Losing 50 pounds has been one of my greatest accomplishments to date.

Why? As much as I feel a lot healthier and better about my self, I have a lot more
confidence and much more self esteem than I used to have just a little over a year
ago. The better thing is, I am more in shape and can do a lot more than I was able to
before. Losing weight gives me a better outlook on life because after I accomplished
this goal, I feel like I can do anything I put my mind to.
What made me want to lose weight most was the fact that everyone I was
with would always point out the fact that I was overweight, as if I didn’t know
myself. I remember I was at my friend James’ house with a couple of other friends.
We were all sitting in his living room just poking fun at each other. Whenever I’d
make a joke at someone, their comeback would always be jokes about my weight
such as “dude, go eat a brownie” or “you want some fries with that cheeseburger,
fatty?” As much as I would laugh it off, I would be filled with shame and
embarrassment on this inside.
I am originally from New York City. Every summer and Christmas break, I fly
up there to go visit them and catch up. I have a huge family so when we eat dinner,
it is at a huge dining table where everyone is seated and food is being passed
around. Our main topic of conversation during dinner would be about how each of
us is doing. Whenever my name was brought up during dinner, my family would
always tell me about how I need to “cut down” on my food intake or try and tell me
how I should go outside, not knowing that I already spend most of my day outside
the house. All this talk would make it really uncomfortable to even eat dinner with
them. This ended up being another factor in the decision that made me want to
change myself for the better.
That summer when I returned from New York, I weighed myself in, and
checked my BMI (body mass index) to see what I was supposed to weigh and how
much I weighed in comparison to that. I checked my height, which was 5’6 and I got
on the scale. After the weighing scale blinked several times to calculate my weight,
the bright green numbers finally showed up on the small screen reading: 185.6 lbs. I
checked my laptop to see how much my ideal weight was, and the chart on the
website I was looking at showed that I had to weigh in at 135 pounds to be at my
ideal weight. I was 50 pounds overweight, which was really disappointing. I feel
like I let myself down because I had gone this far into being unhealthy. It felt like a
smack in the face because I was in so much denial about how I was or appeared to
be. I knew I had to do something about this.
After starting a rigorous diet and workout course, I lost 50 pounds over the
course of 3 months. I had never felt so better about myself than I do now. I was at a
whole new confidence level. What made this even better was the fact that when I
returned to school, I got noticed by a bunch of people for my weight loss. My family
was more than ecstatic to see me that following winter break. This truly was the
hardest and most rewarding decision that I made, and I would do it over again if I
could.