Going into college, everyone has heard the myth of the freshman fifteen. But to all incoming freshman that’s all that is: simply a myth. You ask yourself how is it possible that you go to college and somehow gain all this weight. You eat all the correct food groups at home, you have a stable diet, and you don’t (hopefully) order out pizza and dough chunks at 2 am.

Well, life is going to be drastically different as you once knew it when you get to college. You’re going to be eating at weird times of the day, basically whenever your schedule allows you to do so. The dining hall may look enticing for the first week, but then after that, you realize you’ve eaten stromboli for the fourth day in a row because there was simply nothing else to eat. And the dessert bar is what really drives those fifteen pounds home. There are always fresh cupcakes, cookies right out of the oven, and the homemade ice cream with crazy flavors that you just have to try.

It’s not just the dining hall that can add to the freshman fifteen, it’s the downfall that the Domino’s Pizza just up the road is open until 3 am and delivers! Or the fact that Calios is right down the street, but requires an $8 minimum delivery fee so you end up getting two orders of the dough chunks just to make it worth it.

The point I’m trying to make here is that yes, there is every opportunity in the world to gain the freshman fifteen, but that doesn’t have to be you. Most colleges have a state of the art gym that you can walk to and keep those calories off. However, if you’re like me you despise the gym with everything you have. Luckily, I’m about to share my secret on how to avoid the freshman fifteen.

The University of Delaware is a fairly large campus. And as much as I might complain that my first class of the day is on the opposite side of campus, I’m actually grateful for that. It gives me an opportunity to walk and get some exercise in. Within two hours each day, I have already hit my halfway goal for steps that day. Before college, I enjoyed walking, but never this much in a single day. Each day I walk approximately 16,000 steps which is about six miles. Between walking to each class then to my dorm and going up and down steps all day, I’m getting in a pretty good workout. It may not seem like much, but in the end, it makes a difference.

Another thing I found to be helpful was Zumba. Zumba is a type of dance, but it also gives you a good fast paced work out. In the beginning, I was hesitant to try it but eventually gave in when my friends on the floor dragged me to it. We try to go twice a week and we have fun while doing so. None of us are the best dancers, so we laugh at each other every time we can’t get a move right. We have even dragged some of the guys on our floor to join us. By the end of the hour, we are all sweating and had a great time doing it. Of course, afterwards we go to the dining hall and reward ourselves with some ice cream, but we earned it!

The point I’m trying to make is don’t be lazy when you get to college. Go to the gym, go on some walks, or take a fitness class. Get up and do something because, in the end, you will regret it if you don't.