Carter Offer ’28

Weight Off My Shoulders

In 2022, I was on the court of my high school gymnasium playing at the peak of my capabilities when tragedy struck. I was playing one of my favorite sports, volleyball, when I leapt to smack the volleyball back onto the other court. I was invigorated to land my shot and secure the point for my team, but my happiness was suddenly dimmed by an aching, sharp pain in my knees, as if they were being stabbed with a rusted knife. They ached as I landed,  which caused my entire body to tremor. As I landed, I hid my pain from my teammates. My friend Van called out to me, “You okay, bro?”

Still filled with agony, I attempted to put on a stoic expression. I responded, “I’m good, I’m gonna sit down for a bit.”

That same day, once back home, I ate, and I ate, and I ate. I don’t even know how much food I devoured; my gluttony was flagrant. And after all of that, I lay down at night with a smile on my face; right after destroying my body. I had always lived like this— why change? At this time, I was 300 pounds, quite overweight, and this was  supplemented by unhealthy habits.

A couple of weeks later I would get a reason to change. I was stressed out because pounds of schoolwork were adding up as well. I was Atlas, lifting the weight of my own world. Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, I saw a black dot in my eye. It was like a blindspot, not big enough to cloud my vision, but not small enough to overlook. I panicked, heading straight to the nurse where I got my blood tested.

“Oh this isn’t good,” Nurse Uwalkeway said, her mask covering her expression.

“What do you mean?” I asked, concerned.

“Your blood pressure is extremely high. You’re bordering on having a heart attack,” she said sternly.

I panicked and called my mother immediately. She rushed me to an Urgent Care, where I was swiftly escorted into a room with a doctor so I could have my blood pressure taken. To my surprise, the doctor claimed my blood pressure levels were normal. My mother was very pleased—delighted, really, but I was confused. I wondered, Am I okay or not? 

 As my mother and I prepared to go home, I felt something strange. It wasn’t sadness or relief—it was a mix of confusion, determination, and resolve. Although the health scare was a misfire, it was enough to set off a race. In said race, I would run off all the weight I’d gained.

*

A few days later, I started watching YouTube videos for advice. In the beginning, it was challenging; I had to monitor a myriad of things, according to the videos. This included my protein intake, minutes exercised, and steps taken. This is impossible, I thought, as I attempted to get ten thousand steps in every day. My knees ached every day, as I barely made it to five thousand steps. I was advised to consume one gram of protein per pound of body weight. At the time, I weighed 300 pounds, so this particular advice was ludicrous. It would be unhealthy to eat this much protein. The amount of exercise was also a shock. Jumping from no exercise to thirty minutes a day was a surefire way to become sore and limp, and to have aching knees the next day. Something needs to change. This is not sustainable, I thought to myself.

A couple of days into this routine, I called my friend Zack for some words of advice. 

“Dude, I respect what you’re doing, but you’re going too hard on yourself.” he said with concern.

“What do you mean?”

“Like, you can’t do all of that when you’re first starting off,” he counseled.

“What should I do then?”

“You gotta start slow. Instead of ten thousand steps a day, start at six thousand.”

Thats when it clicked. Any progress would be gradual, so my steps toward my goal should also be gradual.

After that conversation, I started taking the process more lightly and still seriously, working in a healthy way. I attempted to eat as much protein as I could, instead of worrying about the exact amount of grams. I began to consistently hit my daily step goals without my knees aching; each day I ramped up by one hundred steps until reaching nine thousand steps. I lifted lighter weights so the soreness started to go away. There’s one thing the gym especially taught me: consistency.

In the gym, I began by picking up heavy weights and lugging them around somewhat aimlessly. This resulted in my body rejecting movement, and me lying in agony the next day. The gym itself was quite empty most of the time. It was in the basement of my apartment complex, and I was typically the only person that ventured down there. It’s a cold space with heavy, rigid objects, and artificial lighting. It sounds dreadful when I put it like that, but it was actually quite serene. More often than not, it was just me and my weights. The coldness starkly contrasted the heat my body generated. The artificial lighting was actually perfect for taking photos of me flexing. These pictures were actually quite useful for checking my weight loss progress. It smelled like nothing; scents only registered when I sprayed a disinfectant bottle.

*

Over the next few months I would learn my limits. It’s important not to overdo anything, as making it to the gym four times a week is better than going twice because my body aches. Another element that helped me was calorie counting. I thumbed through many apps during this time, attempting to figure out which was best for me, when I discovered Lose It!  This app helped me log my calories in a non-tedious way. This resulted in me being able to regulate how much food I was consuming in a healthy manner.

All of this combined allowed me to lose 75 pounds. I’ve been able to maintain these habits for over a year now, and it has paid off, as my confidence is at an all time high. To top it off, my knees don’t ache when I play volleyball anymore. I’m the most healthy I’ve ever been, and I’m still striving towards a healthy mind and body, keeping weight off my shoulders.