Your first day in your first year of college.
Congrats, you're finally becoming an adult.
But becoming an adult requires a bit more responsibility.
As great as it is to begin your adventure in the college life, it also means beginning
your adventure of... being more accountable for your own health.
Yes you will gain new friends, new knowledge, and new opportunities, but if you're not careful,
you're also going to gain new pounds.
The freshmen 15, you've probably already heard of it before even starting college, and some
of you might think you're invulnerable to it.
But it doesn't take much of a change in your diet to gain all that extra weight with the
extra freedom you're now getting.
Scientifically, it only takes roughly 144 calories per day for you to gain 15 pounds
in the year.
That's half a can of soda, one bite of a burger, half a chocolate bar, and just a little over
a single shot of hard liquor.
Let's face it, as a freshman, you're busy thinking about impressing that cute girl,
or guy, at the dorm gym to even bother thinking about counting your calories.
So, instead of doing that, let's look at 5 tips on how to best avoid the freshman 15.
Number 1: Avoid snacking during class This one is a little bit tough, especially
for those of you that have 3 hour plus classes that sits right on top of your dinner hour.
Snacking almost seems mandatory.
Heck, some students even bring a full course dinner to their class.
Avoiding snacking however, especially the typical candy or chocolate, will help you
avoid possibly hundreds of calories that won't be satisfying to begin with.
Replacing with a bottle of water can help crave some of that appetite, and give you
an excuse to use the bathroom later when you need to pee.
If snacking is a must, preparing a pack of low-calorie fruit, such as watermelon, or
choosing snack bars high in fiber will serve you better than the sugary bag of color-coated
chocolate peas.
Number 2: Avoiding Energy Drinks As a college studnet, energy is going to be
a very very scarce resource.
And as you will see with your older collegiate peers, carrying around a caffeinated beverage
is as important as carrying around your backpack.
But not all caffeinated beverages are created equal.
Energy drinks are extremely popular among college students, however, with such highly
packed sugar content, a can a day will most certainly guarantee the Freshman 15.
Coffee, hot or iced, will be a better alternative...
unless you're stacking that with 10 pumps of hazelnut, soy milk, and whip cream.
And perhaps the best caffeine alternative would be green tea.
The caffeine in combination with the substance found in green tea called EGCG, will not only
boost your energy but also might have other health-boosting effects.
If you want to learn more about green tea and its benefits, check out this video here.
Number 3: Use Smaller Plates at the Cafeteria If you're living in the dorms, you probably
have the luxurious benefit of full-access to the college cafeteria buffet.
As wondrous as that may sound, it might be difficult for a freshman to grasp the understanding
of portion and self control since they are coming directly from an environment where
their food was chosen for them.
Now the obvious approachis to choose the healthy choices, such as lean meats and loads of vegetables,
but the temptation of reaching for that pizza slice usually wins out.
So instead of suggesting that you torture yourself by avoiding all the carby goodness
that the cafeteria has to offer, try using smaller plates and bowls.
Studies have suggested that simply using smaller plates causes you to obviously eat less but
also without sacrificing fullness and satisfaction.
Just try to avoid going for seconds... and thirds... and fourths...
Speaking of fourth, Number 4: Finding Time to Exercise
Oh, you didn't think exercise was not going to be on this list, did you?
Granted, as a college student, time is of the essence and finding free time for exercise
is much harder than it sounds.
Well, that's the problem to begin with.
Instead of considering exercise to be part of your free time, it should be prioritized
to be part of your "work" time.
Exercise is essential not only to fight against the Freshman 15, but also for maintaining
good health and fitness, which you will sorely need once you're actually done with college.
But don't bore yourself doing long, tedious, exercises.
Not only does it take more of the time that you don't have, it's not really efficient.
. Doing something like high intensity interval training, can net you the same amount of calories
burned as jogging with only half the time.
IF you want to learn more about HIIT, come check out this video here.
And Number 5: Limit your drinking.
Quick disclaimer: Seeing that incoming college Freshmen are mostly under the US legal drinking
age limit of 21, the PictureFit team... of 1... do not at all condone underage drinking.
That being said, let's be honest, it's probably going to happen.
Sorry parents, your innocent child might be definitely for sure positively...
lying to you if they say they don't.
In the "off-chances" that you do drink, learn your drinking limit as quickly as possible.
Not only does it save you from unnecessary calories, it'll also save you from unnecessary
life-scarring embarrassing moments that you will never remember while scrubbing your toilet
of vomit.
And when you do drink, which we don't condone whatsoever, ahem, try going for the hard liquor
instead of beer or mixed drinks since it contains fewer calories relative to the amount of alcohol
in it.
That means quicker buzz with fewer calories.
Now hopefully with these tips, you can avoid the daunting reality of the Freshman 15.
Maybe settling for freshman ...10 wouldn't be too bad.
If you have any good tips for avoiding the Freshman 15, please share your tips in the
comments below.
As always, don't forget to share, like, and subscribe for more videos.
Thanks for watching!