Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Pounds

I never gained the “freshman fifteen” when I went to college. Actually, I think I lost weight cause I was vegan the whole year and the dinning hall didn’t offer me much. Lots of pasta, shitty wraps, and cheerios with soy milk. My older sister liked to joke about how skinny I’d gotten.

When I had my boxing match last summer I weighed in at 137 lbs. I ended my vegan diet four years ago, and eventually started to eat meat again over three years ago. That first cheeseburger tasted so good. But, weighing 137 after three years of omnivoring, it didn’t really add much weight to me. For that, I had to live in France for seven months.

The cafeteria food here is great. For about $2.50 I get a mini-baguette, appetizer, fruit, yogurt, dessert, salad, and a main dish with some assortment of vegetables, meat, and a starch. I eat all of it. And with that, I’ve gained fifteen pounds since last summer, before I left for France. Thanks to big lunches, slower metabolism, less boxing, and snacks like this:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

is that a good thing?-ek

REKording said...

These pounds are only good if they are lean muscle pounds, meaning that you put the calories to work rather than into storage as fat. But the appreciation of food that you have acquired, the appreciation of dining, of food preparation, of ingredients, of repaste will serve you well the rest of your days.

America is very pedestrian in its approach to food, although that is changing. Our emphasis has been on quantity, on abundance. For many who come here that is their first impression of America, abundance and overwhelming variety.

And, yes, ek, that is a good thing on such a skinny person, to raise his Body Mass Index a bit. And I attribute his gains to Bread and Butter and Cheese, the ingredients that make French food the wonder that it is.