Running Blog

Content of article

1 weight loss
2 RUNNING BLOG
3 Start Here

weight loss

There’s no shortage of information on the internet about weight loss and fitness, but it can be a challenge to cut through the chatter about new diet trends and workout programs to find what works best for you.

The bloggers featured here address weight loss from a variety of perspectives — whether you’re just starting to explore the idea of healthy living or you’re a fitness buff searching for an inclusive community.

Life by Daily Burn is a practical guide for helping readers take greater control over their physical, mental, and emotional lives. The site helps readers consider their overall wellness with sections including targeted workouts, meal prep tips, and recommendations for quick meditations.

Part of the PopSugar network of lifestyle brands, this blog is bright, bold, and chock full of helpful articles on topics ranging from dieting on a budget to workouts on the go. The site also offers links to exercise plans, recommendations for stylish workout clothes, and tips for healthy eating.

Who says healthy eating has to be boring? Certainly not Sonia Lacasse. The brains behind The Healthy Foodie blog, Sonia is a former overweight smoker who started writing to keep a simple personal online food diary. Then it became a real passion. Today, The Healthy Foodie has easy and delicious recipes for people looking for nutritious meals that are definitely not boring. Anyone interested in a paleo lifestyle or just eating more healthfully will find a wealth of inspiration here.

Best-selling author Andie Mitchell started her blog in 2010 to share her story of finding balance. Along with the weight loss posts (she dropped 135 pounds through eating better and exercise) and picture-perfect recipes, Andie writes like a friend who gets it and never wants anyone else to struggle alone.

ACE, the nonprofit exercise professional and health coach certification organization, believes movement is at the core of what it means to feel healthy, to feel alive, and to engage in the human experience. Their Exercise Library offers a variety of movements to accompany any weight loss or wellness goals — from total-body exercises to moves that target specific areas of the body. Each comes with a detailed description and photos to help ensure proper form.

Body Rebooted is focused on three important fundamentals — fitness, food, and family. Run by health and wellness coach Christina Russell, the blog focuses on balance and includes tons of gluten-free recipes, home workout videos, and tips for self-care.

After Erika Nicole Kendall lost 170 pounds on her own through diet and exercise, she started her blog to help others follow her example of going from couch potato to trainer. A Black Girl’s Guide to Weight Loss is an extension of Erika’s fitness philosophy — compassion, positive body image, pleasure, consistency, mindfulness, and varying one’s methods of goal measurement. The site tells Erika’s story but it also features recipes, posts on body image, and tips for training.

At her maximum weight of 253 pounds, Katie Foster never imagined she’d one day be a runner. But after dropping 125 pounds, she started Runs for Cookies to share her thoughts on exercise and healthy eating. Nearly 10 years after dropping the weight, Katie uses her blog as a peek inside her life — there are recipes, inspirational stories, tales from the day-to-day, and resources for those just starting on their own weight loss journeys including training plans.

The tagline for Workout Mommy is “fitness secrets from a badass single mom,” and the blog delivers. Run by a former personal trainer, Workout Mommy aims to provide motivation, inspiration, and ideas on how to fit exercise and wellness in your busy day. It also offers real-life advice for busy parents on developing healthy habits, dealing with anxiety, and meeting your fitness goals.

Run by a registered dietician, The Lean Green Bean features healthy recipes, nutrition information, workouts, and a candid look at motherhood. You won’t find details on crash dieting or the latest fads here. Instead the blog is dedicated to connecting with your body and learning to eat for both nourishment and enjoyment — perfect for those trying to embrace healthy living in an uncomplicated and inexpensive way.

Carrots ‘N’ Cake is where Tina Haupert shares her love of food, staying fit, and living a healthy life. It originally started as a personal blog to hold herself accountable as her wedding day approached, then grew into a go-to resource for all things healthy living. The blog boasts macro-friendly recipes, running training plans, and advice gleaned from Tina’s life as a personal trainer and mom.

