McContagion

Earlier in the semester we talked about how obesity can spread quickly throughout a network.  Living with 5 guys surrounded by takeout that is cheaper than making a dinner at home has had its tole on my waist line.

My friends are pretty much all seniors, and it is funny to see the guts growing on my friends that have never had any body fat before.  One friend, "Senna" has been made fun of recently by his high school friends on trips home because he has a good sized belly and looks a couple months pregnant.  Another friend had his sister tell him to go to the gym because his belly overhung his belt for the first time in his life during his Easter trip home.  This past weekend, I woke up craving McDonald's, so since I have a car I was gonna make it happen.  A couple of my roommates wanted to come too.  The original plan was just to get a Big Mac meal, but honestly who gets full from a number one anymore since McD's got rid of super size and jacked prices?  So one friend offered to split a 20 piece McNuggets with me on top of the burger I was getting.  But then the third friend who was going was feeling left out, and we decided to split 2 20 piece nugs 3 ways.  It ended up with all of us getting our our 20 piece on top of a burger, because a 10 piece costs 4.79 vs 4.99 for 20 (a whole other blog post could be dedicated to how whack Mc'D's pricing is down Mass ave).  The 'social norm' for my group of friends has been to be a fatty lately.

While the obesity spreads quickly, you would think that exercise would as well.  I like to run to stay in mediocre shape, and had been slacking all winter because it was too cold to go outside and the gym is not my cup of tea. Once it warmed up I started getting back into it, trying to log around 20 miles/week to ease back into it.  One of my roommates who used to be in real good shape just gets mad at me when I go running and makes fun of me for going before we go out, asking why I don't just chill and drink a beer instead.   Another friend ("Senna") bought new shoes and was all set to get going, but quit after 1 run on his new kicks, and has resorted to ridiculing me as well for trying to be in shape.