Assignment 4: Food

Meal 1: Cadbury Caramel and a granola bar

Meal 2: Toast (qty2) with butter, apple slices and peanut butter, a banana

Meal 3: Grilled gouda cheese sandwich, an orange, Mars bar

Snack A: Granola bar in class

Snack B: Rees’s snack bar, dried fruit, later in class

Meal 4: Sausage, green beans

Snack C: Chocolate heart

Meal 5: Big bowl of rosemary and lemon rice, dark chocolate cashew cluster from my Grandmother

Snack D: Jelly babies

Meal 6: Toast (qty 2) with butter, banana, gouda cheese

Snack E: Chocolate

Yes, this is a list of all the food I have eaten today. No, I did not make it up. Actually, I omitted several smaller snacks, like a handful of cereal between Meals 1 and 2, and a Milky Way between Meal 5 and Snack D. There also may have been Jelly babies who got eaten throughout the day. Oh, and an extra  Mars bar between Snacks A and B. I really am not inventing this, though I kind of wish I was. I knew I’d been eating way more than I probably should be, but listing it like this…wow. Just, wow.

I thought I ate a lot at home, but this list is more than even I should be consuming in 24 hours. It’s really quite embarrassing, or it should be. Instead, I’m a little proud of it. I think I may eat more than anyone else in the building, perhaps even including some of the males. Maybe we should have medals, or trophies.

Where does the food go?! I don’t think I’m gaining weight at all, let alone as much as that list would suggest. Considering the amount of food going in to my mouth, I should probably be rolling down the stairs every day. Scratch that. There’s no “probably” involved. I should be freaking huge. I’m glad I’m not, but really, this is ridiculous!

My only hypothesis is that living here produces more activity than at home. Well, duh. Just going to class is a 20-minute walk. But I don’t think it’s just the actual physical activity level. At home I walk all over the place. I don’t even ride a bike, preferring to go to and from class on foot. I also walk to my dance practices several times a week before proceeding to wring every last drop of energy from my body in the form of a salsa or a foxtrot or a waltz. Then I walk back home. I’m a very active person. I like to move all the time, so when I study or read or even watch a movie, I’m usually tapping out a beat with my foot, or stretching my muscles. I do eat a lot at home, and my friends and family make fun of me for it, but I shudder to think of what they would say if they saw that list.

I think that here, everything requires just a little extra effort. Even going to the grocery store takes more energy here than it does at home, because as I walk down Gloucester Road, I can’t stop looking up at buildings or swerving to avoid little dachshunds and yorkies, or crossing the street to get a better look at something that might be interesting. In the store, I cover easily twice as much ground, trying to find the seemingly common items on my list. Cooking involves a multitude of little extra steps around the kitchen, searching for pots and pans, or washing dishes. Just moving around our flat takes energy. I’m a particularly forgetful person, so sometimes I need to walk the long hallway between bedroom and common room many times before I can settle down to whatever task needs completing.

This is my excuse for that horrible list: life here takes more energy, and so I eat more calories. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Meanwhile, I need to add Snack F: Banana.