Is anyone a grad student?

unicorn_emoji
unicorn_emoji Posts: 3 Member
in Motivation and Support
I'd like to make some friends who are also working to balance grad school, full time jobs, working out, and eating healthy. It's tough!
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Replies

  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    Not a current grad student, but I finished my Ph.D. in 2015, so I might still be relevant :) I'm a new assistant professor if you want to talk weight loss in academia.
  • Freyhb
    Freyhb Posts: 28 Member
    Grad student here! Not working at the moment though but actively looking for jobs (which can be really frustrating)
  • marissafit06
    marissafit06 Posts: 1,996 Member
    Not a current grad student but did a MS and JD. I gained a ton of weight my first year of law school going to all the lunch talks with free food (can't pass up free pizza, right?). School was a good time for me to get my priorities in order before I went back to working full time and refocus on fitness and healthy habits.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,570 Member
    I work full time.
    I'm a grad student.
    I am also very involved in my cycling club, both organising and cycling events.

    Happily, eating can be a "back burner" thing. I don't have to think about it. I just eat the foods I need to eat at the times I need to eat them.
  • mscoutable
    mscoutable Posts: 30 Member
    I'm a grad student! I'm not working, but my program does not allow us to have a job due to the workload. :# Started eating healthier last semester some, but been sticking to it more this semester. I go to our school gym usually 2-4 times a week and go on a hike 1 to 2 times a week. Some weeks are better than others, but slowly moving in the right direction. We had 4 exams this week for example, so this week has not been my best of weeks!
  • shatabdi
    shatabdi Posts: 5 Member
    Totally a grad kid, working towards my PhD. Healthy eating is tough because we have no time, energy or money haha. But Ive been on paleo for a year and try my best to stick to my calorie goals :)
  • 777_spiritfitness_777
    777_spiritfitness_777 Posts: 15 Member
    I'm a full time worker and grad student. Please friend me for support. I also need it!
  • Ewwveggies
    Ewwveggies Posts: 1 Member
    Parent, Grad Student, work full time.
  • jennmoore18
    jennmoore18 Posts: 1 Member
    Grad student, teacher, mom
  • Half_Bruin
    Half_Bruin Posts: 56 Member
    3rd year law student, single parent.
  • Avetotustuus
    Avetotustuus Posts: 56 Member
    Grad student, working towards my PhD. It’s tough. I decided to really commit to fitness and eating better last year but since I’ve started my dissertation, I’ve really been struggling with motivation.
  • jasminebutler56
    jasminebutler56 Posts: 15 Member
    Hello I’m currently enrolled in a PhD program at Walden University. In need of some research buddies!
  • mortuseon_
    mortuseon_ Posts: 257 Member
    PhD student in infection biology here! Been working 70+ hour weeks in the lab until this week, so would appreciate friends who also understand the challenges of cooking/working out when you have little time to sleep, let alone take care of yourself :D
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  • mortuseon_
    mortuseon_ Posts: 257 Member
    nutrofight wrote: »
    mortuseon_ wrote: »
    PhD student in infection biology here! Been working 70+ hour weeks in the lab until this week, so would appreciate friends who also understand the challenges of cooking/working out when you have little time to sleep, let alone take care of yourself :D

    There's people who specifically still work on that germ theory model?

    Bit of a strange way to put it, but yes. Lots of microbes, immunology, and epidemiology in the department, amongst many other things...!
  • bellaesprita000
    bellaesprita000 Posts: 384 Member
    PhD candidate and TA here. I started on mfp in August 2017 and have lost 40 lbs so far. I work out 4-5x a week (in the the morning). My diary is open to friends. Feel free to add me.
  • noumena_
    noumena_ Posts: 45 Member
    I work full time (50 hrs a week) and am a grad student. Can we say exhausting? Looking for support and people who are ready to kick "I don't have time to work out" in the *kitten*. Add me if you want!
  • AndOne8675
    AndOne8675 Posts: 151 Member
    Not a grad student yet, finishing up prereqs and starting bachelor's in fall, eventually getting in enough schooling to become a LCSW...all this after being out of school 18 yrs. I work, school full time, honors and single parent 2 girls aged 4/6. I still find time to work out 4x a week, mostly because my gym has child care. I also, I don't know how, we eat at home or bring from home, meals everyday 3x a day. I had a giant learning curve and it took me almost 2 years to hit my groove.
    My diary is open, lost 36 lbs so far. : )
  • ojgraham583
    ojgraham583 Posts: 1 Member
    Ending my fourth year in grad school, starting my fifth (out of six years). The first year of grad school, I went up to the highest weight I've ever been, about 55 lbs above my goal weight. I'm attributing this to the sheer amount of stress I was under for qualifiers. In the last few years I've been very slowly chipping away at the weight. The most I've lost is 30ish pounds, but currently I'm only 16 lbs away from my highest weight. I think the issue I have with grad school and weight loss is that it can be difficult to use healthy coping mechanisms for the stress, anxiety, and depression that accompany the constant pressure and criticism of grad school. Like, I know the healthy thing to do is to exercise to relieve stress, but it's easy to justify to myself that I don't have enough time or energy for that, and then I resort to comfort eating. I'm even aware of when the pang in my stomach is an emotional response and not hunger, but it's still a battle to then respond to it correctly. This probably isn't helpful to others, but I guess I'm also wondering if anyone out there is going through the same thing and if they have found ways to successfully deal with it. I would say the one thing I have had success with is that I take this weight loss process very slow rather than trying to make a big change at once. Even though I've fluctuated over the years, I still have an overall downward trend in my weightloss charts. I'm hoping that long term perseverance eventually gets me to my goals.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    I'm a grad student! It gets really tough sometimes!
  • RadishEater
    RadishEater Posts: 470 Member
    Also PhD candidate here! I decided during one of my more stressful semester (we have to give a two hour research presentation to a committee if you pass you can continue to work towards your PhD, if you fail you have one more chance else you leave with a masters or nothing) would be a perfect time to overhall my habits exercise/ food/overall self care.

