But there was a defining moment for me. And I know you see that in the movies when all of a sudden there's something that clicks or something major happens that changes a life. For me, I just finished eating dinner - two chik fil a meals (damn that IS good chicken). And I was disgusted with myself. Here I was, about 22 or 23 years old, studying a career to better people when I couldn't even better myself.
So I made a change. The first two weeks were mostly cutting out junk and fast food and recording the amount of calories that I was actually eating. Then I started exercising. Just an hour before class every day. I went at 6:30AM (as soon as the gym opened) because I was embarrassed to be working out, I felt so fat. The first 35lbs or so came off quickly and my confidence began to build. By June, I had lost about 70 lbs and had decided to run my first half marathon in September with my classmates.
And of course all the running stuff went downhill from there... :)
But even those little changes make a big difference. I remember how overwhelming it can be to get started or to stay on track. Even now, my most recent changes were cutting back the coffee and increasing water consumption - it's all about creating good habits and sticking with them. You don't have to do it overnight. And the process is slow and continual. But it works. It's been 3 1/2 years since I started the journey and it's still a struggle for me. I go through phases of working out too much or not working out at all. I run fast, I run slow. I lose 5lbs, I gain 10. There are aways ups and downs. But stick with it and work through it and you'll surprise yourself at what you can do. I know I have.
The picture on the left is 2011 before I started my journey. The picture on the right is me in May completing my 14th half marathon (in under 2 hours even!).
