On August 25, 2010, I started the Couch to 5K.
I don’t have many pictures of me back then — no one likes unflattering pictures of yourself — but here’s some taken from that summer:
I also don’t know how much I weighed the day I started Couch to 5K because who wants to know how fat you really are? It was probably somewhere in the mid-to-upper 190s. At my heaviest point in my life, I stepped on the scale at 201 pounds.
My friends had a wedding earlier that summer and, when the pictures came out, I was shocked how much weight I had visibly gained since my own wedding a year earlier (I was about 175 then).
Have I convinced you with enough before pictures yet? OK. These pictures were taken about 5 weeks into the couch to 5K:
I weighed about 182 then, so I estimate I lost about 10 pounds in the 5 weeks.
Be patient with the program if you don’t see results right away.
Here I am at about week 9 — my first 5K. I ran it in 31:42 … my goal was to beat the woman pushing the stroller with two kids. Uphill.
After the 5K, I started working on the Bridge to 10K program.
Around this time, or maybe a little later, people started noticing. My family said something when I went home for Christmas, at about 174-177. That’s 20 pounds … it really takes a long time for people to notice, but once you pass that threshold, you feel like you’re always saying, “why thank you for the compliment!”
In February — 169.
On April 2, I ran my first half-marathon at 2:12:42. I was in the 167 range.
I hit my goal — 164, the end of the normal BMI range for my height — in April. Sadly do not have pictures. 🙁
Around May I started training for a marathon. I was around 163 through most of May. In early June, here I am ~ 160.
In the course of training for the marathon over the summer, I’ve lost another 10 pounds — 150.
Here I am in September:
If you stick with it, you can do it. It was a slow, but steady, journey.