Actually, I'm 32 now, so I've already started seeing some of the creep. Bah! I blame it in part on the metabolism slowing, but some of it's my fault, certainly. Although my father, who I take after quite a bit, did lose a good amount of weight by changing his diet, and has kept it off in his 50s.
True: re the congenital predisposition. I'd forgotten about that; I've heard that before as well.
And definitely, with eating out more. Houston eats out a lot; there's a danger to having good restaurants. I know I eat out probably three nights a week, and almost every day at lunch. When I cook for myself, I lose weight. I eat less, and what I make is generally healthier. I do believe that the processed foods are not nearly as healthy, and I generally try to avoid them, but my habit of buying frozen meals doesn't help. I try to mostly do the 'shop at the edges' approach to groceries. (And fortunately, since I'm trying to prevent a worsening MSG allery, I don't buy many prepackaged kit foods.) I have a few overall fitness goals, as well -- like being able to ride a century. Now I just need to use my bike...
And yeah, Northwestern is high on my list in part because of public transport thing!