Going away for school...

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woundedbydust
woundedbydust Posts: 14
in Introduce Yourself
Hey guys, I'm very new here (less than a week!) so I thought I'd try this out. I'm eighteen and leaving home at the beginning of September; I really want to make this the start of a more positive, healthier lifestyle for me. I'm currently at 170lbs and planning to drop forty initially. Is anyone else out there in a similar position with 'leaving the nest' so to speak?

Also, I'd love a few more friends on here as a mutual support system, so please feel free to add me. All ages/genders.

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  • TeeDeezy
    TeeDeezy Posts: 40 Member
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    So, since you haven't been to college yet, I don't know if you've ever heard of the freshman 40. That's what we always called it. It's a phenomenon that is common enough to have it's own name, so there's definitely something to it. It's not going to be easy to avoid gaining weight without really paying attention to what you're eating when you get there. Especially since now most universities have dinning cards and they make you put money on them for food as part of your tuition.

    When I was a student they made us put $200 per semester on the card. Our options were various dining halls that served burgers, pizza, and all manner of crappy food. We also had Burger King, Chick-fil-A, a China Wok, a Mexican restaurant etc... There was all manor of horrible foods. You could find some healthy options. For example, the dinning halls typically had a build your own salad place. And, believe it or not, there are some decently low-fat, low-calorie options you can get most fast food restaurants. You just have to really know what your eating.

    It's not going to be easy considering a lot of your friends will be eating pizza and burgers. But, if you are disciplined enough you can do it. And, don't completely deny yourself. Having a piece of pizza every once in a while isn't going to kill you. Just keep it to a piece and keep up with the calories.

    Also, I don't know where you're going but most universities have student recreation centers and some of them are very big with tons of equipment. So, that's always an option to help burn off the unwanted calories.

    I found this blog post. You should check it out. It's a pretty good read about avoiding the freshman forty.

    http://www.prettyindayton.com/2011/09/ten-habbits-to-form-to-avoidithe.html
  • woundedbydust
    woundedbydust Posts: 14
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    Sorry about the late reply, I don't know how I managed to miss this.

    I've heard the freshman fifteen talked about... the freshman forty sounds horrifying, haha. I'll be living in a flat so I'll be preparing all my own food as much as I would at home but with complete control over food shopping. I think getting myself into a regular exercise habit will be the real challenge, but I've looked into it and it turns out I can get free membership to the campus gym, so I really have no excuse not to work out.

    Thanks so much for the advice and the link, I'll check it out now :).
  • TeeDeezy
    TeeDeezy Posts: 40 Member
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    Ha! Well, I have two master's degrees and I worked on a major college campus for about 4 years. In my observation, the freshman 15 is quite often understated :). Of course, I do live in the southeastern region of America so that could very well have something to do with it (as pathetic as that is to say it's true).

    I think you'll find that once you get started you'll actually enjoy working out. It can definitely be intimidating at first. But, just know that most of the people you'll see there feel the same way (or at least did when they first started going). You get used to it after a couple of weeks. The trick is to not make excuses not to go. I just got back from the beach Monday and didn't work out for three days. Had to make myself go Monday night. I hated the thought of going, but once I got there and got on the treadmill the next 45 minutes flew by and minus 500 calories later, I felt much better.

    Another thing that has helped me is following people on twitter who are on weight loss and/or fitness journeys. A lot of them post really motivating stuff. I know that's a little lame, but there has been more than one occasion where I decided I was skipping my workout for the day, then got on twitter to posts showing up in my feed that basically say, 'get up off your *kitten* and go to the gym.' And I did. I'm not naturally very self motivating when it comes to working out, so every little bit helps.

    Good luck!

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