Day One Hundred and Forty!!!!!

When are the times we have a tendency to gain weight?


Dr Laurie recounted how she remembers the first time that she had difficulty with weight gain was when she was in her early teen years when she joined a group of new peers. “We had a lot of fun doing things like camping and motorcycling all over the place, going to parties, and hosting parties”, she recounted. This was the time of McDonalds runs and she graduated from a plain burger to a cheese burger to a Big Mac, all with fries and cokes and cherry pie. She remembered that she really started to gain weight then and attributed it to; 1, is because she had no idea what it was she was eating, 2 is because everybody else was eating it, and 3, it was the time, how could there be anything wrong with it? That was also the time of eating french fries as a main stay for lunch and dinner.


The next time she had difficulty with weight was when she went off to university, university was a time of sitting and studying. Pizza, mac and cheese was really, really popular because it was fast. She recounted how she did a stint as an intern and everybody went to the cafeteria together to snack. That was when she discovered her love of muffins,. She stated that, “I must have gained thirty pounds during that internship and I had no idea it was because I started eating those muffins”. 


The next time of weight gain was also after motherhood. “The first time  a baby, I hadI snapped right back as they say, ‘breast feeding helps with weight loss’. My second pregnancy I had a lot of trouble losing the weight and I kept gaining the weight until I got to my highest weight, which was a slow and continual increase of weight, until I hit 230”. 


She continued, “When I think back to early married life, I remember that we became organic farmers, growing everything! We bought a giant freezer and froze everything, I made my own bread. At that time I even sewed my own clothes and we were thin together”. 


“However, by the time we had our second child, that way of being was far off in the past and with my weight gain, was his weight gain”, she continued.


According to an article written by Jessica Migala ‘Gain Proof Every Stage Of Your Life’ the author does not outline weight gain issues with teens but starts at college and early 20’s. She suggests that “a tricky time” of weight gain, happens at five stages of your life, when weight problems often develop. 


She outlines how 60% of students gain an average of 7.5 pounds in their first year of college alone. And outlines another time of transitioning when weight creeps on is the transition from college to first career. Migala, outlines how its “adults who have a history of dieting are those that are more likely to gain weight”. Next, she suggests that women crash diet prior to their wedding, which leads to weight gain after the wedding and she also outlines how both men and women double their risk of substantial weight gain.The next transitional time outlined when quitting smoking, highlighting that smoking represses appetite. 


However, the truth is that any time when a person is in transition, it is actually really a very difficult time. It’s the time when your normal eating habits can change because you are either dealing with the influence of new friends, a new way of which you are having to live life, dealing with stress, and/or changing hormones, or illness or addiction of any kind. 


Personally, I believe that food intake is based in understanding your food. When you can create a positive relationship with your food, becoming a healthy eater, focussing on your relationship with food will allow you stay at your healthy weight during these times of change. 


The author outlined a whole bunch of tricks you can use to help your body feel fuller longer such as; chewing sugar free chewing gum, and eating carrots with hummus instead of chips. All good, but still just tricks.


But honestly, when you understand what it is that you are eating and why you are eating it, then that alone will mean that your will be able to shift your unhealthy relationship with food to a healthy, sustainable relationship with food.