Let me start at the very beginning. My fitness story starts during my junior year of high school. Specifically, the later half of that year. During this time, I had appendicitis. For those who aren’t aware, appendicitis is a condition where your appendix (a vestigial organ located in the bottom right side of your torso that used to help us digest raw meat but now lies dormant) becomes infected and if not treated, it bursts and spreads the infection to the rest of your digestive system. Mine was quite a mild case, however, due to being overweight, the condition worsened very quickly. This led to my hospitalization and subsequent appendectomy (appendix removal surgery).

I wasn’t initially concerned about the procedure as I had been assured it was a very common procedure. As I laid in the hospital bed, however, I loathed every minute of it. I knew I never wanted to feel as helpless, weak, and useless as I did laying in that bed. This thought continued to surface with increased frequency as my time in the hospital came to an end. Still unsure of what to do, I left the hospital feeling awful. I knew that my weight would lead to my next hospitalization but I also knew that I had tried to lose it multiple times.

Pushing the thought out of my head and happy that I was home I figured I would be alright. A few months passed with my habits of overeating and not going to the gym persisting. The nagging feeling from the hospital started to come back. At first it was like a fly, coming and going as it pleased, but eventually, the emotions that plagued me in that bed took over every waking moment. I knew I had to do something. School was starting in a few months and I decided to do the most cliche thing ever and write myself a goal. So I did, I took a post-it note and wrote the most outlandish goal I could think of on it “Lose 50 pounds in 9 months.” Laughing at the hilarity of it, I threw it on my bedside table. I kept writing these notes whenever those feelings resurfaced. By the time school started a few months later, I had no space to put anything on my side table. It was finally time.