Once weighing 260lbs and being in a size 22, at the age of 20, I knew a change was needed. I was two sizes away from maxing out at the clothing stores—and the internet and ordering clothes was not an option back in 2001. Additionally, I was bordering on high blood pressure and needed medication to control it. I knew I had to do something, but didn’t know much about losing weight back then. I decided to cut calories and walked twice a day—an hour at a time. I lost about 40 lbs this way, but then gained some back from having a baby.

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Now that I was lighter, I began to RUN! I could not run at 260lbs, nor did I know how. I became an avid runner, crushing 3-14 miles a day as my stamina improved. I ran several 5K’s and even did a few half marathons which were amazing accomplishments. However, I ran SO much that I messed up my IT bands and it was painful to get down on my knees. I suffered through that pain for almost a year before going to physical therapy because I can be stubborn like that.  

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In the meantime, I kept moving! I took bootcamp classes, Zumba classes (I considered becoming a Zumba instructor), step and was happy to be moving! By this time, I’d lost 55-60lbs and was flirting with 200lb’s on the scale. I was so excited to get UNDER that number after seeing 2-something for so long. I had to keep GOING!

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Though I was losing weight, I was starting not to like how I looked. Soft, skinny-fat, loose was what I saw when I looked in the mirror, and by this time, I was in my early 30’s. There has to be something I can do about this because this is NOT the way, I thought. I didn’t lose all this weight to not like how I look. The beast in me awoke. I had done so much cardio, and was so concerned about losing weight, that I compromised muscle loss just to see that number go down. Of course I didn’t know this at the time.