Personal Achievement: Trying to lose 20 pounds during Lockdown

The COVID-19 Lockdown was a very important time in my life. During the lockdown, I noticed
how unhealthy I ate and how little I exercised outside of playing basketball. With those facts in mind, I
also noticed that I was starting to gain weight and was not happy with my overall appearance. I wanted
to improve my health. I had a small gym in my basement that has been collecting dust the past few
years. All the tools I needed to lose weight were right at my fingertips. Treadmill, bench press, yoga mat,
that was all I needed to start my goal. This was the best time to push me and try reaching something I
only imagined doing. It was the best time to learn new things about me. The best time to change my
views. I wanted to set a goal of trying to lose 20 pounds before grade 11 started.

Trying to lose 20 pounds in 5 months sounded like a long shot at first but with self-control, work
ethic and time management it can be doable. Due to COVID-19, time management was the easiest thing
to work with. I had all the time in the world to exercise. Finding the work ethic to exercise 5 times a
week was tough at first but with a little creativity, I manage to turn it into something fun. I would set
little goals in between the big goal of losing 20 pounds before school started. Goals such as run 2
kilometres without a break or hold a plank for 1 minute were little goals that help keep me motivated
and push through. These little goals worked so well that I started to incorporate them into my daily life
such as in schoolwork. I used to do all my schoolwork in one sitting but I realized that if I can set little
goals (with the end goal of finishing all my schoolwork) like finish one page of an assignment a day, it led
to me being less stressed and finding more time on the weekend to do other hobbies. These little goals
settings are what I started to rely on to get through my life.

The first week of exercise was the hardest week of them all. I was not motivated at all, was not
enjoying it, and was not seeing any results. I already started thinking of quitting after the first week
because of how little of a result I was shown compared to how much I worked. It was not until the third
week that I started to see results. My weight went down, I was doing the exercises with more effort, and
was looking forward to exercising throughout my day. Running on the treadmill gave me 30 minutes all
to myself with no distractions. Eventually, I started to run on the treadmill whenever I was bored. The
treadmill became the tool that I use when I just want to relieve stress. A quick run helped reset my brain
and help cool me off. Even to this day, I still use the treadmill to take a breather and calm down from my
daily life.

After the 5 months the biggest thing I learned was that if you put your mind to it, you really can
achieve just about anything. As corny as that sounds it is true. The biggest hurdle that everyone must
overcome is to do it in the first place. It will never be possible if you don’t try. With the mindset that you
can achieve anything, I have become more open-minded, more willing to try something I have no
experience in, and most importantly, more willing to fail. While I had the goal of losing 20 pounds before
school started. I passed the goal and lost 25 pounds instead. Losing 25 pounds was not the thing I was
the happiest about. It just happened to be a bonus. While I came out with a healthier body, my mindset
was the biggest thing that improved and the thing that I was most proud of.