Adjusting to College: Health and Fitness

Moving away to college gives a person a lot of new freedoms they may not have had in the past, including control over their food and exercise habits. Many universities have a buffet style dining hall, meaning endless food ranging from healthy to heart attack on a plate. Another perk of college life is often free gym access. Whether or not you choose to take advantage of this perk is up to you. With all this newfound freedom of choice, it’s easy to fall into unhealthy habits, especially when it is possible to have a side of ice cream with every meal and a tall glass of Coke to wash it all down. To help you from falling into these habits, I’m going to offer some tips and tricks that I have adopted over the past two years.

To start, let’s talk about food. Who doesn’t love food? I know I do. My sweet tooth is insane. My boyfriend tells me that we are going out for ice cream and my eyes light up like nothing you’ve ever seen. And there’s nothing wrong with some ice cream every now and then. It’s when you eat ice cream every single day that it starts to pack on the pounds. Here are some tips to healthy eating when you are away at college.

Drink water with most meals. It’s easy to be tempted by the soda fountain or the endless supply of apple juice, but your dentist will thank you later. Pro tip: add some lemon slices, watermelon chunks, or mint leaves to your water for a yummy fruity drink. Mint mixes well with most fruits, so lemon mint, watermelon mint, and strawberry mint water all taste amazing!

• Treat yourself every now and then. Eat that bowl of ice cream. Order Chinese food with your friends. Once or twice a week won’t kill you. Restricting yourself will just make you crave the foods more and can lead to binging.

• Avoid eating late at night, especially before bed. I know that it’s tempting to get a midnight snack, especially when you’re up late writing a paper, but I know that it personally makes me have a more fitful sleep.

• Take advantage of the Salad Bar! No, you don’t have to eat salad every day. Your salad does not need to be your entire meal. But it is a great way to get in a serving or two of veggies.

• Eat breakfast in your room. A breakfast buffet is incredibly tempting, especially when there is either pancakes or French toast every day. But chances are, you’ll eat a healthier breakfast if you eat in your room. I know when I go to breakfast I have high hopes that I will have some fruit and yogurt (two things I can eat in my room), but I always end up with waffles and bacon, leaving me feeling sluggish. I personally eat in my room during the week, and will venture out to brunch on the weekends with my friends, if I feel like waiting until 11 a.m. to eat.

• Watch your alcohol consumption. The majority of people who gain the Freshman Fifteen do so because of alcohol consumption. I myself don’t drink, and actually stumbled upon that fact on the Internet. Alcohol is loaded with empty calories, and excess drinking can lead to weight gain, along with other health problems down the road, so enjoy responsibly and in small quantities.

Personal fitness is another thing that may change once you go to college. In high school, I did not go to the gym, primarily because there were no gyms by my house and because the ones that were nearby (25 minutes away or more) cost an arm and a leg for a monthly membership. But once you get to college, you often have access to a weight room, track, a pool, maybe even tennis courts and other outdoor fields, depending on how often and how long the sports teams practice. I know I personally do not frequent the gym that often. I don’t like running on a treadmill, ellipticals hurt my knees, and a stationary bike is about as exciting as watching paint dry, especially to someone who rides their bike outdoors. While I do like weight training, I can never get into a routine because my schedule is always changing. Despite the busy schedule college brings, it’s important to form good habits, even if those habits don’t involve going to the gym. Here are some tips to stay active while you’re away.

• Take the stairs! Unless you have to walk up like five flights of stairs in a winter coat while carrying a backpack or injured, there’s really no excuse not to take the stairs. Just the little bit helps add some activity to your day. It also gets that step count up!

• Don’t take the shuttle, walk. I know larger universities have shuttles that you can take to get around campus. My university does not because well, it’s tiny. Everything is within 5 minutes of everything else. Especially in the early fall and late spring semesters, take advantage of the nice weather and walk to class. Afterward, take the long way back to your dorm or the library. The nice weather doesn’t last long and once that first snowfall hits, you’ll be glad you did.

• Take up a new hobby! Ride your bike, go for walks, find a friend and kick a ball around. This past year, I ventured out to Midnight Soccer (And took a soccer ball to the gut, OUCH) and had a lot of fun, despite the fact that I had an early class the next day and didn’t get to bed until 2 a.m. It was fun to try something new, and I hadn’t played soccer in years! Pro-tip: find a friend to do new activities with. It makes the more enjoyable and it helps keep you both

active.

• Make it routine. Schedule your workouts in your planner or put reminders somewhere you can see them, like your mirror. When you set the block of time aside, it helps you actually follow through. I personally schedule all of my runs in the beginning of the week, along with how far I will be running, and I write them in my planner. By writing them down somewhere I look every day, it helps me actually follow through and it gives me something to look forward to.

• The most important tip is to not freak out if you do gain weight. It’s natural for weight to fluctuate, and you probably will gain a few pounds at college. I know I did. My eating habits freshman year were not good at all, and I did gain weight. Since then, I have managed to stabilize my weight and I have gained a lot more muscle mass in my legs due to running and biking. As I wrote in an earlier post, it’s more important to focus on what your body can do, rather than how it looks.

Adjusting to a new way of life isn’t always easy. Sometimes it feels like you have so much free time on your hands you don’t know what to do with it, and at other times you feel like you’re drowning in responsibility. Through all the ups and downs college life will bring, it is important to find balance and take care of your body. After all, it is the only one you have, so treat it kindly.

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