Since about the beginning of June, I have been taking 3-4 mile runs. While its true that many people often jog, I decided to talk about how these very casual runs have helped me out since I first started.

Many years ago, I ran for the first time and, after awhile, I began to feel both the physical and mental benefits of those brisk runs.  As time passed and Annette and I eventually moved back to Connecticut with our then very young son and I slacked off, using the icy winters as an excuse not to run anymore.  At the time, I didn’t think that it was a big deal because I was in decent shape from being a runner in AZ and assumed that as long as I watched what I ate, I could keep my weight down.

That never happened. I, like most people love to eat and more often than not, I make lousy, unhealthy choices of most of the food that I eat. With as much free time as I had- I no longer work due to my seizures- there was always time for eating so that’s what I did. Now, it’s not like I locked myself in a room with a bunch of food and ate, but I certainly took plenty of breaks while doing different housekeeping tasks throughout the day to eat mostly snack food, things like chips, soda and garbage like that. As a result, I gained around 35 pounds and just felt(and probably looked like) a big cow. I had to change before I dropped dead and that is exactly what I did.

When I began to run again, it wasn’t real easy because my arthritic knees were bothering me a little bit. Despite that sometimes uncomfortable feeling, I slowly progressed from about 1 mile twice a week to the distance range that I mentioned above, usually every other day. And it has worked wonders for me.

The first and most important thing that I noticed was that I was losing some weight. I weighed around 220 when I began running again and am now at around 190, 30 pounds lighter. Some other things that I have noticed is that I have more energy throughout the day, feel more awake and I am no longer feeling extended periods of depression.

Though I still haven’t found a healthier, more consistent dieting plan for myself, I’m certainly going to work on it. After all, winter will be here soon and, living here in Connecticut, with its lengthy winter seasons, there’s a decent chance that I will stop running regularly until springtime unless a treadmill magically appears in our cellar.  Otherwise, I’ll have to make sure that I eat better in order to keep the weight that I lost off. Wish me luck.