College students seem to always be in a constant state of being behind in something, needing to be somewhere, or rushing to stay afloat. Ironically, we tend to always self-inflict these circumstances on ourselves. We need to be at the Netflix marathon on third floor and it is only college night once a week at Zaxby’s. It only makes sense to put off your assignment a little longer, right? We need these college experiences. I totally get it. What I do not get is why all of these college experiences are associated with bad health habits.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Protection, in 2007-2010, 23 percent of young adults ages 18-24 were obese. The common factor for this age group is college. The “freshman 15” has evolved into the “freshman 40.” There are several different factors that contribute to this statistic, but the main ones I see are food intake, stress and sleep.
It is so easy to not realize the damage that the food we eat can do to our body when we are cramming for that American history class. Often a student’s only way of cooking food in his or her room is a microwave, so that food option is most likely pizza rolls or leftover Mi Pueb. Sometimes, we do not even have time or brain power for a microwave so we grab a Little Debbie snack we got in the care package from grandma. Although none of these foods are horrendous for us alone, when we repeatedly eat late at night it catches up to us. Also, when we are rushing while eating, it is easy to forget to look at the portions of food. www.Livestrong.com says it takes a little more than 20 minutes for us to realize we are full. I know it is unrealistic to say that we just need to avoid being in situations where we need to make quick and efficient decisions about food. I do think it is realistic to take 20 minutes at the beginning of the week and plan out easy snacks to grab. That might mean buying a large bag of carrots and then bagging them, so when the time comes we can just grab and go. It’s also good to buy foods with lots of protein so we can eat less and be full.
Another factor in unhealthy habits gained in college is poor stress management. Stress can set off a ripple and trigger a lot of serious issues, one of the biggest is the well-being of our mental health. A common struggle with stress is that a lot of students do not realize how much of an issue it is for them. On the other hand, some students do realize how stressed they are and they decide to keep it all in. In both of these circumstances there is no positive outcome. The transition into college and the time spent there is stressful. Learning how to properly deal with stress is what college students need to be more aware of. Instead of turning to unhealthy habits, we should better understand what is causing the issue and what works best for us in dealing with stress.
Another factor is lack of sleep, which ties directly in with poor stress management in college students. This is a terrible habit almost all college students are notorious for and I can be the first to say I am guilty. A lot of students feel like they make up for their lack of sleep in the night with naps during the day, but that is not the case at all. We need to enter a deep sleep and stay in that sleep for an extended period of time to really make the rest count. According to Stanford University, we need eight hours of sleep a night.
In all of this, I am basically saying please enjoy college. Sometimes, make the irrational decision to go out and socialize rather than do school work. When your roommate has a breakup, buy her a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and get yourself one too. Always pull an all-nighter when Netflix releases a new season of your favorite show. Just be sure to do this all in moderation. It is easy to forget that we are setting up habits for a lifetime, not just with our educational choices, but with our health choices too.
