Today (April 3, 2021) marks the second year since I was reborn and “walked” anew. That’s when I decided it was time to change my life, and most importantly, to shift into a higher gear . It was the first time I came face to face with running. I was 28 years old and it was really embarrassing for me to realize at that moment that I had never really run before. Maybe as a child, but pretty soon my legs slowed down, and the excess weight accumulated already in elementary school and I was a “cute, slow and chubby” child. But I never ran and I smiled happily from the bench at various school sports activities, because I always found some excuse to avoid exercise. I always thought sports were unnecessary and a waste of time, but deep down I felt an emptiness, as my thoughts were absent from my body, which I wasn't even fully aware of.⁣⁣

Two years ago, a wheel started spinning in my head that finally pointed me in the right direction and literally overnight I was reborn, "walked" and stubbornly decided to start running. The first attempt was quite bizarre, because after only thirty seconds I realized, out of breath, that I was literally suffocating and that I found myself "submerged underwater" by my own laziness, which had accumulated over the years and had kept me in the solid armor of a sedentary lifestyle. I almost cried when I realized that I could barely breathe and that I could not continue, although I imagined how I would romantically run through the endless city parks (at that time I was in Vienna) and enjoy exploring the many beautiful corners of the city. To my disappointment, this multi-kilometer feat ended with a few meters and I quickly went home in shame and almost threw "my leggings in the trash". That night I couldn't sleep and decided to explore this secret of running and discover a way to somehow succeed in this feat one day. ⁣⁣

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After a few hours of researching the internet, I realized that it takes a lot of work to get in shape, especially if you weigh 130 kilograms and have never run a single kilometer in your life. I found the program " from the couch to five kilometers in eight weeks " and at that moment I firmly decided to stick to it. In the end, it turned out that it didn't take me eight weeks to run my first 5 kilometers, but almost eight months, but I diligently persisted and regularly followed the prepared program, which I of course adjusted to my abilities - fortunately, I quickly understood the logic of preparing and increasing fitness: we slowly increase the length of the run and every other day we also do strength exercises or a combination of fast walking for longer distances, and rest days are also important, when we allow the body to regenerate and slowly prepare for further feats. Only with proper rest and gradual increase can we achieve proper physical fitness and healthy sports activity without injuries, which fortunately I have not experienced in my running "career".

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The most important element of the mysterious running ingredient is actually only one: PERSISTENCE. That we don't give up, that we don't give up and that we set a clear vision of what we really want. That day, I decided that I wanted a healthy body, and above all, healthy fitness: that I wouldn't look for shortcuts and that I wouldn't be afraid of the stairs in front of a building (at that time, even just walking up the stairs made me breathe a lot!), and above all, that my future would be more active and consequently richer with the adventures and adventures that this wonderful world offers us. ⁣⁣
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I have gone through the entire vertical of facing ourselves and acquiring new, healthier habits, so I know how difficult it is and that is exactly why I respect everyone who decides to make any life changes: whether it is losing weight, dealing with various psychological traumas from the past, perhaps changing careers, retraining, deciding to leave your partner or starting a new family and bringing a new living being into this world who will co-create our society. Every life decision can happen in one second , in one tiny moment, and I tell you that courage pays off: anything is possible if you want it and absolutely anything is possible. Our thoughts are our only limitation – and we can always achieve our goal with perseverance, courage, clear plans and acquiring the appropriate information and knowledge we need to achieve our goals.⁣⁣

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Now I am happy and satisfied with myself and my body; in addition to losing half of my weight through running and a more active lifestyle, I also faced my thoughts and decided to remove all the disturbing and negative elements from my life that put me in a bad mood or spoil my quality of life in one way or another. Such physical and mental cleansing has brought me to a phase of balance, which I now easily maintain and thus ensure that my days are full, active, beautiful, productive and always in good spirits in anticipation of the future, which I believe will be very interesting and successful. Every morning, with the biggest smile on my face, I open my eyes at 5:15 and enjoy my first sip of fresh coffee, then I usually run along the nearest trails or do some strength exercises to get the blood flowing and activate my sleepy brain cells. Then follows a hearty breakfast and a jump into a new successful day. I will write more about my routine in the next post, in case anyone gets some inspiration or ideas for how to organize their day from my routines and habits. The most important thing is to organize as many things in our lives as possible and make fundamental changes so that we go to bed satisfied and wake up even more satisfied. In this case, getting up will be much easier, and a long run on the local trails will be much more enjoyable.⁣⁣

