My pre-pregnancy weight was 187. I was not happy with that, but it wasn’t the highest I’d ever seen on the scale (195 at that point in time) so I accepted it. I gained 35 pounds during pregnancy, and through eating better (not great, but better) I managed to lose it all within six months, which was my goal. I even managed to NOT gain weight on a family trip to Disney World right around that 6-month mark. Score. (Does that cancel out one of my previous “fails”? I say yes!)
Prior to this, I had tried, here and there, running on the treadmill. I found it was physically easier than running outside, and had managed to once get up to 10 minutes. But that wasn’t the kind of running I wanted to do. I wanted to feel the breeze, have the wind in my hair, blah blah clichéd blah.
And I did! I can’t remember specific details, but I’m sure that I walked a bit, ran a bit, walked a bit, ran a bit...you get it. I was pretty proud of myself, and vowed to continue on with my running plan.
Of course, I didn’t. Fail again. But I did continue working out – sporadically. Man, do I ever know how to quit a good plan! I still didn’t have a gym membership at this point, but I had access to a treadmill, and spent an unhealthy amount of time watching weight-loss shows in order to find exercises that I could do in the comfort of my own home. (Note: merely watching weight-loss shows does NOT, in and of itself, make you skinny. Who knew?) I got down to 178 by my daughter’s first birthday, lost a bit more...then got a new job where people kept making delicious food that I just couldn’t say no to, and gained some back. All the while NOT running, and rarely working out. Super fail!
But...when my daughter was about 18 months old, I decided to go for it. I’d try the running thing again. AGAIN! The first time I went out, I think I lasted 5 minutes before I had to walk. But then, a really wise (and hot as heck) friend gave me the best advice ever: that the first five minutes are often the hardest, and to just NOT give up. So I didn’t. The next run, I lasted 10 minutes. The next time, 15. Eventually, I got to the point where I could consistently run for 30 minutes without stopping, and sometimes, if I was having a good day, I could run up to an hour!!!
Holy crappies! Of course, when I say “run”, I mean “slow jog”. But that didn’t matter. I was proud of myself.
When my daughter was approaching two years of age, we decided to start trying for baby #2. I decided that in order to NOT let myself get obsessed with trying to conceive (I had previous fertility problems that make getting pregnant difficult), I would try to lose during this time as well.
I got pregnant the first month. Which was awesome! But I’d only lost 3 pounds. Still...I weighed 180, which was a whole 7 POUNDS (sarcastic woot) less than my previous pre-pregnancy weight, so I decided to just accept it.
During my pregnancy, I gained 39 pounds, and lost over 20 pounds with the birth of my son. That left me at a post-pregnancy weight of 198 pounds. I got down to 183 by following Weight Watchers once again, but then my weight loss stalled because I was really unmotivated. That was, of course, until I read Mama Laughlin’s blog and realized that it was NOT impossible to get fit after having two kids, and that I COULD do it. I mean if she could, why not me? And that’s when I REALLY became a runner!
You see, sometimes it’s just about having the right mental stamina. In a short few weeks, I have gone from barely being able to run to being able to CONSISTENTLY run 5k without stopping . And I’ve gotten faster (not FAST – but faster!). And once, I even ran 10k!!!! 10k!!! Me! The non-athlete.
So what’s the moral of the story? I have no clue. I should probably have thought about that before rambling on like this, eh? (What are we at? Fail #17 by now?). But, I guess if I were to sum it all up, I would say this: do not allow that voice inside of your head to convince you that you CAN’T do something. That voice is a jerkbank (trying to keep this a profanity-free blog, peeps) and has no idea what it’s talking about. Want to know what you CAN accomplish? Ignore that voice, lace up your runners, and go find out!
Go Brenna!
ReplyDeleteThanks Brenna for your blog - it is really inspiring to me! I need to find my running - except not running, cause running to me seems so blah...
ReplyDeleteI love this, it's so inspiring... I'm a runner as well, having just started a couple of months ago. I'm not to my goal yet but I'm a hell of a lot farther than I thought I'd be and I looove it! Amazing what our bodies will do, isn't it?! Great job!!
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