Fitness trainer and nutritionist Monica May challenges herself daily to get stronger physically and mentally, and her blog makes it possible to help you do the same. Complete with workout programs, diet plans, and hundreds of articles, Fit Girl’s Diary is the go-to source for motivation and support.

Lisa Cain started Snack Girl following one simple thought: If she could replace cookies, chips, ice cream, and candy with something healthy, that could be a start toward a healthier lifestyle. Quickly the idea grew to include meals and desserts and now the blog features recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as food product reviews.

YouTuber and fitness blogger Sarah Dussault wants to inspire women to feel confident about the way they look without depriving themselves of a social life. On her channel and her blog, Sarah posts her favorite at-home workouts, what she’s eating, and insights into staying active while pregnant.

The force behind Powercakes is Kasey Brown, a certified personal trainer and healthy living blogger on a mission to empower kids and help women love their bodies while finding inspiration through fitness and food. Whether you’re looking for product recommendations, power drink recipes, or workout suggestions, Powercakes has it all.

If you have a favorite blog you’d like to nominate, please email us at bestblogs@healthline.com.

Jen Thomas is a journalist and media strategist based in San Francisco. When she’s not dreaming of new places to visit and photograph, she can be found around the Bay Area struggling to wrangle her blind Jack Russell terrier or looking lost because she insists on walking everywhere. Jen is also a competitive Ultimate Frisbee player, a decent rock climber, a lapsed runner, and an aspiring aerial performer.

“After four years of running, I feel great. I run two to three times during the week from three to six miles per day, unless I am specifically training for a longer distance race. On the weekends, I like to trail run on unpaved paths near my home and, up until 2017, I was racing at least once a month. This year, because of finances, it has been once every couple of months, if that. I do everything from 5Ks, 10Ks, half marathons, and obstacle course races. I am working toward completing a full marathon eventually.”

This article was originally featured on the website for Marathon Training Academy, authors and hosts of the multi-million downloaded podcast about marathon training.

Running and Weight Loss?

I’ve lost 140 pounds, about half of my body weight. I didn’t have surgery or use medication; I lost the weight the old fashioned way, through diet and exercise. I understand that’s not a sexy answer. People want a quick fix, a powder, a plan, something they can purchase with monthly installments and VOILA! Weight loss guaranteed. Still, folks want something to hang their hat on.

“RUNNING? YOU RUN MARATHONS? Well of course that why she lost weight!” is what I often hear.

“Well I could lose weight too if I could RUN A MARATHON!” they continue, followed with all of the excuses of why running is impossible.

This got me thinking…

Did I run to lose weight?
Or did I lose weight so I could run?

I’m going to get all crazy right now and suggest the later. The greatest secret of running and weight loss is that it is backwards. Running with the motivation of losing weight rarely works, but losing weight so you CAN RUN? Now we’re talking!

Why is that?

Running requires fuel. You need to eat to run. I’ve tried running on an empty stomach and I end up slowing my pace or worse, walking. My pre-run regime involves a banana, granola, some pretzels, or dare I admit, a donut! You need food in your body to perform. Every runner has their favorite regime. Find what works for you and stick with it.

There is a danger to running and over-eating. We tend to overestimate the calories burned during exercise. 5k tomorrow? Well I should eat a whole pizza! To compound the problem, there is the post-run “I deserve it” syndrome. As in, I ran this morning, so I’m headed to Starbucks for a milkshake disguised in drag as coffee.

While the act of running may not directly affect weight loss, the lifestyle it supports sets you up for success. The benefits of running, but not the run itself, are symbiotic to losing and maintaining weight loss:

MORE ENERGY — I can run 20 miles in the morning and then come home to shower, work, shop, and clean my house. I have more energy on days that I run than when I sleep in. If I don’t work out, I’m exhausted before finishing my coffee and look to the fridge for constant energy. Now that’s ironic!

TIME AWAY FROM THE KITCHEN — Sometimes my trip out the door to exercise is only a means to keep me away from the kitchen. Whether it’s a walk with a friend, a yoga class or a run, I can count on at least an hour where I’m not opening my pantry or fridge a thousand times, mindlessly snacking on fake food in a box.

