Trigger warning: This article makes reference to eating disorders and restrictive behaviours. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out for help.
For as long as anyone can remember, the stereotypical university student is on a budget, partying all night, and working all day. For our parents at university, wellness was a concept that meant: donât get sick and remember to eat a vegetable once in a while.Â
Nowadays, wellness practices define many studentsâ day-to-day routines, even earning a place in their budgets. But whatâs the actual cost of this wellness?
Wellness: Who is She?
Wellness practices can involve personalized medicine, self-care products, physical activity, and nutrition. As of 2025, wellness is a trillion dollar industry, almost doubling in value since 2013.
In the lives of university students, especially women, wellness often looks like eating âcleanâ foods and avoiding candy and alcohol, working out several times a week, hitting your steps through a âhot girl walkâ, protecting your peace by prioritising things you enjoy, and avoiding anything that could disrupt your carefully crafted, balanced routine.
The Actual Cost of Your Wellness Budget
When youâre hitting all the marks to be perfectly healthy at university, thereâs a large, tangible cost involved. You need to pay for a gym membership (which usually starts at around ÂŁ200), budget for better groceries every week, and account for that sugar-free vanilla non-fat latte you purchase at least twice a week to accompany you on your mental-health walk to West Sands.Â
This just covers the basics. It doesnât count the extras some people enjoy: getting their nails done once a month, having a regular facial or trip to the sauna, buying more workout gear or supplements, or taking that yoga class with your friend every other week. But, these are only the monetary costs of wellness.
When you become obsessed with wellness and optimizing every aspect of your physical and mental health, you can also be taxed socially, mentally, and physically. For example, you start saying no to every event youâre invited to after 8 p.m. because alcohol is a sugar-filled toxin and staying out late disrupts your circadian rhythm. You think youâre being healthy, but youâre actually depriving yourself of formative experiences and social interaction, which can be an equally valid way of unwinding.
An obsession with wellness can also have negative mental and physical effects when you (inevitably) break your schedule, fall off your meal plan, and panic. This can lead to serious long-term consequences like Orthorexia, an eating disorder characterised by a hyperfixation on healthy eating.
Another physical consequence of being too wellness obsessed is exhaustion. If proper fuel and rest isnât accounted for in a wellness budget, youâll soon face burn out. This means that refusing to take one or two days of rest per week can cost you several months of being unable to practise wellness the way youâd like.
Balancing the Budget
Look, Iâm not advocating to erase all wellness practices. Iâd be a hypocrite to not admit that Iâm an avid gym goer who eats well, sleeps nine hours, and cares about my steps. However, this time in our lives is meant to be characterised by imperfection, not by making it to yoga every week.
The way to balance our wellness budget is by making sure we are balanced in all areas of life. For every few early nights alone, make sure thereâs a night out where youâre up until 1am with friends. You can stick to a meal plan most days, but donât turn down a fabulous brunch at Hatch because of it. Take a rest day (I canât emphasise this enough) if you are feeling too tired and run down from physical exercise.
Itâll feel great when youâre in your 60s that a lifetime of wellness has given you the ability to run, walk, sit down, and bend over like you could before. What your friends and family will remember, though, are your crazy stories of running wild through the streets of your college town, and how great a person those experiences made you.
Enjoy wellness as an addition to your life, but donât let wellness define it.