FAQ

You already reached your goal, why don't you change your blog name to "Skinny Girl Run"?
Even after reaching my goal, I never intended to change my blog's name. "Fat Girl Run" is a very important reminder of where I started, how far I've come and the progress I've made. It's also a reminder that staying lean still requires work and if I don't keep it up; I could easily go back to where I was! It's just very important to remember where I started. Plus, the aim of this blog is to inspire and influence. I certainly wasn't always thin, and no one looking to lose weight is going to follow some pretentious person with the blog name "Skinny Girl Run"! I definitely wouldn't have when I first started on the weight loss journey! I'm still on a heavy learning curve in terms of running, so I'm happy to be a resource for beginners.

How long did it take you to reach your goal?
I moved back to Chicago at 230 lbs at the beginning of November 2011. I reached goal (140) on April 16, 2013. Doing the math, I lost 90 lbs in about 16.5 months.

Why did you start running?
I don't even have a good answer for that question. My sister tricked me into a 5K on Thanksgiving Day 2011 and I hated every second (outwardly) and walked it in 50-some minutes. In July 2012, I had just finished my first quarter of grad school at Northwestern, and I heard radio ads for the Big Ten Network's Big 10K (and 5K). I thought it would be a fun school spirit event, and I was determined to run at least part of the 5K race, despite having never run before. I felt such exhilaration after the race (the proverbial "runner's high") and such pride that I'd done it that (after the soreness subsided) I just kept running. I was experiencing a lot of stress at home and discovered that running was a fantastic way to release my stress and anger. I found running to be even more effective than stress eating, which is what I had always done previously. After I started running, the weight came off even more rapidly, and I found myself much less stressed and angry.

No, seriously, how did you do it? You had to have a trainer or Weight Watchers or something.
Seriously, I lost the weight 100% on my own. I had "help" if you can call it that -- magazines like Runner's World, Fitness, and Cooking Light, message boards on SparkPeople, and Google. The formula is simple: eat less (and better) food, and exercise more. The motivation initially came from a desire, no, a need to feel better about myself. As I continued on, I found motivation from the movement of the numbers on the scale. I knew how losing weight and exercising made me feel, and I was thus further motivated to continue toward my goal.