Life Reflection Paper

Within the next week I was rushed to the hospital because of excruciating chest pains, after a variety of tests they reach a final verdict; by not eating I weakened all of my muscles in my body and all of my organs were starting to attack one another. Once I was finally released my mother took me to see many different doctors. I found a nutritionist and began my journey back to living a healthy life, where I both exercised and ate well. My image has always been one of my main issues with myself and has held me back from trying new things and being who I want to be. That experience has taught me to love who I am, no matter what anyone says. And if I wasn't faced with that problem I would not be as strong as I

My journey started once I stepped foot in the gym. Travis, my trainer, greeted me with excitement. Weighing close to 200 pounds, I knew change

My weight never once had a part in any of these life decisions. We are now currently in the spring semester of my first year of college and I am finally realizing something. My weight is not a reflection of my mood. Ten year old me would have never believed that the word “obese” was not the worst word she would or could be called in her lifetime. Twelve year old me would have never guessed that a girl her size could get a boy a zillion times better than Austin, a boy named Travis who tells her he loves her every chance he gets. Sixteen year old me only assumed that the weight loss that she had lost was only the product of a sport that she no longer played, but now she is under the goal that she had set for herself when she was at her worst and is still working towards losing more. I am currently eighteen and I have learned two things. Everyone’s thighs jiggle when they run and that assuming things about the future does make an ass out of you and me. I still binge on fast food sometimes, and say hateful things to myself in the mirror too. I am only human. My diet is also healthier; I exercise frequently, and try to smile more often. Although my weight is still something I believe I could work on, it is no longer in control of how I feel. I am, and that's just a bittersweet

Though life review and ordinary remembering seem synonymous, the two share very compelling and diverse similarities and differences. Life review and ordinary remembering are similar in that they both deal with recollections of the past from the onset of adolescence. The pivotal difference is that a life review takes a further step and helps the older adult recollect past memories by search for meaning within each experience and tapping into the emotions of those experiences. Ordinary remembering refers to a more informal and objective recollection of past experiences, while life review is the more formal, structural, and subjective examination of past

My freshmen year, surprisingly, passed by quickly. I was so busy with volleyball, basketball, track, and new school rules that I did not have much time to pick apart my body. There was still a part of me obsessing over my weight . I really started picking out my flaws my summer going into my sophomore year. I worked out every day in the summer. I started out by running the bike path that circles through my town once a day. The path’s distance was about 4 miles. Midway through the summer I started running the path once in the morning and once at night. I still was not satisfied with how I looked.

What I had was a body, a body with a heart, brain, liver, kidneys, and blood that pumped through every fiber of my being. Anorexia nervosa attempted to destroy what I had, but I refused to let it. I made a promise to myself that every mirror I encountered I would point out what I did have and not what I didn’t have. However, which each look I took Ed tried to show me a different picture of myself. I had a hard time trying to find the right picture, the one I knew was the true me. I had to teach myself that a perfect body is not what I truly wanted. What I wanted was a healthy body. Health in today’s society has taken on a different meaning. Images of young women in magazines are whom we perceive as healthy. However, I learned that true health couldn’t be shown in an image. Instead it's our internal rather than our external of our bodies that show true health. Teaching myself that was difficult, but by doing so I taught myself confidence. I now look inside myself for who I am, rather than judging what I see on the outside. I’ve learned a lesson most women never learn. Becoming grateful of what I do have, I learned to be confident. I am more self-assured today, than I was two years ago. Gratitude has served as a constant reminder in my life. Whether my body be shamed or admired, I know it’s richness, it’s intents, and it's

Ever since I have been in school I was always the “bigger girl” of all my friends. I constantly wished I could look like them, and fit into the same clothing that they wore. I know that sounds silly and when I look back at it now it was absurd, I was young and did not know any better. I struggled through middle school, and then high school took effect. I pushed myself so hard to lose weight, to reach my goals, to finally be happy with myself. I ended up losing twenty pounds. Back then that still was not satisfying enough for me; I was obsessive about the number I would see when I stepped onto that scale. I wanted more! That was then and this is now. Being twenty years old, I wish I could go back to that weight I was in high school, but not having that negative unhealthy attitude towards myself. A negative mind is never going to give you a positive life. As a college student I am always busy and on the go, I sometimes lose track of what food I am putting into my body, and how I am putting that food into my body. This book put a different perspective into my mind, and made me realize that I needed to change something in order for me to be happy with myself again. One specific part of the book really caught my attention. It is titled,

