The Freshman Perspective: Freshman 15 is Anything But a Myth

This is part of Her Campus BC’s “Have a Healthy New Year” series, which focuses on eating healthier, getting in shape, and making 2011 great without going to extremes.  Look for a new article in this series every day this week!

Before I left for Boston College, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t gain the dreaded “Freshman 15.”  I worked out regularly and tried to eat healthy, so it seemed like it would be an easy goal to maintain.  Then I actually came to BC and realized just how hard it would be to keep that promise.

At first, I was so nervous about making friends and being away from home that I couldn’t eat even if I tried.  But as time passed I started to get hungry every two hours.  I would eat breakfast potatoes, French toast, and scrambled eggs, and then a few hours later I would have a sandwich, and the list goes on and on.  Fortunately, I started to go back to my old habits of eating healthy after a few weeks of stress eating.  However, a whole new set of problems arose when I started to eat late at night. 

Back at home, it was normal for me to just eat dinner and nothing else for the rest of the night.  At BC, I tended to constantly eat after dinner simply because one of my friends would be hungry and I wouldn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to bond.  The main problem was that I started to eat whenever anyone asked me to go grab food with them, which ended up being several times a day.

Eating late at night has been the worst habit that I developed.  At night, I tended to go for greasy, fried food, although, after a night out I would eat anything that was put in front of me.
 
Eating is a very social thing and I didn’t want to miss out on it.  That is, until I went to health services one day and they told me how much I weighed.  I was horrified and called my mom crying.  I didn’t know what to do.  I was still going to the gym even though I was eating my weight in food and I had always thought that was enough.  Luckily, my mom gave me a few good tips.  She told me to continue going to the gym, stop eating after a certain time, and cut back on the snacking.
 
I didn’t really see a difference when I went home for Thanksgiving.  I still felt gross and didn’t want to go to my high school and see the people that used to know me when I was thinner.  I started to eat healthier, but it was hard to carry over when I came back to college.  Between the food at Mac and the stress of finals, I started to think that I would feel gross forever. 

Over Christmas break, I was home for five weeks.  During this time, I was able to get into a routine with Pilates.  I started to see results almost instantly.  It was the tweak I needed.  My usual routine of going to the Plex and running on the treadmill obviously wasn’t working, so it was good to find something that gave me instant results. 
 
I also changed my eating habits.  Now, when I’m studying late at night and feel the urge to grab a snack, I ask myself if I just want to indulge in pizza because it’s there or if I would rather grab an apple.  I’m slowly getting back to what my friends and I refer to as my “pre-college bod,” and am finally learning to embrace my flaws.