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Workout Wednesday: Avoiding the Freshman Fifteen

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Hofstra chapter.

Like many other girls, I wasn’t big on health and fitness in high school, so coming to college things didn’t really change. My freshman year I kept telling myself I would eat healthier and spend time at the gym, and I didn’t. By the end of the year I actually lost weight, but I didn’t lose weight in the ways I wanted to. My hope for this column is to advise girls like me how to stay in shape throughout college.

Every college student’s biggest fear is the freshman fifteen, but what college students don’t realize is how easily this weight gain can be prevented. This weight change is caused because of poor adjustments to environment change. A lot of the time students move away from home and their parents. Encouragements to eat healthy and work out are then gone. Your health is all up to you.

Being healthy doesn’t mean you have to completely cut out lots of things from your diet, it just means you need to cut back on these foods. College makes it hard to do because of late night studying and lazy dorm snacking.

What many girls don’t realize also is how many calories are in alcohol. Something my mom is always saying to me is “never drink your calories.” Ladies, it’s not worth it to drink every night. You will not be happy with yourself when it comes time to getting into a bikini.

There are little things you can do. The gym for an hour a day can be a lifesaver. This year I became a lot more focused on my health and getting into better shape. I’ve gone to the gym at least an hour a day every day and within a month I started seeing improvements. I still eat carbs, and I still have a drink here and there, but I am so much more aware of what I’m putting into my body.

Until next week, stay healthy collegiates!

Coming from a small town in Connecticut, Hailey is a recent graduate of Hofstra University. She spent her time in school working as the Campus Correspondent for the Hofstra chapter of Her Campus where she led the chapter to a pink level status every semester she oversaw the chapter. She also served as the Personnel Director for Marconi Award Winning station WRHU-FM. While holding multiple positions at Hofstra, she was a communications intern at Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, the company that oversees Barclays Center and Nassau Veteran's Memorial Coliseum. 
Rachel is a senior at Hofstra University where she majors in journalism with minors in fine arts photography and creative writing. The Rochester, NY native is involved in several organizations on campus including the Hofstra chapters of Ed2010 and She's the First. She is also an RA in a freshman residence hall. Rachel has interned at College Lifestyles, Cosmopolitan, The Knot Magazine, and is now interning at Us Weekly. She hopes to someday fulfill her dreams of being an editor at a magazine. Until then, she is a dreamer, a wanderlust and a lover of haikus. Follow her on Twitter for silly and sarcastic tidbits @rcrocetti!