I don’t usually like to make this blog about my personal life, although I will occasionally talk about beauty products I am using and routines I like to do, I have never really talked about my own moves and my own personal journey through weight lose and becoming healthy.
However, with Kat Classics’s 5th year here, that’s something I want to change a little. You guys don’t know this but since I started this blog when I graduated university I have lost around 65 pounds and am the “healthiest” me I have ever been. I put healthiest in parenthesis because there is a lot that goes into health and that’s something I really want to talk about in the upcoming year. But to do that I need to get a little more personal with you guys.
I figured I would start with something light and tell you guys about how I became a runner, because it was never anything I expected to happen!
For long time readers of Kat Classics you’ll remember when I moved to California in 2015, I kept why I was moving under wraps and I still don’t want to talk about too much of the move and what I was doing, but that move is what changed everything for me.
in 2015, I was interning for a company that the U.S. Navy had contracted to do some biological restoration work on one of their bases. I wasn’t part of the navy, but I did live with the navy and other biologists on a somewhat remote island navel base in California.
Now don’t get me wrong, I actually loved the navy base. I made a lot of friends and for those 8 months it really became my home, but to be honest it could be boring at times. After work all we had to occupy our time was our dorms, the gym, or the bar. Even outdoor hiking areas were restricted because of where we were. It definitely pushed us to spend a lot of our time hanging out at the bar listening to music and shooting pool. (I’m still not good at pool, but shuffleboard, I could give you a run for your money).
Anyway, because there was so little to do, I would spend almost every day after work at the gym while I waited for my other friends to get finished with their daily duties so I could meet them for whatever we had planned for that night. As you can imagine, walking on the treadmill got boring fast. So, I ended up downloading one of those free “couch to 5k” apps on my phone and figured that I really had nothing to lose adding in a few sprints at a time while I was walking.
I took it at half time, so when I doubled up on each work out on the app to give myself extra time to get used to running. (Previous to this I had never been able to sprint more than just a couple of seconds without getting tired). I at no point tried to take getting up to running 30 minutes straight fast. In fact, I was never even aiming to be able to run for 30 minutes straight, I was just trying to occupy my time!
But before you knew it, I was looking forward to my running days (usually I ran every other day and just inclined walked on my off days) and by around 3 or 4 months after I started, I was doing regular 30 minute runs straight (at a slow pace still) every time I had a running day at the gym! Even the navy guys who worked out at the same time as I did started commenting on my increase in stamina. I even was able to take it outside sometimes and run long distances outside! I was fully impressed with my ability and I never even intended for it to happen!
Eventually the running just became part of my every day routine. Even if I couldn’t get a full three mile run in before we had dinner plans, I would at least try to run a mile and a half or so because something was always better than nothing. This allowed me to indulge a little more at the bar or at our dinner parties all at the same time as allowing me to feel really good about myself and my health.
When I moved back to Pennsylvania after my time at the base, my frequency of running slowed down as my schedule didn’t always allow me to go to the gym daily. However, the quality of my work outs still remained the same. I worked hard and slowly began to increase my speeds.
Last summer I signed up for my first ever 5k and as the summer progressed and I signed up for more and more races I saw my time go from 38 minutes to complete to 31 minutes to complete, all in one season! It’s only progressed from there this summer as I have competed in around 8 races and down well in all of them!
When I began running, I was around 140 pounds. At the time, I was never able to hurdle over that 140 and assumed that that was where my body was going to stay. After all, we all hit a plateau at some point. However, a few years later as an avid runner, I sit at around 125 pounds on my heavy days.
I do want to stress though that I never started running with the intention to lose weight. Every time I had ever started exercising in an attempt to lose weight it never happened because it felt like such a chore to work out and it was never actually fun. When it came to running, I started purely because it was an activity I wanted to do. I never intended to lose weight, I never intended for it to be something I continued if I hated it, and it never at any point seemed like a chore for me.
That’s what I want the take away message to be from this story Yes, I lost weight running and yes it has helped me become an even healthier person. But the most important thing that came from me becoming a runner was that I found something to occupy my time that was active and that I absolutely loved.
Someone one told me “you don’t race because of scores and times. You race because if someone told you you couldn’t do it anymore, you’d be upset.” And it’s completely true. If I was told I could never run again, I would be devastated.
So I encourage you to find a sport or activity that you love and own it. Make it your own and do because you want to, not because you have to. Exercise should be your happy place– your zen– not something you feel forced to do.
What sport do you love more than anything? Let me know in the comments below.
Also let me know if you like these more personal type of blogs. Should I do them more often?
Until next time,
Kat
Kat Classics 