With spring break coming up, we all want to make choices that will help us get that spring break bod without giving up the things we love (I'm talking to you, happy hour). Here are 11 small choices we can make that really add up over the long run.
1. Make one good choice a day.
As tempting as Noodles Mac and Cheese and sour cream and cheese is on a Chipotle burrito (these choices are amazing and unreal), but they are the worst things you can order at these respective restaurants. Giving up fries for one meal a day in exchange for a salad saves you lots of calories due to fats and sugars, things you don't need. Over time, these small choices really add up.
2. Try to make your own food as often as possible.
When eating out, you eat up to 200 more calories than you would eating in. This means if you eat out eight times a week, you are eating an extra days worth of food. This is usually due to how it's cooked, in extra fat and oil to make it taste extra yummy. Gross, but yummy.
3. Walk to class.
Unless the UIUC campus decides to relocate to Siberia (which happens about three to five days a year), you should always try to walk to class. Rain or shine, I always try to walk to all my classes, and because campus is so big, I walk about six to eight miles a day. This means in addition to any other exercise, I am burning anywhere from 500-700 calories a day from just going to class, which we have to do anyways so you're not wasting any time.
4. Go to the gym when you can, but when you can't, it's OK.
I understand, I am super busy with six hours of class most days. Sometimes, we are just too busy and tired to go to the gym. But just as there are times I am too tired, there are also times I am laying in bed on my 5th episode of "SVU" and it's 6 p.m. It's times like these we have to recognize that going to the gym is a stress outlet and can get us amped up to do more homework (or five more episodes of "SVU")! Even 30 minutes here or there adds up. Working out for a little is much better than not at all.
5. Eat 3-4 meals a day, or eat several small meals.
This one sounds dumb, but is actually harder than it looks. We often aren't home and skip meals, and sometimes go hungry. However, eating enough to be comfortable and not to be hungry or overfull is hard. It doesn't really matter if you eat three square meals a day or several tiny meals, as long as you consume your daily calories.
6. Don't snack blindly.
Extra calories people eat that lead to weight gain often come from bored snacking. You're in bed on that fifth episode of "SVU," "House of Cards," whatever, and you're finishing up a family size box of Cheez-its and you had no idea that you were even eating. Being conscious of our bored snacking habits will help us know where extra calories are coming from, and therefore help us reduce unnecessary calories.
7. Sleep (about eight hours a night).
Fun fact for those who love sleep; sleeping more actually promotes weight loss. This is because those who sleep more are less likely to snack at night, more likely to think clearly and make better choices, and when you're less tired, you burn more calories doing the same activities. Moral of the story, you take those naps! It's almost the same as going to the gym (I wish haha).
8. Fresh fruit, vegetables, and foods are your friends.
When I lived at home, we always had fresh fruits and vegetables on hand, which is probably what I crave most at home. Vegetables are a healthy food, duh, but fruits are super healthy as well. Fruits have a lot of sugar, which is not good, but they have fiber in them which basically stops the absorption of sugar and lets it go through your digestive track, thus, the sugar in fruit is less likely to make you gain weight.
9. Midnight pizzas won't kill you if it's only once in a while.
We're young and in college, so we shouldn't take anything too harshly. No one is perfect, that one midnight Papa Johns or Dominos will not kill you. Don't be to harsh on yourself. If it's every week, maybe not the best idea, but a few times a semester, hey, thats the definition of college.
10. Don't go hungry.
A lot of unhealthy relationships with food begin when people believe that they have to stay hungry to lose weight. Actually not the truth, when you are hungry you get tired, and when you are tired you are less productive and therefore don't lose as much weight. Though you won't slow your metabolism down right away, over time your body can kick into starvation mode, making you feel extra sluggish and have a super slow metabolism.
11. Be happy.
Happier people are healthier people. Well, actually it goes the other way; people's happiness over time is not correlated to wealth or success, but actually their health. Don't stress too much over a failed test or five pounds gained. Life will go on, you will be ok. Additionally, losing five pounds or aceing a test is not a reason to slack off on your health or schoolwork, but a reason to stay humble and continue your hard work. It's how we learn from our shortcomings and how we celebrate our victories that determine who we will be and how happy we will be.
