Scholarly Advice for Academic Mastery
A collection of insights and advice from some of the most successful university, graduate, and professional students and scholars.
Topic: Health
Freshman 15.
The infamous weight gain that comes with your first year of college.
Sometimes, Freshman 20, or 30, or more! It is the phenomenon that morphs
hordes of fresh-faced, energized, svelte freshmen into nameless blobs
swathed in university hoodies and sweats. Here are some tips to help prevent
you from packing on the pounds...
1.) Prioritize sleep. It's important to your health, happiness, brainpower,
and sanity. Did I mention metabolism? Because if you're needing more sugar
to stay awake, the candy, the soda and the Starbucks will only go so far.
2.) Fried chicken is not your new best friend. Neither is ice cream. Or
pizza. Real friends are much better, so use your free time to join a club,
go to free events, and socialize with complete strangers. After visiting my
fair share of colleges, I guarantee there is a free ballroom dancing class
somewhere on campus.
3.) Chances are you can get to the gym. For free. Don't be scared or
intimidated. There might be TV! (Why else would I work out for a full hour?
Must survive commercial break. Must see end.)
4.) Drink in moderation. Enough said.
5.) If you do gain some weight, don't stress. Just make sure it's not a
symptom of stress, depression, or loneliness. And for heaven's sake, get to
the mall! There might be a sale at the Gap!
Sarah Ludwig
Master of Violin Performance
Rice University
It is very easy to become unhealthy and gain weight during college. Be sure
to go to the gym at least three times per week (this especially helps clear
your mind during finals and can energize you to continue working). If you do
not have time to go to the gym, bring your readings or notes to the gym and
read them while exercising at a slower pace. Also, never study in the
kitchen or anywhere near food, because when you study, you tend to get bored
and start eating. Without realizing it, you could eat an entire bag of candy
while reading. Also, reading in bed is a bad idea; there is such a thing as
a too comfortable study environment, and you almost always end up falling
asleep. Finally, the cafeteria generally has fattening and oily food, but if
you mix this with a salad or sandwich (or something grilled if they have
it), you can avoid the "freshmen 15." I know the dessert looks enticing, but
remember, it will be there all year, you do not have to sample every flavor
of ice cream at once!
Brenna Anatone
Georgetown University
Take care of your body. Your
body houses your brain. When your body is healthy, your brain is healthy.
When your brain is healthy, your academic life goes well.
We all know this. It makes good sense. Yet the more you delve into academia,
the more you'll find people who are experts at making excuses about why they
don't have enough time for it.
Do any of these statements sound familiar?
1) There are nights when it's impossible to get eight hours of sleep. I just
have too much work to do.
2) I often have to eat on the go, and sometimes it's just a bag of chips. I
don't always have a full hour just to sit and eat lunch.
3) I like being physically active, but spending time at the gym (or at the
park or on a yoga mat) every day is just not going to happen.
4) Spending time in "stress-reducing" activities like meditation or Tai chi
just make me feel like I'm wasting my time when I could be doing work.
Besides, I'd rather have a few drinks with my friends to get my mind off my
stress.
5) Sometimes it's inevitable. A deadline creeps up on me and I have to spend
most of the night working on a paper. I'm wrecked the next day, but my body
gets back to its usual pattern soon enough.
The odds are pretty good that a few of these statements apply to you.
Here's my situation. I got straight A's last year. I had a full course load,
an assistantship, a part-time job, and a social life. I don't have a
particularly brilliant I.Q.: I work hard. But I don't identify with any of
the five statements above.
This is my advice to you.
1) Learn to say no. Example: I always arrange my schedule so that I have a
full hour for lunch every day at noon, no exceptions. If someone tries to
fill that hour, even if it's a professor, I say, "Sorry, that's my lunch
time."
2) Learn to sleep. You may need to relearn the entire process in order to
break old habits. On weekdays, you'll need to go to bed and wake up at the
SAME TIME every day. The best way to do this is to set an alarm for bedtime.
