Losing Weight Personal Essay Example

For this midterm project, the problem I have elected to resolve is weight loss. The reason I picked to work on this issue is because weight has always been an issue I have struggled to deal with. I am an 18 years of age, female, five foot two in height and I currently weigh one hundred and forty four pounds. My reasoning for including this information is to demonstrate that I am in relatively healthy shape and in no danger of being obese. I would not describe myself as “overweight”, however, I am definitely not in outstanding shape. My main issue with this problem is even though I am not overweight, I have a poor body image and lack of self confidence in myself. The other objectives I wish to achieve during this process is to reach a better health standing in order to feel more energized and develop better habits in my diet and staying active, especially as I get older to avoid certain health issues. 

According to an article I found, “7 Psychological Reasons You Are Not Losing Weight”, the habits I have struggled with the most are: mindless eating, lack of self-confidence, unrealistic beauty standards, and negative body image (         ). When I am bored I tend to eat mindlessly, if there is nothing else to do and I am sitting at home alone, I often find myself opening the fridge and pantry twenty times looking for something to eat, even if I am not hungry. I feel like this is a circumstance nearly everyone has encountered, even if you know there is nothing appealing or appetizing in your fridge, you continue to look expecting something will magically appear, and then you finally grab an object of food knowing that you do not necessarily want it and think “why not?”. As previously mentioned, I also have a lack of self-confidence and a negative body image. The article states that a person with a lack of self esteem and negative body image, after numerous failed attempts begins to assume weight loss is an impossible goal, and as a direct result treats their body in a poor manner. Another factor which is most likely the cause of a lack of self esteem and body image is unrealistic beauty standards. Today, living in the world of social media and photoshop, it is so easy to see a photo, which is likely edited, of someone whom we deem the beauty standard, and then we begin to judge and doubt ourselves. The article states this issue can only be resolved when we “take responsibility for the way we perceive beauty. When you accept the fact that beauty can come in all ‘shapes and sizes,’ you cease to set yourself for failure by trying to achieve impossible beauty standards” (            ). I feel a combination of all these factors has had a large impact on my perception of myself. 

I have attempted numerous times in the past to resolve this problem, however, all were unsuccessful. I have made plans, workout regimes, tried diets, tried cutting certain ingredients out of my diets, but all were futile. Some attempts did show slight results, however, they were temporary. I believe the main issue with all of my past efforts is I expected too much and changed too much about my lifestyle that my body simply could not handle it. Discouragement also played a role in this as well for the reason I expected to see changes and didn’t, leading me to become unmotivated. 

There are multiple steps I plan to take in order to reach my goal, but I think they are manageable changes that will not only help me lose weight, but also put me on the path to living a better, healthier life. In terms of my diet and what I eat, the first and most important change is I am going to cease eating mindlessly when I am bored. There is an article I found from Healthline with multiple tips to stop absentmindedly eating and I suppose the ones I would benefit the most from are keeping some foods out of sight, increasing the inconvenience of eating, eating slowly, and unplugging while you eat (        ). The main message of all these steps is to stop buying foods that are unhealthy and are eaten in bulk. Also, by keeping yourself busy and not eating while distracted by your phone or TV, you appreciate your food more and are further aware of the fact you are eating in opposed to absentmindedly reaching your hand into the bag of chips while you binge watching your favorite show. In addition to this, I plan to improve the quality of what I eat. Instead of eating a bag of chips or Cheez-its, that in all honesty will not fill me, I can eat a sandwich or a salad, a food that will make me full and provide me with protein and fuel. I also intend to reduce the amount of fast food and soda I consume, especially when I am home. Fast food is so convenient, but in the long run, not very helpful for my goal. 

The next step of improvement to achieve my objective is I essentially need to become more active. In all honesty, I have always despised working out. However, in order to lose weight, I can not just depend on changing my eating habits. However, I do know my limits and do not expect myself to run two miles and lift heavy weights everyday. Considering I do little to no physical activity at the moment, the most effective way to become more active is to pace myself. My proposal is I find time two to three times a week to work out. I surmise that starting by pushing myself to walk a mile twice a week and maybe doing slight core exercises will show development. Then, slowly incorporate more workouts such as, lifting weights in moderation, doing core exercises like sit ups or leg lifts, and utilizing machines like the elliptical or stair stepper. 

At the conclusion of the three week time trial

Now that the three week trial period of this process has come to a conclusion, I will now discuss the results I have noticed. As previously mentioned, at the beginning of the three week period I weighed one hundred and forty four pounds. Following the methods and intentions of this experiment, I was able to lose five pounds, so I now weigh one hundred and thirty nine pounds. According to an article by William McCoy from Livestrong, “a weekly weight-loss goal of 1 to 2 pounds is ideal. If you're able to successfully lose weight at this rate, expect to lose between 3 and 6 pounds over the course of three weeks” (          ). Considering I lost the average amount of weight for the duration of time I wished to accomplish this goal, while doing minimal, non-intense exercises, I would say I did in fact reach the desired outcome I wanted to achieve. 

There were obstacles I faced and overcame during this time period. One of the main challenges was spring break occurred during the middle of the three week trial, therefore I was home and spending time with friends and family. This made it extremely difficult to find time and energy to maintain the workout regiment I planned for myself. During the course of spring break, I only walked a mile minimum two days throughout the week. It was also incredibly difficult to resist temptation when it came to my diet. Being home, there were definitely more options of snacks and restaurants to go out to than there is on campus, so it was challenging to resist. However, I made an impressive effort to stick to my plan, I only ate fast food once, I kept my soda intake to a minimum, and I avoided snacking senselessly and instead chose better options which would fill me. Another obstacle I faced was some familial situations that occurred during the course of spring break, which resulted in a myriad of stress, and I dealt with this stress by distracting myself with a cookie. I have a massive sweet tooth, but instead of consuming numerous cookies during the course of this drama, I only treated myself to two, which I perceive as a victory and progress. 

Consequently, I have acquired a sense of pride for  myself for achieving the goal I set out for myself. Despite the fact I did not lose an abundant amount of weight, I believe that I lost an appropriate amount in the span of time and I did it healthily. After working out more I am feeling healthier, productive, and accomplished, in addition to being tired, but I perceive that as progress. I also have gained a newfound self confidence, I discovered a quote from an anonymous source that I enjoyed which states “In two weeks, you’ll feel it. In four weeks, you’ll see it. In eight weeks, you’ll hear it”. Following two weeks, I definitely feel it, I have more energy and am not as tired as usual, and although it has only been three weeks, people have started to comment on it, which is motivating to continue on this path. This midterm project has been a great start to this journey, and my new goal I wish to start is to continue with this regiment and continue to make progress in achieving a healthy lifestyle. 

I concluded that what really worked about this approach to my ambitions was, like I said, I did not expect too much or over anticipate the outcome. The goal was accomplished without pushing myself to perform extreme exercises and did not drastically alter my diet. I truly suspect this is why my approach succeeded the way it did, and the only factor that did not work for me was, I could not expect all of the challenges life would throw towards me and the effects they would have on my mindset. I would not change anything about my plan, however, moving forward as I progress I may possibly increase the extent of physical activity I do, afterall I can not expect to keep seeing the same results if I do not change anything. Other than that, I am rather confident in the work I put in and my plan to achieve this goal in general.