Over the past year or so, John and I have taken up running. We started in September of 2008, taking a Learn to Run clinic at the Running Room. The clinic was great and the people even better, so we kept at it. I was sidelined for a few months, from November to March, with a knee injury that was caused by the simple fact that I was far too heavy.
In February 2009, I decided that I did not want to be a 34 year-old person who felt like she was 50. I was severely jealous of John, who had continued running. I was unhappy, unfit and the person on the outside had started to conquer the person inside of me, turning me into a miserable, fat lump. I tipped the scale at around 210lbs, which does not sit prettily on a 5′3″ tall woman, let me tell you!
Things had to change.
I resolved to modify my diet ever-so-slightly. Going with the basic assumption that losing weight involves burning more than you take in, I skimmed about 500 calories off my daily requirements. On days during which I exercised, I added 50-75% of the calories burned onto my allocation for the day. I never worried too much if I was over by 100-200 one day, as long as the week’s average worked out to under my limit.
For those starting out on this same journey, I suggest Spark People. It’s free, it’s useful and it really, really works. Others may find Weight Watchers helpful. The online version is great, but they’ll charge you for it!
I started by walking. I walked half an hour almost every day. At first I could only go slowly, but as time went on, I got faster and went further.
Bit by bit, the weight came off. When I had lost the first 15lbs, my knees stopped hurting. I started to find energy again and was so utterly thrilled with myself that I could hardly believe it.
My reward to myself for loosing those first 15 lbs was a membership at the YMCA. Weight training was added to my routine three times a week. I had trained with weights in the past and so knew enough of the theory to build my own routine. That said, I also picked up a copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Weight Training, which is a fabulous reference!
Then, on March 29, 2009, I picked up the Running Room manual that I had been given in September, reread the training programme and started running again……
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