Riley doesn’t know this, but when we first met, I thought dating a farmer would help me lose weight. I didn’t really need to lose weight, at the time, but I thought, “Oh yeah, this is going to be great…I’ll be eating all these veggies, and helping in the fields. By the end of the summer, I’m gonna be tanned, and I’m gonna be ripped.”
I was sitting on my butt at a desk in Whistler for over eight hours a day at the time, but a total body transformation over one summer seemed totally feasible.
As our relationship progressed, my usual breakfast evolved from a green smoothie to fresh duck eggs fried with homemade bacon luscious and sticky from the maple syrup it was cured in. Life was sweet, was it love or the spoonful of brown sugar I started adding to my huge mug of coffee?
After work, I would change into some old jeans and head out into the field to help with weeding. These golden hours were half “drinks after work”, half chores as we moved down the row side by side, catching each other up on the day’s events, and swigging from cold cans of beer set, sweating, in between the beets.
Gone were my single-girl dinners of a chicken breast with steamed broccoli, or red wine and popcorn in front of the TV. Now I ate a proper plate, at the table, tucking into pasture-raised pork chops, roast chicken, or lamb burgers with a side of potatoes, beets, and carrots.
Anastasia Chomlack photo.
So, approximately four years here I am, a little “fluffier” than I was before I met Riley. I gained a lot by dating a farmer – a few pounds, a happy life, love and the ability to eat ridiculously well every single day.
For me, small changes like minimizing gluten and cutting out sugar move the dial in small ways. But this spring my goal is to move the dial in a big way, and I have joined the twice-weekly running club led by personal trainer Anngela Leggett of Evergreen Fitness and Yoga in an effort to get more fit. The women in this group are more experienced runners than I am, but I do what I can and managed to run 10.5km last week.
I’m pretty sure running should work out as a better tactic for me to lose weight than dating a farmer. If it doesn’t, I’ll still value my gains as I get outside and explore Pemberton’s amazing trails with a diverse and inspiring group of local women.
Traced Elements 