Freshman 15

‘Oooh heaven is a place on earth… where chocolate is calorie free and cake keeps you slim!’

I’m not quite sure how I’ve avoided the topic of food for so long on my blog seeing as America is renowned for its fast food, deep-fried everything and larger than large portions. So with my cheeks getting chubbier every day and my belly being the furthest away from attaining a six pack than it’s ever been, I thought it was about time to delve into my American eating habits.

My Dad warned me that the portions of food out here would be larger than at home and that when he worked at Camp America centuries ago he’d managed to put on a lot of weight in just one summer. So really there is no hope - I’m not here for summer, I’m here for a whole year, and I’m a chocoholic (aka I have a sweet tooth). Chocolate to me is a tempting treat that, the moment I give in to it, heads straight for my bum and upper thighs – I’ve heard people compare chocolate to men, but the general belief is that chocolate is more satisfying! Nevertheless, I am determined not to gain the infamous ‘freshman 15’ (even though I’m actually a Junior) and go home lighter and leaner than before.

However, with that said, yesterday something very drastic happened which made me realise I’m probably eating way too much. It was the end of class, so naturally I stood up from my chair, ready to leave, and the top button on my high waisted disco pants popped right off! Luckily I was wearing a cardigan so I could quickly hide the fact that my trousers were falling apart, but it was a little embarrassing. I’m going to put it down to the fact that the button must have been faulty because I’ve been swim training 2-3 times per week and making use of the Strom gym facilities, but perhaps my eating to exercise ratio isn’t quite even! I was taught at a very young age that leaving left-overs on your plate is rude, and that in order to have dessert you had to finish your main. So with these table manners drilled into me, I find it hard to leave half a meal sitting on my plate going cold and end up thinking ‘challenge accepted’ pretty much every time I sit down to eat.

Over the past two years at University I’ve been self-catered, whilst I tried to let the inner Delia Smith and Jamie Oliver take over in the kitchen, I ended up living off cereal, beans on toast, mountains of pasta and stodgy jacket-potatoes. So this year I’ve handed in my pots and pans and traded them for 10 meals per week at the student union. Pros of the meal plan include; I’m never really hungry or worrying about when I’m going to have time to prepare a meal, the swipes can be used pretty much everywhere on campus and the cost of a meal at the Russell House is usually cheaper than any other restaurant. But, healthy? I’m going to go with ‘No’. Some days I find myself queuing up to use my dinner meal swipe on a ginormous sprinkle covered ice-cream cone with strawberries and M&Ms mixed in. I swear the same guy always serves me as well, so he obviously just thinks I’m ‘that British girl living off ice-cream’. But I’m not alone! I can name at least one obese student in 3 out of my 4 classes this term, and I bet you they’re not fighting an on-going battle with the medicine ball in the gym!

 Here are my top 5 best and weirdest things I’ve been eating since arriving in the USA:

   1)REESE'S Mini Peanut Butter Cups – I think I maybe addicted, so this could actually be a serious problem, but I’m not sure how I’ve gone 21 years without them. Basically peanut butter covered in chocolate, these have become my go-to for stress eating. Although I’m a Galaxy girl at heart, with no Diary Milk in sight, these have become my new chocoholic obsession.

   2) Pawley’s Burgers – There’s a restaurant in town which does half price burgers on a Tuesday. Naturally, being in America there are at least 10 different burgers you can choose from, each bigger than the last. I can honestly say that I was still full at lunch time the next day!

   3) Cheesecake from ‘The Cheesecake Factory’ – Yum! You are absolutely spoilt for choice; Tiramisu Cheesecake, Pina Coloda Cheesecake, Snickers, Cherry, Pumkin, Lemon, Peppermint, Carrot Cake….. and I could go on! The list is endless! I opted for the White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake and it was one of those ‘moment on the lips, forever on the hips’ occasions.

   4) Boiled Peanut – Probably the most vile thing I’ve tried so far, and of course they happen to be the official State snack of South Carolina.  If you're from South Carolina, you almost certainly grew up snacking on boiled peanuts and drinking sweet tea. But if you're not, don’t panic, you haven’t been missing out on anything! Boiled peanuts are soggy, salty, mushy things that taste more like weird soya beans than crunchy nuts; I think I’ll stick to my KP Dry Roasted Peanuts next time.

   5) Cookie Dough – I seem to have got into a very bad habit of buying a packet of ready-made cookie dough with the good intension to make cookies for my flat-mates but instead, I end up microwaving a couple squares at a time so they’re half melted and just eating it straight out the bowl. Ooopsie. What was that about Freshman 15?