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I used to keep myself in fairly good shape. Although I always fought my weight I worked out regularly. In 2000 I started having problems with fatigue, rashes and stiffness in my joints, I also had a great deal of pain in my neck. My doctor thought it was stress and we didn't do anything about it. In 2001 I started falling down, and couldn't move. After six months I could no longer walk and it was assumed that I wouldn't make it. It turned out that I had a herniated disk in my neck that impinged on my spinal cord.

My neurosurgeon said that I needed to get into surgery right away and that I was lucky to be alive. After surgery I worked hard to recover and was improving fast but still fighting fatigue and other problems, I was then diagnosed with Lupus. I started a regimen for that as well, but between the weakness and the spinal problems I had gained 80 pounds and had lost a lot of muscle. I began to try and start a workout program, but was having severe back pain and ended up unable to walk again, my doctor said that he would perform surgery but that I would probably be in a wheelchair by the time I reached fifty. I told him that I would walk in his office at 51. I am now 53 and walk almost everyday. In the last 5 years I have had 3 major surgeries and continue to fight for recovery, but I hadn't been able to get rid of the weight. In addition, I was dealing with the challenges of my lupus which included gout, pleurisy, joint and muscle pain and the worst were the flairs which were like having a nightmare level flu. To deal with the flairs, I had to take prednisone which made me want to eat everything in site. Because of the Lupus, I have lung disease, kidney disease, liver disease, an enlarged spleen, auto immune inner ear disease, three bulging disks in my lower spine, degenerative disk disease, and arthritis in my hips and knees. I have some lesser problems related as well.

Tired of steadily going down hill, I decided to start focusing on how I was eating and trying to get an exercise program going again. At first, when I started to increase my level of exercising it would send me into a flair and I would lose ground, take prednisone and start overeating again. About a year ago, I figured out that if I lightened my workout when I was in a flair that I could get by without prednisone and function the whole day. Over time, I was able to stay with my workouts and adjust them when I didn’t feel well. After a year I had lost over 40 pounds and was feeling better then I had in years. I was still fighting occasional fatigue, back pain and other symptoms, but was continuing to improve.

A little over 2 months ago, I saw the infomercial for P90X, although I wasn’t confident I could jump right into that level of exercise, I liked the concept and decided to go with Power 90. After 60 days, I had lost an additional 20 pounds and for the first time since I was in my 20’s started to see my stomach muscles come out. Although many of my doctors were a little concerned at first about me tackling this, they are now big fans.

I plan to complete Power 90 and start on P90X early next year. My goal is to show others with chronic illnesses that you can fight for your life and get some and even most of it back if you put your mind to it. I consider myself lucky to be alive and have a great family and support system, and am very thankful I found Beachbody and Tony. I intend on being the first person I know of with Lupus to have six pack abs.

Update: While as of June, I made the switch to P90X, I had to do a little convincing with my Family Doc. but he is now on board and a big fan. The only difficulty I have had has been space, my house is torn up do to major underground water and soils problems, so I am limited to a 4' X 6' space to workout, but to a large extent, I am able to do most of the P90X workouts in this little space. I thought P90 was a powerful change agent, but P90X is incredible, my first day to 30 day pics were pretty amazing.

Because of my liver and spleen problems, I can't exactly follow the diet, my body just can't process that much food, but I have come up with a modification that has worked for me, I haven't lost a lot of additional weight, but I have noticed a major change overall. I am not quite at the 6 pack abs level yet, but continue to move in the right direction.

Last week, I got to visit with my son, he has also started P90X, he wanted to do a freindly competition on push up's. I am proud to say I smoked him, at 54 I can do more push ups now then I could at 40.