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David Smith

smithdj@cctech.edu
extension 220

My fitness journey started a little over a year ago. I found myself at just a little short of 300 lbs and had been in a state of denial that weight was a real problem for me.  A couple of my family members had encouraged me to lose weight, but up until that time I had not made the decision to change my life style and get some control back for my health.

I noticed that when I had to pick something up off the floor, I was having an extremely difficult time getting back up. I almost had to have something beside me to help pull myself back up, and also my knees would hurt so bad getting up. Walking any distance was really hard also, and if I tried to run, I could not go but maybe 100 feet without being out of breath.

After returning from vacation in June of 2010, I started doing the Weight Watcher's Plan (not actually attending meetings nor doing online - just following the old points system). I did that, and a little bit of exercise at home about 3 days a week, and at that point I had lost 55 pounds.

At the start of the year, I was feeling a good bit better; I had more energy and was about to move easier and decided to join a gym to start getting in better shape. I chose Anytime Fitness, because living in Florence and working here, it gave me the flexibility to work out in Florence and Sumter. I started out pretty slowly and would do 15 minutes on the treadmill and about 45 minutes on different weight machines, and do that 3 to 4 days a week.

In March, I joined the Weight Watchers at work here at Central Carolina. I also had started to up my exercise routine a lot. In addition to weight machine training, I started to really enjoy doing spinning for an hour at a time and gradually increasing resistance level on the stationary bike over time, so I found that my endurance for cardio exercise was getting better and better.

In late April I went back to my home town to visit my Dad. Since I was not able to go to the gym, I decided I would give running a try while I was there. I drove into town (he lives in a rural area), and to my amazement, I was able to jog for 2 miles (it wasn't easy, but I made it). I was never a good runner; even back when I was in high school I hated to run.

I then started adding running 2 to 3 days a week to my exercise routine and actually entered a 5k race on Memorial Day (5/30/2011), and I did finish!! That was a great accomplishment for me - I wasn't looking to run it fast (and believe me it wasn't fast), but I finished! At the race, a couple of friends of mine from a previous job were running the 10k race, and I thought if they can do that, maybe I can too, if I continue to work out and work at it.

I can now run (jog, again not trying to set any speed records) for more than a 10k (6.4 miles), and can actually do 8 miles without stopping for a break (a little more with a breather or two). I try now to run 5 days a week and I do weight training 3 days a week.

As of today (August 8th), I have lost a total of 106 lbs and feel great!!! It is the very best thing that I ever did for myself. Thankfully, I had great support from my family and friends; their encouragement has given me the momentum to succeed in my fitness journey, and I will soon reach my weight goal.