About thedancingrunner

Hi! I’m Chelsea. Thanks for visiting my blog. I love cooking, traveling, and most of all staying active. It hasn’t always been that way. Even though I dabbled in a few sports growing up – mostly ballet, tap and jazz as a pre-teen – I was not a very athletic kid. I was definitely more into the school choir and writing for the newspaper in high school. Writing and fine arts – definitely up my alley. Working out, not so much.

When I graduated high school in 2002, I decided to go to college out of state - at Hampton University in Virginia, thousands of miles away from my home in Plano, Texas. They had a great journalism school there so that is where I decided to begin my study in television. I definitely spent my fair share of time partying, which included late night food binges on pizza and all kinds of junk. Eventually my weight reached an all time high of 196 pounds. I was obviously not happy with it.

Finally after that reality check and stepping on the scale being 50 pounds heavier than my normal weight I decided it was time to make a change. My mom, even though she didn’t have much weight to lose, said she would join Weight Watchers with me. I took the plunge and joined. Thus began my weight loss journey. About a year or so went by and the weight started coming off. It was all about moderation and portion control – and really just changing your overall lifestyle. I stuck with the plan and started working out…I even started working at a women’s fitness facility in Virginia called Curves for Women while I was in college. I lost a majority of my weight in college and graduated a fitter, happier person.

Class of '06!

I moved home when I graduated, and almost immediately landed a job working at the local CBS station. It was truly my dream to work in television after graduating with a Broadcast Journalism degree. I started working behind the news desk, finding breaking news stories and working with the reporters. A lot of the hours I worked were early morning hours and overnights. I sat at a desk, day in and day out, often for 12 hours at a time. Working overnight was pretty brutal and got to wear on me…I soon became burned out by chasing all of the doom and gloom that the local news showcases. It started to not become fun anymore. On top of that I put on weight from sitting at the desk.

Me and my coworker Gerardo working election night. Smiling through stress.

In 2009, after working for CBS for 3 long years, I got hit with a layoff. They had been laying off thousands in the company across the US so it really was only a matter of time. It was truly a blessing in disguise. When I got laid off, I just tried to keep busy having so much down time by working out. I would go to 24 Hour Fitness and take Danceaton classes, as many as I could possibly take. Danceaton was definitely a stress reliever for me, and a way to hang out with all of my gym buddies.

I also took up running. One day I when I was doing a local social run at Luke’s Locker, someone brought up the idea of training for a half marathon. I became intrigued with the thought and started training. Almost immediately after I landed a job working for Christian television working as a producer, which was what I had always wanted to do. God was truly opening up so many amazing doors for me.

Trained & completed my first half marathon - with some amazing people!

Today, I have run over 10 half marathons and have a few full marathons under my belt. I am still working as a producer in television and now teaching dance classes on the side at 24 Hour Fitness. It has been an amazing journey and I can’t wait to see where God takes me next.