The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins With a Single Step

I'm beginning this blog because a lot of my dailymile friends have blogs, and it has proven to be a good way for me to feel like I know each of them better. I want to give them the same opportunity to know me, and I also would like to have a record for myself of this place in my life. About 3 1/2 months ago, I made the decision to lose the excess weight I have carried (more or less) throughout most of my life. So, I rejoined my local TOPS chapter, because accountability to a group of friends is a motivator that truly works for me. I have been a member before, and I have seen losses before, but this time, I have made changes and, I guess you could say, personal discoveries, that I believe will make this time THE time for lasting success. Somewhere along the way, quite by accident, I stumbled upon dailymile.com, an online community of exercisers, both veteran and rookie, who are there for the main purpose of cheering each other on. I have found many new friends, and the peer pressure has been WONDERFUL for me! I signed up as a walker, but most of my first friends were runners, and so it was, at their encouragement, I found myself beginning the Couch to 5K (c25k) running program about a month ago. I confess, before this, I was a definite ANTI-runner! I had a bad experience with running in my 7th grade gym class (teacher was an ex-Marine, and I was NOT physical!), and I had made up my mind I hated running with a passion. When I first started, I could not even complete the super-easy workout assigned for Week 1. With God's grace, I am poised to begin the workouts of Week 3! I'm still no runner, but now I feel I'm on my way, and I CAN do it. I see improvements, even if I'm still not doing particularly well. As evangelist Joyce Meyer likes to say, "I'm not where I wanna be, but thank God, I'm not where I used to be!" Since March, I have lost about 34 pounds and 3 pants sizes, but I am not to my goal yet. I am aiming for a very ambitious 100-lb loss total, which would make me the smallest I've been since elementary school (no joke). And no, this is not an unhealthy goal. It is, in fact, the middle of the healthy prescribed range for my age, height, and build. With the support of my TOPS family and my friends on dailymile, I believe it is possible, and it is MY TIME. To ALL of you, thanks so much for the support!!!