Dear Principal, teachers and fellow schoolmates,
I am Pat Chan from class 5A. Glad to have this chance to share my weight shedding experience with you all. Before I start, I’d like to play a game with you all: I weighted 60 kilograms now, guess how many kilograms I weighted 18 months ago? 65? 70? I think the answer may surprise you. Just one and half years ago, I weighted more than 80 kilograms! In the following, I’m going to share with you how to lose 20 kilograms of weight in 18 months.
Maybe I should first mention a bit about my life before I shed weight. Just like many teens nowadays, I was a couch potato and I enjoyed staying at home playing computer games. I did little exercise even in P.E. lessons, except when the teacher was staring at me. At that time, I fell sick and felt tired very easily. I was always absent from school, or even when I was attending lessons, I dozed off in the class. These seriously affected my academic results, so my parents strongly advised me to do exercise to shed weight.
Therefore, I started to do exercise as my parents suggested. At first, I really wanted to give up. Since I did not have the habit, I got tired after doing just a few sit-ups and I felt like suffocated after running for 2-3 minutes. However, my parents and friends showed me their support whenever I wanted to give up. That gave me the strength to continue. Gradually, I kept running for at least half an hour every day. I usually ran for 2 hours after my supper and I ran along the waterfront promenade from Hung Hom Pier to Tsim Sha Tsui. Many of you may think that the distance is quite long, and I must be very uncomfortable running in hot weather. But actually, when I was running, I could feel the breeze blowing to me as the sea was just beside me. When I got tired, I just sat down and took a rest. And of course I would never forget to drink some water. Up till now, I can feel that the endurance of my heart and respiratory system has improved. It’s not exhausting for me to run more than half an hour now. Also, my body got slimmer.
Besides running, one of my friends invited me to try playing basketball. It seemed to be fun and easy to handle, and I always think the NBA players are cool when I see them on TV – they are all strong and tall. I hoped I could get a figure like theirs. Therefore, I followed my friend to go to the basketball court. I had learnt to play basketball in my P.E. lessons but I didn’t practice the skills, so actually I was not familiar with playing this sport. My friend taught me the basic skills, such as passing and pitching the ball, and after I handled the skills, we played one-on-one games. In a basketball game, players have to run and jump to pitch the ball. Unwittingly, I was doing a lot of running and jumping while having fun with my friend. By doing these two sports I mentioned in the last 18 months, I have lost 20 kilograms. Does it sound incredible? But that is what I have experienced.
Apart from running and playing basketball, there are many other kinds of sports and each of them can bring different benefits. For example, tennis can enhance our lung capacity. After you do exercise, although you may feel a bit tired but actually you can forget all the worries and feel relaxed. Also, if you have the habit of doing sports, you’ll be healthier and have enough energy to deal with your work load. For me, I haven’t been absent from school for a year. As I no longer feel lagging behind others because of missing too many lessons. The pressure from studying can be relieved. Now I enjoy my every school day with a cheerful heart.
I think every one of you understands the benefits of working out now. This week is the ‘I love sports’ Week of our school, so no more excuses. Let’s do exercise! Thank you.