About Me

It all started at the age of 5 when I began to play T-ball - that's when my love of sports came out of me.  I played for as long as I could, and then moved to softball and basketball.  As I got older, I became more interested (and better) at both sports, and proceeded to continue to play in middle school and high school.  I also added track to the mix, running the 1600m (my best time was a 7 minute mile!).  I even played JV baseball my senior year of high school.

While I wasn't quite up to par to play college sports, I continued to participate in intramurals, both playing and serving as a basketball referee.  I was also a regular in the gym, going at least 3 times a week with my roommate.

Then I met J my last year in college in 2005.  We weren't interested in each other when we first met, but the attraction grew, as did my waistline over the next few years.  I wasn't as active as I used to be, and my body showed it.  In March 2008 while vacationing in Hawai'i, he asked me to marry him.

My wedding was in a year, and I was determined to lose some of the weight by then.  That didn't happen.

I had become complacent in my attempt to get moving and eat better.  I wasn't motivated and just felt that it wasn't going to happen.  Well yeah - because I wasn't trying!

In September 2010, J suggested that maybe I try the hCG diet.  One of his coworker's mother-in-law was a nurse that promoted the diet and both the coworker and his wife had done it and had success, so I decided to give it a try.  I initially lost 20 pounds once I was done with the diet, but it slowly creeped back on.  I did a second round and lost 15 pounds, but it also came back on and I was right back where I started.  How depressing.

I have some amazing friends that I met on The Knot while I was planning my wedding - we were all April 2009 brides and chatted on our message board.  Once our weddings had passed, we made our own private message board and still stay in touch to this day.  Some of us have even met in real life.  One of my friends, Amanda, has always been a runner and pretty consistent in working out.  She threw out the idea that she wanted to run a half marathon, and not just any half marathon, but the Disney Princess Half Marathon.  The wheels in my head started spinning, and I decided that this would be an amazing goal for me to work toward.  So...I made the decision to start training, run some races along the way, and end up at Walt Disney World in February to run the race with some friends.

J was skeptical about it at first, but this only pushed me to prove him wrong.  Once I started my training and ran my first race, I quickly became slightly obsessed with all things running.  Buying new gear and finding races to run has become my new hobby - a healthy new hobby.  I think he now sees that I'm very motivated to do this, which is a small weight off of my shoulders.  To hear him say that he's proud of me is amazing and lets me know that he truly does support me.

So here I am - running to lose weight, be more healthy, and meet my goal.  But it won't stop once I cross the finish line.  I'm determined to make this a lifestyle change and continue to hit the pavement for a long time after I become a Princess.

1 comment:

  1. tracy.rose@healthline.comOctober 25, 2012 at 4:45 PM

    Hi Jen,

    Healthline is interested in contributing a guest post to hellofitnesswemeetagain.blogspot.com. We would be open to contributing any blog that would be of interest to your readers. Healthline bloggers have been featured on a variety of sites including:

    Washington Times: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tango-mind-and-emotion/2012/aug/10/how-healthy-choices-easy/
    Natural News: http://www.naturalnews.com/036515_diabetes_strawberries_prevention.html
    Patch.com: http://strongsville.patch.com/blog_posts/where-and-what-to-eat-in-cleveland-to-beat-the-winter-blues

    Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

    Warm Regards,
    Tracy

    ReplyDelete

Your comments make me smile :)