Keeping the Freshman 15 … Off

It is easy to gain weight when you first come to college. One reason is that a lot of people are less active than they were in high school. In high school you at least have gym class where you get your blood pumping, but in college there is no such thing as having a gym class. Some people make up for this by going to the Co-Rec. The Co-Rec is actually a really good place to go workout and they actually just extended there hours this year. They are now open till 2am Monday through Thursday and Midnight on Friday and Saturday. Going to the gym sounds good, but that has never gotten me to go. I just don’t have the motivation to go all the way over there. Also I can always just use the excuse that I have other school work to do.

Instead I try to eat somewhat healthy. My weight has been pretty steady my entire time in college. I am now a senior. When I ate in the dining halls my freshman year I found them to have plenty of things that were really bad for you. My first strategy was to try to avoid the really bad things. I kept away from the Hamburger/French Fries station like the plague. I also tried to keep away from other fatty things such as items with a lot of cheese and mayonnaise. A lot of the food on the buffet that had the mashed potatoes, carved meat, and various other home styles food are also really bad for you. I am not saying you can’t eat any of that food, just make educated decisions. Just think about how much fat is in something and if there is something else that is appealing and has less fat. Meats like roast beef have a lot of fat in them. I stuck mostly to the Chinese and sandwich stations.

Another thing to keep the weight off when you go to the dining hall is to control how much food you get. There are a lot of tempting foods, so you are going to want to try it all, but you don’t really need to. They will have it again in about a week. I personally limited my self to one plate of food. When I say that, I don’t mean one heaping plate of food either.

One thing you don’t think about is how bad all that late night takeout food is. It is almost all really bad for you. Also eating closer to bed is going to allow your body to store more of the fat from the food than it normally would. Think about if you are really hungry or if you are just getting food because you are bored or have been drinking. If you must get food try to eat only two slices of that pizza or half of that Chinese food. My last word of advice is to try to drink water not soda since soda has calories you don't really need. I personally happy just drinking water and it is way cheaper than soda.