In high school, it wasn't the idea of harder classes or cramped dorm rooms that gave us nightmares about going to college--it was the infamous myth about the "Freshman 15." At least, we hoped it was a myth and even if it wasn't, every single one of us believed that we would have the will power to resist whatever temptations caused the dreaded weight gain. It wasn't until we walked onto campus and through those dining hall doors that we realized we were doomed.
As if unlimited pizza isn't enough, most colleges have an unlimited supply of desserts, including ice cream, cookies, and the occasional over-sized brownie. Who wants to go for the salad bar when there is a literal wall of desert right across the way? Sure, you can lie to yourself and say you're going to run that extra mile and do that extra sit-up, but between classes, homework, extracurricular activities, and maintaining some resemblance of a social life, ain't nobody got time for that. It almost seems inevitable that when Finals are over and you head home in your sweatshirt and sweatpants and finally step on the scale, that the evil little arrow will be 15 pounds over what you expect.
Gaining the "Freshman 15" is the easy part, losing it takes sweat, blood, and a whole lot of tears--especially if you don't like spending every moment of your downtime running on the treadmill.
The problem with trying to lose any amount of weight is sticking to a diet and exercise routine without paying for someone to follow you around and swat that extra cookie out of your hands. If you're like most people, then telling yourself you aren't going to eat junk food isn't enough. Sure, you'll last for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, but eventually you'll cave. There is growing evidence that private self-motivation is not productive when it comes to weight loss. Think of it this way: how much harder do you work when you're at the gym compared to when you're at home? You're much more likely to pick up the pace when there's someone next to you either cheering you on or competing with you. The same goes for maintaining a diet. If you don't tell anyone you're on a diet, no one can expect you to stick to it.
In college, keeping up a healthy diet is probably one of the most difficult challenges you'll face, apart from the 8 a.m. class you're never quite on time for. Counting calories is tedious and boring, keeping a food journal is inconvenient, and eating salad for breakfast, lunch and dinner is out of the question. Without public motivation and personal accountability, grease lathered pizza looks pretty good at two in the morning.
There's an app called YouFood that connects you to an online community of people all striving for the same thing: to be healthy. While not everyone using the app has the same problem as us college students, bad eating habits are universal and something most, if not all people struggle with. The app functions sort of like a combination of Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, while simultaneously allowing you to log your food through photographs, chronicling your daily intake in a way that lets you get creative and fun, unlike traditional food journals. And admit it, you probably already take pictures of your food and post them on Instagram anyway.
Like Twitter, you can follow other app-users and see their helpful hints on how to drop some extra pounds and eat healthy. By posting you're own food choices, you allow an entire community to back you up and cheer you on--this way, you're much more likely to stick to food that's good for you. It helps that people are always posting delicious recipes for you to get inspired by. And even if you don't want to download the app, you can use your current social media accounts to push you in the right direction. Instead of posting those cute cat videos, or pictures from that party last night, post some pictures of your healthy snack choices and force yourself to stick to it.
Seeing pictures of your food will help you discover what your eating habits are and force you to come to terms with how you need to change your diet. Pictures don't lie, and once they're up on social media, you can't take them back, much like how when you eat something, you can't just live in la-la land and claim you ate a salad when you really ate a bar of chocolate. (And no, chocolate is not a plant because it comes from a tree, good try though.)
We live in an age where social media drives everything we do, from our entertainment to our politics, so why not let it motivate us to skip the cookies and pick up an apple? With a thousand eyes watching you, you'll think twice, so pick up that phone and start clickin'.
