Healthy Lifestyle in College
Creating a healthy lifestyle for yourself is not about deprivation. It’s about consciousness. Whenever the temptation to eat junk food arises, I have to consciously make the decision to indulge or not. If I choose to eat something “bad,” I don’t feel the need to eat massive quantities; I can be satisfied with a few bites. I am still in the process of making myself as healthy as possible, and always will be. By creating a habit of exercising daily (though not necessarily in a gym) and always being conscious of what I am eating, I am on my way to a better me. And you will be, too.
By the time I arrived at college in my freshman year, I had lost a total of 10 pounds. But in the first three months at school I successfully took off another 10 pounds. As you probably know, losing weight in your freshman year is no small feat. I got lucky because my roommate happened to be a rower on the crew team, so health and fitness were top priorities for her and her habits reinforced my own fitness goals. But that is not always the case. At college, there are so many new stresses to deal with, new opportunities to eat unhealthily, and new people to influence your eating and exercising habits negatively. Thankfully, for each of these challenges, there is a positive choice available to you.
By developing my own eating alternatives (such as chocolate-dipped strawberries
instead of a candy bar, sparkling water and juice rather than soda, even sorbet
instead of ice cream) and removing myself from places of temptation (like the
snack table at parties or the pizza box on the floor), I was able to navigate
my freshman year in a healthy way. I learned, through trial and error, what I
could get away with (ice cream once a week) and what I couldn’t (ice cream
every day). And, on those occasions when I chose to indulge, I learned how to
organize my day so that I could burn some of those calories off at the gym and
still have time to relax with friends, get enough sleep, and finish my homework.
If you’ll let me, I would like to share this knowledge with you.
Going to college helped me get myself healthy, but only because I had the inspiration (all those silly baby pictures!) and the information (all the knowledge I picked up during my research and from my family of doctors). College proved to be my motivation, the catalyst that led to my lifestyle overhaul, because it marked the onset of my life as an adult. I did not want that life to mirror what my teenage years had been: a time of dishonesty and dissatisfaction with myself. Once I had the inspiration, information, and motivation I needed, I was finally able to make a transformation, the lifestyle change that marked the end of my willingness to settle for a second-rate me.
