You’re back at school, or maybe new to college, and filled to the brim with high health hopes for the semester. Thoughts of trimming down, toning up, and attaining your ideal self surface in your mind amidst the proceedings of a dull Chem class. You have the will but you need the way. All of the materials are at your disposal. How to do it is the question at hand. And the answer at hand is routine. Building a routine. Sticking to a routine. And embracing a routine as your own sort of daily Bible. Establishing your ideal routine is the tricky part, but once you are there you will start to feel great and will not want to deviate.
Tip #1: Be realistic and know yourself. If you have class at 8 AM and you are not a morning person, don’t plan a workout before because that will not be a habit you can willfully stick to.
Tip #2: Schedule your workout in as if it is any other appointment that you would not cancel. This is arguably your most important appointment of the day. You would not bail on an appointment with your professor for fear of letting them down, and there is nothing worse than living with the feeling of letting yourself down, so hold yourself accountable!
Tip #3: Work with your schedule. Maybe your Mondays are different from your Tuesdays and your Wednesdays are different from your Sundays. Accept that reality of life and build a separate routine for each day. If you know Skoglund does not open until 12 PM on Sunday’s (RIP), schedule a morning run or yoga session instead, to get yourself out of bed and get productive before anyone else is even awake.
Tip #4: Stick with it! The most common diet and exercise pitfall is to quit before you see results. Often, results are slow to come off the bat, but suddenly all at once you will notice massive changes. Remind yourself of the quote by Harriet Beecher Stowe, “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”
Tip #5: Plan your meals. It is easy to go into an all-you-can-eat-buffet (aka Stav) after a long, hard workout and a stressful day and be tempted to eat your worries away. If you do this, you will never see the results you want. A huge part of setting a health routine revolves around meal planning, so take some time to think about a few “ideal meals” that you can cycle through. For example, having the option of a veggie omelette at breakfast one day, oatmeal and fruit the next, and yogurt with granola the next will keep things interesting and controlled.
Tip #6: Set some ground rules. Vow to avoid getting “seconds” at mealtime. Promise yourself you will only have one Pause cookie + ice cream per week. Commit to working out five days a week. Promise yourself a 10:30 PM bedtime Sunday through Thursday. Whatever it may be, stick to it with the same tenacity that you stick to your routine and there will be no more internal conflict next time you go to the Cage for a hot tea and spot an elephant ear out of the corner of your eye.
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