My New Passion

I started my weight-loss journey eating better and exercising nearly every day. My go-to tried and true exercise while I was extremely overweight was Leslie Sansone's 'Walk Away the Pounds' DVDs. I think I have about 10 in my library now. Her routines are great because you can "walk" at home with her and really work up a sweat. You can also MODIFY everything she does to your fitness level, which is very encouraging for someone just starting out. Now that I am 77 pounds less I can still pop in a Leslie DVD and add wrist or waist weights and make the routine that much harder. I'll even grab my Firm step and hop up and down on that with Leslie.

I mentioned in my first post that I was looking to lose weight for my 20th high school reunion. That wasn't the entire story. I must give credit where credit is due. While watching "the marathon episode" on Season 7 of the Biggest Loser (the one with badass Tara Costa), my husband nonchalantly asked me if I ever thought of doing "that." Well, being the type of person that cries (with pride) when the Yankees win the World Series or when someone crosses a finish line, I think that would be a tremendous sense of accomplishment and I would love to be able to say "I did that!" So, he told me that if I ever did it that he would do it with me. It had to be a year after that conversation that I was retelling it to one of my sisters and he overheard our conversation. He didn't realize that our talk during the Biggest Loser was the catalyst for my weight-loss and my love of running. I will be forever grateful to him for finally putting my feet to the fire and inspiring me to be better.

So, the ball started rolling. Along with my workouts at home, I started walking at the track. Charlie (that's my husband) or my kids (Charlie, Jr. and Chelsea) would come with me. Eventually I'd add a jog for half a lap. I continued to add some distance until I could run about a mile and a half non-stop. Then I discovered the Couch to 5k program on Facebook. I picked that program up at either week 4 or 5. At that point, I had already signed myself up for a 5k on 6/5/10. It was already sweltering at 9am and I wasn't up to running a full 5k yet, so I finished in 42:42. Not horrible for my first attempt, but I knew I could do better.

Mind you, I was still around 180-190 pounds at that time. I figured as I lost more weight I would get faster. I continued working on the C25k program and finished it with around a 11:30-12:00 mile. Our 1st 5k together was on 9/11/10 here in our hometown on Long Island. I ran the entire thing and finished in 34:25! I got my revenge on my 1st 5k on 6/4/11 when I finished in 31:55 (almost 13 minutes shaved off my time)! Our next 5k is this Sunday (8/7) at Yankee Stadium and I couldn't be more excited. We get to run the warning track at Yankee Stadium! And it's for a great cause- the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

I am now training for my first ever 10k on 9/17/11 (my 16th wedding anniversary!). I'm up to running 5 miles at a little under a 10 minute mile. My goal is to finish in under an hour. If I don't do it this time, then I will continue to train until I do accomplish that. I'm not sure I'll be able to get my 5k at Yankee Stadium under 30 minutes since the course is throughout the stadium and up stairs, etc., but we have a rematch with our Shirley 5k  on 9/10/11, so I'll work on that goal then. This is why I love running. There is always room for improvement. You can either work on getting faster or train for longer distances. So, this year I've worked myself up to a 10k. Next year I hope to run a half-marathon and eventually, if my body holds out, I'll manage a marathon, maybe in 2013. I just hope my husband can hold up his end of the bargain!!