My Running

Chapter 3-My Running

A Large amount of my weight loss journey, increased fitness, improved mental health and a general increase in bodily confidence is largely down to my running. I’ve explained how it began-but what I haven’t properly delved into is the strategies I used to actually become a ‘runner.’ Like I said before, my mother drove a lot of my running training. Initially she constructed an 8 week plan, based around previous running manuals she had studied, where each week we effectively added a mile to our overall week total. Whilst we looked at out pace and were aware of it, we didn’t particularly make a conscious effort to run any faster; purely focusing on upping out mileage. During these 8 weeks, I was running largely 2,3 and 4 miles, and still feeling more happy when the run was over than at any other point. This was particularly due to the fact that we were running in June- and it was extremely humid on pretty much every run. However, with much coaxing and motivation from my mother, I powered through.

Then, something beautiful happened. My gorgeous mother treated me to a very boujee pair of running trainers- and suddenly, something clicked. Previously I had hated every run. Now with my new boujee temperatures and an ever dropping temperature I began to enjoy my running- and really felt a massive sense of achievement every time I added on another mile. But what I really noticed was how much happier I felt within myself. The NHS say it themselves- “Research shows that physical activity can boost self asteem, mood, sleep quality and energy, as well as reducing your risk of stress, depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.” Additionally, Dr Nick Cavill, a health promotion consultant claims- “If exercise were a pill, it would be one of the most cost effective drugs ever invented.”[1] And I really can honestly say that I dramatically felt these changes. Suddenly- I had a new focus, a new goal- and even better, I was 10 times more happy.

Now there was still something I was struggling with slightly. My relationship with food. I have always seen food as a bit of a comfort blanket, and particularly at uni, this comfort blanket got bigger and bigger and escalated out of control. Whilst my desire to binge dramatically decreased as I started running, It was still there, bubbling under the surface, ready to rear it’s ugly head if I ever had a down day.  This was what I needed to address next.

[1] https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/exercise-health-benefits/