My Freshman Fifteen
by Harris |
December 19, 2012 02:06 PM |
2 comments
Harris
Location:
NY, NY
Favorite Flavor:
Whichever I am currently using.
If you could travel back in time, what era would you live in? The Jurassic Era.
What’s your favorite meal? Do you cook?: Steak...no, I don’t cook (wait, does microwaving count?)
Three things you cannot live without…Josie (wife), Kilo (dog), breathing.
I am a member of the Coffee-mate Brew Crew.
One of my great regrets in life is that I didn’t go away to college. This is probably why I hadn’t heard of “The Freshman Fifteen” until about five years ago.
For those of you who don’t know,’The Freshman Fifteen’ refers to the amount of weight that college freshmen often gain due to their sudden change in diet: increase in alcohol and carbohydrate-rich cafeteria-style food and fast food served in university dorms.
Though I can’t say that I regret missing that particular aspect of dorm-life, I can say that I just lived my own version of The Freshman Fifteen, for I am completing my first year as a father…. and yes, I gained about fifteen pounds.
I’m not sure if my weight gain was normal (anyone reading this have a similar experience?) but I don’t know how anyone eats well during that first year. My wife and I were constantly exhausted, too exhausted to cook much so we ended up eating a lot of take out, and when we ordered in, rarely did we order from the “Health Conscious” side of the menu. I also stopped going to the gym and eventually froze my membership.
Not only were we exhausted, but let’s face it; caring for a newborn (our first!) is also extremely stressful. After putting our daughter to bed every night, we’d take turns every half hour checking to make sure she was still breathing (yeah, like you didn’t do that!). And what do you crave during times of stress? Comfort foods! For physiological reasons we prefer food like fried chicken, Mac and cheese, and ice cream when we’re under stress. So, to recap, Stress + Exhaustion = Fifteen extra pounds.
But a funny thing happened a month ago. I started going to the gym again. Maybe it was due to reading yet another article about the obesity epidemic in America or maybe I just needed to do it for me, but for whatever the reason, I started going four to five times a week. And a week later, I started eating better, for example having egg white omelets or fruit for breakfast instead of a cinnamon bun, which had become “the usual.” We also started eating better at home. Though we didn’t have time to cook every night, we did have time to make a crock-pot full of turkey-based chili or stew on Sundays, enough to last for a few days.
The fact is, there are always going to be excuses about why we don’t eat well or cant make it to the gym, but that’s what they all are – excuses. Even if I can’t make it to the gym, I try to give the dogs an extra long walk. Instead of my usual French Vanilla Coffee-mate, I’ve been using the Fat-Free version. Whenever I decide to have bacon, I make sure it’s turkey bacon. I’m determined to get back to my “Pre-baby” weight.
I don’t believe there’s any term that refers to your weight gain or loss in your second year of college, but my Sophomore Fifteen will correspond to the fifteen pounds that I’m going to lose this year.