Project X

I have been working on a project for a little while now I finally feel that I am able to discuss this openly on the blog--Now, in order for you to understand the absolute impact of this major life change, I must back up many years for you to fully appreciate the scope of change that has occurred. 

As you know (or you may not know...) I used to be FAT. While I was walking around all "large", it was my husband who was the athlete. He was always an athlete, from his youth well into adulthood. He excelled at sports, especially football and hockey, and continued to play hockey in college. As an adult, he kept his passion for hockey alive by working as a referee for all kinds of levels of hockey-from high school up to collegiate levels. His job also kept him physically active and fit. He would also workout daily. 
Me...not so much. (ok, let's be honest...I did NOTHING)

Fast forward a few years and due to a change with his job, he was not able to travel for hockey like he could in his other position so he gave up reffing. 
When I discovered my love for fitness and it seemed that the roles were reversed.

I was now the athlete and the pounds were starting to creep onto him. 

Now, when you have any kind of drastic change in your life (ie wife loses a ton of weight) it is also going to change the dynamic of the relationship. Of course there was new stress and strain put into our relationship with the "new Jen". 
I train a lot of hours and that can mean a lot of hours away from home and family. 
Resentment towards my training schedule and "my new life" was starting to build and it was certainly creating a wedge in our marriage. For years I held out hope that Hubby would join me for a run or a bike ride but there was not a shred of interest there...again, only resentment for the sport I had grown to love. I know first hand you cannot force anyone to change, it has to come from within. 

Sometimes life gives you lemons and sometimes life just throws 'em right at you sooo hard it leaves a bruise. So after a series of events it seemed that life was about to take a dramatic turn of events and I feared that we had reached a boiling point. But that is when life--the same life that is chucking lemons at your head-- spins you around and hands you the unexpected.

While Hubby was schlepping around our daughter at the Rev 3 Maine race-and getting to meet some of my wonderful triathlon friends-something sparked a fire in him that weekend and he was ready to make some changes in his own life. 

A couple of days after the race, he told me that he has been INSPIRED by what he witnessed at the race and wanted my help. He was ready to seek out a healthy life.

*picking jaw up off of floor*

I was a little apprehensive at first and to be completely honest, I doubted that he would even stick with a program longer than a few weeks. I mean, football season was rolling around and it would be back to the weekend beerfest-TVwatching-junkfood-eating-crap I had been dealing with for the last several years. 

But here we are now, at the end of October and he is still going strong. I know he is serious because I can count on one hand how many beers he has consumed since late August. THAT right there is an epic change. I believe that he is committed to making long lasting changes and I love that he is making both short-term and long-term goals that are not scale focused.

He has lost 20 pounds.
He is running or biking almost every day (of course, a good coach monitors their athletes and Rx's rest days even when said athlete protests!)
He is running up to 4 miles now and ran a 5k (not race, just distance) in a tad over 30 mins last week. 

We have run together a few times-something I dreamed of for a long time.
I was coming in from a bike ride the other day and saw a familiar figure up ahead of me, running towards me.  To my surprise, it was him. He has decided to get out for a quick run after work (Lola was with my parents while I was out riding). 

So now that I see that he is serious about making a change and he has given me some specific goals for the future, I have agreed to take him on as an athlete. He is doing fantastically well and I will be chronicling his own journey here as PROJECT X.