So recently I was asked a question… Why am I running? Why am I losing weight? What is the deal? Arranged Marriage? I could not hide my laughter at the sight of these questions but it did get me thinking. Why?

Well at around the period of November 2007 or so - I was weighing around 265 pounds. My waist size had hit 42 inches, I was lethargic, I was drinking hard and eating the most “yummiest” but unhealthy foods in the world. I decided well it was time to hit the gym - and I did. Around May 2008 - I was weighing around 240 pounds and I was hitting the gym but I still did not see any major shift in my life style nor my health. I was not increasing stamina and I was definetly not giving up the “good-life” food.

Around December 2008 - I was up around the 245 mark again and well had lost the daily routine of hitting the gym and doing any kind of exercise. Then I made a trip to Phoenix to see some of my friends for the holidays. I was very impressed by the fact that they were “living the life” but also doing some routine work on their bodies - like running, weight training and some conditioning. They had also decided to run the Rock n Roll Phoenix Marathon. This in a weird and complicated manner motivated me. I also realized that my company had a Health plan which allowed me to reimburse certain costs associated with fitness. This was relieving since I did not have to pay attention to costs - at least for the time being.

So I went and got a really good pair of shoes which cost me around 140$$ and some apparel as well. Gautham and I hope to write about this as well in the future. I got a beginner’s training plan and planned on the baby steps - 1 mile at a time :).

And thus I decided to start running - why? Well basically to change my lifestyle, to make me less stressful with work and some of the other aspects of life  - well you can read about this at 1tkny . I also wanted to feel and make myself much more healthier, look fit and hopefully one day to get into a 32 size pant.

Right now I weigh around 210-215 pounds. Size 35 inch. My goal is to reach 190 and then figure it out from there. I try to run a 10+ miler once every week but I also want to make sure I improve on my stamina and my strength as well.

It has been fun so far and I finished a half marathon in Austin, Texas on February 14th 2009. I will write more about how I trained for this on another future post. There are definitely areas for improvement and I am working on them and hopefully they all get translated into some blog posts on this site.

So again why run? Well if you want a “high” - it comes cheap, free and nothing gets more healthier