Fight Against the Freshman Fifteen WE CAN DO IT

FOCUS: Finals….yikes

With finals coming up, exercise is the last thing that is crossing our thoughts.

However, exercising during periods of stress is actually very relaxing and can be a great outlet for all of your exhaustive studying. I suggest taking a nice run around campus with no headphones or phone just to get your mind off of everything. Running is good way to release any negative feelings you have, and can be a very “Zen” like experience. And although it is getting chilly outside, being out in the cold air with no distractions can be a great stress releaser.

Also, don’t be afraid to bring your notes to the gym if you want to multi-task. Personally, I bring either a book or notes and read them while I am on the stationary bike or even on an elliptical. There are places on the workout equipment where you can conveniently place a notebook to read while exercising. A lot of people have adopted this multi-tasking routine and I find that is really works. In my opinion, I think working out goes a lot faster when you are reading or studying.

If you make time for exercise, you may be more on task for the rest of the day. Often times when we are done with class and have hours until we actually have to go to sleep, we end up being less productive since we are not on a schedule. Make a conscious effort to finish your homework before you go to the gym, or vice versa. By setting goals for your day, you might be more productive because you know you have to accomplish work in a certain time frame.

While I am not advocating you skip class or study time to exercise, there are some great benefits to exercising during this stressful time of year, and I encourage you to follow my tips!

FOCUS: Healthy Habits over BREAK

Although I have not posted in a while, I hope  readers have been following my tips and tricks to stay in shape. However, we are now approaching a very frightful time of year for our appetites. These next few months will be filled with desserts, pies, delicious appetizers, and candy. How are we going to be able to handle such delicious food while still maintaining our weight?

RULES OF HOLIDAY EATING

1. Pick your poison

So what exactly does this mean? I am not condoning indulging in a piece of homemade pumpkin pie or Christmas cookies, but you must choose how you want to spend your calories. What I mean is, if there are two desirable desserts to pick from, choose one! If pie is offered with ice cream, pick one of the two. This will avoid overeating.

 2. Know What’s Coming

While a lot of festive holiday events are one day after the other, you should be aware of what kind of food at each gathering will consist of. If you know you are going to your grandmother’s house, you may remember that she always makes the best cookies. Maybe your family friends’ always have great appitizers. By using this knowledge you can decide ahead of time how you are going to spend your calories rather than just eating everything in sight.

 3. Keep Up with Fitness!

BREAKING NEWS: You burn more calories when you run in uncomfortable temperatures (freezing cold snowy windy weather) than when you run in comfortable temperatures (55-70 degrees). So, even thought the weather is crummy to run in, you must stay active if you are going to be eating more and take advantage of this cold weather.

Looking at these three tips, I urge you to use them over break so you can come back to school not feeling out of shape and a little heavier, because you know once we start studying for finals our gym time will be cut short and our eating habits may quickly take a turn for the worst.

An important element about improving your health and fitness is to focus on the little things in your daily life here at Penn State.

In the past few posts I discussed the various tools that you can utilize in order to reach your fitness goals. I mentioned the process of proper goal setting, explained some helpful apps, and critiqued many of the PSU fitness classes. Now that I have set you up for health and fitness success, it is time to focus on little details to help you lose that extra pound or two.

1. TAKE THE STAIRS– We are so lucky we have this asset as college students. Whether you are navigating through the library, walking to your or a friends dorm, or going to class, take the stairs. They are everywhere and we should take advantage of their presence. While I sound extremely dramatic right now about something as insignificant as stairs I promise you this could be the difference between a pound on the scale. Not only do the stairs raise your heart rate, and strengthen your quads and hamstrings, they are usually faster than waiting for the ridiculously slow elavators.

2. THERE ARE SALADS EVERYWHERE– Because the food department at Penn State is required to offer many healthy options, vegetables and salad are offered at almost every dining area all times of day. Salads can fill you up and are a much more healthy than many of the other options because they include vegetables and are very low in fat. However, beware of the hidden calories and fat content in dressings. Never ever ever ever EVER use ranch. Ranch dressing basically ruins the nutritional value of salads due to it’s extremely high fat and calorie content. Aim for more watery dressings and be wary of how much you use!

3. DRINK WATER– We all know how absolutely delicious the milk from the Berkey Creamery is, but we cannot indulge in over 400 calories of chocolate milk everyday. Yes, the chocolate milk at the Creamery has almost as many calories as two huge chocolate chip cookies from West Halls. While the milk is very tasty and rich in calcium, make it a treat and focus on drinking water. Do not waste your calories on pop, high sugar juices, and milk.

