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Sunday, February 12, 2006
Does this trowel make me look fat?
I was lucky enough to avoid the “freshman 15” four years ago (now shown to be largely myth) but after a semester of graduate school and decreased physical activity since my undergraduate years it’s starting to catch up. For all four of my years at UNC-Wilmington I was on the rowing team, which needless to say kept me active. Starting your day at 5am three or four times a week with vigorous exercise is good for you. Including water training, I typically worked out four to five days a week and felt guilty if I didn’t. It got to the point that I couldn’t envision what it would be like to go to school without constantly having to think about staying in shape. We were only a club sport…I cringe when I think about the training regiment of larger, varsity programs. It turned out that we didn’t compete last spring, my final year on the team, although the drive remained and I continued to train regularly. I’ve never kept track of my weight and still don’t, but the cute little belly I’ve grown since graduating is a reminder that the years are catching up. I used to brag to people that my metabolism was so high that I ate practically anything without gaining a pound; the joys of being a lanky, awkward college kid.
At UNCW I was used to working out several times a week. Now, I’m lucky if I get motivated enough for a two-mile jog or 30-minute Stairmaster workout in my apartment complex’s fitness center. At first I thought I was just getting lazy, but that feeling quickly dissipated when I realized that, hey, I’m in freakin’ graduate school! The next two years of my life should be devoted to reading, writing, and researching. The heaviest thing I should be lifting is a box of pottery sherds in the lab. This is the main reason I’m so anxious to get down to Honduras and back into the field. One of my first friends in Tampa, a portly first-year MA student who has worked in Honduras two summers, said the best diet he’s been on involved amoebas from the water (the pounds just melt away and all you have to do is sit there). I don’t anticipate going that route for getting back in shape but I’ll be the first in line to hack away at the jungle with a machete and schlep buckets of dirt to the screens in 90 degree heat. Just think, how many obese archaeologists do you know?
Posted by Will at February 12, 2006 07:58 PM in Graduate School | Personal Reflections