u/bsidetracked

Obviously I didn't run it in 30 minutes but I'm still proud! We had beautiful weather this morning and I took two days of rest instead of one between my last run and this one so I had what I needed to keep going after the timer stopped for my actual W8D2 run.

Can't believe I'm almost done with the program. I'm very excited to continue running and continue improving. This group has been such an important part of the process and I'm grateful for the supportive community that exists here!

If I'm being real it was 19:50 minutes of running because when I heard the beep in my headphones for my exercise ring on my watch closing I thought it was the done beep and it took me a few seconds to recover. But I'm still counting it!

Week 5 was a bit of a mess but I did it. I did the first day twice because the first attempt was a on a treadmill and then I had to take a few days off between Days 1 and 2 because of sinus issues. I was very hesitant to get out there this morning because I did two extensive walks with my dog this weekend and was a little achy. But the need to do just try overcame everything else and I got out there.

I was slow but steady as I usually am and honestly felt great at the end!

I restarted my running journey in mid-June and it's amazing to me how far I've come, especially given how out of shape I was.

My diabetes diagnoses always felt like a matter of when and not if. Both my parents have Type 2, all of their parents had Type 2, many of my uncles, aunts, and cousins have Type 2 or are pre-diabetic. My genetics were always against me and for years I tried to combat it with healthy eating and exercise. I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic in 2019 and for awhile managed to keep things in the low end of pre-diabetic range.

And then 2020-2025 happened. I won't go into it but it was a long string of bad life things happening including losing people close to me, losing my job, and almost losing my home. I dealt with this in a variety of unhealthy ways including overeating, eating more takeout than home cooked meals, and not getting any exercise minus walking my dog. Life finally started to improve towards the end of last year and I finally felt motivated enough to get my health in order. Around November I started to improve my eating habits, track my calories and macros, and start to incorporate more movement into my days.

Due to loss of health insurance, I missed my annual physicals in 2024 and 2025. When I went in for my annual physical in February of this year, I was nervous. I'd been good for a short period of time but horrible for months before that. When my blood test came back with an A1c of 10.5 and a glucose reading of 216 I was disappointed and terrified, but only a little surprised.

I was already on a better path, and this really inspired me to get better. I doubled down on my commitment to a good diet and more exercise and readily accepted the support of Metformin and Mounjaro. I've been on 2000mg of Metformin since February and was on 2.5mg of Mounjaro for 2 months before moving up to 7.5mg. I thankfully only suffered mild side effects from both for a very short period of time.

I've been maintaining a low-carb/low-sugar but not quite Keto diet and in the past month have started running again. I purchased a blood glucose reader and dutifully pricked my finger every morning and night and adjusted accordingly. I thought about a CGM but wanted to see how I'd do without one first.

As of yesterday I've lost 60 pounds and brought my A1c down to 5.6 and my average glucose reading down to 87. I truly and honestly didn't think I'd be able to do all of that in 4 months even with how hard I've been working towards it. And I'm just old enough and smart enough to know this doesn't mean I can rest easy. I plan to continue with a strict diet and medication and keep things moving in the right direction.

I've read a lot of these progress posts with some level of despair that I'd never get to share my own. If you are where I was please know it can get better. I'm rooting for all of us!

I finally finished Week 2. I accidentally took a 5-day break between Day 1 and Day 2 of Week 2 due to bad running weather outside and not being able to motivate myself to do it on a treadmill. Thankfully I managed only a one-day break between Days 2 and 3.

It's funny because several years ago when I was into running, I used to prefer treadmill running and hated running outside but something changed and now I'm the opposite. Since the weather here is supposed to be dangerously hot for the next few days I'm going to have to make the choice between another extended break or moving things inside.

As I mentioned in my last post I have lingering self-consciousness over being a very slow runner. I had a goal of breaking 2 miles by the end of Week 2 but zero confidence in myself actually achieving it. I'm so proud and happy to say I did 2.1 miles this morning! It wasn't easy but it wasn't super hard. My lungs are doing well and I can feel my legs getting stronger. I also managed to get out when it was early enough for the temperature to be tolerable and I could tell the difference between running in mid-70s degree/mild humidty temps versus high 80s/high humidty.

Looking forward to the challenge of moving into Week 3 and hoping I can find a way to safely do it outside in the near future.

Hello Couch 2 5Kers!

Roughly 9 years ago I was a regular member of this community/regular runner/fairly in-shape(ish) person. Then life stuff happened and more life stuff happened and life stuff kept happening.

I return to you now at the middle of the beginning of getting my life and health back in order. Towards the end of last year, I mentally started to wake up from a few years of sitting around the house most of the time and eating whatever I wanted. I slowly started to get my diet back in order and gradually incorporated more light exercise in the form of taking my dog for longer walks.

In January of this year, I had my annual physical and unfortunately 2 months of doing better weren't enough to combat what I had been doing and my blood work results and weigh-in were a giant wakeup call that I needed to really improve my diet and exercise habits.

Just over 6 months into that I'm doing much better. I've lost weight, adopted good eating habits that feel sustainable, and become more active. I've been thinking about getting back into running and Couch to 5k was a program I really enjoyed doing. Feeling like I needed a bigger challenge I've actually decided to do the Couch to 10k program.

Week 2 Day 1 was today, and it was a true test of how serious I am about this. I wanted to do pretty much anything but run. I've always been a very slow runner, even when I regularly ran, and once I pushed myself out the door this morning, I dragged myself through the warm-up and the first couple of run/walk cycles. About halfway through my motivation and energy finally started to kick in and by the end of it I was running parts of my walk. To my absolute shock given how cranky I started the run I was even enjoying myself and glad I was out there.

I'm nervous about sharing my results because am still very slow! On the plus side I'm not feeling winded, but my leg muscles are pretty weak at this point. If I can make it to 2 miles in distance by the end of Week 2 it will be a miracle.

I keep telling myself that I'm only racing myself and my last results and running super slow is still running and the best part is I'm actually starting to believe me when I say that.