Environment Matters

In college, I weighed 95 lbs. And it was really easy to maintain. Here are some reasons why:

1. Access to food was limited to cafeteria hours and/or my willingness to hitch a shuttle to the supermarket.
2. My busy schedule limited the amount of time I was exposed to the cafeteria/my own pantry.
3. I walked everywhere. Several miles a day.
4. I took classes that involved movement (i.e. dance)
5. I could walk to the gym and had plenty of friends to accompany me.

Now that I'm all grown up, I weigh a whole lot more. And this is partly because as a Stay At Home Mom I:

1. Have access to all the food I want, all the time. I'm in the kitchen constantly getting food for my family and it's so easy to pick at things while I cook. And if we run low on food, the grocery store is just a short car-ride away.
   
2. I'm home allofthetime. Which means I'm near my kitchen allofthetime. Which means I have to work hard NOT to eat (instead of remembering TO eat).
3. I find it hard to fit in exercize. Nothing is within walking distance and in the winter I can't take the kids out in the stroller either. I have to consciously schedule time to work out - and usually that falls around bedtime when I'm totally zonked out.
4. The activities on my list tend to encourage sitting rather than dancing (ie. story time with the kids, sitting on the floor playing, rocking the baby, etc).
5. Don't know anyone well enough to go to the gym with me and it requires me to get in the car and drive. And most of the classes I want to take are during dinner time.

This isn't meant to be me complaining that I've got it so hard, whine fuss groan etc. It's just meant to remind me, when I'm tempted to berrate myself for 'letting myself go', that I'm in a new environment now which makes staying thin more of a challenge and so I need new goals and new strategies - that 'being lazy and lacking self control' aren't the only factors here. Environment really does matter.