I’ve never been a particularly healthy eater; I’m Italian and love anything carb-related and also am convinced that my stomach is a black hole. I can consume more than most 200 pound men with little difficulty. You may think I’m exaggerating but unfortunately, I am unstoppable (especially in the presence of pizza.) And that’s what college is about right? The ramen noodles when you run out of meal points, the late-night study snacks, the even later-night drunk food.. wrong. While I am a firm believer that weight is just a number and is not the end-all-be all determinant of your health, eating junk in excess will catch up to you even if you’ve eaten like that all your life. It may not be evidence in weight gain, but it will make you feel sluggish and probably less motivated to study, contrary to the notion that ordering a pizza is the only thing that you get you through a 3am cram.
It’s not about cutting junk from your life; that would be totally unreasonable and consuming. It’s about finding alternatives and keeping things in perspective; that bowl of ice cream after dinner really will not make a difference in your night. But if you’ve just had a really difficult week and you want to treat yourself; by all means go for it.
Though I love food and will eat for just about any occasion or feeling (people call themselves stress eaters; I am a happy, sad, ambivalent, mad, anxious, tired, stressed, eater) I have learned, after quite some time, the difference between real hunger and emotional eating (which is not to say I have cut out my emotional eating; now I can just recognize it as such.. what an accomplishment).
And it is so hard! The endless availability of junk is so tempting, I mean have you tasted a West cookie? And that’s the bane of habit-forming; it seems absolutely impossible to change but more importantly maintain them. But research shows that changing habits of health takes only about two weeks to comfortably envelop the new habit. That is not to say those two weeks won’t painstaking at points, but when all said and done, that is a really short period of time. Think back to two weeks ago; it seems like yesterday to me, which is another issue in and of itself for another blog.
I think that people are far too concerned with solely weight; we are all maturing and therefore we probably are not going to weigh exactly what we did in high school, even with a healthy lifestyle, and that is perfectly ok. But we are also all really busy people, and want to perform as efficiently as we can. And diet and moderate exercise plays such a huge part in that, even though we don’t always recognize this. I even notice how much more sluggish I feel walking from class to class when I decide to have buffalo chicken pizza for lunch instead of a salad and some soup. It really is about little changes; having a glass of water before a meal decreases your appetite, and having a side salad is a great way to get nutrients and feel more satisfied. Apples have a natural source of caffeine so you don’t need to chug a liter of coffee to get through the day (I tried this one THON weekend, and as someone who averages one to two cups per day, I can attest that an apple a day does more than keep the doctor away.) And soon, your cravings for junk food will wane, and the healthier foods will actually be appealing. College is about taking initiative for your own well-being; and your health is absolutely a part of this. So let’s all stop focusing on gaining the Freshman 15 and instead on developing mature lifestyle habits.