    If I hadn't started making those changes during last summer, idk if I would have lasted through the fall trying to cram as much experiments in before Nov.

    Because although I can't control always control my experiments, I can control how fast my pedals go on the spin bike, what I buy at the grocery store so I have access to healthy options.
  • hipari
    hipari Posts: 1,367 Member
    Law school here, turning in my master’s thesis in 10 days. Still at least one semester of coursework to go, though.

    I live in Finland so it’s a completely different system, master’s degree is included in almost all college programs, and you can sort of overlap them timewise. After I turn in my thesis, I’ll finish off the last courses missing from my bachelor’s degree.
  • Postgradgal
    Postgradgal Posts: 3 Member
    I am a grad student! please add me I just joined!

    Live in Massachusetts and I’m juggling school, looking for work, studying for comprehensive exams, finding a new apartment, and a new relationship! It’s a lot and I feel overwhelmed but I’d like to make my health a priority again. Lost 40 pounds on MFP rigg after undergrad and gained half of it back since then.
  • SatinDoll85
    SatinDoll85 Posts: 9 Member
    Grad student here studying forensic psychology. I have 4 casses left and just had a a baby 4 wks ago. I'm tying to hold it together!
  • tk2222
    tk2222 Posts: 199 Member
    Wrapping up the MA and staring PhD in August - moving halfway around the world for it, a bit stressed about that. I've been juggling work and school for most of my 20s and quite liked it that way. Now switching to the famously intense US all-encompassing PhD thing is stressing me out and I'm worried that (along with the need to rebuild all my social networks, sort out housing and finances in a notoriously high cost area, etc,) will just lead to really bad health habits. On the other hand, there's sports facilities and exercise classes at the university that are leagues beyond what we have here, so I'm looking forwards to that as a motivator.
  • Ainadan
    Ainadan Posts: 158 Member
    PhD candidate here, and teaching a full class-load. Going into my fourth year out of five. When things get too crazy, I tend to give up on working out and I eat too much. I've lost almost 20 lbs using mfp, but gained five of them back last semester. I finally get a break from teaching this summer, so I'm hoping to set some good habits while I have time to just focus on them and my research.
  • WJS_jeepster
    WJS_jeepster Posts: 224 Member
    I had the opposite problem of most...I was in the best shape of my life in Grad school. I used exercise as a way of avoiding working on my thesis (and there was plenty of avoiding going on). Money was pretty tight and I had no car, so I rode my bike or walked to school and back (2 miles one way) each day. I was also in the middle of nowhere Iowa, so there wasn't much else going on to distract me from my focus of avoiding working on my degree. I did graduate, though, so I must have been putting in SOME work. :)
  • tk2222
    tk2222 Posts: 199 Member
    WJS_jeepster wrote: »
    I had the opposite problem of most...I was in the best shape of my life in Grad school. I used exercise as a way of avoiding working on my thesis (and there was plenty of avoiding going on). Money was pretty tight and I had no car, so I rode my bike or walked to school and back (2 miles one way) each day. I was also in the middle of nowhere Iowa, so there wasn't much else going on to distract me from my focus of avoiding working on my degree. I did graduate, though, so I must have been putting in SOME work. :)

    Ha, I'm trying to make that my strategy - exercise instead of food for procrastination and stress release. It semi-works for me here, but in practice its usually either a good day with both exercise, healthy eating and good research productivity, or off days of not being able to be bothered to leave the house, re-reading the same page all day and eating chocolate spread out of a jar with the end of a pencil. Now if only I could spread those out...
  • WJS_jeepster
    WJS_jeepster Posts: 224 Member
    tk2222 wrote: »
    WJS_jeepster wrote: »
    I had the opposite problem of most...I was in the best shape of my life in Grad school. I used exercise as a way of avoiding working on my thesis (and there was plenty of avoiding going on). Money was pretty tight and I had no car, so I rode my bike or walked to school and back (2 miles one way) each day. I was also in the middle of nowhere Iowa, so there wasn't much else going on to distract me from my focus of avoiding working on my degree. I did graduate, though, so I must have been putting in SOME work. :)

    Ha, I'm trying to make that my strategy - exercise instead of food for procrastination and stress release. It semi-works for me here, but in practice its usually either a good day with both exercise, healthy eating and good research productivity, or off days of not being able to be bothered to leave the house, re-reading the same page all day and eating chocolate spread out of a jar with the end of a pencil. Now if only I could spread those out...

    Yeah - one thing that really helped was that I had to be in the "office" since I was teaching. I shared with 5 other grad students and there was a "no food in the office" rule. I didn't realize it at the time but I'm sure it helped a ton by blocking mindless study-eating.

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