Control

There are only two things that you have 100% control over: what you choose eat and what you decide to do with your time. Everything else relies, to some degree, on someone else.

For the majority of my life, even my time was spoken for. Whether it be by school, work, the administration or even family, I had very little free time. I chose to spend it playing video games, watching movies, and otherwise being lazy.

I had been raised to value chivalry, say “please” and “thank you,” and to always do what I was told. The first two, I’m extremely thankful for, as they – for the most part – are a lost art. The last helped me while I was at VMI – or so I thought.

While I was in college, every. single. decision. was being made for me. Where to be and when, what to wear, even my grooming habits. In hindsight, I appreciate the structure. At the time, I grew more and more agitated by it. So I rebelled the only way I knew how; with the one thing I had complete control over.

And so I ate.

Everything I was told not to growing up, I ate in obscene quantities. Not quite the most active way to rebel. It’s not like I’d go and intentionally break rules or bring someone home to meet mom that I know she’d disapprove of, but it’s what I did, and for me, it served its purpose.

I grew, not surprisingly, and as I did, I felt less and less in control. The one thing I did to demonstrate some sort of control in turn made me feel less in control. By my peak, I had just accepted that was who I was supposed to be. At graduation, I got pissed. I caught fire. I took control.

I changed what I ate from pizza and ice cream to chicken and veggies. I chose to go to the gym instead of playing video games. To go for a run instead of watching that 30 minutes of TV. I took back control of my life from the person I grew to despise - the (now) old me.

We always have the control to choose to live our lives healthier. To decide the better options for ourselves.

We are the results of our decisions.

Take control.