Personal Narrative: Middle School

I was miserable but did not know how to stop my obsession. My mother finally stepped in. She sat down with me and talked about all her concerns with my weight. I came

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

I teared up and I managed to focus on was how “fat” this was going to make me, so I went home and ran eight straight miles, running off at 800 calories because the remaining 200 were tolerable. When I look back at this, I can clearly see that I acted ridiculously and that there wasn’t anything wrong with my body. However at the time, I was impossible to reason with because I refused to listen to anyone’s opinion. I only cared what I thought about myself and if I thought I wasn’t skinny enough, I wasn’t skinny

t’s always been a fight with myself. If I just lose one more pound I’ll look prettier, but soon one pound isn’t enough. Next is ten, then it’s twenty, and finally it’s deciding how many pounds I can lose without dying. It’s a never ending spiral of going over the boundaries you’ve made for yourself. Recovery hasn’t been easy, and it will always be this way. These tendencies are something I created because I thought they were right. Now, I have to relearn everything I thought I already knew. Luckily, I’m being taught the right way. I’m being taught that being me, is really OK after

My weight has been something that I have struggled with all my life. When ever I would look in the mirror I would feel this uncontrollable sadness. Of course my appearance was something that motivated me to lose weight, but my health also played a huge role in my weightloss journey. So I set a goal to become healthier, I stayed focused and determined on reaching that goal.

2 years after I graduated from high school; I decided to resume my weight loss journey. Although this time I was

I was a prisoner in my own body, captive inside my own skin, unable to break free. At the age of seventeen years old, I weighed over 255 pounds. I was unable to participate in ordinary activities due to the own restraints I had placed upon myself. I always felt alone in the crowd; I was self-conscious and felt as if the world always had a judgmental eye looking down on me. Food was my addiction, calories my drug. I was eating through my pain and depression. Food gave me a sense of safety and security unlike anything else. I was trapped, desperate for freedom. Until I decided to make a change; I decided that I was not going to be trapped any longer! I vowed to set myself free.

It all started back in my freshman year of high school of 2012, I was always considered one of the chubby guys in my graduating class. People often told me I would always be big and would never lose weight because of how lazy I was but, hey they were right ha-ha I was always one of those inactive type of guys. So finally, one day I told myself is there a way for me to change who I used to be because life isn’t just about, just getting by for now so I know I have a second chance to change my life cause my story isn’t just over here it’s just barely begun. That same year I decided to quit my football career and buy a gym membership since I knew that football workouts would not get me to where I wanted to be as in my goal to getting very fit. The ending of my freshman was just the beginning of my powerlifting career.

Ninth grade was one of the worst years of my life, socially speaking. We had just moved to a new neighborhood, and I had several strikes against me before I even stepped into school. I stood out too much. Everyone

I gained a significant amount of weight. As a girl who stands at five feet exactly, I weighed nearly 140 pounds toward the end of my sophomore year, making me, according to my BMI, overweight. My doctor recommended that I watch my weight and warned me that, if I gained more weight by my next annual check-up, I would have to lose weight. At the time, I honestly had no idea I was overweight. My parents always made me feel as if I was beautiful. My friends, many of whom were Varsity athletes, never made comments about what I was eating. Looking back at this time now, I realize that I had some immensely unhealthy habits, from rarely exercising to eating massive quantities of ice cream and candy nearly every day. The summer before my junior year of high school, I made it a goal to lose weight and ended up losing 20 pounds within the next six months, effectively putting me at a healthy weight for my height and age. I found a love for making healthy meals and a passion for exercise. I was able to bond with my mom as we made desserts from a healthy recipe cookbook and with my brother who goes on six-mile

While we know that obesity is linked with many health problems, for me, the decision for rapid weight loss in an effort to achieve wellness was much more than simply being free from illness - it was a self-motivated course of action of change and growth.

Taking care of my body and feeling gratification in my accomplishments can improve both my physical and mental health. Nutrition and fitness is essential for a healthy living. There were many,many things I learned through this experience. To where I believe I will change my diet for good to more healthier chose to where I won’t fear that the food would affect me badly. First week into this I was pretty hasententt to where all thought about was sitting on the couch and eating dark chocolate while watching Netflix. I fought the thought in my head that would set me back so I could succeed and I did greatly. With the final results of me being happier with a better mindset and no negative thoughts. An dropping six pounds and growing an inch was just a bouns to add on! Threw this there was only one thing that I told myself to keep going was that “exsuse don’t BURN calories and was that I need to COMMIT to be

I came to the realization that I was overweight. I started researching ways to lose weight and found a bunch of ways to lose weight. The problem was I didn’t know how to lose weight to I just decided to eat three times a day with no snacks. It had been about 3 weeks since I started trying to lose weight and I was at the gym playing basketball. My friend, Eric said “ You look skinnier, have you lost weight?” This made me feel like I had accomplished something.

“If you plan on losing weight, you must get rid of that in the first place!” I knew she wasn’t playing around when she raised her voice at me, while I was holding a bag Hot Cheetos. “You told me I could have a cheat day”, I told her tensely. My eyes immediately dilated. Meanwhile, she was looking at me with a horrid expression. “And you really thought I was being serious?” I had no idea what to do afterwards: if I wanted to breakdown, leave, or throw the Cheetos away. My mom was inside the doctor’s office with me and she turned down on me as well. “I told her, “You’re going to get in trouble”, but she said, “One bag won’t hurt”, my mom affirmed to the doctor.

I hated how strict dieting made me feel! I couldn’t help but believe that, there had to be a way for me to lose weight and keep it off--without punishing myself with strict dieting. I knew that if I was going to lose weight and keep it off, that I had to use healthier weight loss strategies other than the ones that I’d used in the past. I also knew that, in order for me to have continued success, that my resolution had to consist of me losing weight, without ever making a New Year’s resolution.