I Love a Good Challenge!


Readers of my blog know that I have been through it the last few years. The loss of a marriage and our home and our pets followed by the death of my best friend really took its toll on me and my family. I have to admit as much as I tried to fight it off I lost a bit of myself and gained a good 45 pounds that has put me at 197 pounds. I want to make it clear that there is nothing tragic about putting on a few pounds. It is quite normal when you are middle aged, but for me as a woman with a physical challenge it affects my mobility and independence. 

I am starting a journey of recovery. I will never weight this much again. It is not healthy for my 5'5" frame and quite frankly I want to look good when I hit my 50's lol.

 There will be more to come. :) 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Neglected but NOT Abandoned

Image
Park Bench Secrets by Etha Walters First post of the New Year and I of course have many resolutions to achieve in 2011 which included a new commitment to my blogs. 2010 was a tuff year with financial hardships that resulted in having to sell some of my photography equipment just to get by. There was also an assault on my daughter that changed her life and ours. So we were glad to see the promise of change in a new year. In November, I started working at JC Penny. I am working as a greeter. It is a far cry from my profession and I had to choke down some pride in regards to stereo-types, but I am really glad that I did. The people that I work with are amazing, it is like entering a close nit family and I was a long lost cousin. The customers are awesome too. Every day I talk to someone new and I get something out of every conversation. I get told stories, jokes and people share little pieces of their life with me. I find myself feeling very blessed and inspired, creating photographs
Read more

VR Lens for the Wheelchair Photographer

Image
I was recently asked by one of my “Twitter Mates,” if I would write a little something on what it is like to be a wheelchair photographer. I of course am very happy to oblige. I want to talk a little bit about the equipment that I have and why I chose it. I own a Nikon D50 digital SLR, and two lenses. One lens is the standard 28-80mm lens for close range shooting, like headshots, or focusing on a specific object. The other lens is a 55-200mm VR. VR stands for vibration reduction and vibration reduction is a disabled person’s friend! I don’t have cerebral palsy but I do have many of the same characteristics such as spasticity in the muscles that can cause a little bit of a tremor. I really didn’t realize how much I did it until I started taking pictures. Holding a steady shooting position can be a challenge for any photographer sometimes and the VR feature helps reduce movement. It also helps the lens shoot sharper pictures under lower light. Optical zoom is also a friend to the wheelc
Read more

Trails and Trials of a Wheelchair Photographer

Image
Of all the terrains I have been on this one looks fairly simple. I rarely challenge my scooter's mobility when I am on a solo shoot. I am comfortable with pavement and shallow gravel and trails through low cut grass. I did recently get into a situation that was a steep incline and of all of my concerns I never thought that a stall on a steep hill would happen. Especially with well charged batteries. That is exactly what happened. I almost topped a  steep incline, not much higher than the one pictured here and right before reaching the top my scooter stalled and stopped. Having a fear of heights I was determined not to look back the very long slowly rising incline. I pulled my key out and pushed it back in to try to restart it but nothing. The circuit had been thrown and the button I needed to reset it was out of reach from my position. This is typically when anger and fear ultimately kick in. I got my cellphone and called my husband. While I was waiting I cursed under my breath
Read more