That's right - an alarm for going to sleep AND for waking up. Take 20
minutes after your alarm goes off to physically and mentally pack away all
of your daily tasks. Know that they will be there in the morning. Here's the
hardest part - if a friend asks you to go out, you might actually have to
decline. (Don't worry, there's still the weekend.)
3) If you're going to procrastinate, at least be realistic about it. If you
don't follow this advice, the above ideas on eating and sleeping will never
work for you. Example: You are assigned three weeks to complete a 5-page
paper. You know it takes you about an hour per page, plus some extra time
for research. Wait until four days before the due date to begin, but make
sure you spend two hours each day. You must be done with your two hours
before your bedtime alarm goes off. This way you can sleep AND
procrastinate. (If you actually start your paper three weeks before it's
due, more power to you. You can treat yourself to some extra sleep.)
4) Find an activity (that doesn't involve drinking) that takes your mind off
school. I personally love yoga, meditation, and weight-lifting. Spend part
of your day in a mindfulness activity, and part of your day being physically
active. (If at all possible, save the purely social activities for the
weekend.) But if you ever have to choose between the cardio machine and
sleep, ALWAYS choose sleep. Sleep makes everything else possible.
5) Be strong. You've made it this far, so keep it going. Breaking habits and
beginning new ones might be the hardest task you'll face during your career
as a student. But if you can do it and stick with it, everything else will
be easy.
Lauren Marie Hayworth
Master of Arts in Music Performance
Appalachian State University
Working Smarter Not Harder:
Sleep and Diet in the Face of Academic Stressors
It sounds absurdly elementary.
Eat a healthy diet. Get at least 8 hours of sleep each night. As simple and
incredibly important as these lifestyle factors are, I have been repeatedly
astonished by the prevalence of poor eating and sleeping habits among highly
motivated and serious undergraduate students, particularly when confronted
by academic stressors.
When pursuing a rigorous academic regimen, it’s easy to convince yourself
that you lack the time or money to maintain a healthy diet. It’s also
tempting at times to pull the ever notorious, “all-nighter,” in which a good
night’s sleep is forfeited for eye-straining exam cram sessions. And
finally, who has time for exercise when you have four examinations and a
presentation next week?
It wasn’t until my senior year of undergrad that I realized just how
pervasive this problem truly was. I was a student instructor for the BIO
190, CHE 195, and CHE 197 courses my junior and senior year, which are
workshop/problem-solving courses designed to accompany introductory biology
and chemistry courses at UK. After meeting and talking with several hundred
students, I found that a significant number of students were eating very
poorly and pulling all-nighters the night before examinations (and some on a
routine basis).
The rationale behind such habits is that they enhance time efficiency or
provide some sort of academic edge. The reality, of course, is that these
habits are entirely counterproductive. When students maintain substandard
diets, they deprive their bodies of the raw materials needed in order to
adequately sustain themselves. As a result, more energy resources are used
to compensate for nutritional deficiencies that could otherwise be used to
efficiently process information and assimilate knowledge. A poor diet can
also predispose individuals to illness, which is certainly undesirable in
the face of exams, quizzes, and term papers. It is thus worth the time and
energy to invest in a healthy diet where you are much more likely to study
efficiently and handle the academic challenges ahead.
The notion that eating healthy is expensive is also false, in fact
the opposite seems more likely the case. Eating at the local burger joint
(or often worse, campus dining) is frequently of poor nutritional value,
quite expensive, and can involve your food being prepared in unsanitary
conditions. Buying and preparing healthy, simple meals will save you money
and maintain your health. Routinely drink water with meals instead of the
soft drink, and try replacing the greasy fries with a salad. If your class
schedule is such that cooking and preparation of meals is not possible,
prepare your lunch the night before and bring it with you to campus. You can
either pack a lunchbox with ice-packs or bring non-perishable items in a
grocery bag or in your backpack. This way you are eating healthy while
simultaneously saving time and money.
