Back in 6th grade, a Covid virus was spreading around the world, we were told to go into quarantine for two weeks to see if it would die down and we could go back to school; after one week into the two-week break, the government said we needed to take more weeks off of school. The following month, our president announced that we were going into lockdown until further notice. 

After six to eight months passed I started to realize that I was gaining a lot of weight and couldn’t control myself. It was very hard to stop but I just didn’t have the motivation I needed, in order to stop and choose a healthy path. My Dad was in the hospital the entire time so I didn’t have anyone to look up to, it was also hard that we couldn’t visit him because of the lockdown. Me and my brothers wanted to see him because we hadn’t even seen or talked to him since 2017. 

Around early 2021, my cousin asked me if I wanted to start going to the gym to get back our healthy bodies with him because the lockdown had finished but we all still had to wear masks for our safety. For the first month of being in the gym, I made a little amount of progress, I did burn a little bit of fat but it got transferred into muscle so the scale told me the same weight since I started. I weighed 275 lb the first time I started working on myself. The first time I checked the scale I was very disappointed because I had never been that much weight or felt that heavy, I knew I had to stick to the gym and work on myself.

A year into the gym, I was losing weight very slowly and weighed 220 lbs. As I saw the scale and not making much progress, I knew I had to take another step into my diet. Before I used to eat around 3,000 calories a day, so I made a difference in my calorie intake, I made it where I ate only 1,500 calories a day. After a week into the diet, I lost 3 pounds but never saw a difference in my muscle mass. A couple of weeks have passed and I have lost over 20 pounds. I could see in my face fat and arm fat that I was losing a lot of weight but keeping my muscle mass up for how many protein grams I was eating per day. 

My goal was to be at 180 lbs. to feel confident in myself, it took about 2 months to lose 60 pounds. It was very hard to keep myself away from all the unhealthy calories that I had at my house. I kept pushing myself and forcing myself to only eat certain foods, the outcome result was very noticeable, a lot of my friends and family didn’t recognize me because I was a chubby kid most of my life, but they were all proud that I chose the healthy path, I gave most of the credit to my cousin because he got me into the gym in the first place and told me to get healthier. It was a decision I will never regret, my life has been way better ever since.

Now that people noticed my big change, everybody asks me how to lose weight or how to gain weight. I tell them everything because I once was in their shoes. It’s a lot of explaining but you just have to stay disciplined and follow your goals. I plan on competing one day in Hilo or mainland as a bodybuilder or powerlifter, but I have to focus on school before I chase my dreams and be fully consistent in my lifting life. I know now how easy it is to lose or gain weight, if anybody is confused I suggest they ask me how to do so and I will help those in need.