By adjusting little things in your daily life on campus you may be able to pull out the weight you just can’t seem to get rid of. Good luck!

Do you have any other suggestions to help your health and fitness by adjusting some small things in your daily routine at Penn State? Please share!

Focus: Let’s Get Motivated

Have you ever seen someone running at a ridiculously early time of day and have wondered how on earth they are waking up so early to do that? Or has someone ever told you how he or she hasn’t eaten dessert in months? How can we be motivated like these amazingly healthy people? I am here to tell you!

Motivation is linked to goals. Without a goal in mind, why do you do what you do? I love to run which is why I do it. However, most people do not love to eat healthy and exercise which is why goal setting is important for motivation.

Step 1: WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS

Okay, so you are thinking that this is a really dumb way of motivating someone. However, have you ever physically written down your fitness goal or your weight goal? If you haven’t, then you will not know what I am talking about.  Writing down goals with specific parameters and guidelines of how and when you want your goals to be accomplished is crucial. Similar to an agenda or calendar with your daily plans listed where you rely on either to get through your day, in order to fulfill your goals you must also write them down.

Step 2: COMPLETE YOUR GOALS

Now that they are written down, complete them! Put your written goals in a place where you see everyday. Maybe set your background on your phone of a famous athlete or write yourself notes of inspiration and motivation. However you do it, make sure you complete your goals, but do not be afraid to adjust them if they are too far reaching or too simple.

Step 3: EVALUATE YOUR PROGRESS

How did you do? Did you succeed in some areas of your goals and not others? Why not? Ask yourself these questions and decide what held you back from reaching your goals, or what assisted you in achieving them.

I urge everyone to try this technique to trigger motivation in not only your health and well being but success in school, work, and various areas of life. Don’t give up and don’t be afraid to test your limits!

FOCUS: Use PSU Apps to help you become healthier on campus

The Dining@PSU and the PSUStrength Apps are a great excuse for you to be on your phone more than you already are! These Apps allow you to manage your time better, are fun to use, and can help you in your path to being healthy.

PSUStrength:

This App is perfect for those who frequent the gyms here at Penn State often. This App has many great features in which you can check the schedule of the gyms, the waiting time for a gym and status of how many people are in the gyms, and view contact information about the gyms. Having an App like this at your fingertips avoid waitingat a gym for a long time or having to Google search the hours for the gym. Because time management is such a fundamental part of college, by having this App you will know exactly which gyms to go to and which gyms not to go to. The App is very easy to use and is free.

Dining@PSU:

For those of you who like to know what your food options are ahead of time, I highly recommend this App. The Dining@PSU App has an abundance of abilities including: checking the food options at six dining commons on campus, create a daily log of the food you consume at the dining halls, lists the complete nutrition facts of all food served, gives you news alerts, allows you to pick favorites from the dining halls and notifies you when your favorite foods appear again, and much more. This App is great because it can not only act as a calorie counter, but is a good way to eliminate the disappointment of missing  your favorite meal  at a certain dining hall.

By using these Apps you can manage your time, eating habits, and workout schedule rather than asking all of your friends or frustratingly searching the web. I highly recommend these Apps in order to stay fit and healthy!

FOCUS: fitness classes

If you have a gym membership, keep reading! Today I am going to be discussing the different fitness classes at the PSU gyms and which classes are the best workout. Because I haven’t been to all of the classes, I am only going to briefly discuss a few of them.

Pilates Workout- This class is not for those of who are looking to burn any serious calories. While it is relaxing and not very challenging, it focuses a lot on hip strengthening. I personally did not like this class as much as I thought I would.

Washboard Abs- Unless you want to do crunches until you neck feels like it’s going to fall off, do not attend this class. I thought that this class was going to be a mix of unique abs exercises, but I was too optimistic. I have gone to the 20 minute and the 30 minute Washboard Abs class, and they both were basically just crunches.

Fitness Yoga- Finally a class I enjoy! This class is extremely relaxing and really follows the guidelines of a traditional yoga class. I would recommend taking this class at a later time during the day because it is a great way to wind down for a busy day of classes.

Tabata Training- This unique class incorporates high intensity intervals with rest and is a great way to raise your heart rate. Studies show, that twenty minutes of interval training is more beneficial than thirty minutes of steady state activity.

Indoor Cycling- I saved the best for last because this is my favorite class PSU has to offer. The class is all based on your own effort because you control the difficulty level on your bike. This class is never boring, challenging, and very rewarding. Come ready to sweat, but be prepared to leave feeling great!

