I myself was in somewhat of a similar place one time during my life, almost on the edge of being considered obese to tell the truth. I wasn't a happy person, in fact suicide was probably the majority of my thinking, just to make it go away. In the end however, I got sick of it, and things were going to change or I was going to die. Whether my death was accidental or not would have been questionable.

I started with walking, and I found I was in such bad shape, that I couldn't walk one and a half miles without becoming completely exhausted and have my vision start to leave me. So I kept walking, my health infuriated me, but I was fury mostly aimed at myself. Eventually I was walking 8 miles a day, that's two hours of walking, every day, for weeks. So, I started running, or jogging more accurately, to take up less time, and my waistline gradually shrank.

However, due to a series of bad coincidences, the tendon connecting my quadricep on my left leg was hyperextended, and damage nearly permanently by tendinitis that was never allowed the two weeks it needed to heal. Also a hereditary cartilage growth formed on the knee right below where the tendon was, just complicating things. I had to stop walking, and running, the pain was worse than anything I've felt in my entire life.

A year later, I still couldn't job 50 feet without having to stop, just from the unimaginable pain, but it hasn't won. Christmas of that year, six months later, I finally stopped limping, which meant I could run, but it was winter, and I still had to wait. Spring came, and I started running again, it was among the happiest moments of my life. Eventually I was able to push myself to 12 and 13 miles, with a couple stops, but that took me two and a half hours to do.

So I stopped running as much, just ran faster, and spend half an hour running, and half an hour working out. I believed my muscle tone to be nonexistent as well, but I know that's wrong now. It just takes time and dedication, of which I have found both.

I probably shouldn't have gone on this long, but it makes me happy knowing that there are and were others like me. People that decided to change. I'm just happy, that I did it, and that you've decided to do it.

Congratulations and good luck. ^_^

Parkour is indeed something I'm aware of - looks fun, but I have no idea where to start... I can't just climb over someone's roof without asking xD

Besides, my upper body strength is lame. Better since I bought a rowing machine, but still lame.

You should add 'exhibitionism' to the tags...