I am certainly no running expert. Let's get that out of the way immediately. The reason I'm writing this post though is to encourage those of you who are thinking about running on a regular basis but are hesitant or lacking the motivation to get started. I'm not the best runner now, but if you told me two years ago that it would be a semi-daily occurrence for me to run 3-4 miles, I would have taken the last bite of my jelly doughnut and told you that you were crazy. But after losing 80 pounds, I've learned a couple of things along the way.

1) You're Going to Suck at First

If you're not an avid runner and/or are out of shape, then you shouldn't expect to go very far or fast your first time. One of the worst things you can do is compare yourself to all of your friends that do run. This was a huge problem for me when I started. A lot of my friends are fairly adept at running and many of them run marathons. When I first started running, I always felt like a failure because I was no where close to them in comparison. But realistically, why should I have been? I was 215 pounds and just started for the first time. You've got to know that when you first start, you're not going to be a track all-star.

2) Don't be Discouraged if You Get Worse

One of the most frustrating things about running for me is that some weeks I felt like I was getting worse. There were times when I couldn't run as I could the previous week or struggled a lot more with it than I usually did. The best thing is to keep going. There were a lot of times that I thought about giving up because it never felt like I was going anywhere. But you've got to keep going and think about the big picture. Don't get so caught up in the week to week improvements (though it is important to strive to get better), but think about the long term progress. Are you running better than you were a year ago? Then you're making progress!

3) Embrace the Pain

This is something that I wished someone would have told me earlier. When I first started running, I would quit when I started to feel "extremely" out of breath or started to feel a "significant" amount of pain. But you know what I found out eventually? I found out that I could keep going a lot further past that pain. If I kept running past that initial pain, I could go further and faster than I ever did before. It's important to keep in mind that you should never deliberately try to hurt yourself, everyone has a limit. But push yourself beyond what you think you can do, you might surprise yourself.

4) Talk to Others

This is still something I'm not very good at, but it's important to talk about your goals and progress with other people. I understand that it can be a daunting thing. You don't want people to know how out of shape you are and how terrible you actually are at running, but if you never tell anyone else about it, you'll be less likely to be motivated to make progress. Take a slice of humble pie, admit that you've got some work to do, and let others encourage you along the way.

Those are just a few things I've learned going from never running to being a mildly active runner. And seriously, if I can do it, then there is no reason that you can't either! If you make a dedicated effort to it, you'll find that when you look back you won't be able to believe how far you've gone. The biggest challenge is to get out there and do it. So get off the couch and make it happen!

Trying to lose weight has been sticking it to me lately. Ever since I moved to Spokane, I've been stuck in the 135-140 range. It's truly been a good example of what it means to be disciplined. Let me explain.

Trying to maintain a regular body weight has been a frustrating experience. I find myself having to regulate my intake of calories and making sure that I eat healthy on regular basis. These principles are good for me in the long run, but if I ever indulge, then it costs me. For example, one weekend I decided to just let myself go and enjoy myself. I had a very unhealthy weekend of eating. At the end of it though, I had gained a good chunk of weight, one that took me three weeks to undo. It just boggles my mind. A couple of poor decisions can have a lasting impact on all the work I had done previously.

To be honest, it drives me nuts because it makes me feel like I am walking some type of tightrope, always having to do the right thing. Further driving my insanity is the fact that there are plenty of people I know who can eat whatever they want and retain their weight. They have no conception of what it means to work to be healthy.

Also, I'm finding it discouraging to try and keep going. There are weeks when I see that I weigh the same or even more after a week of healthy eating and exercise and it makes me want to quit. What's the point of it all if it doesn't work? It's then that I tell myself that if I stopped exercising, imagine how much bigger I would be. It is a bit discouraging.

So what have I done to keep myself going? I try and focus on the fact that being healthy is something that I've decided is important. For the sake of my longevity and maybe even for the future family I may have someday, I need to make sure I am doing everything I can to be healthy. How can I take care of the ones I love if I can't even take care of myself? So I'm going to keep trucking, even if I don't want to at all. I need to keep looking at the big picture: Over two years I've lost 75 pounds. The whole process is slow and I have to think that a year from now, I will have made significant progress. 

You may have heard about the hubbub of the latest issue of Time Magazine. If not, let me fill you in. The latest cover story of Time featured an article about the myths of exercising, and in essence, how exercising may make you healthier, but will not help you lose weight. You can find the article here.

At first I was astonished by this claim because I figured it defied conventional wisdom. I thought I would give the article a shot and let it shed a new light of information onto my understanding of exercise. While I came expecting to learn something new, instead I found a bunch of misinformation.

The major claim of the article is this: Exercise will not help you lose weight because even though you are burning more calories, exercising will increase your hunger and so in effect, will cause you to eat more and not lose weight. I can’t even begin to understand how this is a logical argument.

Let’s take into fact that people lose weight all the time. Some may do it by eating better, but a large portion of people include some form of exercise into their routine. The claim is even made in the argument above, that exercise helps someone burn more calories. While exercising may want to make you eat more, it doesn’t mean you have to.

It would be the same as saying eating better doesn’t help you lose weight because even though you are eating healthier foods, you may have to eat more of those healthier foods to fill yourself up. It just doesn’t make any sense.

I have to say, I’m a littler surprised that Time would choose to run an article like this. Most likely they did it just to get more attention to their magazine, which has been working since many media outlets have picked up the story.

I’m not saying regular exercise is the only way to lose weight. All I’m saying is that it can be used as an effective tool to shed a couple of pounds. To say that exercise will not help you lose weight is an erroneous claim that only encourages people to maintain inactive lifestyles. In order to lose weight, you have to burn more calories then you consume. You don’t burn calories just by sitting on the couch, I’m just sayin’.