As every college student finds, it is a bit of a learning curve to figure out how to keep up a healthy lifestyle during the stressful transition of moving to college. Some people will warn you to be wary of the “Freshman 15” and other such woes, but I’m here to tell you that it is absolutely possible to live a fun and satisfied lifestyle in college and keep healthy along the way.
Here are the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the last three months. A quick word of note … everyone’s body is different. We’re all on our own journeys, so to speak, and what works for you might be entirely different from what works for me. Even though I don’t believe there’s any one perfect way to fitness, there are general principles that get anyone to reach their full health potential.
Food
The most obvious difficulty when it comes to staying healthy in college is the meal plan, right? For every meal, you enter the cafeteria and are greeted with dozens of tantalizing flavors. How can you stay healthy when there are so many foods at your fingertips?
The answer is to get in a routine. Make a plan for your meals and stick to it. For example, you could grab a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, a green salad for lunch, a piece of fruit for a snack, and vegetable soup for dinner. Whatever foods tempt you, don’t even walk to that end of the cafeteria. Soon enough, choosing healthy options will become a habit. Learn to listen to your body and know when you are satisfied.
If you aren’t on the meal plan, buy quality food that will fill you up, not weigh you down. You’ll be glad for it later! Whole foods don’t require a lot of money — you can find plant-based foods at Trader Joe’s or Costco or even your local grocery store: protein bars, smoothies, salads, dried fruits, nuts, popcorn. Make sure you never go grocery shopping without a shopping list or when you’re hungry.
Fitness
When college students say they don’t have time to exercise, that usually translates to mean they aren’t making it a priority. Even three months into the semester, I still find it easy to dismiss my workouts and decide, “I have too much homework today. I don’t have time to go to the gym today — I’ll go tomorrow instead.”
The gym should never be something you dread doing — for years now, I’ve done an hour of blogilates videos in my bedroom for a workout every day. Now that I’m at college, I find myself wanting to be outdoors more and I really enjoy hopping on the elliptical and blasting some music for thirty minutes. I like to schedule it like a class. For an hour every school day, I head to the gym with headphones in and a playlist of upbeat music.
Exercise stimulates blood flow to the brain and helps you think more clearly and creatively. This means that by spending an hour at the gym instead of in the library, the time you spend studying will be more focused and efficient; you’ll get more done in less time.
If gyms aren’t your thing, sign up for a dance club or zumba with a friend. Go on a long walk around campus to clear your mind. Lift weights. Play a sport. Go hiking on weekends. Whatever makes you excited to go move your body, do it. Usually it’s only when we’re sick or injured that we realize what a blessing it is to be able to move our bodies and stretch and run. Yesterday I saw someone doing cartwheels on the lawn! Choose a type of exercise that you finish and feel capable of conquering the world.
Water:
Getting access to water was one of the trickiest learning curves of my college transition. No one at the orientation said anything about where to find water refills, so at first, I hauled cases of water up to my dorm and shoved them beneath my bed, heaving for breath. Not only does this waste a lot of bottles, it’s also expensive and isn’t realistic to haul cases of water to my room.
Instead, I bought this refillable water bottle and I tell myself to refill it at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s especially helpful to see the marked ounces on the side of the bottle — you can tell yourself to drink eight ounces between each class period or set a similar goal.
Sleep
Let’s not beat around the bush here, friends. You need at least eight hours of sleep. There is nothing heroic in all-nighters or slumping into class with four hours of sleep creased under your eyes. Study with no distractions and you will get ten times as much done.
If you don’t get enough sleep, you are stealing potential from yourself. It’s better to be fresh and fully focused in class than to live half a life and deprive yourself of energy. Establish sleep hours and stick to them! Whether it’s 9pm-5am or 12am-8am, make it happen. You’ll be glad you did!
Self-Care
This is one of the simplest but most overlooked tips for health. College is stressful and can be draining; you need to know how to nourish yourself. Give yourself permission to say “no” to some activities this week. Instead, do something that calms your mind. Maybe writing helps you untangle your mind. Maybe a long walk helps you get outside of yourself and put things into perspective. Maybe you really want to buy a succulent and take care of a living thing. Maybe what you want, more than anything, is to lay on your bed and listen to your favorite tunes.
Whether college is right around the corner for you or you are in the midst of it yourself, I hope one or two of these tips will inspire you to live a more healthy and satisfied life in the midst of it.
<3 Olivia Grace
