Matt revealed to me the other day that he has gained something like 16 pounds in the last year!! I only wish I packed on extra weight as non-obviously as he does. I am not entirely surprised, particularly as IFS and pilot training have taken their toll on him. IFS' chow hall food reintroduced him to the high-sodium diet and unlimited quantities of food. His first week back, it was not uncommon to see him take a bite of something and then add salt (via shaking the salt shaker directly into his open mouth). We nipped this in the bud, as it is the girls' dream to consume straight salt (and, for that matter, butter), so I certainly didn't want this practice to appear to have parental endorsement. His UPT schedule has also kept him extremely busy. When he's not studying, while he does hit the gym, he is more often relaxing--and certainly not running as much as he used to (strength training is much more of a stress reliever for him). I don't think it hit either of us that his physique had changed until he tried to squeeze into his chaps-style compression pants, fitted specially for him a few weeks back. Yes, they are supposed to be snug, but we could barely zip them up--and he needs to be able to fit them over his flight suit!!
Ever since I started teasing him about his pirate eye study strategy, he likes to pay homage to it in pix:
Alas, I am sure the gain will be short-lived as, with the resumption of flight next week, he also needs to move back to the bland, gluten free, milk free diet he relied on to get through his solo in August. Lots of bananas and oatmeal. He has already asked me to send him with appropriate, meal-like sack lunches (but without meat, citrus, acidic, fatty, peanut butter, spicy ingredients), pretty much every day from here on out--but most definitely for his first 15 days, when the 12h on/12h off schedule is strictly adhered to and the guys cannot even head home for meals. Guess I will have a lot of recipe googling to do this weekend!
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