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Last weekend, we discussed the causes of the freshman fifteen, and today for our weekly Wednesday update, we are going to explain how to deal with this issue that college life brings upon us.

1. Solution to New Eating Habits

With greater freedom comes greater responsibility. Our eating habits and much of our daily lives were planned for us by our school and parents’ schedules, now that we are in college, we need to learn how to schedule and plan ahead. This goes not only for studying but also for our daily lives as well as for our diet. The most important thing to do is to plan our meals and do our research on what is healthy and what is not. This requires a bit of discipline, but college is a place to grow into an adult. As long as one has a rough eating schedule and eats around the same amount of food per meal per day then he/she can’t gain too many excessive pounds of fat. Although this could be conversation enough for a whole other topic and is very specific, I can’t stress the importance of at least having a decent breakfast every morning.

2. Solution to eating both socially and studiously

Eating socially does not mean that you have to order what all of your friends do (the fries, the creams, the wings). Firstly, encourage them to go to healthier restaurants, and if they don’t go to healthier restaurants then just use your knowledge to eat the healthy stuff on the menu. KFC now has grilled chicken and McDonald’s has salads. Keep your portions small, the main purpose of eating socially should be to socialize, get rid of stress and take a break from studying. It should not be to try and out eat your friends or submit to your cravings of sugars and fats. Also realize that eating by yourself does not make you a loner, oftentimes I eat alone to save time but I still have a very active social life.

Eating studiously should also be discouraged, the problem with this is that we no longer care about what we put in our mouths when we eat whilst studying which means that we are likely to eat a lot more or a lot of worse things whilst studying. In addition to this, because we are eating and studying at the same time, we are not fully concentrating on what we study either. My advice: if you need to eat in order to stay awake to study, then maybe you should take a small break from studying and go have a bite at the cafeteria then come back ready to tackle your studies with complete concentration.

3. Solution to Snacking on the wrong foods for the wrong reason

Snacking is oftentimes needed to reinvigorate yourself and to fill an empty stomach. But many people in America use food as entertainment rather than a means to feed yourself. Remember this: ‘’Eat to live, don’t live to eat.’’ There are plenty of other things to do rather than eat if you are stressed out, in fact, eating will only make you feel guilty and add to your stress. If you are stressed out, then I would recommend exercising, communicating with friends or doing something you really enjoy and are passionate about.

4. Solution to Binge drinking

Telling college students not to drink at all is pointless; this is quite simply, for many students impossible to do. Not only that, but drinking socially is one of the very fun ways to kick back on the weekend. In my opinion, after a hard week of working, a bit of drinking on the weekends will not do any harm and should be deserved. This does not mean however, that I encourage drinking everyday or getting piss wasted every Friday and Saturday (or more). Both of these are proven to be bad for your health, and nobody wants to be the alcoholic that everyone makes a fool of. In addition to that, here are some nutrient factors that I’ll provide for you.

Protein: 4kcal/g

Carbohydrates: 4kcal/g

Alcohol: 7kcal/g

Fat: 9kcal/g

And the worst thing is, the calories in alcohol are completely useless and must be gotten rid of first before you can start using the other nutrients in your diet. So with that, be wary of how much you drink and it’s consequences.

5. Solution to Reduced physical activity

Just because you’re not representing the school, it doesn’t mean that you should become an inactive couch potato. There are plenty of opportunities in college to stay active; you just have to find them. Start lifting weights, go to one of the classes at the gym, run, swim, rock climb, join intramurals, go snowboarding, join a martial arts class, dance. Just do something, it clears your mind, and reinvigorates you with energy.

6. Solution to We’ve stopped growing

If you were one of the lucky ones in highschool who could eat whatever he/she wanted and stay nice and lean, well that’s changed now that your body is not naturally growing anymore. Join the rest of us. Now is the best time to get yourself into a healthy habit so that you can enjoy a fit and healthy body for years to come, so once again, plan your meals and do your research.