How it started!

Let's start by back tracking to April 2009... Well, maybe I should go a little further in the past to around June 2008.

I graduated from HBU in May 2008 and I was to start work October 2008. The plan was to spend my summer relaxing, hanging out with friends and getting the CPA exam done (that hasn't happened quite yet but I'm working on getting it done in the next few months... I digress.)

Anyhoo, sometime in June, my sister from my white mother- Karindy Orr suggested we run the San Antonio Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon in November and in a heart beat I said yes! Doing a 1/2 marathon was something I'd been thinking about but didn't have enough liver for (for my non-Nigerian friends- this means I couldn't summon the courage to do it)!

This was supposed to be my starting point to getting healthy. I started training by running a mile at a time and swimming afterwards. I started well but didn't continue well! The first three weeks were great but it all went downhill after that. My training became very inconsistent.

Those who know me well know I will do all I can not to back out of a committment. November 16th 2008 came. This was the day I had to complete 13.1 miles! The most I had run while training was 6-7 miles!!! I started off feeling good... About 5 miles or so into it, my head was reeling with thoughts such as "What on earth possessed you to do this?", "Seriously Yewande. Whay is wrong with you?", "Are you crazy?" "You are definitely crazy!" "Just give up now" "well, if you give up, you'll look so stupid." etc... Needless to say, I limped through about 5 miles and dragged myself to the finish line where I finished the last .1 mile (which by the way is uphill) with a nice jog and a smile on my face... I finished my 1st 1/2 marathon in 3 hours 37ish minutes. I was sore for days after this and this opened my eyes to how unfit I was!

Fast forward to December 2008... Thank God for insurance... I went to see my doctor for a check up. The results came in January 2009 (of course after I had made a New Years resolution to get healthy and which of course I hadn't started doing by the 2nd week when the results came.) My doctor informed me that she thought my cholesterol was a little to high and I needed to start eating healthy and exercising.

At 23, I was putting myself at risk for health issues down the road! I was at size 12 (sometimes 14), about 186lbs, not comfortable in my own skin but not doing anything but complain about my weight and let people feed me with "oh girl! You aren't that big." Looking back, what they were saying was you are big but not that big!

To be continued (this is quite long! So for the sake of my friends who can't focus on anything longer than one page, look to my next post (50 year old women kicking my butt))