Chris Ho, 2011 Chris Ho Today
You killed the candy heart just to watch it die, and you put the “fat” in Fat Tuesday. The resolutions you made when the New Year dawned to eat a healthier diet, get moving and participate in fewer food bacchanalias have sublimated into regret.
But something keeps gnawing at you. A little tickle in your brain keeps saying, “You can still do this.” When you order the burger bomb with a beer chaser, you weigh whether the beef is organic and locally-sourced. It’s the little things.
Chris Ho knows. In 2011, Chris was exhausted, unmotivated, out of shape and overweight. The account management director for Mass Enthusiasm in Little Rock, his routine consisted of an oatmeal cream pie three times a day and leaving the bed for the sofa for the office chair for the sofa back to bed.
“I had no energy,” he said. “I’d leave work, and once I got home, eat and watch TV until my wife got home. Then we would eat dinner and sit on the sofa the rest of the night.”
It wasn’t until Chris’ wife, Tina, began to work out that he decided to change.
“I joined a gym, and after work, I’d go walk on the treadmill,” he said. “That’s all I did. For an hour after work, I’d go walk instead of watch TV and eat.”
He set a goal: weigh less than 200 lbs. In three months, his scale reported just that.
Today, Chris has lost more than 50 lbs. and is a marathon runner and pacer with 36 marathons and ultra marathons to his credit. He changed everything about his lifestyle – eating, exercise, habits – and he did it gradually, building upon each success.
This year, Chris will chronicle how he went from the couch to the race course while providing guidance and encouragement if you want to do the same.
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Chris Ho is the account management director at Mass Enthusiasm, a full-service marketing communications agency in Little Rock. Equal parts artist and pragmatist, Chris has more than 17 years in the advertising industry, pursuing web design, development and branding campaigns for local, regional and national clients. He is an avid runner and pursues the slow-carb way of eating to maintain his overall health.