You don’t believe it until it happens to you: the dreaded Freshman 15. I mean, come on. The french-fries are right there in the DC and they’re always there. It’s a pretty rough situation. Don’t worry, I understand.
By the time I finished my sophomore year of college I had gained thirty pounds. It was unbelievable. I was going to attend a party with some of my friends and we all took pictures. The next day, when the pictures went up on Facebook, I was completely blown away by what I saw. Is that what I look like? In retrospect, it wasn’t as bad as I thought at the time. But, growing up as a dancer, I had never looked like that.
That summer, I decided to take on “Insanity”, a DVD set by Team Beachbody.
The program gives you a calendar of days, telling you what workouts to do on what days. They were about 45 minutes each, but the longest was a little over an hour long. However, this workout completely changed the way I thought about everything.
1. Insanity taught me how to make sure I squeeze in my workout. An hour out of my day? That’s nothing. I probably would have spent that much time wandering around the Rec Center. Not to mention, I could wake up and do the workout right in my house. Plus the head coach, Shaun T, is the best.
2. If I ate poorly, I knew it. I remember going to Wendy’s the night before a workout while doing Insanity and the next morning I felt it during my workout. It forced me to look at how I was eating.
3. I felt empowered when I watched the scale go down. By the end of the summer, I lost 30 pounds. I had pushed myself by knowing that what I was doing was a slow process, but it was actually working. Because of these results, I then found myself wanting to continue working out. I would write small workouts for me to do at the gym, and did research on how to lift weights.
Find a workout plan that you have to stick to. Make a calendar and find a way to be competitive with yourself. Make a routine that you can improve at and then switch it up. Believe me, it will be the best choice of your life.
How do you work out, Collegiettes?
Photos: 1