At Foothills Weight Loss Specialists, we advise all of our patients that incorporating regular exercise into their routines is a critical component of weight loss success. Our patient Kim Chambers, who had a gastric banding procedure in August 2009, took our advice and “ran” with it.
Chambers, 36, was a long distance runner while a student at William Blount High School. She says she doesn’t remember when or why she stopped running, but by her mid-30s, she had stopped running and put on more than 100 extra pounds.
“After high school, my life happened, and running wasn’t part of it,” said Chambers.
Following her procedure, Chambers began walking. Soon, she progressed to walking half a lap and running the other half. After a couple of months, she was running a mile or two at a time. That’s when she decided to “go for the gold” and train for the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon – a 26.2 mile event.
She trained by running four or five times a week, increasing her mileage over time. On average, her runs were about six or 10 miles. Her longest pre-marathon run was 20 miles. On race day, she ran the first 15 miles; walked for a while when a torrential rain hit; and ran the final four or five miles. She completed the marathon in 6 hours, 24 minutes.
Chambers, a married mother of two, celebrated other accomplishments this past spring. In addition to completing the marathon, she earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Lincoln Memorial University and celebrated her weight loss of more than 80 pounds.
Chambers says that the weight loss has changed her life. “It gave me back things in my life that I shouldn’t have let go of in the first place.”
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