Downsize Me

The weight melted off. Within four months I lost 30 pounds. Ten months after my visit to the doctor, I was down to 170. I am now two years removed from the first day of my "new" life. Besides one cigarette a few weeks after that day, I have not had another. As of this month I have lost, and kept off, a total of 75 pounds.

I kept up with my running, too, and ran my first marathon in October, with the people I care about there to cheer me on. With eight miles to go in the 26.2-mile race, I was reduced by pain almost to shuffling. I resorted to walking the last mile due to a leg cramp. Coming up the last turn with a quarter-mile to go I was clearly in pain. A man jumped out of the crowd and into the middle of the route and put his arm around me. He said, "Here is what we are going to do, we are going to start by running a little bit. Not very fast, but we are going to run. Then, when you get up there closer to the finish line, you are going to go all out. You can do it!" I did not know this man at all, and he didn't look to be a marathon runner. But it inspired me. Before that moment I had sworn off ever doing another marathon. Now I plan to run my second one this summer.

I still don't know why I decided to quit smoking, start running, and eat healthy on that cold Tuesday morning in February. But I knew that once I made that decision, I would follow it right away. I didn't wait until the next week or the next month or the next year. I made the change effective immediately. To me, that was the answer: don't wait, don't talk about it, just go out and do it.

Without anyone to cheer me on at the start, I decided to make major changes in my life, and I did. I now believe that anything is possible.

© 2008