After battling obesity for years, Colorado couple Robert and Jessica Foster’s respective weights climbed to 327 lbs. and 287 lbs. They were always exhausted and unable to take trips to the park with their four daughters.

In the month before her 30th birthday, Jessica had an epiphany about making a major lifestyle change.

“I adore my kids and I love my husband very much, but there was that point I hated myself so much. I wasn’t giving them the full me because I was disgusted,” she told Fox’s KDVR.

the fosters

“You have to look in the mirror and say, ‘Am I going to allow this to continue or am I going to stand up and make those changes?’ A light turned on upstairs.”

She began taking Zumba classes the very next week and lost 14 lbs. right off the bat. Robert’s journey didn’t start off quite as quickly.

Calling the idea of running, “unappealing to the point of agony,” Robert began to play tennis and changed his eating habits little by little.

robert foster

In just a few months, the pair began training for their first 5K and teaching their girls to make healthier food choices.

Now weighing 167 lbs. each, Robert successfully completed his first full marathon in May while both have switched to a vegan diet.

“I love myself,” Jessica said. “I like what I’m seeing in the mirror. I know there’s some work to still be done, but I’m such a different person than I was before.”