Weight Matters and Thanksgiving!!

It’s Thanksgiving!! Now there are many things that crop up in your mind on hearing that word. No college if you are a student, Black Friday if you love shopping, “Slapsgiving” if you are Barney Stinson to name a few! And then of course there is the good old Turkey too. I was all excited for this thanksgiving for several reasons, primary of which was a long list of shopping (I sure want to have plenty to dole out when I go back to my home country this Christmas!). The other reason was my desire to cook turkey on thanksgiving. Now I am totally a chicken junkie and in spite of the giant turkey drumsticks that try to lure me when I shop, I have always stuck to rather tinier chicken. But finally I was all set to yield to temptation but as it turns out, sometimes things are just not fated to happen. I might attribute that to several reasons, some technical, some monetary but there was a reason that was highly unexpected- my weight!!

Now for somebody who is reading this blog for the first time and doesn’t know me in person, I would like to save you some time before you jump to hasty conclusions. I am just not the other regular person with weight issues. For one, my concerns about weight so far have been of not being overweight but rather being grossly underweight. Drug companies could make billions if they know how I could stay thin after eating tons of food ala Jughead!! In fact, I have begun to notice my weight only because a dear friend of mine had been on a diet to lose few pounds. Weight machines are things that are really difficult to find on this campus and I for one knew of one ‘secret’ location. It was a place that happened to be remotely associated to health issues- the astronomy building!! So it became a sort of routine for us to go every second Friday there and while my friend checked his progress, I would have fun checking my underweight status too! But while every week my friend was meeting his goal of getting his weight down, I had been witnessing quite the reverse. All this time, I had actually been on upward spiral and gaining weight!!

It was bit of a surprise because life has become quite hectic for me over the past six months. I no longer have the regular three meals; I skip breakfasts and sometimes just manage to get one single meal before the day is over. Things had become so irregular that I was resolving on making it mandatory for myself to accommodate breakfasts into my days routine. On hindsight though, there indeed had been some warning signs for me. I no longer fitted in my old pants, I didn’t require any belts on some of them which had been a size larger, my sweetheart always said that I looked different now and as my friend once had pointed out- my lunch alone was worth a thousand calories!! But I never had been worried till then and always thought it was simply my weight rearranging itself around my waist due to working in front of computer all day long!!

Now it might not be totally universal but thin people like to stay thin. I immediately put some plans in action as the necessary damage control measures. I tried to cut down on my coke consumption, made sure that the resolution of having breakfast was never put into action etc.etc. Two weeks down the line we were on our Friday date with the weight machine again. I usually went there after lunch but this time I made sure I didn’t have anything to eat before I weigh myself. My friend was first on, he had lost another pound although his goal had been already reached in the earlier weeks. I on the other hand was soon to find out that in spite of the above said measures, had gained another two pounds!!It has been over a year for me in this place, and I realized that in this time I have gained over fifteen pounds!!! A year back, I might have rejoiced at the thought but now I actually don’t.

I actually wish I had used that weight machine before and not only in the last two months. Just think about the repercussions: What if my family doesn’t recognize me back home? What about the money that I will have to spend on the all new clothes? It hasn’t helped that we are in the week of thanksgiving,a time of feasting and I have been to two buffets before thanksgiving even arrived. So finally I had to do something, and it was my desire for turkey that had to be unfortunately sacrificed. With one roommate short, it would have just too much for me to finish it off! Well, Black Friday is over now and I have managed to complete checking off every other item from the ‘things to buy on thanksgiving’ list. I am happy that I maintained restraint on my eating habits. If you happen to be curious on what I finally did have on thanksgiving- it was chicken of course!! ;)