This post is part of a continuing series which charts how I gained weight and then lost it. If you would like to read the story from the beginning, these posts are being indexed on the About Marchie page, as and when they are published.
Marchie at Helvellyn, Spring 2005
I started university at around 75kg (11st 11lb) – reasonably trim for me at the time! I made a tiny bit of effort at fitness – still not participating all that regularly in sports or anything like that, but I may have gone for the occasional jog or walked up to university. Indeed, I was an occasional visitor to the gym – ugh!
My first try at university, at Kings College London, was a bit of a false start. I hated it. Looking back, I was in no way mature enough to go to university and should have taken a year off and gone out and got a job, or volunteered, or even done that stereotypical thing and headed off into the back end of beyond for a few months. However, I didn’t really gain any weight in London because I was cooking for myself. My diet was quite routine – no breakfast, lunch would normally be Benjy’s (a London-specific version of Subway, no longer with us) and dinner would be one of three microwave meals: Chicken Tikka Masala, Tomato and Cheese Pasta Bake and Pasta with Meatballs. I would also be fond of raiding Sainsbury’s late at night for their discounted baked goods – Danish pastries for 10 pence a pop? Yes, please – I’ll take them all! I did once try cooking a chicken curry for myself, but I neglected to stir the thing and so a piece of chicken at the bottom of the pan ended up turning into charcoal. Yes, I still ate it.
My second-stab at university, back home in Manchester, was far more successful, both academically and socially. As far as the food was concerned, I outsourced it! I went to a catered hall and otherwise relied on local fast-food establishments and hostelries for my nutritional needs.
When I was a student, the nature of my course meant that lectures were infrequent and attendance was not compulsory (and one may argue unnecessary!); my day became a little skewed.
Late starts meant the first meal would be lunch, which would normally consist of some kind of fast-food sandwich. I also remember, towards the end of my time at university, buying full-size baguettes and a pot of coronation chicken sandwich filler and eating the lot in one sitting. I’d wash that down with a litre carton of orange juice.
There was the dinner at the halls, which was sometimes good, but seemed to get progressively lower in quality and smaller in size as my time at university went on. However, by 11pm, when I was still a good couple of hours away from being ready to go to sleep, it was time for ‘supper’. This, almost invariably, was a chicken kebab from one of the many places that serve such gastronomic delights in Fallowfield, though occasionally I’d mix it up a bit and have doner meat instead – ugh!
Chicken Kebab (Part Of, In Shoe)
Come the end of university, I graduated with a first class honours degree in finance and a significantly larger waist-line; I was now tipping the scales at 95kg (a shade under 15 stone):
Marchie at Graduation, July 2007