As we are now in the throws of winter's giggling grasp I thought we could talk about something that will be sneaking up on you freshmen and is already in your mind if you are an upperclassmen. I'm talking about the biggest dread of living in the northeast during the winter which keeps you indoors and possibly sedentary for months out of the year. Because of this period that rolls around every year we tend to create for ourselves sort of pattern of gaining some weight, otherwise known as the freshman fifteen for you youngins, and then loosing it when we can become active in warmer weather. Now the way I have framed it as something cyclical and natural here makes it seem like it's not so bad, but when we really look at it we are allowing ourselves to go to extremes at both ends of the year. When I have found myself to be the best way for living with weight gain and loss is to do everything in moderation or else you risk some serious health issues.
During the winter months here there aren't many options aside from going to the gym if you want to keep yourself in at least moderately good shape. I know that my freshmen year I definitely put on some pounds and developed a nice set of love handles which I quickly burned off over the summer when I would bike at least fifteen miles a day. Now that is what I mean by excess in either direction. Many guys my age act in similar ways and it is not very good for your body in the long run to behave this way. I have been taking natural diet pills and limiting the portion sizes of my meals this year in an effort to strike some kind of balance between not enjoying the gym and not enjoying the fluff. As of now it seems to be working and we are just going over the hump where we begin to slide closer and closer to spring with every week that passes. I'll let you know how it goes, hopefully you all can find your own balance.