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Jun 22, 2009 - 03:02 PM |
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Weight Loss |
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Approximately two years ago, I had a bit of a feud with my mother. During a brief stay at her sister's house, she attempted to control more and more of my daily life as if to demonstrate her power. This, while not original behavior for my mother, was uniquely frustrating during that time, so I protested by accepting my aunt's offer that I should stay with her for the remainder of my summer. Life was not splendidly adventurous thereafter, but stress was considerably less. Confident from that assertiveness, I decided to try exercising regularly.
I was very overweight. I weighed nearly 300 pounds. Thankfully, my aunt owns a very nice treadmill, so I tried walking on that initially. It wasn't much to begin with, but, as I gradually increased my effort, it did begin to yield some noticeable results by the end of that summer.
I exercised less throughout the fall semester. I had a bit of an emotional crisis through that time as my mother attempted to inflict guilt upon me. Surely I lost some weight through that time because I simply wasn't eating, and, admittedly, I wasn't doing other things as well. That fall semester I performed very badly in my academics. I essentially stopped attending classes, devoting my time instead to distractions: talking to the friend with whom I recently reunited, the internet, and video games. I am not proud of that time. I began seeing an on-campus counselor. That my behavior was excused based on my time with that counselor seems unjust, though I am nevertheless glad I can continue my university education. My academic performance has been infinitely better since that time.
As I gravitated toward some state of normalcy in the spring semester of 2008, I started exercising again. I started walking around town. I walked a few miles every day. I began adjusting my diet slowly. Motivated by my dad's amateur running "career," I started running along a short route. Last summer, as I wound up in Bradford, Pennsylvania again, I ran on my aunt's treadmill daily while doing occasional PHP scripting for my uncle. By the end of June 2008, I had lost approximately 130 pounds.
This is a picture of me, standing next to my aunt, from my high school graduation in 2006:
...and this is a picture with a cousin of mine from a family vacation this past May:
I don't have the physique of a professional athlete, but I feel much improved. I continue to run regularly. Forgive me if this all seems terse. I still have issues writing introspectively while remaining intelligible and concise!
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