Personal Narrative: Exercise Changed My Life

Adding exercises into one’s daily routines can change their whole lifestyle. Many people look at exercise as being something just for people who want to lose weight or to become muscle bound, but there are a great deal of benefits that can be received from exercising regularly. Of course gaining muscle and losing fat are the two most popular reasons that usually attract people to the gym, but they make up a small part of the potential benefits that can be achieved with exercise. There are several ways in which I have benefited in my life from exercising regularly, besides just making me bigger and stronger. It has made me become more organized, helped me make better decisions, and motivated me to take on new challenges in life.

When I first began to exercise, I was primarily trying to add size on to my body. At the time I only weighed about one hundred sixty pounds and I was six foot one inch. I was also eight teen and feeling that my lack of participating in school sporting events, as well as my abuse of alcohol and less than ideal food choices, had stunted my physical potential. With this new found feeling of inadequacy I set off on a journey that would change my life forever. The first thing I noticed when I began searching for ways to change my body, was that I was obviously going to have to buy weights if I wanted to look like the guys in the gym. So I set out and purchased the cheapest bench and set of weights I could find. I began to mimic exercises that I had seen people do on television or while walking past the gym. In a period of about a month I had already noticed a huge difference in the amount of weight that I could lift. Within the first year of unorganized lifting, as well as no change to my eating habits, I h...

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...of my life, such as family, school, and work. Suddenly I was easily succeeding in all these areas, where as I had always struggled with them in the past. My health was better than it had ever been before which kept me from having to make visits to see the doctor, let alone the emergency room. I also had money saved up that would have previously been spent on fast food, cigarettes, and drinks at the bar.

Since then I have continued to follow through with the same level of dedication to exercising. I find myself wondering at times where I would be in life if I had never picked up that first barbell and started lifting. It has been a difficult journey and I know that it is far from over, with so many things I still have to work on. Through all the mistakes and obstacles it took to get me here, I am now living a healthy lifestyle and I owe much of it to exercising.