Shawn Eckert is a 41-year-old church youth director residing in Clearwater, Fla. After recovering from drug and alcohol overuse, he felt chubby and that he was not a well being function mannequin for his son. He took up figuring out and working, dropping greater than 200 kilos on his approach to working his first ultramarathon. Right here, in his personal phrases, is how he did it.
I’d been slim rising up, however in my late teenagers and early twenties, I obtained into drug use, together with cocaine, Xanax, and shrooms. Popping out of that, I used to be on some fairly heavy drugs for my psychological well being, and I drank alcohol day by day; I gained lots of weight and developed a fatty liver. I labored on attempting to get myself sober.
In my late-twenties to mid-thirties I used to be at my heaviest, weighing 446 kilos at one level. However I used to be nonetheless energetic, taking my son skateboarding, for instance. I obtained married in 2008, at a time once I was carrying size-54 pants. My tux ended up not becoming, so I wore a pair of Dickie’s pants and a t-shirt to the ceremony. On the time I knew I used to be large, but it surely didn’t appear out of hand till I regarded again. I keep in mind issues like bending all the way down to tie my sneakers and having to carry my breath.
That made me take into consideration what sort of life I’d have the ability to have with my son. It went past simply getting sober; I wished to be bodily match, too. My son took up working at a younger age, and I wished to assist be an instance to him.
Beginning slowly
I began figuring out with some associates from church, beginning slowly. I may barely run 100 meters. At first, I’d work out 3 times every week with a bootcamp-style class. My coach was a runner, so she’d all the time construct working into our routines. I’d additionally hit the health club to do weightlifting on prime of my bootcamp lessons. I keep motivated as a result of I really feel I wasted a lot of my youth and I wish to do no matter I can to maintain my physique robust into outdated age.
To that finish, I additionally switched to a plant-based diet. For some time I used to be actually strict, consuming protein shakes and watching my energy, however I felt like that created a little bit of an obsession. Now I attempt to hearken to my physique, eat natural, drinks numerous water, and restrict caffeine.
As soon as I obtained critical about my objectives, dropped 200 kilos in nearly two years. I’m at about 240 kilos now, down from that peak of 446. I really feel nice. I don’t get sore or stiff, and I get well fairly properly. It’s actually to not must garments store at an enormous and tall retailer.
I ran my first official extremely race, the Daytona 100, in December, with lots of coaching and help from Nathan efficiency gear. I needed to cease that race due to a knee harm, however I’m not going to cease working. That 100-mile marker is looking to me, and I’m going to satisfy it.
Once I was youthful, I by no means actually thought in regards to the future. I simply lived for the day. Now I really feel like I’ve a way of goal; I’ve objectives. I hope anybody studying my story sees it as residing proof that change is feasible. You are able to do it.
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