When January 2017 arrived, I began my journey. The plan was simple: diet and exercise. In short, I started tracking what I was eating and hit the gym. My diet was all about portion control and healthier replacements. Previously, I wouldn’t think twice about polishing off a bowl of ice cream or bringing an entire bag of chips over to my chair. Once I started tracking, I swapped the ice cream for low- or zero-sugar desserts and strictly measured out my chips. I dialed back on all the extras and significantly reduced my daily calories. For exercise, I started with an hour at the gym every day: 30 minutes on the elliptical, followed by 30 minutes on the treadmill. When I was at work, I made sure to walk during my lunch breaks.
A couple of weeks in, I got a sobering phone call from my doctor: my labs had come back with a pre-diabetic A1C. That terrified me. The last thing I wanted was to develop diabetes, and that realization pushed me harder than I ever expected. The weight started falling off rapidly. I was down 50 pounds by the middle of February, and 75 pounds by March. The momentum continued until I passed the 100-pound mark—entirely through diet and exercise.
During this time, I discovered running.
My past history with running was mixed, at best. I had tried track in junior high, but it didn’t stick. Back in 2007, I ran my first Boilermaker 5K, which took me around 45 minutes—and after that summer, I didn’t run again until 2017. With the weight now dropping, I decided to give it another shot. I asked my brother-in-law to set up a training plan for the 2017 Boilermaker 5K, and I began training in secret. The hard work paid off: in July 2017, I crossed the finish line of my second Boilermaker 5K in about 35 minutes. From that moment on, I was hooked.
As the year progressed, I visited my physician every couple of months to monitor my health, and the scale kept moving down. Most importantly, my A1C returned to a normal range! I was ecstatic. I had gone from staring down a future of daily medication to having nearly perfect labs. I stuck to my plan religiously, kept exercising, and signed up for more races. In November, I completed my first travel race—the Rocky Run 5K in Philadelphia. Shortly after, on November 23, 2017, I recorded my lowest weight: 193.8 pounds.
In just over 11 months, I had lost almost 160 pounds. It was hard to believe I had shed nearly half my body weight in less than a year. I was the lightest I had been since my senior year of high school, and I felt fantastic.
Moving into 2018, I was completely bitten by the running bug. I tackled 5Ks and 10Ks, joined running clubs, and raced in everything from late-afternoon summer heat to freezing, early-morning winter breakfast runs. I ran in all conditions and made some great friends in the process. In July 2018, I took on my first Boilermaker 15K, which sparked a new thought: I think I could do a half marathon. After all, it was “only” four more miles. I ramped up my training and successfully completed my first half marathon that September.
I maintained my progress for the remainder of the year. As I approached the two-year anniversary of starting my journey, I stepped on the scale on January 2, 2019, and weighed in at 213 pounds. I was completely okay with this. I knew 193 pounds wasn’t a sustainable baseline for me, especially as I got older. I entered 2019 in a great physical and mental place. But in the back half of that year, things started to change.
