Did you know that college is bad for your health? Students are often too busy to eat right, exercise, and get enough sleep. 

Why is it so challenging for college students to eat healthy?

·          No Time:  Students don’t have time to make healthy meals in between their school, part-time jobs, and homework. So they resort to fast food, unhealthy snacks, and quick fixes.

·         Unhealthy Options: Students are surrounded with cafeteria’s, vending machines, and convenience stores all carrying unhealthy snacks and foods.

·         Exhaustion and stress: Constantly on the go, tired, and stressed-out students rely on high calorie sugary snacks, coffee, and energy drinks to give them a boost.

·         Chaotic schedules: Students don’t have a organized and constant schedule or routine. Every semester your schedule changes on top of that you have to fit in your work schedule, random assignments, social and family events.

Tips and Tricks to improving your diet.

•    Eat a healthy breakfast: it helps concentration and helps you from overeating or       getting cravings for the rest of the day
•   Take multivitamins.
•    Drink plenty of water: Most people mix up thirst for hunger. If you feel hungry and   
•    just ate? It probably means that you are dehydrated so drink water throughout the day.
  
•    Opt for the low-calorie, low fat, and vegetarian options available around campus
  
•   Keep low fat and low calorie snacks in your locker or bag to keep energized throughout     the day and to help you stop your cravings.
  
•   Manage you portion sizes: the fist rule
  
•      Avoid binge drinking: it makes you gain weight.
  
•     Limit late-night pig outs, fast food, and emotional eating.
  
•     Don’t skip meals: so you don’t overcompensate on your next meal.

Symptoms of Stress

My last post was about dealing with stress, but how do you know if you are stressed out? Some people may have mild stress that goes away after a while and other have high ongoing stress. Most people aren't aware that stress can affect people physically, mentally, and emotionally. So here are some symptoms of mild to high stress.

• Feeling overwhelmed, irritable, impatient or pessimistic
• Having trouble waking up in the morning even if you went to sleep early.
• Feeling tired after exercise, instead of energized.
• Feeling too wired to fall asleep.
• Developing allergies, skin rashes, hives, and acne.
• Your body temperature feels off balance such as cold feet and hands, or hot flashes.
• Feeling too tired to do anything involving going out of the house.
• Dark circles under your eyes.
• Gaining weight and craving salty and sugary foods.

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms I recommend you to take this Stress Effects Quiz. 

At the end of the quiz you will get a score and a possible diagnosis. If you suspect that you are suffering from high stress, I strongly recommend you to see your doctor and to read my last post on how to deal with stress.

Stress Management

This picture reflects how I feel right now.

It's only October and I already feel like I'm losing my mind. School, work, my I.P.P (Independent Professional Project), and life is causing me a lot of stress. The worst part, is that beyond my fellow students, no one understands or cares. 

My life revolves around waking up, going to school or work, my lunch breaks have turned into homework time, and so have my weekends and evenings. I don't have time for friends, family, or myself.

This has left me cranky, moody, irritable.  My friends outside of school barely talk to me because they don't understand why I can't go out on weekends.  My family rolls their eyes every time I say I don't have time to go to a family function. The worst part is that I feel I really have no one to talk to about this. My boyfriend seems to be the only one who vaguely cares and encourages me to take all the time I need and to do my school work. However, I know he is sooo sick and tired of hearing me complain about my life.

The other day I broke down for the third time this school year and realized that I can't go on like this. I need to learn how to manage my stress before I have a nervous breakdown. So I started to research how to stay calm and relieve stress. This is what I found:

1. Remember to breathe - Take 3 deep breaths it will calm your nerves.

2. Remember that it's not the end of the world- I have to realize that I don't need to get an A on everything, as long as I try and get it in on time that is good enough for me.

3. Try going for a walk - This actually works, it clears your head and relaxes you.

4. Try meditation or yoga - It calms your mind.

5. Remember that there is someone out there that has it way worse than you-  Doing so will put your life in perspective.

I hope that I can learn to follow some of these tips so that I can make it through the year without completely losing my mind.