A New Start and a Recap of the Last Year

This blog has gone through a bunch of changes over the last few years. Generally reflecting the things that I am focusing on at the time. For the foreseeable future, I will be focusing on something new:  In the summer of 2012 I realized that I was not only getting overweight, but I had crossed a line. I had seen on weight charts that I was 'obese' but just said "oh, those charts are broken, I'm fine" Then I saw this photo of myself and knew I had been lying to myself and I had to do something. ( by the way, that's my youngest son with me in the photo)

July 2012 at 235lbs

It was late in the summer that I decided what I was going to do to try to make a difference in my life. I purchased my first pair of running shoes and hit the local high school track. I knew if I spent some money on the process, it would help me stick to it.

 My first time out, I could not jog around the track one time without stopping, 1/4 mile, slow jog was too much for me. It took a while to build up. 6 weeks later I participated in a fundraiser 5K for my kid's preschool and ran it in 34 min 55seconds. Not too shabby, I was down to just under 230lbs and felt pretty good. I managed to twist my ankle soon after and by December it had gotten cold outside and I stopped running to let my ankle heal.

In January, my wife and I bought a treadmill, and I hit it pretty hard. I put in 4 to 5 runs a week on it averaging 5K distance each time. I also signed up for myFitnessPal and Runtastic to log my activity. One thing I did not do in the fall was change the way I ate. So I drastically cut my eating and kept close tabs on it. In 2 weeks I dropped 10lbs, and after 4 weeks, I was down 20lbs. Then the circuit board on our treadmill died. As an employee at Greenville College, I have access to our sports training facility.  So I started going there in the mornings before work. In February, I ran 66 miles total.

At the beginning of March, I weighed in at 198lbs. The first time had been under 200 for about 15 years. I ran 111 miles that month (including a 59 minute 10K on the treadmill) and added weight training into my fitness routine.

Today, April 3rd 2013 I weighed in at 188lbs.

April 3rd, 2013 - 188lbs

I've still got a ways to go until I reach my ultimate fitness goals which are ever evolving, but I'm going to be blogging about them right here, I've been working hard for over 80 days now and I need all the motivation and accountability I can get. I'll talk more about some specifics about the tools I'm using, the routine I've put together, my goals and such in future posts. I just needed to post this backstory to give context for my future posts.

If you are on myFitnessPal, feel free to friend me, my username is johnnyGizmo of all things.