Food finds a way

At this point, I had just graduated college. I was still making the drive out to the gym near campus, still chugging along. I had no scale, but it didnt matter. I’d climbed a mountain. I was getting thinner. Time went on, and by the end of the summer I was seeing a wonderful woman and had secured a job in my field. I moved away from home, finally returning my key to the tiny gym, and joined a gym alongside my girlfriend, right down the street from our new apartment.

Right off the bat, they set us up with a personal trainer. They took down my weight. 262. I had lost 71 pounds! I was ecstatic. We began to work out together. Both still novices, making it up as we went, no strict schedule. Weight machines and elliptical, the game was the same. Life was good.

Our new life together was wonderful. We played video games together, we worked out together, we ate wonderful food togther. Oh, the food. The food was our downfall. We subsisted on a wonderful diet of cheap pasta and pre-made boxed meals. Overeating was normal eating. A lot of tums were ingested during this period. Sugary drinks were the go-to. No fruit, no vegetables. You can get those vitamins from v8 juice, right? We rationalized all of this by going to the gym for 30 minutes once or twice a week. That cancelled it out, you see. The weight began to creep back up, revealed once a month during trainer appointments. Ignorance is bliss. Still, times were good, and life continued on.