What are your eating habits like on a daily basis in college?
For me it always starts out great because I’m coming back from being home over summer break. And I’m still on a breakfast, lunch and dinner type of diet. Somehow, when I get back to school that always changes.
My regular eating habits go away because when I start to stress or go through something dramatic I stop eating. I even had to start taking a vitamin to help my appetite because I was starting to become unhappy with my weight.
Now don’t get me wrong, “ya girl can eat.” When handed the opportunity I never pass up food, and whenever my friends are with me (and a lot of times by myself,) I have random food cravings and make spontaneous food trips.
However, I can only have a normal appetite like this when I make the choice for myself to take care of my health, well being and emotional state.
I think a lot of students don’t eat regular because they either forget from a crazy day, or just don’t have the time. It becomes very easy to skip meals when you don’t know how to cook or don’t have the time and often eat the same food. When you have to eat a cup of noodles everyday, haven’t had the time to go grocery shopping, or just ran out of money to do so you began to get more and more comfortable not eating. It’s almost like it becomes a habit so that even when you feel hungry you’re able to ignore it.
Stress and fatigue are also very big barriers to eating. College has taught me that sometimes sleep becomes before food.
However, the major thing that I learned from the summer is that it is in fact very important to eat. Just eating and getting our daily fluids is very crucial to how we act, feel and perform. That alone can change the outcome of your week. I was noticing that my brain was functioning much differently when I started to eat more regularly. I could think straight, I felt better and was able to better respond to my environment.
Eating healthy on the other hand is very hard to do in college. Most days we have to play the hand we’re dealt. But, as I get older and see my family going through all kind of complications I realize how important it is to eat fruits and vegetables.
Some people I know start to eat, but cannot finish their food. This is very common for women in college. But that is only because you have already trained your brain and your body into thinking that it should not eat. Somehow, you have to change your mindset and habits to make the right decisions for your health because it will catch up to you.
When you think about it you already know the majority of your schedule so, if you start thinking about the times you know you can eat and plan ahead it will help.
Even if it is just eating small meals throughout the day it is really important to your success in college. So, if you care about your future and your performance make sure to make an honest effort to improve your eating habits.
Images Sources:
https://novakdjokovicfoundation.org/college-eating-habits/
https://www.healthymk.com/food-pyramid