Recent Weights:

228.9 on July 16, 2015

225.2 on February 20, 2016

211.9 on July 3, 2016

222.0 on December 30, 2017

197.0 on August 27, 2018

I’ve been attempting to lose weight and get healthy since my mid twenties. I finally took that step to get myself healthy in the beginning of 2016. I completed the C25K (Couch to 5K) program and ran my very first 5K on May 21, 2016. I had lost approximately 10 pounds and went down a few sizes by the end of the program. More importantly, my leg muscles were developing and I could comfortably run up to 3 miles nonstop! I felt amazing inside and out.

I also slipped and fell down some stairs the same rainy night that I ran my first 5K. This left me with 2 bulging discs in my lower back. I still ran a little after that and completed another 5K that fall. After that run, I took some time off from exercise and ended up gaining the weight back that I had lost. The pain in my back increased. It became debilitating at times and I found myself feeling sorry for myself. I was beginning to convince myself that I would have this pain for the rest of my life.

I tried heat therapy, cold therapy, physical therapy, massage, stretches, injections, all to no avail. My part time job was not extremely physical, but it was enough motion every day to aggravate the pain and required daily doses of Aleve to get me through the day and night. I gave up sleeping on my Sleep Number bed and moved downstairs to a recliner.

I had gotten to a point where I just adjusted my life and limited my mobility in order to lessen the pain…until a good friend of mine suggested that I get back to running.

What?! Run again?? With this back pain??? Uh…

I went out on a chilly November morning in 2017 and I ran Week 1, Day 1 of the C25K program. Slowly. But I ran. And my time was even better than the first time I ran it in 2016!

And I haven’t stopped working out since! I completed a few more 5Ks and then switched from running to walking on an incline on the treadmill, using the elliptical and the stationary bike, and walking 3 miles outside around my neighborhood.

31 pounds GONE and down from a size 18 Women to a Regular 14/12/10, depending on where I shop, and still going!! And my back pain is no longer an issue! The discs are still bulging, but I go on about my life and activities and because I give it no thought or energy, I don’t feel the pain anymore.

This has been the biggest solo accomplishment of my adult life. No one could do this for me. Even with the best encouragement, it was all up to ME to get up, get dressed and move my body.

I will continue to take care of this body, so that it can take me all the places that I want to go and do all of the things that I want to do!