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If I'm talking about longer runs, I can also compare my physical transformation to them - in this process, no one really warned me what would happen when I reached certain milestones. I clearly saw only one goal ahead of me: better fitness and weight loss, but I wasn't prepared for everything that followed. A total visual change, which still surprises me to this day, because I often don't recognize myself in the mirror (I'm still getting used to my new image), a change of company (now I hang out with much more active people, who I have to admit are much more willing and see many more positive qualities in this world and are primarily oriented towards finding solutions and successful projects, so I myself am increasingly aware of the importance of sports activity for a successful career - I will gladly write more about similar topics in one of my future posts), and above all, what shocked me the most was the excess skin I suddenly found myself in. I was really not prepared for this and I got to a situation where my runs (which I finally started to enjoy after a few months of initial pain and struggles with myself) were becoming more and more painful, because the excess skin was restricting me and jumping all over my body. That's exactly why I was looking for compression clothing and somehow trying to fix the excess skin on my body, especially on my stomach and thighs. A few months ago, I got rid of the excess skin on my stomach with the help of skin removal surgery and am now very proud of my tight and beautiful tummy, but I still have surgery to remove skin from my thighs, where I unfortunately still have a lot of skin that refuses to shrink, even though I regularly massage myself, apply all kinds of creams and make sure I eat a healthy diet and stay hydrated. After consulting with the doctor, we came to the conclusion that it would also be necessary to surgically remove excess skin from my thighs and "tighten" them - but precisely because of the epidemiological situation, my surgery was postponed until further notice, at least for a good year, and until then I will have to run with all my "charms of excess skin" on my thighs. ⁣⁣

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Luckily, I recently discovered a young company called Be Active, where I tested the Kinksy compression leggings , which fit well over my thighs and give me enough support to run for miles and explore endless trails. I was laughing my ass off when I received the package and read that the leggings were made of carbon fiber, and then I thought about the fact that I had just bought myself a pair of sneakers with a carbon fiber sole and a carbon fiber bike, and I said to myself out loud: "Carbon fiber babe, haha!" I always like to joke about myself, because I know that even a small moment of laughter is a huge plus for our health , so this first contact with the leggings was one of those cute moments. And right after opening the package, I put them on and was impressed by the compression that the pants created, even though they are very light due to the carbon fibers and at first I didn't expect such durability and grip, but when I put them on, I felt that this could be quite useful when running. So I went for my first test run, namely on the nearby Rašica hill. The run was very pleasant, as the compression held the skin and muscles on my thighs and calves well , and they also held my waist nicely, as it is also important for me that the clothes hold my hips well and offer sufficient support to the muscles, so that the internal organs bounce as little as possible while running - especially when running in the mountains, I find that this is even more important, as the terrain is varied, and the body experiences much greater strain, especially if it involves jumping over roots, climbing over rocks or unpredictable descents and quick ascents back up the slope. I also really enjoy running on unmarked trails and enjoying off-road adventures . ⁣⁣

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I've been discovering mountain running in the last few months and I'm absolutely thrilled with it, because the terrain is much more interesting than running in the city or on a running track, and at the same time I completely relax in nature and enjoy the fresh air and beautiful views into the distance from various "peaks". In this way, I not only discover new ways to relax in nature, but also interesting (for me) unconquered peaks and numerous places that were completely unknown to me, at least until now. With each run, I try to run on unknown paths and in this way conjure up a moment of adrenaline and adventure in my heart again and again, which also gives me great inspiration on my business journey. Every run provides a new dose of inspiration and creativity, which I also successfully manifest in my work and career. Since I've been running, I've been even more productive , creative and conquering many goals that I've always only dreamed of.⁣⁣

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At the same time, mountain running also makes me laugh a little (again and again) at myself, because a little over a year ago, I was speaking at group training sessions (I continued my beginner's running journey last year at the LJ Priprave club because I wanted to improve my "self-taught" running technique) and said to our coach Bojan Cebin, when he was "driving us uphill", something along the lines of: "Oh, no, well, those hills again!" Now, especially in recent months, when the corona prevented us from group training, I have started to discover mountain running on my own initiative and have fallen in love with it , so that I am once again faced with the fact that "the most of the bread is eaten up" and I am already "sprinkling myself with ashes" and I am telling Bojan that he was right when he told me that running uphill is actually the best training - I also notice this in my improvement in pace and times when I run on the flats again. And because of this new love for mountain running, I recently joined the KinVital running club, where I am learning some more mountain running techniques and I want to progress even further and thus take on some bigger project in the future. I am also looking forward to the first official group runs that await us in the coming months, as soon as the situation with the epidemic calms down and mass events can take place again. One of the first such events will be the Ultra Trail Vipava Valey Slovenia , where I am looking forward to my first appearance at the Legionar length, and then I want to embark on even longer and more demanding adventures, which I hope to overcome without injuries, with joy on my face and a big fire in my heart.⁣⁣

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Above all, I am looking forward to all the wonderful people with whom I will share the running tracks and with whom we will "achieve many more" in the coming years, which will certainly bring a lot of freshness and sincere beautiful adventures. Good luck to everyone and may the next months be dedicated to changes: do everything you have always wanted to do but never dared to. I believe in each and every one of you - whether you have carbon in your pants, carbon in your shoes, a bike, or simply in your persistent, courageous and firmly determined will. Your "carbon babe"!⁣⁣
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Written by: Valerie Wolf Gang⁣⁣

Valerie is now an ambassador for high-quality clothing from SportHG. She also has her own clothing collection that she uses. You can view it here and choose your new favorite piece. 

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Valerie also answered an exclusive interview where she goes into even more detail about her mentality, focus, and previous life. Read it here.