It's just another busy morning at the Cardinal Recreation Center down from Irving Gym, and tens of healthy students are enjoying their daily workout. Just down the street, a full fitness walking class comes trotting around Shafer Tower.
And two buildings over in the beautiful Art and Journalism building, yours truly is enjoying a chicken sandwich and a large fry from a popular eatery. Admittedly, for the last few years of my life, chewing my food has pretty much been the extent of my fitness regime.-áIn fact, the food courts seem to be a lot more crowded than the fitness rooms and the area around Shafer Tower could ever be.
Is that because it's around lunch time, or is it because we college students do an awful lot of eating?
Sure, everyone knows about the "Freshman 15," but no one ever said anything about the "Sophomore 10" or the "Junior 20."-áYou enter a grocery store with a healthy game plan, but it's not the fresh fruits and vegetables that are on sale; it's the potato chips.-á
Later, during a space between classes, many students will find it easier to run to a vending machine instead of going home and fixing a meal.-á
With literally hundreds of different diets out there and "so little time," none of them seem to work unless you're the person in the commercial.-áIt seems as though some college students are doomed.
If you look at what you're eating, though, you shouldn't be surprised.-áThe average college student's diet consists mostly of foods that take little time to prepare.-áThis includes most microwavable items like TV dinners, canned soup or premade spaghetti
There are also the clich+â-¬d college foods: Ramen noodles, Easy Mac and Pop-Tarts.-áAnd, of course, there's beer -- the beverage responsible for a good portion of many students' daily caloric intake.-á
And this is assuming the student didn't decide to go out to eat, which is usually even worse.-áWith a high-calorie menu and a mentality that says, "As long as it has lettuce on it, it's good for me," how can anyone survive without increasing their pant sizes?
We students have to take our eating habits much more seriously.-áA new study by David A. Lavitsky of Cornell University claims that all-you-can-eat dining locations, too-many evening snacks and junk food meals help create significant weight gain during the first semester which continues with many students throughout college.-á
With other students, unfortunately, it is the opposite. According to Campusblues.com, "35 percent of 'normal dieters' progress to pathological dieting." That ultimately leads to eating disorders.
Aerobic exercise and a solid diet is just what we need, even if it takes up a little extra time.
One of these days, however, you'll be where I am.-áYou'll be standing in line thinking to yourself, "Hey, I don't need to eat here. This stuff isn't good for me!-áI should go home and make something healthy and then go for a walk!-áYeah, I can do this!"
By that time, you've already ordered. Plus it's kind of hot outside ...
You'll start tomorrow.
"Oh, well, why don't we make that a Diet Pepsi?"
Write to Gregory at
gttwiford@bsu.edu
visit www.twiff.com
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