Don’t gain the freshman 15.

Here we are. Two months into college and tons of new restaurants and dessert hotspots within reach. Before college, we all laughed at this statement, but now it is becoming a reality. So how do we cope?

My pre-college life consisted of home cooked meals filled with a variety of proteins and vegetables. However, I now have a plethora of options available to me and no one there to stop me from making a bad decision. Many people believe that joining a sorority and eating the house’s meals is a solution, but there are still unhealthy items present. Sororities don’t have meals on the weekends; why not explore the mac n’ cheese at Social or sushi from Dragonfly? If you add up all the weekends of no meals at the house, that’s a big potential for many unhealthy feasts to occur. So how do we cope?

2 A.M. I am hungry. My mom isn’t there to make me a snack. Naturally, I choose the next best option of picking up the phone and calling Gumby’s for poke sticks. If not poke sticks, I venture to midtown for Pizza by the Slice. If I really have a craving for sweets I order Cookiegazm or Midnight Cookies. A common theme in these late-night bites is the number of calories in each food item. So how do we cope?

I went out last night, so I need to sleep in. I have classes from 12:50-3:50 and then I need to study. When do I go to the gym? Before college, school had a clear-cut start and end time. Now, how much I study and when I do my work is totally up to me. The gym seems so close to my dorm, yet so far. I struggle to squeeze time in for the gym, even though I know I had the munchies the night before. So how do we cope?

Here is how we cope; buy a Fitbit. You might laugh and think purchasing a Fitbit is a toy people use to count their steps, but it is so much more. To solve the food crisis at hand, Fitbit has the ability to set a calorie count for each day and log all of the treats you’ve consumed. Hopefully there weren’t too many bad foods to record and that you were able to opt for Grill Fresh or Designer Greens instead of Relish or Leonardo’s. It also tracks your water intake—an essential when walking in the Florida sun. While counting your steps might seem trivial, it can also be reassuring to know just how active you truly are. In the app, Fitbit sets a minimum of how many active minutes you need to earn each day. If you look down at your Fitbit and realize you haven’t hit your active minutes quota for the day, this could be the extra push to hit the gym. In my opinion, the best part of sporting a Fitbit is having step competitions with your friends on the weekdays and weekends. This way, there is an incentive to be the most active. Now you have put all of your stress into one device that tracks your path to avoiding the freshman 15.

Next time you hear the phrase “freshman 15,” don’t let it stress you out. Instead, become determined to fight the munchies and make time in your crazy schedule for the gym.

Don’t let the freshman 15 define you.