Ben Davis was 348 lbs and depressed. At the bottom of his hole and sick of being single, he called up his brother and said, “I need to get my life together.” His brother said, “All right, I’m signing us up for a 5k. It’s in three weeks.”

Ben began training. At first he could only hobble around the track, and only two to three times a week. It killed his ankles and calves. But he kept at it and on race day, he showed up to the start line.

“I jogged (very slowly) the entire thing, and finished. It was a huge moment, and I was hooked,” he told examiner.com.

He became addicted to runner’s high, watching the pounds tick off, and the thrill of self-improvement. And over the next year, he lost 120 pounds. Here’s a video of his journey:

Takeaways:

Make your goals public – Ben started a blog bendoeslife.tumblr.com
Enlist friends and family – He did races with his father and brother
Find your delta and multiply by time – He started slowly at first, incrementally increasing his amount of physical activity
Any major change is going to suck at first – it took about 1 or 2 months before his knees and calves stopped screaming out for mercy
And the hardest of all – Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can pull yourself back up.

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