Jennifer Brown, 42, vividly remembers being an overweight kid who couldn’t meet the fitness test to run a 15-minute mile in high school.
“I remember being the kid who would walk with the PE teacher because I just kept saying, ‘I can’t. There is no way. I know I can’t run a mile in 15 minutes like you should. And so, I’m not even going to try,’” she told TODAY.
That attitude followed Brown, who lives in Iowa, into adulthood, where a cycle of heavy drinking and unhealthy eating habits, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle, saw him steadily gain weight until he was She was 37 years old and weighed 348 kilograms.
As a mother of two, Brown understood the need to change and the desire to try.
“I realized I had to really take care (of my health),” Brown says. “I got to a point where I’m like, ‘OK, I’m at my worst. I’ve got to do something different.'”
Her health journey really began with something of a naturalistic epiphany while she was walking the family dog in a local park. She remembers thinking: “There is fresh air. And it’s sunny. And it feels good. And I’m out. It was such a pure feeling.”
A sense that Brown would continue to seek a new way of life; in addition to walking, she changed her diet, included more water and vowed to cut out alcohol.
In three years, she lost an astonishing 100 pounds. However, the achievement was followed by a discouraging plateau.
Struggling to further his weight loss, Brown was resistant to help. I have done the work and I have done this.’ But I spent eight months and nothing was happening.”
Brown, along with her doctor, decided to supplement her diet and exercise regimen with the weight loss drug Mounjaro. Within a year, she lost an additional 90 pounds.
Inspired by what she gained through her losses, Brown set a new goal that would undoubtedly shock her teenage self. “I started the mile a day challenge for myself. I said, ‘OK, for 30 days, I’m going to run just one mile, no matter how long it takes.’
Despite the initial mile, which she admits made her feel “like I wanted to die,” Brown stuck with her stride, and by the end of the first month, she held a proud 14-minute mile pace.
“I was doing this at 40 when I couldn’t do it at 8, 9 or 10. So it was like, ‘OK, this is great.’
Her month-long commitment has become an unwavering habit. Forced indoors by the Iowa winters, Brown now runs in a Peloton where she’s on a 110-week run of straight-to-the-car class workouts. Brown will celebrate her 43rd birthday by running a marathon, and next summer she willI participated in Relay Iowa, a 339-mile relay race in the Hawkeye State.
Brown has also taken it upon herself to document her dedication, regularly posting on TikTok as @thisiowamom, “Over time, my body definitely changed and I progressed by getting faster, better, stronger and just I continued to share this.”
Brown’s amazing videos have earned her celebrity fans, including Ludacris, Octavia Spencer, Jennifer Garner and Gretchen Rossi, while inspiring others to start their own fitness journeys.
“I’m still sharing it for myself, but it’s gotten to a place where I just feel compelled to keep pushing for it. Because it has become a passion to help others by sharing my content.”
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