Never too late to achieve your goals.

Name: Lisa Burga
Home: Mississauga
Age: 36

Life before running
As a kid, I remember a friend's brother being caught smoking. His father forced him to smoke the whole pack and he never smoked again. Many years later, I thought a similar type of reasoning could be applied to chocolate so a coworker and I bought a 50 pack of chocolate bars at Costco and thought we could purge chocolate from our lives once and for all.

The attempt failed miserably. We both felt stuffed and gross after 4 chocolate bars and stopped. Then we had forty-two chocolate bars left to snack on every day for the next month.

My coworker and I went into business for ourselves and tried other things to lose weight (all with mixed results), but that was probably the most absurd thing I tried in about 20 years of fad diets and passing trends.

Turning Point
My husband has always been supportive of the diets I've tried and after the birth of our second child, I wanted to lose the pregnancy weight. A friend told me about the cabbage soup diet - a one week diet meant to jump-start your weight loss. My husband agreed to do it with me.

It was the first time he had ever been on a diet that was so restrictive. He told me how he was constantly craving and thinking about food, how every commercial was a tease and how his sense of smell was heightened, particularly around fast food joints. I said that's what dieting was like and how it's been such a struggle over the years. He suggested I incorporate a fitness regiment with a healthy diet. Exercise was the one thing missing from my past dieting attempts. It seemed almost crazy enough to work...

The Plan
My business partner and I decided to join a Learn to Run Clinic in January. I went for a warm up run and was gassed after about a block. I drove along a 5k route and thought, "I'll never be able to run this far." We figured if we could get through running during the coldest time of the year, it could only get easier and more enjoyable as the weather improved and we were right.

Our first race was the Chili 5k in Burlington. The adrenaline rush at the start of the race was unlike anything I had experienced. We were so caught up in the flow of runners and spectators cheering us on that we didn't know we beat our planned time by 6 minutes until we were coming up on the finish line.

Next was the Hazel 5k run in Mississauga and we improved our time by two minutes. This summer we joined a Cardio-Core Boot Camp class and have enjoyed the workouts and results. This October we've registered for our first 10k race in Niagara. While 10k seems daunting, I've learned that with a bit of training and perseverance, any goal is achievable.


The Biggest Reward
There were many unexpected rewards from running - I loved going out in the early morning for a jog while the City was still quiet. I found parts of town that I didn't even know existed (i.e. the Rattray Marsh in Mississauga).

It was bittersweet to run down paths I used to bike around as a young girl - to see how the forests and fields were mainly gone but how there were new families with children of their own building their own happy childhood memories.




But the best reward is the example I set for my daughter. She's so interested in my training and practices her stretching with me and tells me how she wants to race when she's a big girl. She's only 3, but last Easter she ran her first race, the 1km Bunny Hop Race in Burlington.


My tips for success
There are many things I've learned on my fitness journey, but these are some of the key points:

1. It is never too late to make a positive change in your life. I'm now fitter, stronger, lighter and healthier than I've been in over fifteen years.

2. Make time for yourself. With two small children, it's sometimes hard to find the time to work full time, exercise, cook healthy meals, run a household and still spend quality time together as a family. I think when you try and make a positive change in your life you'd be amazed at how much support you get from your loved ones to help you achieve your goals.

3. Chocolate is not your enemy. I don't know why it took me so long to figure out the simple secret to weight loss - if the calories burnt through exercise and daily activity are greater than the calories consumed, you will burn fat and lose weight. I've cut out a lot of junk from my diet and I'm much more conscious of what I eat. Measuring out my portion sizes helps me keep track of exactly how much I'm eating and the calories I'm consuming.