Contagion?

          Earlier we read a Cohen-Cole article discussing obesity becoming contagious within a network. 

            On the contrary, I have personally found that the network I am in has affected my weight in an opposite manner. When I am on my own, I am more free to determine my own terrible eating and exercising habits.

            After starting to room with people I am better friends with, I have noticed a very different change. We do our grocery shopping together, and therefore, I generally go more with whatever they want to eat, which is a lot healthier, and I do not buy as much junk.

            I am also more prone to exercise as we will play frisbee or make trips to Marino together or walk together to places all over the city or participate in intramural sports like soccer and broomball. Because we are sharing in nutrition and exercise, we seem to be positively impacted in terms of our weight. I for one have lost weight since we started living together, and odds are, I will put a lot of it back on over the summer while I am home by myself with very little to do but eat and sleep.

            So in a way, I guess it is somewhat true that we are effected by the weights of those around us, for better or for worse. In middle school, my best friend and I were both extremely overweight, but it took the awkward phase of puberty, both physically and socially, to motivate us to get in better shape, and we both managed to do it. Now, the difficulty is in keeping the weight off, but it certainly helps to have your friends around as spotters whether they mean to be them or not.