Meet a Woman Who Lost 66 Pounds and Is Running a Marathon: "This Is My Life Now, and It's Awesome"

Jo said she naturally eliminated most processed foods and added sugars from her fridge and pantry, though she doesn't follow a "diet," per se. To watch her sodium intake, she makes soup from scratch instead of buying it canned. She's also created healthier versions of the not-so-good-for-you meals she used to love. "I ate Culver's fish fry, which is 1,300 to 1,400 calories on the low end after you add all the extras," she said. "I created a duplicate that uses baked fish and baked French fries, light coleslaw, and light tartar sauce. It's 600 calories and is all made from scratch, so I know exactly what goes into it." She's done the same for boneless buffalo wings and bacon macaroni and cheese.

A typical day of Jo's meals might look like:

Daily, Jo will have around 1,600 calories, not including the running gels or chews that she doesn't log into the Lose It! app. Note: before she began training for these races she had 1,500 calories daily. Ever since she started training for the marathon in Madison, WI, she'll eat up to 2,000 calories on the days she does a long run, which she said is about two days per week.

Jo said that she knew changing up her diet would help her lose weight, but she also wanted to start exercising to stay healthy. Her fitness journey began in her work's small gym, where she would walk on the treadmill. "When I started, I could barely walk 20 minutes," she admitted. Shortly after, though, she joined a gym of her own and her treadmill walks increased to half an hour, then an hour. She went every other day to build up her stamina, then progressed to the elliptical and, next, to picking up the pace and running, first indoors, then outside.

"My first mile was ugly, but I ran it," Jo said. And, she kept at it. As mentioned earlier, Jo ran a 5K, 10K, and a half-marathon. The marathon she signed up for is on Nov. 10, and her training regimen consists of five days of running, two days off. She'll do a gym routine on top of that schedule, which is about 30 minutes of weight training and core training. After her marathon, she'll go back to the fitness schedule she had before: every other day at the gym doing some form of cardio (treadmill, elliptical, bike), weights, and a bodyweight core workout (she'll do sit-ups, leg lifts, bridges, etc.).

Jo, in fact, lost her last 15 pounds through running. She uses Fitbit and Strava to track her mileage, heart rate, pace, and elevation, and she's going off of a Runner's World plan for marathon training. "My body craves being active now," she said, "so I find that I don't fall off the wagon anymore because I know that to be fit and effective, my body has to have the right nutrition."

When asked about nonscale victories, Jo said that decreasing in clothing sizes was a big deal for her. She used to be a size 20. Though she said there's nothing wrong with being happy with the size that you are, she admitted that she truly wasn't happy. "I'm a 12 in Target jeans now!" she said, adding, "It was really cool to be able to just go to the store and know that there's a good chance my size is going to be there." Stores have gotten better, she said, but she feels as though the clothes she used to buy had too-stretchy waistbands, and the dresses weren't tailored enough.

Another win for Jo was changing her mindset. "I did fad diets, and I never lost more than 15 pounds and immediately gained it back once the diet was over. I was constantly sabotaging myself by allowing myself to cheat on the diet because I had a bad day at work or because I didn't sleep well," she said. This time around, Jo stopped overeating to compensate for unwelcome emotions. "If it fell outside my allotted calories, I wouldn't eat it," she said. If she did have a hard day and wanted cheering up, she wouldn't let herself reach for food. Instead, she'd treat herself to something else (for example, she'd add to her vintage video game system collection).

Jo continued, "It took about two months, but I noticed that I no longer had to fight myself. I went from really wanting a donut to ignoring it completely because for the same amount of calories, I could have an amazing balanced meal." Sure, she still enjoys French fries sometimes, but she'll have them when she's done a particularly good workout or feels good, not when she's down on herself and wants to "binge." Jo compared it with talking to a child: "I became very stern with myself and said 'no' and didn't relent. Eventually, my body went along with my brain, and we stopped fighting."

Jo's original goal was to weigh in at 165 pounds, but she surpassed that by six pounds. Now, she's not sure if she's going to try and maintain her weight loss as is, or try for a new goal. She credits Lose It! with helping her realize the problem areas of her eating habits and make necessary changes on the day to day. Cutting calories and cooking healthier meals, she said, really did play a major part in the initial 50-pound weight loss. Then, amping up her exercise and training for her runs helped with the rest. But Jo doesn't want to stop there. She wants to see where it goes.

As for the marathon coming up, Jo said she never imagined she would see the day where she'd be logging 26.2 miles. Then, she ran a half-marathon without stopping; that changed her perspective. "I always thought the only time I would ever run is if something was chasing me," Jo said. "And even then I would take a second to evaluate the situation and see if I really needed to run. It's become a goal of mine to do this, to prove to myself that, 'Hey, you're no longer out of shape. You can actually do this and succeed.'"

As for the changes she's made, they feel routine now and part of who she is. "Every other time I failed before it's because I had a bad week, I overate, I gained weight, I felt even worse. Then, I overate again," she explained. Finally, with a new mindset and a healthy outlook on food and exercise, she's in control. "This isn't even a diet that I'm on," she said. "It's my life now and it's awesome."