Ever since I was a child I enjoyed playing video games and studying. I was extremely good at school and didn't enjoy exercise. I attempted to become confident in exercise by playing sports but let's face it... I never was any good. I was on the C team most of the time and was lucky if I had an opponent to play against most of the time. If you don't know the C-team is when you aren't a good enough player for the Varsity or Junior Varsity teams.
I joined the military knowing I was going to have to remain physically fit. I was wrong with that assumption. The military only required me to perform a physical fitness test twice a year. Over the course of the five years I was in the military I reverted back into being a video gamer and gave up exercise. I ended up gaining 50 pounds in the matter of three years and when I left the military I didn't see anything wrong with my weight.
October 28th 2011 was my wake up call to my weight problem. I stood on the scale that day and found out I was 182 pounds. I am a 5' 5" tall woman and that means I am seriously obese. In fact the top weight for my height for the military is 160 pounds. At that moment I knew I had to make a change and I started dieting and performing physical activity. First it was just playing on the Wii Fit and eventually it went forward to doing the couch to 5k program.
All the while I was with a wonderful man who supported my choice to become healthy. On his 29th birthday I told him that for his 30th birthday I would climb Mt. Rainier with him. Over the course of the next year I would find myself sleeping outside of the Tacoma REI for garage sales in order to purchase as much of my gear as possible at a discounted rate. Well a year passed and his 30th birthday came around and we never climbed the mountain. Blame was placed both ways as to why we didn't go. We didn't have the gear. He wasn't physically fit enough to climb the mountain. I didn't pay attention enough to him attempting to teach me how to use my ice axe or other equipment used to climb. In the end it didn't matter where the blame was placed neither of us went.
On December 25th 2011 he asked me to marry him. We started to plan for our wedding and a large question was placed before us. Where would we go for our honeymoon? Well his great ambition in life was to climb the 7 highest peaks of the world, and though I supported him following his dreams there was no way I would ever be able to climb some of those peaks. Without him knowing I went and contacted Alpine Ascents, which is a climbing group, and was ready to pay for our trip for our honeymoon. I had decided that we would go to Africa and climb the highest peak there for our honeymoon.
Misfortune fell upon me when I returned from school on Friday and was told that he wasn't happy in the relationship. He didn't want to be with me anymore. Over the next couple of months I considered cancelling my trip to Africa but in the end I decided one thing... I've been working hard on my weight loss why should I give up something I am excited to do just because he was no longer going to do it with me?
That is where I am at right now. I have been working hard on exercising and gathering gear together to climb this mountain. I believe it will be a great chance to challenge myself and since it is the least technical of the mountains I am sure that by working hard on my exercises and going on a lot of hikes I will be able to accomplish this.
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