The “Freshman Fifteen”: (noun) – The 15 pounds you gain in your first year of University or College due to the fact that you no longer have home cooked, balanced meals everyday and instead you are filling up on cheesy pizzas, greasy burgs, crispy fries and adulterated drinks.
These are the convenient and deadly foods students often turn to when loaded with piles of homework and they don’t seem to find time to cook, and please, who goes to a bar with their friends and orders a SALAD?
The Freshman Fifteen doesn’t just apply to your freshman year, because your second, third and fourth years don’t want to miss out on the fun. Sure, not everyone gains weight, but most do. As long as you are living the student life of convenience, you will pack on the pounds. Maybe it wont be 15 pounds, but our bodies are going from an active lifestyle in high school with mandatory physical education to a primarily sedentary lifestyle of working at desks or computers with little time to move around.
In my first year living off campus and cooking for myself and roommates, it was very easy to get WAY off track. There would be days in a row where I would eat things like chicken wings at the pub with a beer, then dinner the next night at home would be alfredo pasta with EXTRA cheese because I couldn’t bother with the “hassle” of cooking a healthier meal, and plus I totally deserved a treat since I was working so hard on my studies. I didn’t gain 15 pounds, but I did realize that none of my pants actually fit me anymore. I felt pretty down since I knew I had so much homework and organizing healthy food seemed like a HUGE task on top of everything I was already doing at BCIT.
I sucked it up and decided to try out BCIT’s Recreation Centre weight room and then I just kept going back. It felt so great to actually move my body more than from one classroom to another. My next trip to the grocery store I decided to stock up on the most vegetables and fruits I liked to eat and I walked right past the processed foods like “emergency” boxes of Kraft Dinner. (They never ended up being emergency food anyway, just all the time “lazy” food!)
After that it was a bit of a chain reaction. I moved onto BCIT’s residence for my second year and it happens to be RIGHT beside the Recreation Centre and Gym. You have to walk past it everyday to get to and from class… There really are no excuses there. I eventually got a job working for the weight room and the rest is history! I am finding that the more organized my eating is, my workout schedule is and my time is, the easier it is to organize all aspects of school, too!
Now I look forward to hitting the grocery store and stocking up on fresh fruits and veggies, lean proteins to keep my energy up, and complex carbohydrates to help fuel me for the rest of my days. I plan my workouts around my homework schedule because I want to make sure I go three days a week. If you want to plan your workouts around your homework schedule, that means you have to HAVE a homework schedule in the first place. Once I had that settled, I knew when I had free time for me and for friends.
The healthier you are, the happier you feel and the better you perform academically! My average has increased over 8% in the past year, I am more confident and I am LOVING to live an organized life. Take the first step by throwing out all your processed foods, or pass it over to your friends if you don’t want to waste it! Those chemicals will do nothing for your body or mind! BCIT has a Harvest Basket for about 9 bucks you get a huge basket full of delicious, locally farmed vegetables. I do this all the time now that I live on residence, such a lifesaver.
If you have any more questions (especially about BCIT Recreation, their services or classes) let me know! And really, don’t be afraid to be the student who snacks on salads at the bar, or packs their own healthy foods to social gatherings. You will feel so much better and you might inspire others, too! :)