The weather was glorious. About 90 degrees, with nothing but sun shine! Not even a cloud in sight. I jumped out of bed, and made my way to the bathroom down the hall. As I was finishing with brushing my teeth, I spit in the sink, looked at myself in the mirror with a stern glance and said, “You made it”. After all, I was only 2 short hours from making my way to the Minnesota Vikings first training camp practice of the 2001 NFL season, located near the hotel I was staying in, in Mankato. Although, that wasn’t the only reason why I credited myself. I have been known to struggle with my weight in the past, but I felt good

When I was younger at age 8, is when my family would say “You will not always be so skinny, enjoy it while you can” Being 8 years old, I thought my family was crazy and was just trying to scare me. As I got older I ate whatever I wanted, assuming I will always have a fast metabolism. Little did I know, it was about to go down hill. At age 16, I realized my weight started to increase. The higher the scale went, the more depressed I became. I did not like how

I told myself that and then my brain thought that oh you’re doing well why not have this donut or this candy bar and I did. The next two weeks were rough. I got down to about 107 and before we left for cedar falls I woke up early that morning and got a run in and couldn’t get the weight off. When we left for cedar falls I was about three pounds over. When we got to Cedar Falls I don’t remember what I weighed exactly but I do remember running in the parking lot of the hotel we were staying at before we went to weigh-ins. I had been running for about 15-20 min and my dad brought me back to the room and we made a homemade sauna in the bathroom. When we left for weigh ins I had no clue what I weighed. When we got to weigh ins I got on the check scale before I officially weighed in, when I stepped on it bounced back and forth between 105.1 and 105.0. I went to weigh in and I stepped on the scale and weighed in at 105 on the dot. The decision to cut down to 105 led to many other decisions that weren’t so good, but were good learning situations. By the end of eighth grade I had placed fifth at the state tournament and had been asked to be on the middle school national dual team. At the state tournament I wrestled 115 and was weighing 120ish. For national duals I had to make 115 again and this was two months later and I was weighing almost 130 pounds. This time we started the cut earlier and the time

When I started working out, I wasn't the strongest critter in the jungle. I felt ashamed of myself, I was a walking stick, my little sister weighed more than me and most of all, I was below the average height, but I didn't let that stop me, in fact I used it as a motivation to accomplish my number one goal of a healthier lifestyle

Two hundred and ten pounds, was that all I could do after a whole summer of strength camp. I felt as though I was sinking in quicksand, all this effort yet only for a loss in my strength. I remembered then of all that I have done to get this far starting at one hundred and thirty-five pounds. After a whole two years, I trained not missing a workout nor a day of strength camp. To reach what I now believed to be my plateau,

In the beginning of middle school, I was a chubby kid. I had a hard time my first in middle school. Girls didn’t like me and I didn’t have a lot of friends. A lot of people used to make fun of me. One of the coaches asked me to play football, so I went to the doctor and got a physical. I’m glad

Accepting that there was no way around succumbing to stay under 120 pounds, I’d give in to fighting to keep my weight down to fit into the skinny description that modeling called for, but I’d do it in the healthiest way possible by buckling down and setting a routine that incorporated exercise and a balanced diet into my daily life. So, I thought that I would try to allot my time after school toward going to the gym 3-5 times a week, this sometimes requiring me to skip out on hanging out with my friends. I then figured that if I could squeeze in at least 2 dance classes a week, I would accomplish fitting in my physical activity for the day while managing to keep up my skill in dance. Lastly, and maybe the hardest of all, I began to cut processed foods and unnecessary sugar out of my diet to see if I would notice any change in my body (bye-bye nightly desserts of cake, cookies, or

The following day, I pack a bag with shorts and an extra shirt to school. After classes, in the locker room, I put my backpack in a locker and lace up my shoes. Changing my shirt was a struggle for me, so I go to a stall in the bathroom to do it. I walk past the mirror, and take a picture of myself. I save it in my phone as "Day 1. 235lbs." I think to myself, I will never look like this ever again. I have to change myself, my unhealthy lifestyle, but this time is different. Today is the day I stop trying, and start