Hi Northwestern! I have one more special guest blogger for you before my last post next week. My friend Claire (she’s just divine) stopped in this week to talk about stress and indulgence. Good luck on finals everyone!
–Elizabeth
Elizabeth and Claire–giggling is our favorite way to de-stress.
It’s 1am before the final. Stressing out and cramming, those chocolates in your desk drawer are calling you. Your dormmates down the hall popped some popcorn, and your friends are hitting up a trip to Andy’s. Ah, what to do? The pressures of a college student catch up with us in more ways than one. Not only does your mind stretch trying to handle everything, but the waist line suffers greatly due to the Northwestern life. Wildcats become less wild and more like house cats who never see the light of day—what my friend called her “sumo cats.” So what do we do when our stresses reach the maximum capacity and we’re literally reaching for any consolation to make us feel better?
Professor gave you diminishing comments on your rough draft? Chocolate. Cramming—ahem, skimming—readings that you put off for your midterm? Ice cream. A bad grade on your final? A night out with the girls. So, how do you put these threatening, end-of-the-world Northwestern grades behind you without literally putting them on your behind? It’s all in moderation, ladies. Eat that Ghirardelli, have that Red Mango, go to that party. But remember that your decisions in the moment of anxiety and depression will affect your sense of self during those subsequent, and inevitable, times of happiness and normality that will follow these dips in morale. While those antioxidants from the dark chocolate are pretty awesome, was it necessary to eat the whole bar? Probably not. So save yourself the regret, the nausea, and the unhappiness the next day, but indulge! Go for it, but don’t over do it. Don’t cut out the bad foods. If you let yourself indulge and have a taste of the “bad food” on a regular basis, you’ll no longer torment yourself and give up every time you give in to a little bit of candy. No longer will you have this notion of off-limit foods that only come out in the early hours of stressful times, but you will have a healthy outlook on the realistic life of college eating. Girls will be girls. And stress will be stress. There’s no need to act like none of that exists and no need to throw all of your hard work during the day out the window at two in the morning because of a bad grade. As much as you’d love to act like anything between the hours of 11pm and 3am doesn’t count toward your bikini bod, it unfortunately does. C’est la vie, mes amies. La vie.