Senior nursing major Brittany Bower is trying to cut out coffee and get in eight hours of sleep each night. She's also hoping to get to the gym three to five times a week. For Bower, and most other college students, these goals can be hard to accomplish, especially during a time like midterms.
"[Being a student] the hardest ones are getting sleep and working out because my academic obligations take precedence to this stuff. It's hard to have enough time," she said.
Bower is participating in the Fall Weight Loss Challenge and six weeks in, has found that the college lifestyle creates many challenges to healthy living.
College students don't usually make a lot of money and Bower said one thing she struggles with is finding healthy choices that are also inexpensive.
"I wish there were healthier options for a lower cost. We're in college and no one has a ton of money just lying around," she said.
Bower said another challenge is making the time to be healthy. When class work picks up, Bower said she is less focused on eating right and making it to the gym. However, after being in the program, she said she has been more conscious of her calorie consumption.
One thing she does to keep herself on track is utilizing her planner.
"I try to look ahead to see what I have coming my way," she said. "Like if I'm going to be at the library, I'll take a bag of Cheerios to snack on."
One of Bower's goals was to get to the gym three to five times a week. While it's difficult, Bower said she's found ways to fit it in.
"I'm planning out how long I will do homework and use a gym session to break up a study session, and then I come back even more focused than before," she said.
When Bower's schedule and homework prevent her from getting to the gym, she makes up for it by taking the stairs or doing push-ups and lunges around her house before bed.
The social aspect of college is another one of Bower's biggest struggles, she said. It actually took her a couple weeks to really get focused on the program and begin changing some of her habits.
"I would do so well, then I would go out and drink more than I should," she said. "I haven't been going out and when I do, I limit my drinking, and I'm proud of myself for that."
While participating in the program, Bower learned how unhealthy heavy drinking is because alcohol is completely empty calories. Before, Bower would go out three times a week. Now, she's drinking only one night a week and limiting her number of drinks to three.
Bower has also learned more about herself through keeping a food journal. She said she didn't realize she was an emotional eater until she began keeping the journal and found there were times when she would "just want to go to the freezer and grab that pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream"
Keeping the food journal has prevented Bower from letting herself down by eating when she's upset, emotional or stressed.
"I've done a lot better not eating when I'm bored or when I'm upset because of the food journal," she said.
These are steps toward Bower's ultimate goal of having a healthy lifestyle. She wants to make sure she is forming the right habits now to prevent health complications later on in life.
"I wanted to get a better understanding of what a healthy lifestyle was and find some strategies that I could put in my everyday life," she said. "The actions we take now, we carry those behaviors through to adulthood."
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