The all-nighter is a concept I can’t seem to wrap my head around. Students
stay up all night feverishly cramming for exams, only to find themselves
snoozing in class or at work the next day. Furthermore, their sleep cycle in
relation to day/night becomes skewed, and they may have trouble sleeping
during the nights that follow. All-nighters the night before an examination
are even worse. Students performing pre-exam all nighters are considerably
more likely to forget both the information they crammed as well as
previously assimilated test knowledge. They are thus better off simply
approaching the examination somewhat unprepared but with a fully functional
brain, than they would be if they had studied all night but have a brain
functioning at much less than 100%.
In summary, the importance of effective eating and sleeping habits is often underestimated by serious and highly motivated undergraduate students. Although it seems overly simplistic, mastering these crucial life processes will have a tremendous positive impact on both your academic performance as well as your long term health.
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Edward Matin Kobraei University of Kentucky College of Medicine
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To succeed in college you have to learn how to manage stress. If you notice that you are angry, upset, or short-tempered, then you just might be stressed out. You might want to try to blow off steam physically by doing activities such as running, playing tennis, or working out. Even taking a walk can help.
Another way to handle stressors is to talk about your worries. Talking helps you to share concerns with someone you trust and respect. This may be a friend, family member, professor, minister, or counselor. It shows character and strength when you are an intelligent person who knows when to ask for assistance. Learn how to say “NO”; you will be amazed with how much stress you will eliminate by refusing requests when you just do not have the time. Learn to accept what you cannot change. Everyone tells me that I cannot save the world. Take this advice and remember some problems are just beyond your control. Learn to relax your standards. I like things to be perfect. I have learned that doing everything perfectly is not always necessary. Life became much easier when I learned how to ignore the little stuff, take shortcuts when appropriate, and just let things go if possible. Always, find humor in what you do. Every dilemma has something funny about it, if you look for it. A good laugh is a great tension releaser. Make sure you always get enough sleep and rest. Lack of sleep can lessen your ability to deal with stress and will make you an irritable person. I need at least 8 hours of sleep to function. You may need more or less sleep, we are all different. Count your blessings and appreciate what you have in life, and stop focusing on what you do not have. Balance your work, school, and recreation. All work and no play will make Jack or Jill a stressful person and unpleasant to be around. Try to take one day at a time. Reward yourself to special treats and activities. Lastly, I found that doing something for someone else releases stress. Do not concentrate so much on yourself. Try to volunteer and help someone at need. Remember, if you can handle stress you will succeed better in college. Have a stress free life!
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Brooke Alston Jennings Master of Science in Social Work Radford University
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Thoughts on Staying On Task and Sane
(1) Location is key. If you are easily distracted, switch up your study spot
. If you associate places like your common room with socializing or your
room with watching TV, don't study there. If you can't stay off Facebook or
IM, pick a place without free wireless or Ethernet. I recommend Starbucks.
You always feel so cool sitting at Starbucks being intellectual. That's some
good branding... And chances are, there's at least one (or four, or seven,
or eighteen...) nearby.
(2) Avoid at all cost the "pre-study break." You may want to justify this
trap to yourself by saying, "Well, I opened up my textbook, started up my
laptop, and sat down at a desk... that took some work! I'm wiped- it's beak
time!" This needs to not happen. Trust me, the "pre-study" study breaks tend
to be the longest. That being said, do take legit study breaks once in a
while. Just give yourself a time limit. Set an alarm or something, unless
you are in a place where an alarm going off may be discourteous.
(3) Don't rule out places with lots of people or music playing. It's not for
everyone, but experiment with different study locations and atmospheres to
learn which is best for you. But be honest. The place that's the most fun
may not be the place where are most productive.
(4) It's always preferable to not have to stay up late working. Now, you
WILL have so much homework that this is unavoidable, but if you prioritize
well and do the most important, brain-consuming tasks first, you will only
have the less-challenging assignments to do at night.
(5) Don't get into the habit of "needing" coffee to get up in the morning or
stay up late at night. Nothing in coffee is good for you, and you only feel
like you "need" it because you are addicted to the caffeine. Just like any
addiction, this can be reversed. Energy drinks are even worse. Just....
don't. Please.
(6) You do not need to do everything you are assigned. Well, papers and
projects are an exception. This mostly pertains to reading. Now I know this
sounds very irresponsible, and it IS always preferable to do all your work.
