The Quest

 To me, a quest is an adventure. It is mission that must be completed, no matter how much one might struggle to do so. There are no if’s, and’s, or but’s involved in a quest; it is do or die. One could, of course, pick a quest that is mindless, that involves no self restraint, a quest that is no real challenge; but I was determined to pick something meaningful to myself. My weight is something I have constantly struggled with, and I always have promised myself that someday, I would make a change. Recently, someone very dear to me made a very big sacrifice; he enlisted in the Marines, and shipped off to boot camp to endure thirteen of the hardest weeks I am sure he has been through in his life.  This has motivated me to finally keep my promise to myself, and get my weight under control. My quest will be to eat healthy, exercise, and over the course of thirty days, become a fit person.

Weight has been the subject of my continuous battle for as long as I can remember. I recall being about eleven years old, sitting in a dressing room at some department store, crying. My mom was knocking on the door trying to find out what was wrong, but I was too ashamed to tell her the truth. I was crying because I could not fit into any of the clothes I was trying on. I was a chubby little girl, and I hated it. As I headed into high school, I was determined to end my “chubby” days, and I changed my lifestyle completely. After about eight months, I had managed to drop sixty pounds and I felt like a whole new person. I was outgoing, made a bunch of new friends, and had a whole new attitude toward life. Since then, however, school, friends, and family has started getting in the way. I have since gained that weight back and succumbed to my old habits of eating unhealthy and not exercising enough. I want to make the change in my lifestyle again, and go back to the healthy woman I know I can be.

One major motivation for this life change is my fiancé, Xyander. Over the course of us dating, he has tried on a couple of different occasions to help me get into shape. He knew how unhappy I was, and he wanted to help me. Of course, I would always fall off the wagon. Old habits die hard. Xyander has recently enlisted in the Marines and he left for boot camp about a month ago. He is making a major sacrifice; leaving everyone he loves, everything he knows, to serve and protect our country. If he can sacrifice all of that, the least I can do is sacrifice the doughnut that calls my name at breakfast! He means the world to me, and I would love to be able to accomplish something I have struggled with by the time he finishes boot camp. I want to make him proud, because I am so proud of him.

Of course, there is a lot more involved in this quest then just ignoring the doughnut screaming to me from the kitchen. I will need to completely overhaul my bad eating habits. I’m not just talking about the easy, mindless, calorie counting; I want to reconstruct my entire diet! Increasing my fruit and vegetable intake is a must, along with lowering my sodium and carbohydrate intake. There is a much greater chance I will succeed if I change the way I look at food, and change the way I eat. Another major bad habit I have is eating out. The calories and sodium you consume in one meal from Chili’s would be enough for your entire day, and possibly even two days! Eating out is my guilty pleasure, especially over my lunch break. One part of my plan will be to always pack my own lunch for work. This way, I can control what I am eating, and also save a little money at the same time! Now, I must tell you, I am a HuHot junkie. I do not think it is attainable for me to completely cut HuHot out of my diet, so my plan for that is to change what I eat there. I will only allow myself healthy plates (which the HuHot website provides recipes for), and I will only allow myself one plate. This may seem like a minor detail, but believe me, it is actually a huge part of my diet. Changing my eating habits is only half of the battle.

The more difficult part of this battle for me is going to be exercising. Every time I have failed at weight loss, it is because I failed at the exercising part. I can never get myself motivated enough, or allow myself to have the time to exercise. For my quest, I am going to make myself exercise for at least thirty minutes every day. I figured I would be able to talk myself into thirty minutes a day since that is not a very substantial amount of time. I plan on exercising in three main ways; on the elliptical, with the Wii Fit, and with walking regularly in the evenings. One of my friends is training to walk a half marathon, so I thought walking at night with her would be a great way to get in my exercise occasionally. My main problem with exercise is that I get bored, so I figured a good way to keep myself motivated would be variety. I know this is going to be the hardest part for me, but I also know that with determination, it is more than obtainable.

There are many things I hope to gain from it upon completion. First and foremost, I hope to simply feel healthier. I want to feel more energetic, and happier, and just plain healthy. Self confidence is another entity I hope to gain. Lately, I have just been in a slump, and it would be nice to become more confident in myself so that I want to get out and do things. Put simply, I just want to feel better about myself overall. Completing this quest will help me to feel more accomplished. Losing weight is something I have been trying to do for a very long time, and to finally complete this goal would feel amazing. This is a promise I made to myself a very long time ago, and I am excited to finally make it happen.

This quest means a lot to me. I have struggled with my weight my entire life, and I continuously make the battle towards weight loss. With my fiancé gone for boot camp, I am determined to make the changes in my life that will help me succeed in the weight loss battle. If change my eating habits and exercises for at least thirty minutes every day, I know that I can reach my goal of losing close to fifteen pounds in the next thirty days.