How can you eat well at these gross Penn State dining halls? It seems like the combination of overcooked meats and the tidal wave of starches is meant to discourage healthy eating habits. Meanwhile, the good foods (poke bowls at the hub, fresh fruit from the market) are overpriced and will drain any meal plan, whether it is level one, two, or three, in weeks. It is almost as if we are living in a quasi-food desert (I know I’m exaggerating… a little).

Our lack of access to affordable healthy food on the meal plan is troubling. We pay roughly $2500 to have a meal plan and then fund that plan, and what we get in return is undercooked rice, overcooked chicken, and a smorgasbord of sweets and desserts. The menu entices gullible students with “tender steak” and “decadent chocolate cake”, but these adjectives describe the opposite and are only meant to entrap people into the grasps of a beat buffet. Offerings of some vegetables relieve the malnourishment on some days, but when given the choice between okra and jalapeno beans, the option is typically neither.

My discovery, however, was of the salad and fruit bar. This lifesaver gives me much-needed vitamins and minerals that do not come from fried chicken and mashed potatoes. The godsend of balsamic vinaigrette and chicken strips on my salad is the main reason my nutrient intake has increased.

However, I never realized how much dieting and the food you eat affects how you feel until I came here and went home. A couple of weeks ago I went back home for my mom’s birthday, and the two days of good eating made my energy rise. Once I came back to Penn State and began feasting at the dining hall, however, I began feeling the familiar lethargy. Now, I’ll admit, this could be from the lack of sleep and horrible eating patterns, but the buffet is still to blame for causing these eating patterns with their overpriced services.

So, you all must be wondering how this ties into exercise. Well, the success of your exercise depends heavily on your energy. And, as you’ve seen, energy depends heavily on the food you eat. Therefore, eating badly makes you feel bad which makes you lift bad. So I vote that we reform our dining halls. Get better food, such as sauteed peppers, stir-fries, and less fatty and greasy starches. When there is no choice but to eat bad food, bad health ensues.

Though, let me just say this, I still fully support wing night weekends.

Exercise is all about becoming fit and healthy. When you hear about it, you don’t consider that it may stab you in the back sometimes. Yet, it does. It is all too common that injuries occur while exercising, and while they may not be too bad sometimes, they are still hindrances and annoying. Often, injuries occur because of incorrect form or ego lifting (lifting weight heavier than you can do). Typically, these cause pulls or tweaks that, while uncomfortable and painful for a short time, will fade without much harm. The real fear, however, comes from unexpected and seemingly unprovoked injuries.

I’m sure many people have seen THAT video of the bodybuilder incline benching an absurd amount of weight, struggling to get the bar up. Everything was looking good; the bar was still moving; he was under control; he had a spotter. Then, in a split second, his chest muscle rips from his body, completely pulling from the bone in a terrifying moment. Horrible, right? Yet, not all injuries have to be that terrible, and many can be treated and quickly fixed.

My remedy is ibuprofen. This wonder drug for pains, tweaks, and soreness associated with the gym is my go-to for pesky injuries. Does your lower back hurt? Ibuprofen. Did you pinch a nerve in your neck? Once again, ibuprofen. Also, old-school ice packs do the trick, reducing inflammation and swelling. But who wants any of that? Wouldn’t it be perfect to take steps to prevent this pain in the first place?

Lifting equipment can prevent many gym injuries, the most common of which is lower back injuries. The lifting belt is a savior for many people. It is the most common piece of equipment brought to the gym. Try going and finding no one with a belt. I bet you can’t. This is because adding just a little external support as a supplement to the human body can work wonders for preventing those minor and horrific gym injuries. However, sometimes dumb things just happen, and I was fortunate enough to have this happen to me the other day.

No one thinks about their teeth when exercising. It seems like the one piece of the body that cannot get hurt too bad. But I have managed to injure mine. I smacked my jaw with a bar, jolting my bottom teeth into the top, and the automatic “oh no” flew through my mind. Feeling pieces of a tooth in my mouth, disconnected from their respective locations ON my tooth, was not a good feeling. While the pain was not bad, the shame was inevitable. So, avoid stupid injuries, especially preventable ones. Otherwise, that shameful text to the family group chat asking about dental insurance could be on your horizon.

We often hear about the next new diet trend being the “diet for all” and a “magic diet.” It might concern cutting out carbs or fats, or limiting meat consumption. One, known as the Carnivore diet, says to only eat meat. Polar opposite to that, vegetarians and vegans do not eat any meat. While there is a seemingly unlimited number of diets, many of which contradict the claims of other diets, the link between them all is always prominent.

Diets never fail to give hope to a group of people aspiring to lose weight. Then they rip that aspiration away after failing to work. And this issue arises because diets have a false notion surrounding them. When people hear the term “diet,” they think of eating specific foods or simply limiting their caloric intake. However, the focus on specific food limitations is where diets fall apart. Many people believe that they can eat as much as they want, as long as they are eating foods incorporated in their diet plan. But this assertion is completely wrong. In fact, I think diets are completely wrong.

In my mind, and the mind of many in the health field, weight loss is quite simple. To understand, however, you must also understand some functions of the human body. Think of food as fuel and our body as a car. Our body needs food to function, just like a car needs gas. Food gives us the energy to complete our daily activities. Yet our bodies have certain storage devices, fat cells, which can store any extra energy from the food we eat for use later. Thus, fat cells grow as we introduce more excess energy into our bodies. So, the logical solution to losing weight and shrinking fat cells is to consume less energy, forcing the body to tap into the reserves in the fat cells. The Mayo Clinic puts it quite simply by saying, “Your weight is a balancing act, but the equation is simple: If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. And if you eat fewer calories and burn more calories through physical activity, you lose weight” (mayoclinic.org). So, in reality, there should be one diet. Eat whatever you want, just make sure you are burning more calories than you are consuming.

This is where exercise comes into play. Because exercise burns calories on top of your typical metabolic calorie burn, it allows you to eat much more food and resist gaining weight. Burning a couple of hundred calories by working out could mean another cheeseburger at dinner, or a second bowl of pasta. You can eat more because you have created a calorie deficit.

Now I know people are different. There are medical conditions that are outliers to this diet, and different metabolic rates make it harder for some people. But it is important to break the façade surrounding diets. My suggestion is to get active and start exercising. It makes sustaining a calorie deficit easier and less noticeable. You can eat closer to your normal amount and continue to lose weight, making it possible to be both a fitness and food fanatic.