POSITIVE SELF IMAGE — All activity, but especially running, make me feel so good about myself! I will even go so far to identify how I’m feeling during a good run, telling myself that I feel “strong, powerful, athletic, healthy…” (like a Dove soap commercial?) Starting off the day with positive self-talk helps, in turn, keep me on track the rest of the day to make healthy eating choices. When I feel like a runner, I eat like a runner. I eat clean and honor the body with healthier choices.

STRESS RELIEF — The rush of endorphins that create a “runner’s high” relieve my stress like no bag of chips could ever compete with. There is something about fresh air, sunshine, being out in nature (if the irrigation canal by my house counts as such) that have a calming affect on my day.

PROBLEM SOLVING — I often find creative solutions to my biggest problems during a run. I would even go so far to add that I find solutions to problems I didn’t know I even had! My best ideas come from a run.

MEMBER OF A TRIBE — When I became a runner, I joined a new group of shiny, healthy people that I yearned to emulate. Humans yearn to belong and be accepted. I won’t talk smack about my old crowd as their antics of fried-appetizer-eating and pretending-to-make-brownies-so-I-can-lick-the-bowl still call my name in dark moments (I don’t want to anger the beast!). I’m grateful to be part of the marathon crowd that inspires me to take care of myself every day, day after day.

CONFIDENCE — Skinny folks won’t understand this one, but losing weight takes balls. It’s scary to be thin! Being fat makes you invisible. You need confidence to lose weight, and running provides that in droves. The first time I ran a mile I walked like a pimp with a limp; I was the MAN. Multiply that experience tenfold for my first 10k, and exponentially for my first marathon. I’m not afraid anymore of new challenges and situations. I’m a more confident person in every area of my life thanks to running.

So when people ask if I ran to lose weight the answer is no. Maybe it started off that way, but ultimately I’ve learned that I lost weight so I could run. Pounds or pant sizes are temporary in comparison of the feeling I get from exercising. That is the real secret to weight loss, and it doesn’t come with a monthly installment plan of three easy payments.

Start Here

Hi there! I’m Katie. Welcome to my blog, Runs for Cookies.

I’m a 36-year old wife and a stay-at-home mom to two boys. Noah is 13 and Eli is 12. We live in Southeast Michigan, about half way between Detroit and Toledo.

As I write this, my blog is seven years old, so there is a LOT of information on it. To make it less overwhelming, I created this page to give you a little overview and catch you up to speed without having to sort back through seven years of my ramblings. (Here are the highlights of the last seven years, in a nutshell)

You can find me on social media as well:

Facebook
Instagram

(@runsforcookies)

Twitter

(@runsforcookies)

MY STORY IN A NUTSHELL

I was overweight my entire life. When I was in the fourth grade, a boy named Richard gave me the nickname «Shamu», and teased me mercilessly about my weight. That was when I realized that I was bigger than the other girls my age, and I started to feel ashamed about eating. I started to sneak food, and binge eat when the opportunities arose. My weight continued to climb all through school.

After high school, I went to college. Living on campus, I continued to put on weight. In 2003, I married my high school sweetheart, Jerry. We gained even more weight together. I had my son Noah in 2004, and my son Eli in 2006. While pregnant, I reached 271 pounds! A year after having Eli, I was at an all-time, non-pregnant high weight of 253 pounds. I was always trying to diet, and my weight bounced up and down between about 200 and 253 for the next three years.

One day in August 2009, Noah wanted me to take the training wheels off his bike (he was five years old at the time), and he asked me to run alongside his bike so he didn’t fall. I tried to do that, but I didn’t even make it the length of my street! I was gasping for breath, sweating, and I just physically could not do it. Instead, I had to sit on a lawn chair and watch as my sister helped Noah learn to ride a bike. At that moment, I felt like the worst mother in the world. I had let my weight control what I could or could not do, and that made me angry. I vowed that when Eli was old enough to ride a bike, I would be the one to teach him.

