It seems as though girls have been concerned with their appearance ever since they were born. Then puberty struck and our weight and body-type were more noticed. All of the sudden we grew boobs, an ass, or hereditary love handles. In high school, you may have felt fat or not content with your figure, but now looking back, you would give anything to look like that again. Yeah, welcome to college. We don’t sit in school for 7 hours, only having lunch mid-day, and then going to some sort of sport practice or even marching band for another 2 hours afterward. Staying in shape wasn’t that difficult. It’s ridiculous that high school really doesn’t seem that long ago, but a lot has changed. We’ve matured, adapted new eating habits like cooking for ourselves (or ordering out), learning to make ourselves go to the gym, and heading out to the bars on weekdays rather than random weekends. It’s no wonder your weight has increased. If you haven’t seen a difference since high school, then consider yourself lucky and consider me jealous.
Staying fit in college is a challenge. The freshman 15 isn’t a saying for nothing, but it can occur at any point in your college career. It could happen whether you’re a freshman, a senior, or somewhere in between. I know it’s annoying listening to skinny girls complain about their body, or have yourself obsessing over the fact that you just had Chik Fil-A and haven’t been to the gym in a few days. The truth is, we’re not 16 anymore. Our metabolism has slowed down and it’s only going to decrease even more so. Any mom or older woman reading this right now is probably laughing like, “You haven’t even seen the half of it. Just you wait!” So, we might as well create better habits for ourselves now to keep for the future.
1. Diet
The most important thing to remember is dieting does NOT mean not eating. It may work for a while, but it slows down your metabolism. It could also lead to binge eating, which causes you to gain it all back. Don’t do it. Eating disorders are not the answer. You can still eat the same food, just try to modify it a little. Change your loaf of white bread to whole wheat bread with double fiber in it. Instead of regular chocolate pudding, get sugar free. I swear it still tastes delicious and is completely satisfying. Remember, a healthy diet isn’t just about cutting your calories, although that is a big part. Making sure what you’re eating doesn’t have a ton of sugar, lots of fat, or cholesterol in it is also important. It doesn’t matter if it’s 5 PM and all you’ve had today was a Mountain Dew and a small order of French Fries. That’s not healthy.
2. Exercise
You can diet all you want, but it really won’t get you far without exercise. Nobody really likes the gym. There are a few of us who do and feel better afterward that we went. The hard part is making ourselves go. Try not to think of your workout as a chore. UCF has so many different, fun classes to offer like Zumba, Kickboxing, and Hip-hop Aerobics. It’s like doing an hour on the Elliptical, but you probably burn more calories in any of those classes. You’ll be having so much fun you won’t even realize that you’re working out. Also, getting a bunch of friends together to play basketball or soccer, and playing in intramural games counts. Walking to class isn’t enough, I’m sorry.
3. Blame it on the Alcohol
I’m not talking about Jamie Foxx’s version. I mean all that drinking doesn’t just add to a good time. It adds to your calorie intake, too. My best advice is if you don’t like vodka tonics already, learn to. They are probably one of the lowest calorie drinks, about 100 calories each. The drink’s nickname is the “skinny bitch” for a reason. We all know, drinking leads to more drinking which eventually leads to fast food. We’ve all done it and then you wake up feeling horrible that you ate Del Taco or Lazy Moon, instead of just coming home and having cereal or cheese and crackers. Let’s be real though. We’re in college and not drinking or going out to have a good time is out of the question. The good news is once you’re graduated you won’t go out as much, so that takes off some of the calories. Until then, drink hard and work out harder.
4. Helpful Apps
Before there were smart phones, there was Weight Watchers, the Special K Diet, Yoplait Diet, Atkins Diet – you name it. Now there are cool new apps to download for free that help keep track of your caloric intake and let you know how healthy or unhealthy something is. Download Fooducate for grade rated food products. You’ll be surprised to see that some things you may think are healthy and deserve an A+ are actually rated C-. To keep track of your caloric intake there are two apps that are very similar and both free to download. MyFitnessPal and Lose It! allow you to enter your current weight, with your goal weight. Based on how much weight you want to lose in a week, it will give you a number of how many calories you’re allowed to eat each day. You can then log in what food you ate, even by scanning the barcode of the product. When you go to the gym, you can also log in your exercise and it will tell you how many calories you’ve burned, giving you back more calories. When the day is over, hit complete entry and it will tell you what you would weigh if every day were like that day. Try it for a week and see if you like it. Personally, after 5 weeks of using one I did see results. It may get annoying but it’s so helpful to realize what you’re eating. The decision of whether or not you should eat three cookies before you go to Devaney’s is easier to make.
Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away. It took time for you to gain weight, so it’s going to take time to get rid of it all. As soon as you see a change, you’ll never want to give up and it will become fun to keep going. These tips may be obvious but the one thing that seems less obvious is we all are beautiful. Remembering that fact is something we all tend to forget. Girls can get so caught up in their body image by comparing themselves to Hollywood stars. It can even be the skinny girl walking around campus, or your sorority sister who is built like a runway model. Everyone is different. The girl who has the flattest stomach is even wishing she looked like someone else. Learn to love yourself. These tips can help you become a better you.