By Lauren Felts, Advertisement Manager
It is not uncommon for people, especially college students, to want to eat healthier, get in shape, or exercise more often when the new year rolls around. Yet, it can be very difficult to find that healthy balance between work, classes, sleep, and exams.
With each new year that passes by, resolutions are set and we often get disappointed when those goals are not achieved. In fact, the most common failed resolutions each year are healthy diets, exercising often, and losing weight.
So, this year, instead of making yet another resolution to eat healthier, or exercise daily, challenge yourself to ditch those resolutions and incorporate some of the following tips into your new lifestyle that will for sure benefit your overall health.
1. Identify Fruits and Vegetables in All Your Meals
Although it can be difficult to include fresh fruits and veggies in each of your meals as a college student especially those on a budget, it may be easier than most might think. For example, with the new Wellness Center opening up this semester, keep an eye out for meals that include vegetables and choose fruit as your side. This technique can even be applied when out at restaurants or ordering fast food. Choose high protein options like chicken and steak, or vegetarian options like beans or salmon, if that is what you prefer. Substitute fruit as your side instead of fries. It’s a lot easier once you start making this a habit now, and you’ll begin to increase your opportunities to eat healthier even while on a budget.
2. Stay Hydrated and Avoid Soda
This may be an obvious tip, but just avoiding soda alone can instantly boost energy and lower your risks of many health diseases and conditions that soda is tied to such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and more. When you make a habit of drinking soda regularly, this increases your leptin levels, which is the hormone in your body that signals when hunger arrives and when you’re full. Additionally, insulin levels are also heightened which is the hormone regulating the metabolism and blood sugar. When both of these hormones are elevated, your body feels hungrier more often, even when full, which overtime can stretch out the stomach and increase your chances of obesity. This is because it causes your blood sugar to spike. As a tip to keep yourself accountable for drinking plenty of water, bring a chillable thermos with you to class each day so that you always have cold water to sip on throughout the day. If you have trouble drinking water, try infusing it with lemon or a variety of fruit.
3. Identify Your Personal Challenges
A tip from Brandy Pollicita, health and wellness instructor on campus, is to identify your challenges that lead to self-sabotage, such as motivation, time/schedule restrictions, and behaviors. If you feel like you have a lack of time, set an alarm on your phone each day to set aside ten minutes to exercise or meal prep or even meditate. Whatever it is, set reminders in your phone to focus on your health. If you have 40 minutes you want to set aside, set aside 40 minutes. If you only have 10, set aside 10. Make sure you stick with it when the alarm goes off each day at a time you know you will able to complete your chosen task. Another tip from Pollicita was to “establish strategies such as writing down the positives to engaging in healthy pursuits.” This can help you stay accountable and motivated by setting some achievable and realistic goals for yourself to maintain. Pollicita mentioned to start out with short term goals, then work your way up to longer term goals once you’ve established a positive mindset surrounding your new healthy habits.
4. Prioritize REST!
This may seem like another obvious tip, but it is so extremely important to prioritize a good solid sleep schedule. Your body is working hard to keep you functioning at your highest level all day–the only way you achieve that energy is by making sure your body is getting enough rest. Your body is still working to burn calories, pump blood, process information consumed from the day, recover muscles, balance hormones, break down food, and much more. Getting enough sleep is linked to every system in your body and after working all day, just like a car or a phone, it needs time to recharge. A tip to making sure you get those 8-9 hours is by wising down two hours before bed. Do this however you like, by watching a relaxing show, turning off social media, or reading a book. This will help you fall asleep much quicker when your body is already in that restful state. Another tip is to stop eating two hours prior to bed. At night, your metabolism slows down, and food is harder to break down and can be stored as fat instead of energy. However, certain foods such as bananas which are high in potassium can also be good way to help fall asleep quicker. Lastly, create a good sleep environment. Close all your windows and blinds, set your room to a cool setting, and keep it dark. All of these things will help with a much better-quality night’s rest.
5. Mental Health is Just as Important as Physical Health
Just as it is important to exercise daily, prioritize health, and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, it is also vital, especially for students, to focus on mental health. Your brain is what controls everything–your motivation, your thoughts, and feelings. When your mental health is poor, physical health can be affected by this and cause it to decrease as well. Being healthy is all about balance. When mental health is improved, everything else follows. “Aligning healthy intentions with healthy behaviors in every wellness area will increase the likelihood of success because the many elements of wellness are interwoven,” said Pollicita. When a positive mindset is enforced, working out is less stressful, when meals are planned ahead of time, it is easier to eat healthier and keep up with it. When alarms are set to focus on study time versus rest time, it is easier to keep up with workload and still make time to rest and have fun.
So, dump your New Year’s resolutions this year. Instead of being healthy for a year, choose to keep up with a healthy lifestyle that will last. Because at the end of the day, exams and studying are all just temporary. A healthy and happy life is what truly matters.
