I’ve never been a fan of starting anything on an arbitrary date. Oh, I’ve tried it in the past, many times, but unless I’m really passionate about it, I just don’t stick with it to fruition. When I decided to get out of debt a few years ago I started on October 6. When I realized that I wanted to lose weight last year that was on January 16. Neither of those dates were tied to anything particularly important in my life, but they did have something in common. It was at that point that I’d had it. I decided enough was enough and it was time to make a change.

I lost 60 pounds last year. 60 pounds! That was pretty incredible, and I did it solely through eating better. I felt better, I had to buy a lot of new clothes and overall things were looking pretty good. I knew I needed to exercise if I wanted to get to the next level, but I was doing OK and that complacency was a problem. Well, that, and stress.

Right at the same time that I was celebrating the milestone of losing 60 pounds I decided “hey, I think I’m ready to buy a house” and while I don’t regret that decision one bit, along with buying a house came all kinds stress and other emotional drama that led to me gaining 20 pounds in the six months I’ve been there.

I’m not obese, but when I stepped on the scale on Sunday and saw 190, I knew that I had to cut the crap and it was time to get serious. I’d been walking on my lunch breaks when I could find the time, but I wasn’t serious about it and my diet was pretty crappy as I was back to medicating my stress, boredom and loneliness with food. Back in January some friends of mine who are runners were kidding around saying that they were going to make me a runner and while I know they had good intentions, I knew from past experience that when I’d attempted to run on a false time table that after about a week of it, I’d quit. Not because I got injured, but because it’s a lot easier to come home and flop on the couch than it is to go run.

This time I have a feeling it’s going to be different. At the advice of some friends I went to Aardvark Sports Shop in Bethlehem and was fitted for some “real” running shoes. The person who helped me was excellent. She asked about past injuries (shin splints suck), looked at my feet, how I walk and helped me choose the proper shoe. I wish I’d had the sense of mind to ask her name because that kind of customer service deserves to be commended. After I decided on the shoes that were best for me, only then did I see the price tag. $104.95! Ouch! I sent out a tweet saying that I’d just bought some running shoes and that I hope I don’t end up regretting it.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a whole host of people respond publicly and privately showing their support. That kind of enthusiasm is inspiring and it’s what makes me think I can really do this and make it stick.

Since I’m essentially starting at nothing other than walking every day I looked into a good program to ease me back into shape and I ended up finding that the Couch to 5K program I tried a few years ago would probably suit me best. I programmed it into the RunKeeper app on my phone and I’m happy to say that yesterday I completed the first workout.

In an effort to track my progress and to let others see what I’m up to so they can hold me accountable I’m uploading my exercise to the RunKeeper website. If you’d like to be a part of my “Street Team” (what RunKeeper calls friends), head over to my profile.

I really appreciate all of the encouragement so far and can’t wait to look back on March 4 as another seemingly insignificant date that ended up becoming one where my world changed for the better.