THE WEIGHT LOSS BEGINS

That’s the beginning of my weight loss story. I didn’t want to make drastic changes as I had done so many times in the past only to fail a week or two later; so, I decided that I was only going to make changes I could live with forever. I hated exercise, so I decided that I wasn’t going to do it; I would just lose the weight through diet alone. And I didn’t want to give up my favorite foods, so I decided to just cut back on portion sizes instead.

Over the next 16 months, I weighed and measured all my food, and tracked it on a food log. I was following the old Weight Watchers program, which was very similar to calorie counting back then. (To read more about weight loss, you can check out my weight loss page. There is WAY too much info to include here.)

After I’d lost about 60 pounds from dieting alone, I decided that I wanted to start exercising. I wanted to train to walk a half-marathon. I followed a walking program by Hal Higdon to prepare, and in May 2010, I walked the Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini Marathon. (Update 2017: I have since created a plan to take a beginner from couch potato to walking a half-marathon, which can be found here— Walk Your First Half-Marathon.)

Before I had started the weight loss, I made a list of 30 goals that I hoped to accomplish by the time I turned 30 years old. Feeling super ambitious (I was probably drinking wine at the time, ha!) I decided to include «Enter a 5K race and run it» as one of the goals. In the back of my mind, I knew I’d never actually do that, but I put it on there anyway.

I showed the list to my friend Renee, who is a runner. She saw that item, and said she’d love to help me by running my first 5K with me. I would have felt ashamed to say no, so I decided to go for it. After I’d walked the half-marathon, I continued to exercise three times week. I did about 30 minutes each time, and I started to add a touch of running. (Here are the details about how I transitioned into running, along with a beginner’s 5K plan that I wrote. And a TON of other helpful posts, if you are interested in the transition as well.)

After I ran my first 5K, I became hooked! I didn’t love running, but I did love the way it made me feel when I was done. I continued to train, increasing my distance and improving my speed.

Meanwhile, I continued to lose weight. I reached 100 pounds lost in the summer of 2010, and I just couldn’t believe that I’d hit such a milestone! I wrote a list of

100 Ways My Life Changed When I Lost 100 Pounds

, and I like to read it over from time to time. It reminds me why I never want to be fat again.

I had a hard time finding a good maintenance plan, and my weight went up and down by about 10 pounds. In November 2011, I decided to have a lower body lift to remove the excess skin around my midsection. The skin was very saggy and uncomfortable, and caused rashes. You can see the details surrounding my surgery here.

From 2011-2014, my weight stayed within a reasonable range. In 2014, however, I had a serious bout of depression and anxiety. I had dealt with depression and anxiety for years (I started medication for it when I was 20, but I know that I had it even in childhood). The depression and anxiety caused me to eat emotionally, and I put on 27 pounds between 2014 and 2015. (I later learned that I actually have bipolar disorder, which gave me a lot of answers as to why my weight fluctuated so much).

I decided to try calorie counting, because Weight Watchers just wasn’t working for me anymore. In August 2015, I started to calorie count, and over the course of 15 weeks I dropped the 27 pounds and was back at my goal weight of 133! Best of all, I was VERY happy with my new relationship with food. When I was on Weight Watchers, I felt obsessed with food all the time—constantly thinking about my next meal. And I would still binge eat occasionally. Counting calories gave me so much freedom. I wrote quite a bit about all this on a series of posts about binge eating and how I stopped.

After reaching my goal, I continued eating the way I felt most comfortable, and the pounds continued to come off. I wasn’t actively trying to lose weight, but I dropped another 12 pounds, putting me at my lowest adult weight ever of 121. I felt really great physically and mentally at that point!

I ran a 10K in April 2016

after training SO HARD for it, and felt better than I had in my life. On top of the world. Then, I was hit with

a very deep depression

that would go on for the next 10 months. Eventually, I was able to get in to see a psychiatrist, who

diagnosed me with bipolar disorder

. It explained so much about

my weight issues

. I started the correct medication (antidepressants were doing nothing for me), and I finally felt stable. It’s been amazing.

