Have you ever told yourself you were going to start eating healthier? You set your New Year's resolution each year: "I will work out three times a week and not eat fast food." How often have you actually stuck to your goal long enough to feel the effects? If you're like me, the answer is probably slim to none. Especially in a college setting, being healthy is hard. You feel like you don't have the time, the energy, or the money to be the fit person you've always envisioned. The one time I was able to stick with changing my lifestyle to be a healthier me was in the summer. It was the first and, if I'm being honest, only time I had actually achieved some kind of results. It was easier. I worked out regularly and had access to the nutritious groceries my mom bought whenever I needed more. I thought I'd never get back into my old habits, and then school started again and you can guess how that story ended.
But the point I'm trying to get across is not that we should all mope around together about how impossible it is to be healthy in college. What I really want to emphasize is the incredible difference in almost every aspect of your life that you feel once you have successfully made the conversion from processed, fatty foods, to the fruits and greens we are supposed to be eating. You feel a difference in mood. You feel a difference in energy. You don't need those naps you usually take every day, and you certainly don't crave that McDonald's every time you drive by. It's not about dieting, trying crazy challenges, or starving yourself. It's about making the conscious decision to take care of your body the way humans should have been since the beginning of time.
Think about it. Why do we even drink cow milk? Why is it that dairy products are incorporated into so many every-day foods we encounter? Cows don't drink human milk. In fact, if they did, they would probably get sick. Cow milk is meant for cows. It sounds silly, but it's true. We are the only species that eats and drinks these processed products from other species. We take things that were not made for our body, our digestive system, and turn them into edible things-- cheese, yogurt, ice cream, etc. Did you ever think about how gross that can be? And no, I'm not innocent either. I'm a sucker for some Whitey's ice cream, and there is plenty of nutritional value in some of these things that we've made accessible for ourselves. But if you really consider the things that we put into our body, it's likely over half of what you put into your body in a given day is not meant to be there. We get all clogged up, we get bloated, uncomfortably full. Our body doesn't digest everything that we ingest the way it is designed to.
It is in my humble opinion that clean eating is the way to go, as that's the only thing that I tried and actually stuck with me. Clean eating entails eating only the organic, unprocessed, natural, and wholesome foods, like fruits and vegetables, for example. And it makes perfect sense. Shouldn't we want to replenish our bodies with these power foods? I don't know about you, but I feel an awful lot better after eating a handful of broccoli than after eating a handful of potato chips. Yeah, the potato chips might taste better, but I think it's time people take a little more into consideration than just the way our food tastes. The guilt that takes over me after I fill my stomach with toxic slush is enough to motivate me to try and do better. People rule out fruits and veggies all too quickly because they don't even want to believe there's a way to make them taste good. Well they're wrong. I would rather eat a delicious, home-cooked veggie stir-fry over some XXL Burrito from Taco Bell any day.
It's not impossible to cook yourself some tasty meals, nor is it too expensive to eat healthier than you do now. I buy heads of broccoli for $1.59/ lb, and bushels of kale for 99 cents. That's a hell of a lot cheaper than the $3.99 you pay for a bag of Lay's potato chips, isn't it?
People are too quick to turn healthy eating away. You don't have to stick to a strict clean-eating lifestyle, but you can certainly cut down on the processed foods that are constantly slowing you down. If you incorporate the types of foods we are supposed to be ingesting into your daily meal plan, you will feel a difference if you stick with it long enough. It's easy to fall out of your good habits-- going out to eat with friends is a very social thing, and we all know you're not going to "just have salad" at Olive Garden with all those bread sticks screaming your name. You can let yourself cheat, but don't let yourself give up. Sneaking some really processed (but really yummy) foods into your diet every once in a while isn't going to kill you. But it's time to be more mindful of what you're putting into your body... for your own sake.
It's not enough to "go on a diet for two weeks" anymore, or to do the three-day military diet plan and hold your breath thinking you'll have a six-pack after the three days are up. Making the change to a healthier lifestyle is positive in every single way, and I can promise you that feeling the benefits is more rewarding than any experience you've ever had. You control your health, not anybody else. Give your body what it deserves. Treat it well.
