A Nice Story

Late last summer I took my running outdoors, and at around 8:00pm every night for 3 months I ran basically the same route.  On the weeknights, I always passed this lady pushing her two young kids along in a stroller on the part of my route I called "The Loop", which was just an extra lap through a nice neighborhood opposite my apartment complex.  This lady had quite a bit of weight to lose, but I thought it was great that she was out walking with her kids and making an effort.  We exchanged a quick hello every time we passed one another.

Anyway, when winter hit I took my running indoors, during the spring I changed my route, then back indoors to escape oppressive summer humidity.  So I hadn't seen this lady for nearly 9 months.  The past few days the weather has been great so I'm back to outside running, and last night I decided to take up my original route, modified to add about a mile and a half.

So running back through The Loop for the first time in a while, I noticed a lady speed walking while pushing her two kids in a stroller.  I thought it might be the lady I used to greet last year, but I couldn't be sure, until she said:

"Nice to see you again!"

For the first time, I stopped to talk to her.  We exchanged histories and such, and she told me she was 135lbs when she got married, but got pregnant with her second child very shortly after having her first and never had a chance to lose the pregnancy weight from the first kid before adding another 30lbs with the second, and with two babies in the house the pounds kept packing on.  She was at 237lbs when I first started passing her on my nightly runs, and since then she's lost almost 90lbs through her nightly walks and eating healthy--no gimmicks, no "diets", just healthy choices for her and her family.

I just thought it was great to hear such a success.

This is an amazing story, can't believe she recoginized you!

That is so cool that you stopped to talk. Amazing.

-Laura Mae

That's really an inspirational story...........look i have goosebumps lol.............thanks for sharing.

thanks for sharing that very inspirational I am that woman only I live in NY. I hope to lose 90 lbs soon! I am only at about 7. So speed walking here I come again this evening. I didn't know if it was working.

Thanks for posting this, totally made me smile.

Not only the wieght loss, but that strangers can still stop to talk to one another without thinking the other is crazy...hehe :)

Very cool ! You hear of people loosing lots of weight by just starting walking.   Nice to see it is real.

And she is teaching her kids to take care of themselves and to enjoy nature.

Thank you for sharing.

Awesome!

Brought a smile! Thanks so much for sharing! What a very cool story! Tell her your CC friends say "WAY TO GO!"

What a great story! I am so happy for this lady!

Thanks!

Thats awesome!  Thanks for sharing this story. : D

I'm glad to have such a story to tell, so I'm happy you all enjoyed it!  I'll be sure to pass on all your well wishes to her the next time I see her.

It made me think of all the lenghts ppl will go to in losing weight and all this woman did was walk everyday and change some of her eating habits........I think that is most wonderful, very touching story and im glad you shared with us. thank-you

I like that story. It actually reminds me of something that happened to me. It wasn't exactly the same...but it has to do with nightime walks through my neighbourhood. I always used to go for walks at night because by the end of the day I had enough of my family. I was all hormone high, and so I would walk to escape them. Well, I live in a pretty busy area with some pretty unfriendly people. There are the few joggers/walkers that do actually beat me a greeting or that actually say hello back. I used to walk through this one neighbourhood that I figured was safe because my friends lived there, and I could probably run over if I felt scared. It was pretty tightnit with the whole neighbourhood watch deal. Anyway I used to pass this attractive (but much too old for me) shirtless chap who would water his grass at night to avoid the lawnburn. We would always greet each other. Well. Winter hit, and he stopped watering his grass, so I stopped going that way. Plus it got darker faster so I would stay on the much busier raods. Well. A few weeks ago I was walking on the road again, and I saw him, and I was all shy because I didn't know whether he would remember or recognize me. He looked up from his lawn, smiled, and said, "Hey Nighttime prowler. I haven't seen you in ages." He remembered me! He then looked at me strangely, and added, "By the way the weight loss is noticeable. Good job." It put me in a good mood. Friendly people always put me in a good mood. I'm pretty much surrounded by people who aren't very friendly or happy, so when one person is, it makes a world of a difference.

thats it, I'm walking, I need a good ego boost.  Great stories!