Hey everybody!
I am over 40 now, and have not done any real exercise since high school; I had a mostly sedentary office life and after two kids I gained a few (30) pounds.
A few months ago a couple co-workers invited me to run with them after work. I accepted. It was a disaster! Those two ladies TALKED while jogging, happily pointing out the river/duck/odd cloud. I was out-of-breath, falling behind, and by the 4th minute running I was feeling light headed and had to cut it short. They walked me back to the office, and continued with their run. I could not believe it: We did a "jog 1 minute, walk 2 minutes" beginner. I barely run 4 total minutes.
The experience shamed me into moving more. I started walking 4 miles every Sat and Sun and on Mondays I tried my best to keep up with them. One of the girls suggested a free app called couch to 5k. For a couple weeks I tried to run after work on my own, but just did not work. I was tired, I would start cooking and eating, and did not do anything. I tried setting my alarm at 5:30 AM, to run before work - and again, i would just snooze it. I started the C25K program, but because I did not do anything during the week, I kept repeating week 1 for almost a month.
All of a sudden, things just clicked in place: I moved to week 2 of C25K on a Sat morning, run again on Sun. I set my alarm for 5:30AM and forced myself to do it on Monday. I ran every day that week... and the next... and the next. I ran when was raining, when was hot and when I had a sore throat - I have not missed a day since.
I have not lost much weigh yet, and I am not too worried about that. I want to complete 8 weeks of running nonstop, and after that I might add a couple days of some different exercise - but I'm not sure what.
I am surprised with myself in a very positive way. I'll try to post monthly here to track and make myself accountable. Thank all for sharing your experiences, it was a pleasure to read this thread - I can't believe I just found this now.