For my entire life, I have always dreaded any sport that required running. Why? Because for my whole life, I was extremely heavy and running would leave me feeling out of breath. Another issue, later in life, were my knees. The combination of my knees and my weight made running or any form of exercising virtually impossible, painful and embarrassing. When I was in college, I would work out here and there and feel so good about myself after but after about a day or two that feeling quickly went away and I would stop going altogether. It took me until the christmas that I decided that I had to change the way I was living to seriously start working out. The first workout I ever did on my elliptical was horrible, by the end of the 30 minutes, I was out of breath and ready to quit. However, I decided to keep on going because I knew that I needed to lose the weight. I started to constantly work out and I immediately noticed a change not only in my weight but in my mindset. I found myself looking forward to it and smiling through every single minute. I was elated with the way that I felt when I worked out and even more elated with the results. I started to use the health app on my phone to record my daily activities and step count. It was so cool to see just how many calories I burned in a day and how many steps I took. The app allows you to everything from track your steps to your food. The best part was that it was free and even better it came with my phone! I started making motivating playlists on my iPod to make the workout more enjoyable. I was finally shedding the emotional and physical weight that I had been carrying around for so many years. I am so glad that I did not give up after that first workout. Working out whether it be full on exercising or just walking to work, gives me so much energy and joy knowing that I can do it without being completely out of breath and exhausted by the end. Not much stops me these days, my knees are still shaky sometimes but not carrying around nearly as much weight as I did definitely makes it easier to move around. Working out can be fun. I never once thought that I would find so much of myself while exercising I am so much happier and better for making the decision to climb on that elliptical and start.