Running to lose weight

It's been a while since I posted. I could blame the summer holidays, but to be honest I've been busy training and deciding what to talk about next.

2 years ago on the 1st October 2015, an old uni friend tagged me in a post to run everyday in the month of October, I thought, why not, I love running, lets give it a go.

This is me running the color me rad in Toulouse on the 11th October. You can't tell but I was suffering with bronchitis at the time. I was determined not to give up.

One month turned into three months, and then I decided to continue for a year.

I've lost count of the amount of times people told me I was going to damage my knees and it wasn't good for me to run that much. You'll only get injured... I've not had any injuries brought on by running everyday.

This picture is me one year later, on the morning of my first marathon in Dublin feeling fitter than I have ever been, one week before my 40th birthday.

I'm not saying that everybody can do what I did. Most people hate running and the most common excuse I hear is "I haven't got time for that". My motto is 'you can always find time for the things you want to do'. How much time to you spend on Facebook/Instagram everyday? How much television to you watch?

I'd like to think that you can tell I lost weight, but some people would still ask me. I lost 10kg (1.5 stone) in a year through exercise alone, yes I changed the way I ate too because I wanted to succeed and believe me running that much means you don't want to drink lots of alcohol and fatty food.

So, one year on and am I still running everyday? No, I decided to give myself a break and try something new. I realised that I wasn't fuelling myself properly, so I decided to sign up to The Body Coach and build up my muscles for my next challenge. It's been a fantastic training plan as it has taught me the importance of eating the right food at the right time to not only fuel your body but to help your muscles recover from your training. I've realised that no diet will every work for me if it doesn't also include exercise. Restricting certain foods only makes you want them more and as soon as you reach your 'ideal' weight, you eat what you want and pile on the weight again.

This was me at the age of 30, two years after my Dad died of a heart attack at the age of 62. I'd like to think that I look and feel a lot healthier today and none of that is down to a diet restricting me of certain foods. It's down to me wanting to live a full and healthy life by exercising and eating well.

So if you are reading this post I'm hoping to have motivated you to get off the sofa and do something about that extra bit of weight around your middle.

October is approaching, and I will be running everyday for the month of October along with some friends of mine. I'm hoping to encourage lots of other people to join in too and who knows, you may end up falling in love with running everyday like I did. I hope so!