How it all began; or.."next time, maybe it will be your brain!"

Ten years ago, I was a single mom, significantly overweight, living in a snowy little town outside of Pittsburgh. Long story short, met a guy online and moved my son and my life to Georgia. I know my family was more than a little bit concerned. But, I've never been afraid of adventure.

My son got involved in sprint kayaking through a middle school program. We had recently volunteered to work in boat control at the world championships here, and it guess it really made an impression. Sprint kayaking is done on flatwater; it's quite a bit different from white water. No rapids here!!  I started spending a lot of time at the boathouse volunteering, and was always very curious about paddling. It really looked like a lot of fun, but these boats are "tippy," and frankly I was afraid that I would flip and get stuck in the cockpit, hang upside down in the water, and drown.  The journey to kayakmom really begins there.

One day I finally got up the guts to get out in one of the trainers. It's a sprint boat, but is very flat and wide across the hull. Everyone who comes through the spring program starts out in one of these. I am happy to report that I quickly learned that when I flipped, the water got behind my big butt and pushed me out with the action of a shoehorn. Yay!! That was a big day for me. No need for fear.

I was really beginning to enjoy being able to get out on the lake. Couldn't paddle far, but I could paddle around behind the boathouse without flipping, Life was good. Right around that time, someone pointed out to me a bright red splotch in my eye. Went to the doc, who told me my blood pressure was something like 194/140. They made me take pills and wouldn't let me leave the office until my blood pressure was down. A lot. They told me that I would need to take several different pills to control it. "Can't I just control it using diet and exercise?" I asked hopefully. Yeah, like that was gonna work. I will never forget my Hungarian doc looking me in my bloody eye and saying "Well, a blood vessel burst in your eye. Next time it could be your brain."

Wow.

Joined weight watchers and lost 65 pounds in 6 months. And that's just the beginning of what got me to where I am today. And it has NOT been easy.