader and developed a love of the outdoors. My husband would take me to trailheads so I could walk through the woods. He would be the vehicle shuttle so I could kayak down the nearby rivers. He bought me a used mountain bike for a Valentine’s present one year (a much better present than the magnetic insoles he had got for me a previoius year). Then he got sick, he went through treatments and was better for a short time. Then the bad times set in. It was truly living one day at a time. He would need me to help him many times during the long nights. It was physically and emotionally exhausting. Finally he went to the Hospice House where they took care of his pain and he died a few weeks later.
I spent the next 5 months sitting in his chair crying and eating chicken and dumplings. It was all I could do. I started going to a grief group and at one of the meetings they had us write some goals. My goal was to hike a 14er–go to the top of a mountain that is more than 14,000 feet high. I went to a trainer and got on the scale to find out I had somehow gained 25 pounds. During this time I had had to quit running because of plantar fascitis. As soon as I could I started running and riding my bike. I got a video catalog in the mail and decided I could get a couple of videos and one of them was a Cathe Freidricks DVD. I found it very challenging (pyramid lower + upper body), so I ordered another-Muscle Max-and I loved that one too.
Last winter I was weighing my options, either to have another session with a trainer or join a gym. Then i saw an advertisement for Cathe’s STS program. I decided that since I had all the equi pment already I would spend my money on that. So I started the STS videos. I went through the entire program once and am now on my second time through. It is amazing to me that I really have become more fit by doing the program. I know I am getting in everything I need to–it is all there, all planned out and sequenced beautifully.
This past July I went to Colorado and went to the very tip top of Mount Yale which is 14,196 feet. Although it has taken a year and a half I have lost the extra weight I was carrying around. Thank you Cathe.
