Did you realize that you gained the freshman 15 while you were home for winter break? While many people write about how to lose the Freshman 15, HCIU wants to target the root of the problem – how do you manage to gain 15 pounds in one year? We have come to provide you with the inside scoop. The following list is 15 easy ways to gain that freshman 15, so whether you are a freshman, sophomore, junior, or even senior – put down your pizza and listen up.
1. Get Baked. Want to order a cookie with a 3 musketeers bar, marshmallows, Oreos, and chocolate chips? Oh – and at 2 in the morning? Well, now you can. This homemade cookie wonder becomes a go-to hot spot for freshman. Baked also posts their “specials” on the doors of McNutt? Coincidence? I think not.
2. Pizza, pizza, and more pizza. Mother Bears, Pizza X, and even Gresh – getting a slice of pizza at IU is easier than tying the laces of your Converse at a tailgate.
3. Meal Points. While the C-store and Collins do have healthy options, having a surplus of meal points can definitely lead to a surplus of extra pounds. Because they aren’t paying with our own money, freshmen tend to buy more food than they normally would with cash.
4. SRSC, what’s that? Many freshman do not take advantage of the on-campus gym, simply because they don’t know where it is or what to do when they get there.
5. Discovering the bus. Why walk to class when jumping on the bus is so much easier? Maybe to burn off those fries from last night… Nah.
6. Kirkwood. So many delicious options, so little time. Freshmen often forget that they have 4 years to dine at every restaurant in B-Town, so they end up doing it all at once. “Hey guys, wanna get Hartzells after Bloomington Bagels, and then go to Buffa Louies for dinner?”
7. Campus Candy Beware. This bright colored, fun place is the official Willy Wonka factory of IU. With the one-sized candy bag, it is often easy to get way too much candy. And the frozen yogurt and cheesecake factory treats doesn’t help either.
8. Freedom. We don’t have anyone looking over our shoulder to tell us to eat a healthy meal, so why would we?
9. Time. Who has time to work out between classes and partying? Not freshmen.
10.Dorm-Cooked Meals. Often freshman don’t have time to go to dinner, so they make food in their rooms. However, frozen dinners and ramen noodles are often filled with calories and regrets.
11.Late night munchies. The later freshman stay up, the more they’ll end up eating. Enough said.
12.Cheers to the freakin’ weekend. Rihanna said it best. A weekend at IU is usually filled with partying – which leads to more eating. Your judgment of whether or not you really needed that fourth slice of Pizza X is often blurred at 4 am on a Friday night.
13.Sugar & Spice. This cute little bakery/coffee shop in the Union is dangerous. It is hard to pass up one of their delicious IU cookies or red velvet cupcakes, so do yourself a favor and steer clear.
14.Salad… or lack there of. Nothing irritates us more than the fact that neither the C-store nor the Union serves salad on the weekends. After eating pizza the night before, it would be nice if freshman could get a healthy salad for lunch the next day.
15. Being Freshmen Is Our Own Excuse. The biggest reason many freshmen gain those hefty 15 pounds is because they can get away with it. Someone put it in the heads of freshmen that gaining weight your first year in college is not only inevitable, but also acceptable. Thus inventing the phenomenon of the freshmen 15. Well my fellow freshmen, the joke’s on us.