About eight months ago I deadlifted 515lbs (at 220lbs, no straps, no suit, no belt).
Since my goal was 500 for the deadlift (I also had goals for squat and bench which I also reached), I have since shifted my focus to endurance.
I finished the first week of the Couch to 5K program yesterday morning. I’m now raring to go and wondering why the hell I can’t have another run yet. I mean, my conscious mind knows. But my body wants to try this running thing some more.
I’ve been trying to exercise and build up endurance. I have really poor tolerance for exercise, with asthma and the weight I’ve gained. But I have 15 minutes of my rowing machine every day for the past week and just two weeks ago, I did something I never thought I’d do: I climbed a mountain!
Big Spencer to be exact. http://www.moosehead.net/hiking/bigspencer.html It rises 1,920 ft in under 2 miles. I did it in an hour and 40 minutes up, 1 hour down. It nearly killed me, but I did EVERY foot. It’s so steep in parts that there are ladders up the rock faces.
I also got mud in my shoe, but that was just my general clumsiness. But I’m damn proud I managed to get up that stupid mountain!
Last month I went back to the gym (I’ve been absent for something like 2 years!). It is really hard to take that first step after being gone so long. I was disgusted at the things my body refused to do - it used to be so easy, back when I was going 5 days a week.
I’ve been going to 3 aerobics classes and 3 Pilates classes a week. I feel better already! I’ll be really happy when my clothes start fitting better. 
Quick update. I dropped my mile down to 6:23 this evening under the same conditions as my previous record. Yay. 
I bought a pedometer a few days ago.
I took over 17,000 steps today which comes out to 8.25 miles. Yeah me!
I just started jogging again after mumblemumble years off. I had a crappy pair of shoes that I always used as my excuse not to go, so I went last week and got fitted for a good new pair, eliminating my excuse. I have a whole week down of the Cool Runnings couch-to-5K program down (glad to see another in the same place!), which is something at least. I miss running effortlessly. Or relatively effortlessly, anyways.
Earlier this year I took, and scraped through with a pass, the Krav Maga level 1 test. I have never been a particularly fit person, and I’m undeniably clumsy, so I was really, really pleased to make it through 2 hours of relentlessly beating on stuff and remembering at least enough of the technical skills not to fail. (However, I’d much rather not have to defend myself from someone choking me from behind while shoving me… I flunked that.)
But the biggest achievement is that in spite of reasons that have prevented me going to class more than I’d like, I’ve actually been able to keep up a more or less steady attendance since last November. I’ve never before found an exercise regime that I didn’t struggle mightily to keep up. Even with interruptions due to life, sickness, work scheduling, I’ve still made it back instead of just letting it fall away to nothing. I still kind of suck in the level 2 classes, but… again, kind of proud of it, I’d rather struggle through level 2 than coast through level 1.
Plus, my instructor said I’d come a long way… and that I should definitely stick with the level 2 classes. I know I have a long, long way to go, but that just made me glow.
I’m impressed by everyone’s achievements in this thread, but particularly overlyverbose. Way to go with the consistency!
I’m overcoming health problems, and it used to be that walking to the end of the block and back was a big deal for me. Now, a twenty minute walk is achievable most of the time. Last night, I walked in a different direction than usual, and easily reached a place that used to feel impossibly far away. It doesn’t feel far away at all now. Wooohooo!
I’m hoping that range continues to expand. The place I reached is a park, and someday, I’d like to be able to walk all the way around a trail there, rather than reaching the park and coming back.
My daughter broke her first board yesterday, and moved up to orange belt in Tae kwan do. She had taken it, and liked it, as a college PE requirement. Now she thinks that she’ll keep up with it for the rest of her life. I’m very proud of her.