It’s an age-old story — you make plans and resolutions to visit the gym at least five times a week, but then lose motivation after a week. Don’t worry, it happens to almost all of us. Going to the gym can be rather daunting, and besides, let’s be serious, it’s not easy to workout, eat clean every day and get 8 hours of sleep every night during your midterms or finals week. That being said, it is incredibly important to try to stay healthy — especially on campus. Everyone gains weight over the 3-4 years they spend at college and that’s completely okay, but staying fit promotes your overall health, and can help boost memory and concentration levels.
Keeping all of this in mind, here are 6 realistic ways you can stay fit in college:
1. Use the Stairs
This is the first easy and realistic way you can stay fit on a college campus. Climbing the stairs is a great form of cardio, and is an excellent exercise for strengthening your leg muscles. If you can, try avoiding the elevator and take the stairs as much as possible, especially to lower floors (the 3rd or 4th floor).
2. Drink Water
This is perhaps the most important step to stay fit. Drinking water has many positive health benefits, including promoting weight management/weight loss, flushing out toxins, keeping your skin clear, regulating body temperature, boosting immunity and so on. Though it may be tough to consume about 8 glasses a day, try carrying around a water bottle with you. Additionally, try to switch out sugary carbonated drinks and alcohol as much as possible and replace these with water and fresh juices — your body and skin will thank you.
3. Find a Workout Partner
Try finding a friend to go to the gym/exercise with. Having someone with you increases your willpower and motivation, not to mention, it becomes tougher to quit. Besides, working out becomes so much more fun when you do it with a friend.
4. Make short-term, achievable goals
In reality, you most definitely cannot lose 20 kgs in a month. Try starting with small, short-term achievable goals, like eating out maybe only twice a week or visiting the gym once in a while — and stick to it! Over time, you can add more goals to the list.
5. Find workouts you can do in your room
It’s not easy to go to the gym every single day (or at all, sometimes). In this case, try finding exercises you can do in the comfort of your own room. While laying down, you could try leg raises and planks. You could also try wall sits and squats. Next time you’re lying down and watching Netflix, consider doing some exercise with the show. Don’t forget to stretch!
6. Diet
Maintaining your diet can be hard in college, especially when there are so few healthy options and so many varieties of unhealthy food, but one’s diet makes up a large and extremely important part of staying fit. Try starting small by consuming fresh fruit or vegetables as often as possible and try limiting the number of times you eat junk food. Furthermore, try eating breakfast every day.
It’s hard to stay fit in college, so don’t forget to reward yourself every once in a while. Staying fit and healthy can be exhausting and everyone deserves a break, so let yourself have a cheat day. Most of all, don’t punish yourself for overeating/binging. It happens to all of us, and it’s perfectly okay. Staying healthy is a conscious choice that you need to make for yourself. It’s easy to forget it on campus, but it’s a choice that you’ll be glad you made.
Edited by Pragyna Divakar (UG 2020)