Avoiding the Freshman Fifteen: Exercising Dorm Style

One of the biggest fears that any student might have upon entering college is the "Freshman-Fifteen." This dreaded fifteen pounds comes from any number of sources: the all you can eat meal plans, the midnight snacking, the roll of cookie dough that one might consume during finals, or the lack of exercise. While it might be hard, you do have a choice as to what you consume and of course making healthy choices will drastically help in avoiding the freshman fifteen; but the hardest of these variables to control is the lack of exercise.

I'm not saying that the physical act of exercising is hard (although at times it can be). What makes exercising so difficult in college is that so much of your time is consumed by other activities. In high school, at least in most high schools, physical activity was a part of everyday life. However, in college your time is more stretched: you have classes at all hours of the day, you have work at least part time, and of course you have to study (most professors will recommend studying as much time out of class as you spend in class). All of these factors greatly limit the amount of time you have to go to a gym or your campus fitness center. So what do you do? You find convenient ways to exercise through out the day.

Because my freshman year I didn't have time to go to the gym or devote an hour at a time to working out, I decided to add mini workouts throughout my day. My plan worked like this: starting out, every time I entered my dorm room I did either 20 crunches and 10 push-ups or I did 40 jumping jacks. To keep track of what I was actually doing, I had a dry erase board on the wall and I would put a tally mark under the categories when I completed them. You'd be amazed with the number of total push-ups and crunches that you would accumulate through out the day.

Most days, if you are like me, you'll find yourself going in and out of your dorm room anywhere from 15 to 20 times whether it is to the rest room, to class, or to a part time job. And while you will never get completely sweaty or tired, you can definitely feel the effects the next morning.

So if you are like me when I entered colleage and are deathly afraid of the freshman-fifteen, set up a program where you do some sort of physical exercise every time you either enter or exit your dorm room. It is amazing how just doing the small things really adds up. And with other healthy choices this effort could help to prevent the freshman-fifteen.