Alright alright already, I'll post it

Yes, you may have heard, my undergraduate alma mater Dickinson College was recently ranked number 1 in a "survey" done by Men's Fitness Magazine (article here).

Truly, I find this very strange. We did have a requirement to take so many semesters of fitness classes and "Truly Living," which had its own variety of pseudonyms; the Dining Hall was generally nutritionally friendly; and the Kline Center (the gym) has been radically enhanced since I graduated. Still, I find this just a little weird - particularly considering that such a significant percentage of the population studies abroad for at least one semester, removing us from all of these supposed benefits.

Of course, it could be exactly that factor which makes the difference. Studying abroad - particularly on the continent in Europe, where meals are more than just an opportunity to get your daily caloric needs satisfied - is really what radically changed my own eating habits. I became much more attuned to the benefits of fresh food as close to its original form as possible, as opposed to the chemical, sodium, preservative, sugar laden garbage that the US seems to celebrate. European refrigerators are generally much smaller than ours, they shop more often for fresher ingredients (when's the last time you got to visit an open air market with truly local produce, meats, and baked goods?), and they take the time (again, in general) to make a meal from scratch rather than pop something in the microwave.

Actually writing all of this makes me feel incredibly guilty. For the longest time I tried to live as close to this ideal as possible - meals from scratch, no pre-processed or pre-packaged junk, etc. But not having a functioning kitchen for such a long time has really knocked me for a loop, and I do find myself eating a lot more "microwaveable" meals than before. Of course, I carefully read labels and buy stuff from Trader Joe's, so I am avoiding the chemical, salt, sugar, preservative mess that is Lean Cuisine or Swansons or "insert generic TV dinner brand here."

So I guess I really did learn some valuable life skills from college... but it was purely accidental.