When last we left the discussion of my fitness and body history, we were at a nice positive chapter. I was fit and happy. I reveled in my friends, my career and my life. I didn’t care so much about what I was missing. I was enough for myself. I was traveling to see friends who had moved away. I even joined the Maine Outdoor Adventure Club. I’m not much of an outdoor person, or adventuring in the outdoors. I joined it to meet new people and get some new experiences. It was kind of crazy, but I thought, oh well!
As it happens often in life, just when you get cozy and comfortable, you get the chance to change things. I met a guy. And being in a new relationship caused my routine and my normal to drastically change. I wasn’t cooking or myself anymore, I was cooking for 2. But it was more like cooking for 3 or 4 because my boyfriend had an appetite. I was going out to dinner much more. My boyfriend was a great cook and he made really, yummy food. He also introduced me to lots of different foods I hadn’t really had a lot of exposure to. Thai, Chinese, Indian, BBQ, etc. There wasn’t very much of the new cuisine that was healthy! And dessert, particularly ice cream, was the rule, not the exception.
A lot of my time in the evening had been spent going to the gym. I did lots of late night workouts before. Now, if we weren’t hanging out, we were probably playing computer games. My workouts were not physical except my hands on the keyboard. and running across virtual worlds, doesn’t really count! Because playing the game was a huge priority, meals were often delivered so that we didn’t have to waste time cooking. Sadly, our Chinese food delivery guy ended up getting so comfortable delivering to us that he’d just come on it and sit down and chat. (I do want to brag that I used to get steamed vegetables!)
I was also in graduate school, which added another layer of stress, time suck, and being sedentary. I did try and walk to my classes from my apartment, which allowed me SOME exercise. It was a few blocks more than comfortable so it was a decent amount of steps. I made a new friend my second year of graduate school who had a summer job working for 2 of the most addictive men I’ve ever met: Ben and Jerry.
She came to school with a freezer full of ice cream pints. Some we had never had before, and some that weren’t sold in stores. She filled our freezer. She filled a freezer at school. There was ice cream everywhere and it was all yummy. In the downtime for school we turned to food. When we studied, there was food. We discovered the wonderful taste of cookie dough in a tub. Sure, it wasn’t meant to be eaten with a spoon, but it sure was great.
I don’t mean to throw my grad school friends and boyfriend under the bus. We also tried to do more workout things. I used to do 3 mile walks with the boyfriend. My grad school friends and I joined Curves and did water aerobics. We tried to cook together. Fajita nights!
Fitness and health were less of a priority than school, relationships and recreation. Socializing was the norm. I had no real goals. At one point I did join Weight Watchers at my work and a good Weight Watchers meeting IS worth it’s weight in gold. But when we didn’t have enough people to keep it up, and when my grant ended and I was in school full-time, I was back on my own.
Triathlon-My-Ass-Along 