Exercise
I lost my first 60 pounds without any exercise at all. Frankly, when you weigh 244 pounds, exercise just doesn’t feel very good! To lose weight, I just ate less food. I was using Slim Fast for breakfast and lunch, and also counting WW points. I think I was eating about 25-30 WW points per day, which equals about 1250-1500 calories per day.
When I got to 185 pounds, I stopped using Slim Fast and started following the South Beach diet. I lost 6 pounds on the first phase of the South Beach diet, then had trouble losing any weight after that. So, I started counting calories, in addition to following the South Beach diet principles. I was eating 1200-1400 calories per day and still not losing any weight. I figured that 1200-1400 calories per day was just my maintenance level of calories!
I did not want to lower my calorie intake, so I decided to start exercising to burn off some calories. I started a program called Couch to 5k, which is a training program designed to slowly work up to being able to run a 5k (3 miles). It took me 7 months, but now I can run 3 miles! I also lost 25 more pounds along the way!
After 7 months of running, I added biking and swimming to my workouts. I completed a Triathlon on April 16, 2005. I then went on to do another triathlon, two 5k road races, a 5 miler and a 1/2 marathon! You can read all about those races at my triathlon training blog!
I am an exercise freak now and can’t stand the way I feel if I miss a workout. Several years ago, my gyn doctor told me that I needed to find an exercise that I enjoy, and keep doing it until I reached a point that I couldn’t stand the way I felt when I skipped doing it. That was excellent advice, and I am so thankful that I have gotten to this point. It doesn’t take athletic ability, speed, or a lean body. All it takes is setting a goal and persistence doing whatever it takes to reach that goal. In the beginning, there were lots of times when I didn’t feel like going out running. But my goal of completing a triathlon made me go out and run anyway. Now, I still set new goals, but it’s not hard to motivate myself to workout because I am addicted to it!
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Running a 10k