Undergraduate college students live a unique existence. We’re adult children who come and go as we please, but we also have mom and dad a mere drive or phone call away to come help us out when we need it. For many of us, this is our first taste of responsibility away from home. I think that’s one of the reasons the so-called freshman fifteen hits many of us like a ton of Quad Stackers.
Now this phenomena is by no means the norm among first-time college students, but it is common enough to have garnered a cutesy nickname. Personally, I had a really unhealthy lifestyle at home, so when I was a freshman I actually lost about five pounds. But I imagine it must be horrible to have gained enough weight that high school acquaintances looking through your most recent photos on Facebook can chuckle to themselves about how you got so fat.
We all know how it happens. A dorm environment isn’t exactly conducive to achieving one’s health and fitness goals. The dining halls serve as a veritable smorgasbord of food where you can easily make bad decisions or overeat because you want to get your money’s worth (and with Sodexho’s dinners costing nine dollars, who wouldn’t?). Then, of course, your sleeping patterns get screwed up and before you know it you’ve made a habit of ordering pizza at 2 AM because you and your buddies get hungry studying for sociology. Add the fact that you spend all your free time catching up on your missed TV shows (a noble pursuit I fully support, don’t get me wrong) instead of getting up to SPAC and you’ve got a recipe for a shiny new double chin.
I applaud you if you’ve decided to lean up and get healthy, but our environments can sometimes be our downfall. So how do we handle being the only one in our group of friends who has to really watch what they eat?
I’ve been lucky because my friends have been really supportive. They don’t offer me pieces of cake or pizza late at night and if we go out to eat they think about where we could go that I can order something other than a limp side salad. The people you hang out with should be impressed at your efforts to be healthy and may in fact be motivated enough to make better food choices themselves. And just wait until you shed enough pounds that it’s noticeable to others. I can’t tell you how great it felt when my guy friends asked me, unprompted, if I had lost weight. It just reinforces your resolve and those extra cupcakes you forewent at the last dorm munchies don’t seem like such a sacrifice.
Beyond your supportive friends and your own willpower, there are other ways you can help yourself be healthy in an unhealthy environment:
Remove yourself from the situation
If you’re studying in your dorm suite or common living area late at night at someone orders pizza, that inviting smell can sometimes be enough to make you break. Just retreat into your room and respond to some emails, call a friend or straighten up your desk for a few minutes until the pizza is gone. By eliminating the cues that make you crave unhealthy things, you might eliminate the craving as well.
Ask yourself if you’re really hungry
This goes along with the first strategy. If you’re tempted to snack on some junk, wait 10 minutes and see if you’re still thinking about the junk in question. If you are, you can either choose to partake in a bit of it, or you can move onto the next suggestion.
Have an alternate gameplan
Keep healthy snacks stocked in your refrigerator or pantry. Rice cakes (the flavored ones can be really good), carrot and celery sticks, popcorn (you can eat a lot of it if it doesn’t have butter), fruit, a mug of hot green tea, and other delicious, nutritious morsels can work wonders to sate your appetite.
Do something else with your mouth
Of course I’m talking about chewing on sugar-free gum. But if your mind went the dirty place, that is also something great to do with your mouth, and I’m sure your partner would agree.
Above all, remember that you’ve undertaken a noble cause. You’ve come so far, so why would you want to undo it all? One moment of weakness shouldn’t do much damage, but the problem is when that one moment turns into five moments and eventually you fall back into your old habits. Just stay the course – you’re doing great!