About Fat Pants

Once upon a time, I was fat. I started this journey in 2007; it took me until 2009 to really get my act together. During that time I lost, gained, lost gained (never more than 10 lbs or so) until I finally ballooned up to 213 lbs in 2008 and was wearing a size 18.

I always had excuses. I was too busy, too tired, too stressed to eat right and … exercise?! Are you kidding me? I am the type of person that is too lazy to drive 5 minutes to pick up pizza, so I have it delivered for extra cost. I loathed physical activity. I hated being out of breath, but more than that, I was sad and mortified that I couldn’t keep up with my athletic husband. Something happened in December of 2008. I graduated with my Masters degree. I had gotten married, bought a house, was on my way to being established in my career as a technical writer for a software company. I was out of excuses. I could no longer blame it on being too busy. I had accomplished so many things in my 20s and now? Now I had time. Now I had resources. Now? I had no more excuses.

So in January of 2009, like a lot of dieters, started the year with high hopes. Except this time, I wasn’t really focused on weight loss. I did, however, have two goals in mind. Living in the gorgeous (and VERY active and healthy) state of Colorado, I had more than enough opportunity to climb a “14′er” - a 14,000+ ft mountain (there are over 50 of them in our state). One - Pike’s Peak - sits basically in my front yard. So that was goal #1 - climb a 14′er. It didn’t matter which one, it didn’t matter how long it took me, but I was going to do it. Goal #2 - Run a 5k. The previous year, my husband and I had walked the Race for the Cure 5k, and he jokingly said “we should run it next year.” Ha!!! Yeah right! I haven’t ran since I was a freshman in high school (I’m 27 now). But there it was…again, it didn’t matter how long it took me or how much I weighed, I was going to run it.

I had always had a desire to be a runner. But how do you start out running at an obese 200 lbs? In February, I hired a trainer at my gym to get me started. My first day of personal training, I cried because it was so difficult. I was so fat, and so out of shape. I remember thinking “who was I kidding?” because it seemed SO impossible at the time. Run…. let alone run 3 miles?? Hike 14,000 ft and not kill myself in the process? Yeah, right.

My trainer turned out to be a tool (another story for another day), but I did get something out of it…. I started to see improvements in my physical fitness. I was doing things that, when I began 6 weeks earlier, I could not do… at least for prolonged periods of time. When my trainer and I went our separate ways, mostly because I could not afford another $600 for training, he told me that I would quit coming to the gym, gain back the five pounds I’d lost, and come begging for him to train me again.

That was really all I needed - for someone to tell me I couldn’t do what I had set out to do.

So, I started running. On my own. At 205 lbs.

Slowly I worked my way up to 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and so on until I was running 3 miles almost daily.

That 14′er? My husband and I bagged our first one, Pike’s Peak, in July.

It took us 6 hours to summit and 9 hours total, but we did it, and the best part is, I get to look at the peak every single day and think to myself: “I climbed that!”

And that 5k? We ran the Race for the Cure 5k on September 13, 2009:

Along the way, I’ve lost 50 lbs and nearly 40 inches from my body.

I still have a ways to go. You can see my progress photos/measurements for my latest weight and photos.

My trainer got fired from the gym for stealing money from the owners. I would LOVE to run into him some day and ask him if he still thinks I’m going to gain back those 5 lbs. Idiot.