Sometime last summer, I can’t pin-point a date exactly, I decided to get healthier. I bucked up and joined a gym and decided to watch what I eat more carefully.

I’m not talking about calorie counting, but just eating food less often. I found that during university, I’d graze throughout the day all while still eating breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday, plus a giant bedtime “snack.” (Think lunch-size leftovers, frozen dinners, etc.) I now like to call that my Sumo Wrestler Diet, because after eating huge meals, sumo wrestlers have naps. Apparently that’s how they kept all that weight on.

Add my Sumo Diet to my new lack of exercise due to no longer playing soccer, I suppose I wasn’t burning all those glorious calories I was so happily consuming. After five years of post-secondary education and studying at night while eating garbage food, it added up. I think I gained around 10 pounds, which seemed to gather in my stomach area.

After staring at my gut in the mirror one day, I finally had enough and decided I needed to change my habits. I joined the gym and try to go two or three times a week, doing cardio once or twice and weight-training once a week. I (almost completely) stopped eating huge amounts of food between dinner and bedtime. I’ll have an orange, some yogurt or a small bowl of cereal instead. It takes a whole hell of a lot of willpower, but I do it! Right now, as I write this post, I’m really craving tortilla chips with salsa and loads of sour cream, but I’m resisting! I have a wonderful sample of Kashi cereal I’m going to try instead :)

I still eat all the foods I love in the same portion sizes I’ve always had if I just adjusted everything else I did. I’m proud of my accomplishments and I’ve noticed that I have more energy these days. I can take my dogs for a walk and not die at the top of a hill. I just feel good. I don’t weigh the same as I did in high school, I don’t think I ever will, but just feeling better about myself is all that matters.