But this is not always realistically possible. Sleep is important. A social
life is important. Mental health is important. If a professor gives amazing
lectures that provide more-than-adequate summaries of the readings, you can
afford to miss a few chapters ONLY if you absolutely have no time for it.
Don't use this an an excuse to not work so that you definitely won't have
time for it. And try to stick with slacking off only in easy classes and
core requirements. Classes for your major, or classes with professors you
want to talk wit further, should get priority.
(7) As an even more last resort, apply tip #6 to missing classes. Now, of
course ditching class is bad. But if you were up 'til 5 working on an essay,
you may want to consider missing your 8:15 class just this once to get some
sleep. Showing up half-asleep wouldn't be of any benefit. Just make sure you
can get the notes from a trustworthy friend.
(8) Join clubs. Explore the town/city. Maybe get a low-stress part-time job
somewhere fun, like a favorite store. Exercise regularly. Whatever it takes
to get your mid off of classes once in a while. You need to strike a
manageable balance between work and play. Your mind and body will thank you
for it. It's college. Get the most out of it as possible, which means going
beyond the world of academia, without straying completely from it.
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Isabella Maria Janusz International Relations Georgetown University |
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During the freshman year, poor eating and exercising habits can contribute to the infamous "freshman fifteen." It's easy to become overwhelmed by all the work and studying required for success in college, but a student should make time for exercising two to three times a week. Even a quick 20-minute jog in the morning can be enough to burn off those occasional late-night fast food runs. Nearly all students should have free access to a gym or workout area on campus, so bad weather won't be a deterring factor. And regular exercise helps anyone sleep better at night, and that translates to less fatigue in the classroom and better studying for exams. If extra motivation is needed, enrolling in an exercise class is not a bad option to ensure regular attendance at the gym.
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Jeffrey Gibson Master of Science in Electrical Engineering University of West Florida
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Not all coping
mechanisms are created equal. It took me the better part of my first year of
college to figure out why I was finding college so much more challenging to
manage. What it was that I'd stopped doing since high school? For me, it
turned out that I'd given up most of my physical activity, especially my
favorite social forms of exercise. It wasn't that I wasn't getting outside
ever, but that I WAS running less often and almost always alone. There are
lots of different ways of letting off steam, some (much) healthier than
others. For example, I found that working an extra job off-campus helped me
manage my worrying about academics. Tutoring at a local school and working
for a state conservationist organization made it impossible for me to think
about school all the time. In addition to helping me clear my head, both
activities helped me avoid loans and afford some elusive undergraduate
luxuries (pizza, new cleats, etc). Of course, not every one needs to be
distracted, but everyone needs to have a way to respond to stress. In doing
so, however, if you can find a way to still be productive, you'll cut down
on things which are adding to your stress. Some people find hands-on work,
like bike repair or cooking, especially therapeutic. Others find music or
art helpful. It really doesn't matter what you do to relax, but if it's
something that enhances your résumé (or your life) in a full, tangible way,
it beats almost every video game habit. I love watching sports (on TV or
live), and I played plenty of video games near the end of college, but at
the end of the day, that stuff gave me equal "relaxation return" as a game
of Ultimate Frisbee, and it did much less for me.
Conor Williams PhD, Government (Political Theory) Georgetown University The best advice I can give
is to set a sleep pattern and stick to it. Throughout my life, I have always
woken up around 8am, even on the weekends. I had a friend who had an older
brother whom she said was the same way--until he went to college. There, she
said his sleep pattern became completely screwed up: waking up at 12pm after
being awake until 3am working on homework. I vowed for this never to happen
to me. Now entering my fourth year of college, I have stuck to a weeknight
schedule of finishing my work by 10:30 pm, and waking up at 8am the
following day. Each day I am well-rested, and feel good about myself for
keeping a mostly strict sleep schedule. I know that it benefits my health in
the short and long-run, and would urge other young people to set up a sleep
schedule as well. So many people I know are up until all odd hours of the
morning working on homework, and drink 3 coffee's in the morning just to get
through class. I feel good that I have been able to be consistent in this
manner, and hope that other college students see the value in getting enough
sleep! Lindsay Schattenstein Cornell University Don't forget about the campus health center. Sure, it may
not be the best, but it's convenient and usually free. If you get sick right
before finals, make sure to go to the health center. They may not do much,
but if you end up missing an exam because of illness, that visit to the
health center can ensure that you get a makeup. Definitely go if you
experience any of the typical college ailments - spraining your ACL playing
Ultimate Frisbee, drinking too much, insomnia. Be sure to remember your
mental health too. Depression and anxiety affect many college students. The
campus health center can help, with everything from group counseling to
therapy to medication. Stay healthy! Alex Harris
Harvard University
For college students living on campus with food allergies: Safety Tips
1. Always carry your epi-pen in your back pack or purse as not to go
anywhere without it.
