So we know you’re constantly bombarded with “healthy living” tips to improve your lifestyle. And we all know that, as great as they sound at the moment, only rarely do we actually remember or choose to do them. So, here’s a new set of suggestions. We interviewed McKenna Cottam, SMU’s fitness guru, for answers to all our healthy living questions.
Suggestions for your morning routine:
- Get in the habit of waking up at the same time everyday. I know that somedays you may have an 8 a.m. and others you don’t have class until 11, but if you can try to get up at the same time every morning, give or take an hour, it will help your body develop a schedule and allow it to rest more deeply when you are asleep.
- Eat breakfast every morning. When I say every morning, I mean EVERY MORNING. Even though you’ve heard it 101 times, it’s not called breakfast for nothing. You’re literally breaking your fast. Eating breakfast speeds up your metabolism and wakes you up, starting your day off right.
Staying on the breakfast subject, here’s some of McKenna’s breakfast suggestions:
- Kashi Go Lean cereal (try to stick with cereals that have 6 grams of sugar or less)
- Oatmeal (it’s low in fat, has lots of fiber, and boosts your metabolism)
- Greek yogurt (add some granola and honey to sweeten it)
- Egg whites (add turkey to give it some more substance)
Hangover treatments:
- McKenna swears by milk thistle. You can get it at GNC, and it detoxes your liver, making you feel better, faster.
- Vitamin B will do the same thing. Keep some in your medicine cabinet and take after a long night of partying.
- Eggs again! Like the vitamin B and milk thistle, eggs detox your liver and are a healthy way to feed your stomach. Burger House is not.
- Drink tons and tons of water. Though this is true for everyday, hung-over or not, the reason you’re so hung-over is because your body is severely dehydrated. You can also drink Coconut water, nature’s Gatorade. It is packed with electrolytes and will be even more beneficial to your body than regular water (stay away from the Zico brand because it’s made with artificial sugars).
- No sugar. None. Sugar will only increase your headache and nausea.
Work out/Everyday tips:
- Don’t go long periods without eating. Doing this will make you over-eat when you do eat and will slow your metabolism.
- If you’re going to be healthy and order a salad, ask for spinach instead of regular lettuce. Lettuce has zero nutritional value whereas spinach is good for your heart and an excellent source of iron.
- You need to do both cardio and weight training to lose the pounds and tone your body. By adding a weight regiment to your workout, you will burn up to 20% more calories within 24 hours than by doing cardio alone. And don’t worry about getting too buff; the weights you’ll be using are for purely toning purposes.
- Try yoga if you want a mellow workout that will detox your body while making you more flexible and energized.
- Be sure to eat within an hour of working out. Your body needs protein to replenish itself, so choose something like chicken or almonds.
- If you really need that sweet snack to satisfy your cravings, choose Swedish Fish or dark chocolate. Swedish Fish aren’t terrible for you (in comparison to other candies) and dark chocolate is good for your heart.
Keep in mind that these suggestions are from McKenna Cottam, who, if you’ve seen her, is a walking advertisement for healthy living. None of these are hard, they just take some commitment and getting used to. It’s literally as simple as saying yes to water and no to soda, and switching the extra 10 minutes on the treadmill for 10 minutes with weights. It’s all good.