We’ve all heard about ‘Frosh 15’. Students leave home to live on campus, where they consume loads to carbs, drink at least a few nights a week and consume midnight snacks before hitting the hay. Bagels, cheese, beer and chips. New habits bring new pounds.
When I was in university, I never really thought of it, but that term was definitely more commonly applied to men. Kidding! Of course, it was talked about by women and mostly applied to women.
Women and weight. Randy Travis said old women talk about old men… he could have added into that they are always talking about weight too.
I’ve noticed something else novel about the coronavirus – it seems it has made the general population gain weight. Including myself.
Lockdown plus a Nova Scotia winter equals a dirty combination. While I normally hit the pavement every morning and get in on average 15,000 steps a day, my step count during COVID-19 was dismal. I found myself throwing the ball for my dog Millie rather than risking getting a ticket and frost bite.
On top of not moving as much, I also got sucked into the vortex of baking, cooking and taste-tasting every appealing recipe I saw on Instagram, The Food Network or ones friends sent.
‘Just like Cinnabun’ cinnamon buns. Did that. The icing. Ate that both on the buns and by the spoonful.
The BEST chocolate chip cookies. Made those. Ate them.
To DIE for chocolate cake. Whipped that up. Ate it.
Yeast. I got a bunch of it from a shop that had it in stock. Naan bread. Pizza dough from scratch. So easy!
Butter chicken. Just typing that made my mouth water.
You get the picture. I was sweating in the kitchen, not at the gym.
Oh, and let’s not forget about drinking wine on weeknights – something I don’t normally do. I read that the NSLC sales were booming during COVID. I contributed to that.
Another contributing factor to the novel COVID weight gain is Lululemon pants. They trick you into thinking you’re skinny. They stretch – not just when you do squats or high kicks. Dr. Strang and Premier McNeil should have banned yoga pants during COVID to keep everyone in check of their waistlines.
When you’re not zipping or buttoning things up, you can really lose sight of what’s really going on around your midsection.
Of course, there are people, like my sister-in-law, who still exercised and only ‘ate to live’. Margo and I are very different in this way. For instance, if she and my brother go out to dinner, it is very likely I will ask them how it was and what they ate.
She would most likely reply, “It was good. I had scallops.”
I’d ask, “What were they like?”
She might reply, “They had lemon and maybe cauliflower under them.”
I’d say, “Oh, scallops are so yummy, and cauliflower is delicious. Did you get dessert?”
Her answer? “No.”
And the next morning, she would be up at 6 a.m. and out the door to do her 10 kilometre run.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved food. A large contributing factor to that is that my mother is a bit of a wizard in the kitchen.
I’m not sure if it is a chicken before the egg or the egg before the chicken kind of thing. Was I born a food lover or did my mother make me one?
I do know there is something about my genetic make up that makes me more prone to the pudge even though I am a very active person (outside of COVID).
When puberty hit for me in Grade 4, I went from being a tiny little thing to have C cup boobs overnight. This is exemplified by comparing by Grade 4 and Grade 5 class photos.
A few years ago, when I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, my mountain mates were sharing how they could ‘barely keep their pants up’. I, on the other hand, through all of the training and climbing, lost a measly five pounds.
That’s another curse of being a woman. Weight slyly goes on when you’re not even looking. Taking it off, on the other hand, seems to require me going on a liquid diet and training for a marathon at the same time.
Have you ever noticed that men can literally drink one less beer a day and add some broccoli to their diet – poof goes their belly!
I remember a friend who started a weight loss journey with her husband being super annoyed that he did far less exercise yet lost double the weight she did in the first month.
When I think of it – God (or whoever created men and women) really gave a lot of the challenging bits to women. Periods and all their related dramas, pregnancy and birth, breasts and breastfeeding, menopause… we really got the short end of the stick.
When you know better, you do better.
I know my pants are tight.
I know that eating Cinnabun icing by the spoonful contributed to it.
I know that throwing the ball instead of moving contributed to it.
I’m now moving and not baking.
COVID 15, be gone.
With an insatiable love for human behaviour and circumstance, Emilie Chiasson absorbs the world around her, and turns her experiences into relatable stories. From her home town of Antigonish, N.S., to her travels around the world, she never fails to connect with the characters and perspectives that make life a bit more colourful. Read more.