2. Have your roommate or a friend know how to use the epi-pen in case of an
emergency. (the buddy system)
3. Don't eat anything in the cafeteria that you are uncertain of the
ingredients; stick to what you
know is safe for you. You can ask the cook what's in it before you try it.
4. Educate your friends on the symptoms of anaphylactic shock so they can
recognize that you need assistance from them if you cannot inject your epi-pen
or call 911 for yourself.
5. Keep Benadryl in your dorm room, back pack and /or purse. (I'd recommend
the chewables so that you don't need to keep a spoon with it)
6. If you have a peanut allergy, keep in mind there will be peanut butter in
the cafeteria and depending on your sensitivity to peanuts, make sure to sit
at a table where there are no peanut butter sandwiches. This can be tricky
at times, but you can always get up and move if someone sits down with a pb&j.
Also, you may need to choose the farthest table from the peanut butter,
again this all depends on the severity of your allergy to peanuts.
7. Explain to your friends your situation so that they can be sensitive to
the fact that you need to keep your distance from peanuts, and they may
choose to not eat it in front of or around you at all.
8. Some people develop food allergies in early adulthood. The most common
allergens are: peanuts, eggs, shellfish, milk, and wheat.
9. Symptoms of an allergic reaction are: itching around the mouth and
tongue, hives, swelling, trouble breathing or tightening of the throat,
vomiting, and upset stomach. Seek help immediately if you are having
difficulty breathing by calling 911 or having a friend call for you.
10. Sometimes it can take up to 2 hours for a reaction to occur, so don't
assume you are out of the woods until at least several hours have passed. Be
smart and keep Benadryl and a phone handy if you have an inclination that
you are developing a food allergy. Avoid eating the food that made you feel
any of the symptoms mentioned above until you see a doctor for a food
allergy screening, since reactions to food allergens tend to increase in
severity with each exposure to the food.
11. Last, but not least, enjoy your college life experience even more
because you are taking precautions to ensure your safety at school. Food
allergies are a pain and a major inconvenience, but you can have a wonderful
and unforgettable time at school by following these simple safety tips. It's
always better to be safe than sorry in this case, and these tips allow you
to relax and enjoy yourself more because if anything should happen, you are
prepared to handle it.
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Danae Colvin Masters of Science in Counseling Missouri State University
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For your safety on campus:
1. Don't go anywhere by yourself after dark especially if you're walking.
2. Don't accept a ride with a stranger even if they do attend your college.
3. If you have been drinking, call a cab or a sober friend.
4. Never drink out of a drink that you didn't see mixed by the bar tender.
5. Do not let anyone into your dorm room that you don't know if your
roommate is gone, especially if you are a female and the person is male.
6. Always carry your cell phone with you and make sure it's charged for use.
7. If you find yourself walking alone and you feel uncomfortable, don't let
it show. Walk with your head up high and try to get where your are going as
quickly as possible.
8. If your are attacked, scream as loud as you can. If nobody comes to your
aid, go for the eyes or the groin and make it hurt.
9. Share these tips with friends.
10. Never ever allow yourself to get into a situation that you cannot
control.
