I grew up fat. 

I could write volumes on that subject alone, but let’s leave it there and start the “Success Story” with the year I discovered Curves for Women.  I was 25 years old and weighed 210 pounds.  Although I acknowledge that Curves’ specific fitness program is not right for everyone – for example, I don’t work out there anymore myself – learning about their program was a total lightbulb moment for me.  It was the first time I realized that I didn’t have to be fat.  And that was huge.  (Even huger than my pasty white thighs.) 

I started working out at Curves three times a week and following their “Permanent Results” program, a low-carb variant (Atkins was pretty hot at the time).  In under a year, I’d lost 50 pounds and started working at Curves myself.  I was already being held up as a shining inspiration, I figured I may as well get paid for it. 

As I got in shape and began to appreciate how physical activity made me feel, I started to really enjoy walking.  I often joked that I had finally found my sport of choice – and that it was something most people learn to do at one year of age.  The year I turned 29, I had moved to a big city without a car, and walking became a way of life as well as an enjoyable pastime.  I wanted to do something with this newfound energy – wanted to make a difference.  It was then that I saw a poster for Team Diabetes. 

A month later, I had signed up to walk a marathon in Rome, Italy, provided I could raise $5,500 for diabetes research.  I had agreed to spend the next six months walking 50-70 kilometres a week and devoting every spare minute to fundraising.  What was I thinking? 

Well, I was mostly thinking about how my grandmother had died of diabetes complications when I was 11 years old.  And I was thinking about how I might have gone down that same road, if I hadn’t managed to get in shape the previous year.  And I was thinking that walking a marathon would prove that I wasn’t just walking to work to save busfare, that I really and truly was an athlete, and that I could damn well do anything I set my mind to.  Plus, I was about to be thirty, and the big Three-Oh makes people do crazy things. 

In March 2005, I completed the Rome Marathon with a time of 7 hours and 12 minutes.  I was incredibly proud.  I flew home to my boyfriend and after a couple weeks recuperation, I joined Weight Watchers. 

Marathon training and carbo-loading had left me a little heavier than I’d been, and to top it all off I’d sustained an overuse injury that left me unable to do most forms of exercise, so it was a long haul to get my body back in shape.  But Weight Watchers was there for me all the way.  I loved the meetings, the commiserating and the sharing of ideas.  I loved the gold star stickers I got every time I lost five pounds and applauding for other members as they moved towards their goals.  Most of all I loved that the program was realistic.  It didn’t demand that I never eat chocolate again: just that I maybe not eat the whole box at one sitting.  That was livable. 

In the summer of 2006 I hit my goal weight of 140 pounds.  I looked, to put it bluntly, smokin’ hot.  I have lots of photographic proof, too, since I got married that fall. 

    

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 12:42 pm and is filed under Success Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.