My Inspiration

Part of the BSG challenge is to share who or what inspires me, so here goes:

Eight years ago my oldest brother was taken from us at the age of 48. He died of a heart attack in his sleep during a business trip. He was not exactly the picture of health. He was over-weight (obese), and he had diabetes. I fear my youngest brother is following in his footsteps. Today, he is as heavy if not heavier than my oldest. He takes several kinds of medicine for controlling his blood pressure, cholesterol, and sugar.

Both of my parents died what I feel as early in life, in their mid to late 50’s from heart attacks. You can say heart disease runs in the family, but I say we are not exactly helping to alter that history either.

Even when I was overweight, among us three I was considered the healthy one. Can you imagine, from my high (more like a low point) of 268 being considered the healthy one!
My youngest son started walking in my family histories footsteps. Certainly not all at once, I allowed it to happen. I was not exactly a proper role model for him.

So, my inspiration is not a single person. It is a collective experience of events that took place in my life. I need to be the example. It is for me, it always needs to be for yourself first. But, by doing this for me I have seen, or at least starting to see results of being the example in the people around me.

Because, I don’t have a role model, Spark People and the people I have met there continue to be my role models. I look toward Spark People and the SP Class of 2009 to continue to be my inspiration and to provide me my needed motivation. It is the events in my life that have given me the needed push in the right direction. Spark People and the people I have met keeps me going in that direction.