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Danae Colvin Masters of Science in Counseling Missouri State University
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So you are in college and perhaps on your own. You choose what to eat, how much to sleep, and if you drink. One purpose of college is getting educated. But to exercise your mind, you must have a reasonably healthy body. It is harder to learn when you are sleep deprived or sick. Here are some tips for a healthy life style.
1. Take vitamins or supplements, which ensure you are getting enough vitamins and minerals in your diet. Get a multi-vitamin pill or occasionally use a powder mix drink like Emergen-C. Vitamins will help your immune system help you from getting sick.
2. Be active. Get some exercise at your college’s gym or play sports with your friends. If it is nice outside go for a hike or a jog. Remember to have fun when you are getting some movement in. From my experience exercise gives me a break from studying, but it also helps get oxygen to my brain, which helps me focus.
3. Nutrients. We all like food that tastes good, but remember to get enough, but not too much food. What I try to do every day is get a balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. I try and have some grains, fruits and vegetables, dairy, and meat or source of protein. It is fine to have a milkshake, cheeseburger and fries sometimes, but try not to have it everyday (because it is typically high in calories). A web address that can be helpful for learning about nutrition is http://www.mypyramid.gov/
4. Get enough sleep. A student needs to be rested to do well in school. If you feel tired during the day, allow yourself fifteen minutes to relax and meditate to refresh yourself.
| Sarah Becker Arizona State University |
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Stay balanced in college, your grades will thank you and so will your
body.
After spending sometime in college, I notice an eerie trend: high academic
achievers tend to be more unhealthy than our less academically competitive
counterparts. Most of these individuals, while able to balance rigorous
academic courses with tons of extracurricular activities while in high
school, seem to falter and focus too much on academics when entering
college, all for the purpose of “maintaining a high GPA.”
Don’t make this mistake! While many people have the false impression that
once you get into college, it’s time to “buckle down” and focus on
academics, this isn’t always the case. In fact, this can be
counterproductive when you abandon all the other activities you love just to
struggle on some problem set. The most important thing to academic success
in college isn’t how much time you spend studying and doing homework. It’s
maintaining a good balance between academics and everything else.
Now don’t get me wrong, academics is till very, very important, that’s why
you’re in college anyways. However, when you find yourself struggling for
hours on end trying to solve a difficult problem, the best thing to do is to
get away from it all, at least for an hour or two. You’ll find that when you
are still involved in activities that you love, whether it is dancing or
sports, you’ll do far better in classes.
I had to learn this lesson the hard way myself. My first semester at MIT, I
was pretty much swamped with work. I basically made a commitment before the
term even started to “put academics above everything else.” Before long, I
was getting 5 hours of sleep and giving up all the activities I used to
enjoy, like breakdancing and running. While my grades were fine (I was
putting in hours on end of work after all, they better be fine!), my sense
of satisfaction was greatly diminished. Thus, even though problem sets and
even quizzes were good, I wasn’t really “absorbing” the materials, and thus,
on the final exams, I didn’t do as well as I would have hoped.
Of course, this is MIT, and I know the workload at different colleges is
different. This might be an extreme case, since it was pretty much assumed
that if you go to MIT, you will be struggling with the course load.
Nonetheless, I decided to make a change of commitment my second semester.
Rather than considering my Extracurriculars as “things to do in my free
time,” I started to schedule them into my schedule, right alongside dinner
and lectures.
While I had significantly less time to spend on academics, I find that the
time I did spend was put to much better use. Since I knew that I didn’t have
hours on end to work on a single class, that sort of subconsciously force me
to be more efficient with my work ethic, whether that means staying focus or
asking for help as soon as I get stuck rather than struggling for hours.
I actually received BETTER grades during my second semester, as well as earn
a higher sense of satisfaction, despite harder classes. I scheduled in
breakdancing and working out after classes everyday, and stuck to that
schedule just as I would stick to my class schedule. All this meant that I
would force myself to treat my other activities as importantly as going to
lectures or doing problem sets.
More than just maintaining a healthy lifestyle, doing this will also instill
good time management skills. Later on in college, you will realize that
“time” does not equate to success. It is far better to work efficiently then
to work for long periods of time. When you purposely constrain the amount of
time you have to do work, you are forcing yourself to be more efficient. All
this will prove invaluable when you tackle even harder classes, where it
will be impossible to follow the “spend hours on a class and get decent
grade” ideology.
