When I was Thirty-Something, It was a Very Good Year

Last April, my journey began. I remember it like it was yesterday. After a snowy, cold winter cooped up in our home, the sun began to shine. It was a Thursday evening. I had not seen any of our suburban cul de sac dwellers since the Fall. But last April the sun began to shine and the cul de sac was suddenly full, once again, of of bike-riding, trampoline-jumping, popsicle-eating neighborhood kids accompanied by their stir-crazy parents. My son was so excited to play outside with the neighbor kids and I was excited to chat with their parents.

The kids had all grown taller. There were new sets of braces adorning a couple mouths too. The little boy next door was no longer wearing diapers. Lots of changes and growing had taken place during that cold, ugly winter. After I observed the changes in the kids, the mom next door came walking out of her garage with a big smile. She looked radiant. She had lost a ton of weight and looked confident, happy, and healthy. I complemented her on her much lighter, learner body. Then, I asked her how she did it. She told me that she participated in Weight Watchers at Work and had lost 45 pounds.

That evening after I put my son to bed, I remember eating Doritos and thinking about my neighbor and her amazing weight loss. There were many changes in me that had occurred during our harsh winter too. I wondered if my neighbors noticed them. I figured, they had to notice. After all, I was the heaviest that I had ever been in my life. I was no longer smoking cigarettes like I had done in the previous summer. Smoking cessation weight gain had set in on my already out-of-shape chunky body. Plus, I am a mom to a toddler. After he would eat his meals, I would make sure that his left over mac and cheese and chicken nuggets would not be wasted...so I ate them. I had not exercised in months. I had spent the winter eating french fries and chocolate with a side of carbs and fat. I was not confident. I was not healthy. I was not happy. So, I decided to give my neighbor's plan a try. And this is when the starvation, misery, and pain.....I mean..... lifestyle change began.

I started with Weight Watchers.....those points. Oy vey. At the time, I was certain that the physical symptoms that I experienced from parting with my daily intake of greasy fries, gigantic bagels doused in butter, and foamy Iced Mocha lattes topped with whipped cream were comparible to what I had heard that opiate withdrwals feel like to recovering addicts. My face broke out, I felt sick, I would get sweaty, I was hungry, and I just wanted to eat junk food. But, I slowly started to see results on the scale and looseness in my clothes and my withdrawal symptoms slowly went away like they did for Leif Garrett on Celebrity Rehab. As summer progressed, the pounds continued to slowly leave my body. I started walking with my neighors every single day. I started to regain confidence and to feel healthy and happy again and I got in some quality gossip....I mean..... girl/mommy time during those walks.

So, how the heck did I start training for marathons and triathlons?

The rest of this blog will address that and the insanity and rewards of heavy duty training. I'll never tell the exact number of pounds that I lost. I will post some before and after pics and allow my readers (if I have any) to guess....privately, of course. (If you try to post a guess in the comments I may cut you!!)