5 Tips for Establishing Health and Fitness Goals in College

How healthy and how fit you are can be incredibly important while in college – mainly because it can make you more productive and it can improve your mood and your grades. However, maintaining your health and physical fitness regimen in college can be incredibly difficult. For one, there is no consistency – three days out of the week you might be studying from morning until the moment you go to sleep. Also, going to classes, studying for tests and writing obscenely long papers can make it virtually impossible to make working out and eating well a priority. Here are 5 tips for establishing health and fitness goals in college.

1. Work out when you can. Because your schedule can be all over the place, it is important to work out whenever your schedule permits. It can be stressful to try and keep to a specific physical fitness regime, because you never know when you will be busy, which can make working out seem too stressful to keep track of. However, if you fit in a workout whenever you can you will not only feel better, but also you will feel better about sticking to a physical fitness regiment.
2. Supplements. Vitamin supplements can be your best friend while in college. You might not have all the time in the world to make a salad or a big, healthy well-rounded meal. Yet, if you eat something quick and moderately unhealthy, like salty microwavable noodle soup, you can easily pop in a few multi-vitamins and you should get your daily percentage. You can even include other dietary supplements to boost your health, like zinc and B12. Taking a vitamin C tablet in the morning can hugely help you stave off sicknesses that can spread while in college.
3. Get a push up bar and put it in your dorm room. If you can’t make it to the gym, you can bring the gym to you. Think about getting a few weights to keep in your room so that you can keep your muscle mass up, you can also put a tension bar in your doorframe that requires no construction and is very easy to install. Whenever the mood hits you, you can do a few pull-ups or chin-ups – after a while you will notice your body looking leaner and more fit.
4. Moderation. Even if you are getting your health informatics degree, college is a time of extremes and experimentation. That means you might be drinking a lot and eating a lot. They don’t call it the “freshman 15″ for nothing. Cafeteria food can be incredibly salty and fatty. So it might be wise to cut down the drinking and only eat portions in moderation.
5. Stay active. College can be an incredibly sedentary time – with studying, researching, writing and spending time in the classroom, there is a lot of sitting down in college. If that’s the case, perhaps you should jog to class instead of walk, or you might want to get up and take a walk in between studying.