Some inspiration for anyone who needs it...!

luvmycats6197

Hi Everyone! Just wanted to share some inspiration. I hated running all my life--even when I did sports in high school--felt awkward and never felt smooth or anything but did it just for practice drills we had... fast forward to years later and over 40 and overweight--so I finally decided to lose weight last year as my new years resolution. But by my birthday in March last year, I hadn't done anything yet. So I decided after a last hurrah (aka eating binges and vacation foods) during the first week of May when I went on vacation, I would get serious. So I joined here, and started a restricted calorie diet for a little while just to see some results to keep my motivation up. I started eating regular healthy meals again a couple months later and started running on August 1st with the C25K program! I did it every other day without fail no matter what the temperature or weather! I ran my first 5K Oct. 6th in under 37 minutes! The last several weeks of the C25K I had been adding more running time to the regular schedule--but only if my body told me it was ok to keep going. fast forward to now: I ran my first 10K this past Sunday in under my goal--did it in 63:17!
I love the C25K program!! It was so good for motivation. It did not let you feel defeated! I remember W1D1 when I thought I was going to die running for 60 seconds! I kept looking at my watch and when it was only 30 seconds it felt like minutes!!! But I kept going. Between first week of May '12 when I joined MFP and the holidays in Nov/Dec, I have lost over 65 pounds!! and i've kept it off and lost a little bit more since. And yesterday was my birthday and a lady sitting next to us was celebrating her birthday too! I've always known men to be a little off in guessing women's ages but women usually can get it close--but this woman said she had a son older than me--that he was 40! So I asked her how old she thought I was--and she guessed 10 years younger than I am!! (and I was not wearing any makeup!!!!) So Yay me--at age 44 now!!

KEEP GOING YOU ALL!! IT IS DO-ABLE!! And yes--at some point in it, most of you will get the "bug" and come to enjoy it!

likitisplit

Congratulations on your weight loss and your running times. Wow, that's amazing!

KathleenKP

This is a great story! I love reading it. I bet you are an inspiration to some real people in your life, too. The part about you taking five months to get started on your goal, and *still* completing it is amazing.

I can relate to your experiences in your appearance changes. I'm 42 and have lost almost 75 pounds now. I used to be a wall-flower and no-one noticed me. But now I'm the one that turns heads when I walk in, and I get hit on by men all the time...the athletes, intelligent ones, from age mid 30's-50. People think I look much younger than my age now. I have to get a new driver's license because everywhere I go, people say it doesn't look anything like me and don't believe that it is mine. When I run, I sometimes get honks from the NICE expensive cars (ie not the old clunkers with teenagers mocking me).

Happy birthday! It's nice being in our 40's and feeling like this, isn't it? I hope those feelings will help BOTH of us keep it up and not go back to what we were before.