I said yesterday was going to do a post about how I didn’t lose any weight this year, and here it is.
I think sometimes when people find out I did 52 half marathons, they look at me and think, “You?” ‘Cause as you can see, I’m not skinny. I’m not super fat either (though I certainly have my bad days and bad angles).
I know I need to lose weight. It’s healthier not to carry so much around. But here’ the thing. For me, this year was not really about weight loss. It was more about making working out fun again and working on my endurance.
Also, as I said yesterday, I did lose 20 – 30 pounds right before I started the 52 half marathons. And one of the hardest things about losing weight is keeping it off – and this year did accomplish that, at least.
As I’ve mentioned before, 52 half marathons is quite possibly one of the worst ways to train. You should be varying milage each week and building up to stuff then tapering, doing speedwork, yoga, and all that jazz. Just doing a bunch of half marathons and tons of traveling? In my opinion, that’s not really the way to go about trying to get in better shape than the shape you’re in.
Granted, I’m talking from my own personal experience. I’ve known people who did a ton of races in a year and lost a ton of weight. It certainly depends on what you eat, how you sleep, and what you’re doing outside of the races.
So, I guess all I can really say is that I didn’t have the most responsible year. I ate a lot (and a lot of bad stuff). I often didn’t sleep enough. I didn’t do enough yoga. And 13 miles a week aren’t that many, so that alone’s not gonna save you.
I did some nice things for my body as well. I fluctuated up and down a little during the year. Now that this project is over and I’m back in the flow of working out, I will make weight more of a priority this year.
I guess all I’m trying to say is you could lose weight doing 52 half marathons. You also could easily just maintain the weight you are.
I never said I’d track my weight loss or have a weight loss journey, so I hope nobody expected it. And I hope nobody’s sad that it didn’t happen.
Do not let me discourage you. Please don’t ever say, “Well, one girl did 52 half marathons and didn’t lose anything. So, what chance do I have?”
One girl also ate 3 Crumbs cupcakes on one week! She also had so many Oreos during her vegan challenge that she probably had a blood-Oreo level going.
I’m not proud of the bad food choices I made this year. I’m not trying to say “follow me!” I’m just trying to let it be very honestly known that even though I did a bunch of races, I did a ton of things wrong. I am not a model to follow – just a girl who wanted to make distance running fun for herself again.
And if ever you start to think, “She didn’t lose any weight on her project, so I won’t try anything,” think about the fact that in the end after all said and done, I also didn’t really gain any weight. And my cholesterol is really low. My heart rate’s low. All my numbers are great. So, while I’m not proud of all my decisions, and I don’t say follow me – what I will say is: While running certainly doesn’t make you perfect, man oh man, it does a lot of amazing stuff. Even if you don’t always couple it with other things you should be doing – doing something is better than doing nothing at all.