Health Hacks Every College Student
Needs to Know

By Elliot Caleira

Freshman fifteen is a term commonly used to highlight the fact that college freshmen typically gain around fifteen pounds or so. But, why is this so? As we all know, eating unhealthily is one of the most common reasons that people gain weight. So, putting two and two together, college students must not eat as healthily when they enter college. Is this true? Probably, for a few reasons...

First of all, many freshmen in college are forced to adapt to not getting fed dinner by their parents. This means that you may have to make your own choices and buy your own food. When college students get to pick their own meals, the food is traditionally not as healthy as the food their parents made.

Another thing to note is the fact that healthy food is far more expensive than unhealthy food. As a freshman in college, money is typically tight. This means, being broke is another contributor to college students eating unhealthily. With all that being said, you are not totally out of control of what happens to your body. In this article, we are going to cover some health hacks that every college students need to know.

Visit the gym

Depending on where you go to college, you will probably be around quite a few workout gyms. In fact, some big colleges have up to 10 gyms in quite a small area. Also, a lot of colleges provide free gym access to all of their students. Long story short, the opportunity to work out is right in front of you. Instead of blowing it off, try to fit a couple hours of gym time into your schedule each week. So, why should you visit the gym? Well as you know, working out strengthens your muscles. But on top of that, it increases your metabolism. Not only can working out help you lose weight, it can also help you prevent yourself from gaining weight again by giving your metabolism a boost.

Sleep

Sleep is one of the most important things that you can do for your body. During sleep, our body and muscles repair themselves. Also, we get to rest our mind and allow it to comprehend everything that happened that day. All in all, sleep is a very important thing. Having a lack of sleep has many negative side effects and health risks. If you only take one tip from this article, make sure that it is getting enough sleep.

Go with your parents to the grocery

Like we said before, healthy food is expensive. As a broke college student, it can be hard to buy healthy full course meals on a daily basis. Thankfully, parents visit their college students from time to time. While your parents visit you, make it a plan to go to the grocery and have them buy you some healthy meals for the next week or so. While you are there, try finding healthy alternatives that you can use in place of fattening ingredients. For example, some people use a red edible seaweed extract called Carrageenan as a healthier alternative to gelatin.

Take the stairs

When you get to college, you will have to walk everywhere that you go. As all students know, it is kind of surprising how much you have to walk around when you live on campus. Especially if your college does not allow you to bring a car with you, you will have to walk quite a bit. Now, this is kind of a good thing. Walking is good for your health. So is taking the stairs. Colleges have a lot of buildings with steps and elevators because a lot of the buildings have multiple floors. Next time you have to choose between the two, take the stairs and do your body a favor.

Stay moving

One thing that parents should explain to their college-bound children is that college students need to stay active. The reason that this needs to be said is that it is easy to be lazy when you get to college. You're out of the house, no parents to tell you what to do, etc. In fact, classes typically only go for a couple of hours out of the day. Keeping all of that in mind, it is important for students to make sure that they do not just sit around all day. There are tons of things to do on campus, you just need to go out and look.

Elliot Caleira is a freelance writer in the self-mastery and health and wellness spaces. When he's not writing you'll find him cooking or teaching Portuguese classes. More articles by Elliot.