"There's an app for that"

So now I've declared myself in training - at least I've declared it to myself, the public announcement would come much later. But I'm a pack animal and I didn't want to go at this alone. Remember mile 3 - I didn't want to be bored. So I enlisted one of my cousins the run with me.

Earlier this summer I had come to the realization that I had grown beyond a point which I was happy with my body. I no longer liked being photographed and I was in need of some new clothes. The turning point was the number 18 - that was the new pant size I was moving into. I decided that was going too far and that I wanted the old me back. And that old me wasn't really that far away.

There's an app for that - I started tracking calories with "lose it" but my husband had discovered "my fitness pal" (MFP) which he liked better than Lose It. I gave MFP a try and liked it as well. Back to that cousin. She and I had started biking together regularly over the summer; we talked about fitness woes. I decided to ask her if we could lose weight and get fit together - figuring that ACCOUNTABILITY was critical to success. She agreed. Little did she know I'd drag her into a marathon too but more on that later. So we embarked on our fitness journey.

I set a daily calorie limit of 1500 calories and used MFP to track what I ate. At first I just guessed at portions then soon realized that if I meant to see any substantial change I needed to know what portions really looked like. I spent several weeks measuring and weighing food so that I could truly understand serving sizes. I also started to Zumba. (Love Zumba - and one class can earn you about 500 calories in a day). With someone to be accountable to other than myself I hit the ground running and haven't looked back. At the end of July I weighed more than I had weighed during either of my pregnancies. Now, seven months later I've lost 40 lbs. The compliments have been nice to receive but really I just feel better and I feel like me again.

So from August to early November I Zumba'd and went on weekly long bike rides with my cousin. As the weather cooled we rode less; we both missed that weekly ride (and extra calorie burn).

Then I completed the 10k.