Casing the joint...

There was nothing so wonderful as the complete ignorance about, well, pretty much everything regarding health and fitness - with which I entered college. Somehow, I thought a steady diet of large Papa John's pizzas, easy mac'n'cheese, ramen noodles, ice cream, and potato chips would not cause me to gain weight.

I was wrong.

I had NO idea that you actually would need to buy larger underwear if you gained enough. I was in severe denial - so I didn't - instead, I remained extremely confused about the indentations left on my hips. 

I was a busy bee back then - but none of that busyness involved any form of exercise.
Unless you count walking up the 2 flights of stairs to my dorm room.
Yeah, me neither.

 I enjoyed every bite. I did not, however, realize exactly how much I had gained. The fact that my stomach, butt, and thighs, had grown exponentially from September to April became crystal clear to me in a moment I will never forget:

I had my favorite jeans on - Union Bay symbols of comfort, does that age me? Do they even sell Union Bay any more??? - and had a severe case of the giggles. In my fit of laughter, I suddenly folded over...and the butt pockets of my jeans flipped up. And OFF my pants.

They had been stretched to capacity and could no longer hold this freshman in her jean casing.

With the diet listed above, I managed to gain 20 pounds my freshman year. Oh what lucky people gain the freshman fifteen!


Lucky for me, I didn't have to work to lose any of it. Instead, the summer after my freshman year, I came down with a severe case of Mono. . . and lost almost 30 pounds. 

For the record - even though it is known as "The kissing disease," it is really NOT fun. At all. But it was a pretty easy way to lose weight....kinda hard to eat when your throat is swollen-almost-closed.

Honestly, that is pretty much how my weight was managed until I started procreating. I would eat like crap, be a total lazy butt, and then get sick-as-a-dog and lose loads of weight. While it did enable me to not think about health/weight/diet, I wouldn't really recommend it!  

Unfortunately, my metabolism - which was like that of a hamster, courtesy of my Dad - went on permanent vacation with Pregnancy #1. Thanks go to String Bean for showing me that weight is very, very fun to put on....and very, very hard to take off. 

But I still spent 2 more years trying to squeeze into my jeans....in complete denial of the work I would need to put in. Thankfully, no more jeans were harmed due to my slow learning curve. 

Copyright 2010