Amanda, sometimes it takes something major for us to see what is right in front of our faces. The fact is, you now see it...and you are doing something about it! Doing it for you...that is the ultimate achievement! Congrats to you!! You are only going to get better with each passing day!
Cheers,
Wendy & Matt
This is Amanda's Story:
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My journey really began on October 5th, 2010, which just happened to be my 29th birthday.
A few days before that, I had been chatting with my cousin about how down I had been feeling. Our grandmother had passed away in January 2009, and one of things she made me promise her just before she got really sick was that I would work on me, and get healthy and happy. I lied to her, and told her I would, and never did anything about it. When I was talking to my cousin, I was pretty much in tears because here it was, almost 2 years after her death, and I still couldnt get my act together and try to keep my promise to her. I weighed in at 239lbs that day, and it was the highest I had weighed since pregnant with my son. My cousin assured me that I could do it, that I could lose the weight, get healthy, and that our Nanny would still be proud of me. After that conversation, I felt a little bit of the spark I needed to make a change. I signed up for a gym membership, and planned on going on October 5th.
However, life in general got in the way, and I didn't get to that first gym day. I was out for dinner with my family, celebrating my birthday when my aunt called to let us know that my cousin had been out for a run, and had gotten hit by a car in a crosswalk. Devastated doesn't even begin to describe how I felt, even after I was told she should be ok. She is like a sister to me, and I had come so close to losing her! After seeing her in the hospital the next day, and seeing how beat up she was, her broken leg, her dream of running a half marathon in May taken from her, I was more determined than ever. That day, I started running. I ran for me, I ran for her, I ran for our grandmother. It kind of sounds like I did alot of running when I put it like that, in reality it was less than 5 minutes spread out over 30 minues of walking, but it was A LOT more than I had ever ran before.
Today, almost 6 months since throwing away all my excuses and jumping into my new lifestyle head first, I have lost over 23lbs. I am participating in a half marathon in May, the same one that my cousin had hoped to complete before her accident, with Team in Training and raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in memory of our grandmother. I was typically logging around 30kms a week (steadily creeping up because of the gradual increases in my long runs), however I had a hip flexor issue, and had to cut back some. I still cant run for a long period of time with out walking, but I can do so much more than I could before. I have had set backs, periods where everything hurt and felt so hard I just wanted to give up. But then I would think about the people I was running for, the people that couldn't because of illness or injury, and I would think about how much they would love to have the ability to do this, to be able to run again.....and then my complaints seemed pretty petty.
My ultimate goal now isn't a set amount of pounds lost. I obviously want to lose more weight, but now I want to be fit, and healthy, and happy. Running gave me something I didn't anticipate: peace with myself. I don't use running as a tool in weight loss anymore, its something I do because I love it. My other workouts are for calorie burning, running is for me.
Please help support my fund raising efforts for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!
http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1054363&langPref=en-CA&Referrer=direct%2Fnone
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