While I might have started running consistently on October 1st, 2007 when I began the Couch-to-5K Training Program, my whole journey to better health didn't really get going until I came across the web site Traineo.com.
Traineo is a weight loss and fitness community that tries to differentiate itself by making motivation, support and accountability a key ingredient to the web site. Here's what they say on their site:
Motivation, Support and Accountability are the keys to achieving a weight loss and fitness goal. Our mission is to create the most effective weight loss and fitness community on the web by combining the latest software technology with sound information and services from the world’s leading health and fitness experts.
traineo is the culmination of over three years of development, testing and focus group studies in partnership with leading experts in weight loss, health, sports and fitness.
Quite honestly, I stumbled upon traineo the week before Thanksgiving 2007 while I was reading some running blogs. One of the blogs had this "I'm getting fit on traineo" badge, which I thought looked cool and interesting, so I clicked on it. The next thing I know, I'm registering and being asked to enter a weight goal. I had no idea what to enter, and honestly, I hadn't been very good lately about keeping, much less meeting weight goals. So out of my...ahem...hat, I pull out 185 by the end of March 2008 as my goal. I figured "what the heck do I have to lose, besides the weight."
Well, here we are on April 2, 2008, and while I didn't meet my goal weight of 185 by the end of March, I did get down to 192--that's a weight loss of 33 lbs since setting my traineo goal, and an overall weight loss of 39 lbs from my recent high, which was a little earlier in November 2007.
Since I haven't met my weight goal yet, I created a new goal, and that is to get down to 185 my the Komen Race for the Cure 5K on April 26th.