Guest Post: Yolanda Leduc

ZOOMA Blog Guest Post#1: Occassionally, we meet a ZOOMA runner who is truly inspirational, and we ask her to share her story with you. Here is the first of our guest posts.

At some time in our lives, we all get asked that big question. What do you want to do with your life? My answer is always to love people with all my heart and help anyway I can. So, I spend my life doing just that. In the process, I forgot to love and celebrate myself.

I have always been a large frame,"big bone" they say. I used that excuse for as long as I could. I never wanted to own up to the fact that I was mistreating myself and my health. I continued to neglect myself, and year after year, child after child, the pounds packed on. I then spent many years trying to get the pounds off, fast!! As we all know, fast is not the answer.

I fast forward my life to January of 2006, 32 years old. I joined a small local gym, determined to break the "fast" cycle and create a lasting one. To my surprise, I weighed in at 292 pounds. I was devastated!! It was as if I had been blind and hadn't seen myself getting larger and larger. I said a prayer and asked for help then begged for strength. I then went to work, on me. I was successful at losing about 20 pounds.

A few months down the road, my body sent me a warning. Even with the success of losing some weight, my body had enough!! My blood pressure shot up to numbers I'm not proud of. There I was at 32 in the back of the ambulance with not one but two nitro tablets given to me and heart patches on my chest. I was lying there with the thought of, am I having a heart attack or a stroke? The thought of my husband and kids and my hopes and dreams possibly being gone, just like that, was enough.

Thankfully, it was a warning, not a heart attack or a stroke. I knew that I had to get more serious about my health. That was my motivation. It starts with "the will to live." I was determined to get it together.

Funny, I use to always see myself running for miles, even though my body couldn't keep up. I was not going to let anyone take this vision from me. I held on to it and started to run the best way I knew how. It took me weeks to get to the end of my block. I never entertained the idea of not making it. I put in my head a picture of myself running. I then told myself, I will do it one pound at a time.

My husband and kids didn't know it yet but life in our house was about to change. You see, we women set the stage in our homes. We have the gift of setting the mood. We are the pillars of our homes. I wanted not just myself to be healthy but all of us. You can never be too healthy!! I started changing the way we ate and the types of foods that we ate and added more activity than before. I began to put myself through my own boot camp. I applied many types of excercises and I ran and ran.

I am now able to walk 7 miles and run a litttle over 3 miles. I am now 34 years old and 84 pounds lighter and still going. I have 53 pounds more to go but to me it feels like 10.

One of my dreams is to run in some type of marathon. I began searching for one on the computer and found ZOOMA. Now, here I am starting with the 5K. Although I haven't run the race yet, the thought of entering another run after this one is amazing!! I owe it to myself, we all do.

In this whole process, I have not only gained a new lifestyle along with the added bonus of a transforming body, but I have learned to love and celebrate me. Do I still love people? More and more each day, me included. I have the will to live!! The question is, do you?

Thank you,
Yolanda Leduc