Fitness classes are a great way to perform structured workouts and can be fun if you go with friends. If you are paying for the gym membership, take advantage of the free classes!

FOCUS: how to… not eat everything

Today, I splurged. We all have our days, and today was mine. I am going to explain to you how to avoid what I just did, which was eat an absurd amount of fattening peanut butter. While peanut butter is a sufficient source of protein and is relatively healthy, eating it by the spoonfuls is never a good thing. So, today’s advice is going to be about how to control non-stop eating habits.

My own definition of non-stop eating habits is when you eat an extremely large quantity of food at one time. I’m sure most of us have done it, whether we are by ourselves or with our friends. Making a pan of brownies with your friends and finishing it all, or going to Chipotle and then to Coldstone then snacking later are all examples of common non-stop eating habits.

But how do we tame our ravishing obsession with eating mass amounts of food? It’s simple. Set limits. If you know you are going over that particular friends house where you know you will eat a ton of food, control your amounts. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a cookie or eat a piece of pizza or two, but know in advance how much you want to eat. I’m not advocating for a full on fast, because life is short and you shouldn’t starve yourself and be miserable when you can be enjoying things in moderation.

What if you are all alone and the food is tempting you? Gum. Stride gum is not only extremely delicious but has saved me an immense amount of calories over the years. Whenever I feel the need to eat out of boredom or stress I stick a piece of gum in my mouth immediately to resist the urge. Although it’s easy to spit out the gum, I am sure you would be less willing to go ham on the pantry if you are already chewing on a piece of delicious minty gum.

I hope you will use my tips and try to avoid non-stop eating!

FOCUS: study and exercise!!!!!

Although this blog is intended to avoid extra weight freshman year may add to our bodies, we are going to school primarily to learn, not to focus on becoming healthy. However, I know some small solutions to completing both studying and exercising all in one.  I like to call the combination of academics with athletics “exerstudying.”

For reading chapters in a book:

In between every page/chapter/section do one minute of an exercise. Any type of movement will work. If you are trying to flatten your stomach I suggest front and side planks. For arms I would do pushups or tricep dips. Lastly for cardio, jumping jacks, burpees, or mountain climbers will definitely get your heart rate soaring.

When you are on a computer for a long period of time:

You should not be sitting at your desk or lying on your bed on your computer for more than a half hour at a time. Get your heart rate going and give your eyes a break. Try to take a five to ten minute break to do a quick ab workout or if you have weights try some bicep curls or shoulder presses. While I do not encourage you to stop right in the middle of an online homework assignment or in the middle of writing a paper, when you are feeling drained from the tedius typing or have major writer’s block, it may be a good idea to take an exercise break, rather than going on Facebook or twitter.

While these tips are not going to make you drop any amount of weight immediately, they can help relieve you of the stress of elongated periods of school work as well as boost your metabolism with spurts of aerobic movement. The best part about these activites is that they can be done in a small space with little to no equiptment, which is perfect for the dorm room! I hope as you read this on your laptop you can use one of my exerstudying tips!

FOCUS: having patience and your metabolism

The blog you are reading should attract those who are desperately trying to avoid the freshman fifteen. So, basically, everyone should be reading this because who wants to gain all that extra weight? However, the life of a dedicated person who is toned and in shape is no day at the beach. The discipline and motivation it takes to get off the couch or resist a delicious warm cookie from West Halls is not easy for anyone.

Long-term benefits of healthy habits are hard to see, which is why people often give up after a week or two of trying. Whether you are interested in losing weight, increasing muscle mass, or just becoming a healthier individual you must practice patience. Eating one good meal will not make you skinny, and eating one unhealthy meal will not make you fat.

The human body can be slow at many tasks. A metabolism can be slow, recovery from injury can take awhile, and losing that last five pounds can also be a drag. However, the human body can be sped up in many ways, helping you become the healthy person you want to be. Eating fruits and vegetables and drinking water in small doses throughout the day boost metabolism in a healthy way. Eating anything boosts your metabolism, but if you overeat it is essentially defeating the purpose. Also, getting your heart rate up can sky rocket a metabolism for hours. Take the stairs up to your dorm on the seventh floor. We all know the elevators take forever. Also, when you run, you continue to burn calories anywhere between two to four hours after you are done!

What we need to keep in mind is that being healthy is a lifestyle and it is also a challenging one. Rewards are not handed out, they are felt internally and only you can decide how quickly you want results.