The freshman fifteen. The sophomore sixty. The junior jumbo-butt.

College is a tough time for students when it comes to weight management.

With hours of classes, studying, plus working to pay for the opportunity to go to class and study, it’s a wonder you even have time for friends –let alone yourself.

So of course, it’s normal that possibly the last thing on your mind is fitness and health –especially when you have a half hour between classes, and only enough time for a quick hotdog stop at Cascades to fill your belly.

Sure, there are ways to eat right on campus with ASU Food Services’ many alternative options available.

But even science says nowadays that it takes more than dieting and eating right to keep you in the intended weight range.

But the fact remains the same, while you may not have time to hit the gym, you always have time to eat.

What’s a poor student to do?

I’m so tired of people complaining about how they don’t have time to exercise.

I mean it’s not like Appalachian has three gyms on campus including group exercise classes.

Still, I can understand how hard it is to get to the gym.

The resources are available. My schedule is just…not.

But there is still always a way to stay in shape despite busy schedules.

My roommate and I just bought a mini trampoline and stuck it in the middle of our dorm room.

I bought it after hearing on BBC’s show “You are what you eat,” that an hour of bouncing on a trampoline equals 400 burned calories.

Sure, I don’t always have a free hour to bounce around, but my roommate and I make an effort to jump on it at random times during the day.

 Heck, it takes up so much room in the middle of the dorm that you have to bounce on it a couple of times to even get to the other side.

And when we watch TV, we actually do get a good hour bounce on there instead of sitting on our laurels watching “Project Runway.”

Now, I’m not saying you should be weird like me and buy a trampoline, but it would help if you just stopped thinking about exercise as a block of time that takes up your schedule.

Five minutes is better than nothing, and eventually five minutes here and there adds up to a decent workout.

Instead of watching TV in bed, why not jog in place during commercials or crank out a couple of sit ups?

The landscape is so hilly here too that if you power walked to class, your thighs would be thanking you in no time.

Forget power walking.

Why not take the scenic route?

Sometimes it’s worth to walk a little further just to see the beautiful mountain scenery.

And taking the stairs instead of the convenient elevator also makes a huge difference. According to BuildingNutrition.com, climbing a flight of stairs burns 10 calories.

Take 10 flights and that’s 100 calories.

Burn 100 calories a day for a year, and that’s 10 pounds.

Even the little things add up.

So quit complaining about how fat your jumbo junior butt got and hop on those stairs, take a long walk, or jog while watching TV.

It may not seem like much, and it may even seem kind of weird at the time, but there’s no excuse in college to not exercise.

Life is exercise.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Show/Hide comments