Welcome to a new edition of Carol's Corner. Hope this finds everyone well and working it in the new year. I have a ways to go to get back on track, but my exercise regimen is right where it belongs. Hopefully soon I can get my mind in the game when it comes to my eating. I really need to get rid of about 10 excess pounds I let creep back up. My picture for this edition was taken at my doctor's office the day I found out my blood sugar results were right where they should be. The winning entry for this ensemble is Terry Zeller Featherston with,” Purple Haze.”

I went with various tones of lavender and purples for my accessories plus a few splashes of Magenta. You can see that with my custom designed ring and in the next picture my clasp cover on my FitBit band.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really love my FitBit combo. The color's are so me.

 

 

 

 

This has turned into my favorite watch at the moment. It's amazing how many outfits I use my black watches with.

So now let's get to the meat of this issue. This is going to be a special feature from a member of my Facebook group,” Carol's Inspiration Station.” You will hear the many faceted story of Tee Chadwick. So let's get to it. This is Tee's story as told by her.

I was born in 1966, when the survival rate of babies born with Spina Bifida was only 10%, where I was born in London, Ontario. I was in that 10 %.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This third picture is when I was about 5 years old and we were camping. You can see the scoliosis is getting worse.

There really isn't much to tell, except that I had two major surgeries when I was 6 years old.

I was in Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, Ontario for a Harrington Rod, and then a Laminectomy.

I was on a Stryker bed for a couple months before they put a full body cast from the armpits down to my tailbone. It started rotting from the inside out, so I had to spend Christmas back in Toronto, and they proceeded to put me in a body brace for 6 months, and the only time it was allowed off was when I bathed.

I didn't have the best childhood, but in the long run it made me stronger.

Here I am about 10 years old( I'm wearing yellow), and the scoliosis is quite prominent.

When I was 15 years old, I was sitting with my mother having a cup of tea, when she asked my older brother(17 at the time),to do something and he replied to her, “Why can't she get off her fat ass and do it?”

That day within 3 months I went from 132 lbs to 78 lbs , and stayed that way until I was 24 when my father took my younger brother(22) and me to London for the day. I remembered I had just got my beginning driver's license and that's why we were in London. Dad was teaching me how to drive in the city.

As we were walking along, I looked across the street and walking in front of a glass building (the ones that look like they're all mirror), and said to my brother,

” Look how skinny that girl is! I can't believe anyone could be that skinny and live!”

He looked at me, and said,”Um Tray, that's YOU. You're looking at your own reflection.' I was dumbfounded. That day was a turning point in my life…my brother could very well have saved my life. I slowly managed to get up to 90 lbs, but that was it.

Then I hit premature peri-menopause, AND quit smoking, and the weight piled on.

 

This was Christmas of 2010, 12 months after we quit smoking, and I was at my highest weight of almost 150 lbs. my gut is actually touching my hands , that's how wide I was.

I wore black here so people couldn't see my weight gain as much. I made this “cake” for our church in 2011. It's 250 square cupcakes, with five different flavors. It took 9 hours of baking the previous day, and then that day it took 12 hours to decorate from start to finish. I almost ended up in emergency that night; I was in so much pain.

Here's my weight loss and taking my working out very seriously, except for the part where I'm holding Lexie,lol. Look at that gut!

This was in May of this year …my jeans were starting to fall down. By August I had to buy new jeans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is way back when I weighed about 90 lbs, but we were smoking back then, so I used smoking to replace food.

This last is a picture Tee just took after she started sending me the documents to put her story here on my blog.

 

 

 

I asked Tee what she did to lose her weight. She basically did a low carb diet without cutting out treats.She did a LOT of sports in the summer(badminton,catch, soccer and lawn darts). And I know she works out regularly. So as you can see Tee has a many faceted story with many challenges that she has had to overcome. She is doing that to this very day. Thanks Tee for sharing your story for my readers. I hope this will provide some inspiration for people who just might need it right now. Till next time, God Bless.