The Beginning - Week 1

I have decided to start writing in this blog because I have read many other people’s journeys and have found inspiration from their stories.  I saw that writing and having support seems to help keep them motivated as well as provide inspiration for others (like myself) so I am joining the ranks of the ‘unhealthy to  healthy’ bloggers and I hope to have as much success as many of them have and continue to have.

My journey started about 4 weeks ago when I, like many others I have read about, weighed myself after months and months of avoiding the truth and was extremely disappointed at what I saw…a broken scale that added 65 lbs to my real weight…ha.  But seriously, that was the last straw and the moment that I decided that enough was enough and that it was time to change my life for the better.  A few of my firends had recently run the Chicago marathon in the past few years and on that day, I wanted to do the same.  That day was Sunday October 7, 2012 and it was the first day of my new healthy life.  That day I stepped on the scale and it read back to me 245.5lbs.  I also decided that I would only weigh in on Sundays so that I could eliminate the distractions of daily fluctuations in fat gain/loss and water weight retention. 

First I decided that for me to make this different than in the past I would need to set goals that I would be more accountable for so I signed up for a Zombie 5K which was to be run on October 28, 2012.  A short goal, but I used to run a lot when I was in middle school, so I thought it should be easy to run 3.1 miles with little or no training (I’m sure you guessed I was wrong).  Anyway, I got on my old treadmill that morning and started running.  I ran at 4.8 miles per hour for about 15 minutes and then had to stop, but I did it.  I then ran again the next day but for 20 minutes and by the end of the first week I was running 20 minutes at 5 miles per hour or about 1.5 miles.  I also signed up on Loseit.com at the start so I could start counting my caloric intake making me more aware of my nutrition or lack of it and accordingly adjust the eating habits I had formed over the years.

I lost 9.9lbs my first Sunday morning weekly weigh in.