Life Happens

Major Changes

In 2004, I relocated from NYC to the West Coast. This move entailed swapping the subway with a Sentra, and an apartment with a ranch-style home with a garage. Here’s the math to illustrate the cost in changes to my body:

• Walking: In New York, I would walk for miles on some days. But on all days, I walked for blocks: from my home to the subway, from the subway to the office, etc. On the West Coast, all that stopped.
• Stairs: In New York, I would scale a minimum of a dozen stair cases daily (catching a subway, visiting a friend in a walk-up, etc.). On the West Coast, all that stopped.
• Running: I often say that I won’t run unless a tiger’s chasing me. In reality, though, if I heard the distant roar of a subway approaching the station, I’d spring into action, card in hand, scale 3-5 flights of stairs, and breathlessly board. On the West Coast? None of that!
• Dancing: In New York, I easily danced 12 hours weekly. When you add up multiple 3-hour long energetic Israeli dance sessions with frequent nights spent shaking it at the now defunct Zenon Taverna and Grecian Cave, that’s high energy! On the West Coast this was reduced to a single weekly night of Israeli dance plus the occasional Greek night.
• Aging: While unrelated to my relo, middle age coincided with my move to the West Coast. They say your metabolism slows with age, and they’re right. I don’t attribute my own metabolic changes to perimenopause or menopause because my guy friends seem to experience the same slow-downs.

The result? My weight ballooned. I went from my normal adult weight of 125-132 lbs. (57-60 kg) to an average weight of 145-155 lbs. (66-70 kg). At one point, I even rose to 171 lbs. (78 kg), but didn’t stay there for long. I considered how and why these fluctuations happened, but there seemed to be no rhyme or reason. My new body felt unfamiliar and brought me a certain level of grief. But I’m not one to take extreme action. I continued to keep my eye on my weight.

The Pandemic: an Absolute Reversal

In January of 2020, I was effectively unemployed (although I was still teaching my private Hebrew classes; love teaching!). I caught COVID-19 in February and recovered in April. During those months, my already small social circle had gotten smaller. People were starting to shelter at home. I was already there since I had no job to go to. You’d think that, because my life had become even more sedentary, my weight would have gone up, but you’d be wrong!

My activity level did indeed drop dramatically during this time. But there was also no office lounge to tempt me with sugary snacks. I eliminated visits to cafés and restaurants where (I now understand) I engaged in social eating as a form of entertainment. And you already know I was never much of a drinker. So, no: My weight remained constant, at first.

<< Happy tangential injection: In 2021, I found wonderful, remote work that I continue to enjoy from my home office. >>

Unexpected Positive Outcomes

Aging

In my case, the slowing of my metabolism (mentioned above in Major Changes) manifested as a dramatic decrease in appetite. Where previously, I could graze all day long, I was simply not hungry anymore. I naturally gravitated to engage in intermittent fasting—I just didn’t know the term, at the time.

The Mediterranean Diet & Other Delicious Topics

Prior to the pandemic, I viewed cooking as a necessary evil of sorts, something to tide me over after running out of restaurant leftovers and sandwich-making ingredients. A great believer in equity, I would keep you company while you cooked, catch up on chores, or clean up after the meal—anything to get out of food preparation.

The pandemic changed all that. I transitioned to sheltering at home, minimized trips to the market, bought fresh food in bulk, and started to cook regularly. This not only radically changed how and why I ate, but also what I ate. At the time, I didn’t realize the full extent of this major life change.

I like to believe that cooking—in and of itself—is not enough to effect the changes I experienced. It’s not that you cook—it’s what and how you cook: I sauté in olive oil and do not fry in butter. I season tasty proteins with salt and herbs, not sauces, gravies, dips, or dressings. Carbohydrates like pasta, potatoes, and rice gradually faded from my life. For example, in my view, a good steak is well complemented by salt and pepper with a side of caramelized onions.

Favorite veggies include anything from the nightshade family. Favorite proteins include steak, lamb, chicken, sushi, smoked salmon, and canned tuna. Favorites fruits vary, but I can never get enough of those Kirkland grapefruit cups. Although a healthy snack, they are prepeeled and individually packaged to be eaten on the fly, no prep. The ultimate convenience food, I find myself eating 2-4 of these daily.

A bread snob, I prefer artisanal bakery creations to convenient supermarket breads. To me, the mark of an exceptional bread lies in its robust texture that demands significant effort to chew. (When it takes forever to chew, you derive just as much satisfaction as you do from a food that can be scarfed down—you just wind up eating a lot less.) For breads, I found Henry Higgins Boiled Bagels, a bakery that rivals New York’s finest. Except for my inexplicable passion for the McRib sandwich (available only occasionally), plus my love of chocolate (which is far more understandable), my eating habits improved markedly.

And Now, the Outcome You Were Expecting

For the first couple of years, there was no noticeable change in my weight: I had plateaued, as “they” say. Then, in 2022, over the course of a few short months, I steadily transitioned back to my normal adult weight, minus a couple of pounds. I still can’t believe it!

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