So, that’s my story in a (rather large) nutshell. There are SO many pieces in between. I’ve tried to organize my blog so that it’s fairly easy to find what you’re looking for. (Use the drop down menu at the top, and if that fails, try doing a search in the search bar on the right.)

MY BLOG

The title Runs for Cookies says quite a bit! I like to try and live with balance—nothing too extreme one way or the other. I am a runner, and I love sweets—running allows me to be able to eat my favorite treats and not gain back the weight I lost. (Update 2017: I am taking an indefinite hiatus from running, mainly for the

pursuit of happiness

. I have written more about

taking a running break

here.) (Update 2018: I’m getting back into running, but more as a «hobby jogger»; I don’t plan on doing many races or trying to improve my speed, but just run for fitness)

Running is my exercise of choice; although, last year, I started enjoying riding my bicycle as well. I’m all about moderation and balance—I eat junk food, but I also eat healthy food; I run, but not every day; I only make lifestyle changes that I am willing to live with FOREVER (no fad diets, pills, wraps, etc. And for the love of all things holy, I will NOT give up my carbs!).

On this blog, I write about my running, diet, family, pets, day-to-day activities, tips that have helped me, completely random topics sometimes, and responses to readers’ questions. I typically blog anywhere from 2-7 times per week; it just depends on how much I have to say—I don’t want to force myself to write if I just don’t have anything to write about!

When I run a race, I post a «race report», which is a detailed account of the event itself and how I felt through the whole thing. You can find a list of links to my race reports here.

RUNNING

I am also (as you can see from the title of my blog) a runner. I wasn’t always runner—in fact, I didn’t run my first mile until I was in my late 20’s! I’ve run three full marathons, over a dozen half-marathons, and numerous shorter distances. My favorite distance is the 10K, though. When I was obese, I never imagined that I would be a runner one day. Here is a link to read about my running story, my race reports, and helpful posts about running or getting started yourself.

NOTABLES OVER THE LAST 7 YEARS

To read in a nutshell (and for links to specifics) about the main things that have happened over the last six years of blogging, you can click here to be taken to my Highlights page.

WHO’S WHO:

Here is a list of the people I may mention on my blog, so you know who’s who:

COMMENTING

You are welcome to comment on my blog posts! I wish Blogger made the commenting more user-friendly, but once you do it one time, it makes it easier afterward. Underneath the «You might also like…» section, it will say, «Posted by Katie…» and 0 Comments (or however many there are)—if you click on that, a box will appear for your comment. I no longer accept anonymous comments, so you have to use a Google account to comment.

I don’t delete any comments (even the mean ones). But I do ask that if you disagree with something I write, please say it in a respectful manner. I try to keep my blog honest and positive, and I never try to offend anybody. I know that not everybody is going to like me, and that is totally okay—I don’t like everybody I meet either! But I would never be mean to people intentionally. If I don’t like what a particular blogger has to write, I just don’t read his or her blog. Very simple!

I do try to reply to questions in the comments, but sometimes I’ll read it and then I forget to go back and reply later on… so if I forget, feel free to send me an email! I really do appreciate all feedback through the comments—the good and the (constructively) critical. I have met some wonderful people through the comment section on my blog! And I feel like I’m friends with the people who comment regularly, because I get used to seeing their names

After reading all of this, if you still have questions, I would check out my

Directory page

. You can also use the search bar on the right side bar of my blog—type in a couple of key words, and you will probably find what you’re looking for (this is what I do when someone emails me with a question that I know I’ve answered before).

Please understand that I get a LOT of email, and it’s hard to respond to everybody. My blog has more details than I can even link to on this page, so hopefully you can find answers within my directory. However, you are welcome to email me if you can’t find what you’re looking for. If you wish to send a private email for a private response, you can find my contact info on my Contact page. I get a lot of email, so please be patient if I don’t respond right away.

Well, that’s all for now. I may add to this page from time to time to keep it up to date. Hopefully it will be helpful in navigating through my blog! Thanks so much for stopping by —Katie