If you don’t get anything else out of this guide, just remember this one
thing: KEEP A BALANCE LIFE IN COLLEGE! It boosts your grades and keeps you a
lot happier.
Hieu Huu Tran
Computer Science & Business Management
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The freshmen fifteen. Okay, so it's been told to us girls over and over
since we started talking about our collegiate careers, but have we been
given the actual skills to combat it? Let's back up, the freshmen fifteen is
loosely defined as the sudden gain in weight (between ten and fifteen
pounds) for most college freshmen. We can blame
late night snacks, lots of high calorie boozing, or the ridiculous dorm
food, but let's face it - food is food. We've dealt with it before, why is
this different?
During your first year you might feel overwhelmed with studies, your
roommates' taste in music, and the amount of shots you took at that frat
party, but the answer to all of these is not pizza for one, or sneaking off
to 24 hour drive thru. Although food can create bonds, the decisions on
which type of food is still important. Now how does this relate to academic
mastery? By fueling your body with healthy nutrients, you will feel better,
work better, and study better.
Here are some tips to stop the freshmen fifteen from tipping the scale:
1. Stock up with healthy snacks like 100 calorie popcorn bags, Crystal Light
drink powder, and cut up fruits and veggies. That way when hunger strikes,
and you know it will do - you won't be tempted to grab that Snickers bar.
2. EXERCISE. It is still about the calories. You gain weight when you take
in more calories than you are expending. Sounds simple? It is. So take the
stairs to your 4th floor dorm room. Let the bus fly by, and walk to class.
Sign up for free exercise classes at your Recreation center. Find intramural
activities like powder-puff and ultimate Frisbee so you can meet people and
burn some lbs. Get in a routine, and you'll feel energized, toned, and ready
for whatever those professors have to throw at you.
3. Pay attention to your body. Are you really hungry at 2 am or are you
tired from your night of costume parties? Listen to what your body is asking
for. Sleep and food are different.
4. Hydrate. Water will help curb your appetite as well as keep you up for
late night studying. Try to carry a water bottle around and drink throughout
the day so your thirst won't be mistaken for hunger.
Weight isn't the only important thing. It's important to get all the
nutrients, calories, and food groups to power your body and metabolism. Try
taking a nutrition class as an elective to learn about how your body
responds to different foods and the effect you can have on your own health.
They say your college years are the best time of your life. Don't forget to
also make it your healthiest time of your life.
Stephanie Cloots
Rice University
You wake up. You look in the mirror. You scream! Freshman fifteen has inhabited your body and it has no intentions of leaving anytime soon, if ever. If this is you, or if you think this could be you, act fast!
It is a fact that many students leave for college, and somewhere between
the long list of classes and the endless hours of studying they forget about
their body. Do not let this be your fate. Here are some simple suggestions I
have for warding off this doom of extra pounds.
1. Don’t create a junk pile of foods to place within reach of your hands
while you study or watch TV. It is a proven fact that if you are doing
something while you eat, you will consume more of it than you need.
2. Exercise! Whether this means walking, running, biking, swimming, etc. Do it! It’s a great way to stay in shape, and it’s a great way to relieve stress from those college cares.
3. Don’t make excuses for not exercising. Problem: It takes up my studying time. Solution: Hop on a stationary bike or treadmill and read your notes while you exercise. Problem: I don’t have time. Solution: Walk or ride a bike to school, or drive to school and do this between classes. Park in the farthest parking lot away from where you are going and jog or walk from there. Sure there are a billion excuses one could create for not exercising, but truthfully are any of them good ones?
4. Eat four or five small meals instead of three large ones, and don’t skip breakfast it slows down your metabolism.
5. Join an intramural team or even try out for a university team. I can’t think of a better way to stay in shape than with a group of people who enjoy exercising too!
Of course there are many other ways to keep that freshman fifteen off, but hopefully these will be a few good starters.
Crystal Nichole Mille
Texas A&M